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 MEMOIR AND CORRESPONDENCE 
 
 GENERAL JAMES STUART ERASER 
 
 OF THE MADRAS ARMY 
 
 BY HIS SON 
 
 ■ 
 
 COLONEL HASTINGS FKASER 
 
 MADRAS STAFF CORPS 
 
 JScconti IStJt'tion 
 
 LONDON 
 
 WHITING & CO., LIMITED, 3D &«32, SARDINIA STREET, W.C. 
 
 1885 
 
 reserSm 
 
 All rightist 
 PRICE ONE GUINEA
 
 fc
 
 TO 
 
 CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH MACKENZIE FRASER. 
 
 My dear Wife, 
 
 As no one has so fully tested and appreciated 
 its materials and objects, and as no one has encouraged me 
 so much in its progress, to no one can this completed wotfk 
 be so appropriately dedicated as to you. 
 
 HASTINGS FRASER. 
 
 Ardachie, 
 
 Invi.kxess-shire, 
 
 September 1884. 
 
 
 )
 
 P R E I A C E . 
 
 • ago my determination was formed, and c 
 municated at the time to t, S< retary of State for 
 India, and to the Viceroy, to publish a memoir of my 
 father, with a considerable selection from his corre- 
 spondence, partly because I found in the declared prin- 
 ciples and the actual practice of his long career in India 
 much that it seemed to me would be useful and in- 
 teresting both to the historian and the statesman ; and 
 secondly, because I knew his desire to refute and repel 
 a complete misrepresentation of his views on a central 
 point of Imperial policy, which had been set forth, 
 under the highest sanction, in a Return made to Parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 It was only during the last few - f G sneral 
 
 ser's long Indian service, extending over titty- 
 two — commencing with the century, and ending in 
 1852 — that the honours of the Bath were granted at 
 all freely to the officers in the East India Oompa 
 vice, and the Order of the Star of India had not then 
 been instituted : and thus, although he had been in 
 political charge, and for some time in the military com- 
 mand of a small army, which in one short and sharp 
 campaign had conquered the valuable and interesting 
 province of Coorg for the Briti.m Empire ; although he 
 had been warmly thanked by Government for promptly
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 and peacefully suppressing the worst of Indian perils, a 
 military mutiny ; although he had occupied in succession, 
 and with high credit, every political post of any conse- 
 quence in the Madras Presidency, and had held the most 
 important place of that description in the Empire for the 
 unusually long term of fourteen years ; he was undistin- 
 guished in his retirement by any decoration except the 
 war medal ! This was a matter of unaffected indifference 
 to him, but I confess it is not entirely so to me. I 
 desire to show, and I think it w T ill be made clear enough, 
 that this absence of those visible honours that have since 
 become so familiar to us, was in this instance a real dis- 
 tinction and a special honour. It is easily explained, so 
 far as his earlier services are concerned, by those customs 
 and precedents of the period to which I have alluded ; 
 but there can be no doubt that the position he had 
 attained before he left India would have been recognised 
 — as in the case of several of his contemporaries — by 
 some title or other mark of the Sovereign's favour, but 
 for the fact that he had for some time differed, in the 
 most undisguised manner, on a very important subject of 
 Imperial policy, with the Governor-General, the Marquis 
 of Dalhousie, who was then in possession of plenary power 
 in India, and at the very height of his reputation at 
 home. Lord Dalhousie. as he will be seen to have acknow- 
 ledged under his own hand, did not brook opposition, and 
 hardly tolerated close argument, even among the highest 
 of his official subordi s. Where a point involving, as 
 my fattier conceived once Uie honour and the 
 
 security of the Indian Empire was at stake, he allowed 
 no scruples of etiquette or of human respect to restrain 
 him from giving, without reserve, his honest and mature
 
 PREFACE. VII 
 
 opinion. The consequence was, as will be seen in due 
 course, that he left India, not only without public- 
 honours, not only without the thanks of Government. 
 but, as he afterwards discovered when the papers were 
 published, loaded with an absolute misrepresentation of 
 the principles he had advocated and of the counsels he 
 had offered to Government. I therefore consider myself 
 bound, on public grounds, as well as from those private 
 and personal motives which are surely legitimate in niy 
 case, to set this question in a fair and true light before 
 the Parliament and people of my country. 
 
 For the last fourteen years of General Fraser's active 
 career he filled the important office of Resident at Hy- 
 derabad, the capital of the Nizam's dominions — that 
 State of the Deccan which Sir John Malcolm declared to 
 be " the centre of gravity" of the whole Indian Empire. 
 The pre-eminent importance of the Hyderabad State in 
 population, in revenue, and in the historic relations of 
 the dynasty to the Mogul House of Timour, to the British 
 Government, and to the Mussulman population of India, 
 prevails as distinctly now as at any period in the annals 
 of our Empire. Having myself served for twenty-seven 
 years continuously in Various appointments connected 
 with the Hyderabad Residency, I have learned, almost, I 
 may say, from year to year, to appreciate more fully and 
 more earnestly the wisdom and foresight of General 
 Fraser's advice on the principal subjects that, in my 
 experience and under my own observation, have been 
 discussed betweeir^he Nizar^'s Government and our own, 
 and between the several Residents and the Viceregal 
 authorities at Galcutta. It is^with some personal and 
 hereditary claims to attention, therefore, as well as
 
 VIII PREFACE. 
 
 with an unusual command of private materials, that I 
 enter on the task before me — a task, I may add, the 
 commencement of which I have already placed before the 
 public, and the eventual completion of which I then 
 announced as under contemplation. 
 
 During my father's life-time, I published a historical 
 sketch of the Hyderabad State, under the title of Our 
 Faithful Ally the Nizam. 1 In the Preface to that book 
 I mentioned that I was not then at liberty to use docu- 
 ments in my possession throwing much light on our poli- 
 tical relations with Hyderabad, and particularly on that 
 very important measure, the assignment of the Berar 
 Provinces, but that at some future time that restriction 
 would probably be removed. I was not then so fully 
 informed as I am now, from the private correspondence 
 between them, how widely the views of Lord Dalhousie 
 and General Fraser diverged ; nor did I then understand 
 how much my lamented father's name had come to be 
 identified, very inaccurately and unfairly, as a result ot 
 the officially published misrepresentation which I shall 
 have to correct, with the assignment or sequestration 
 of the Nizam's Berar Provinces. The restriction as to the 
 publication of my father's papers has now been finally 
 removed by his demise, and I am unwilling any longer 
 to incur the responsibility of withholding from English 
 statesmen and the public generally the exclusive and 
 otherwise unattainable and 'private information contained 
 in this book, and which, I may add, I have refused, very 
 mucli against my own interests, to pla<e at the discretion 
 and disposal of parties in England for publication. 
 
 1 Smith, Elder, & Co., Cprnhill, 1865.
 
 PREFACE. IX 
 
 When I placed before the Secretary of State and 
 others, in 1866, the accurate details regarding the surplus 
 revenues and the accounts withheld from the Nizam, in 
 dereliction of Treaty obligations, I was fully aware of the 
 fact, and have never lost sight of it, that the Home 
 Government in Lord Ellenborough's time refused to en- 
 dorse the design of the Government of India to appro- 
 priate the surplus revenue of any part of the Nizam's 
 territories that might come under our management. 1 My 
 recommendation at that period resulted in the Secretary 
 of State informing me that from that year the Indian 
 Government had been instructed to account for the sur- 
 plus to His Highness the Nizam, and to pay it according 
 to Treaty. 
 
 I may observe that in preparing this book for the press 
 I have only been continuing in a course that has received 
 the sanction of a Viceroy and a Secretary of State, and 
 that I have borne in mind the precedents of many bio- 
 graphies and other works by eminent Indian officers, such 
 as Sir John Malcolm, Sir William Sleeman, Sir John Kaye, 
 Mr. H. M. Durand and Colonel Malleson. 
 
 I trust that materials may be found in the pages 
 of this book for dispelling*many erroneous notions regard- 
 ing the actual condition of the Nizam's subjects, even in 
 bygone days of disorder and maladministration, that from 
 time to time, and very recently, have been spread abroad . 
 
 With the views I have always entertained and ex- 
 pressed as to Hyderabad affairs during the long admin- 
 istration of the latk Nawab^Sir Salar Jung, a period 
 marked, as explained in the body of this work, by the 
 
 1 Post, pp. 188, 189.
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 establishment of reforms already planned and partially 
 introduced by his uncle, Sooraj-ool-Moolk, under General 
 Fraser's advice and influence, it may be conceived that I 
 read with mingled regret and irritation an article in the 
 Fortnightly Review for April 1884, by Mr. J. E. Gorst, 
 M.P., the chief object of which seemed to be to decry 
 the work of Sir Salar Jung's life by a combination of 
 faint praise and undisguised abuse. Mr. Gorst says that 
 Sir Salar Jung's "attempts to establish a sound system of 
 administration failed completely", accuses the Nawab of 
 " hoodwinking the British Government", and says that in 
 this alone his " reformed administration was completely 
 successful" [Fortnightly, p. 523). If this were true, it 
 would say very little for the perspicacity or the honesty of 
 the successive Residents at Hyderabad since 1854, who 
 have all borne testimony to the progressive and beneficial 
 character of Sir Salar Jung's administration, — testimony 
 accepted and confirmed by the Marquis of flipon at 
 the State Banquet given in his honour at Hyderabad. 
 (See Additional Appendix, page lxi.) Perhaps, after 
 twenty-seven years of personal observation and ex- 
 perience, my opinion may be considered as valuable as 
 that of Mr. Gorst, whose stay Sit Hyderabad was limited, 
 I believe, to about three weeks, and whose views as to 
 the condition and prospects of the Nizam's dominions 
 are not in accord with my own observations. Mr. Gorst 
 ventures to say that "the condition of the kingdom is 
 wretched", and that "the people" are "unhappy" (p. 529). 
 I have no hesitation in mfeting tbcfse assertions with a 
 direct and positive contradiction. The condition of the 
 kingdom and its inhabitants is far better now than it 
 was twenty years ago, and in general prosperity and
 
 PREFACE. XI 
 
 contentedness the people will compare favourably with 
 those of our own provinces. 1 
 
 The late Ameer-i-Kabeer, whom Mr. Gorst may re- 
 cognise under his previous title of Wikar-ool-Oomra, 
 father of the present Ameer-i-Kabeer Khoorshed Jah, 
 frankly acknowledged, in personal conversation with me, 
 that the whole country had progressed in good order and 
 in material prosperity under Salar Jung's rule; adding 
 that the districts under his own charge came quite up to 
 the general standard, for which result he gave much 
 credit to his several Commissioners. 
 
 Mr. Gorst introduces the whole subject by saying that 
 at some vague date, "a few months ago", in some un- 
 named "village in the Deccan", a case of torture for the 
 extortion of revenue occurred, similar to those related in 
 the Reports of the Madras Torture Commission many 
 years ago (p. 522). In the absence of some specification 
 and authentication, Mr. Gorst, as a lawyer conversant 
 with the law of evidence, and as a student of history, 
 will pardon me if I decline to attach much importance to 
 this story. I believe that all such malpractices have 
 been as completely put down in the Deccan as in the 
 Madras Presidency. 
 
 But Mr. Gorst has formed a very bad opinion of the 
 inhabitants of the Deccan. According to him, the 
 350,000 citizens of Hyderabad, among whom I thought 
 I knew a few hard-working and meritorious persons in 
 every rank of life, are all occupied in ''squandering in 
 riotous living" the wealths produced by "more than 
 9,000,000 tillers of the soil", — the sole "pleasure" of 
 those same tillers of the soil bein^ that of "getting drunk 
 1 See post, pp. 439, 440, 441.
 
 XII PREFACE. 
 
 on toddy" (p. 522). After twenty-seven years' familiarity 
 with the cities and villages of the Deccan, I do not re- 
 cognise the picture. 
 
 Mr. Gorst says that when he visited Hyderabad "the 
 officers of the British Residency favoured the Peshcar" 
 (p. 530). I was then an officer of the British Residency, 
 of much longer standing than any other one there, and 
 by no means unfriendly to the Peshcar ; but this at 
 least I must say, that if that high functionary was in- 
 deed so "favoured", as Mr. Gorst states, — on which subject 
 he is. perhaps, better informed than I am, — it was the 
 first time during the last forty years in which the political 
 officers of the British Residency had shown a bias with 
 regard to that family. 
 
 And although I do not consider myself in the least 
 biassed against the Peshcar, and his friends, I may men- 
 tion that a coolness arose between us in the last two or 
 three months of our intercourse in 1883 and 1884, in 
 connection with the prearranged visit of Mr. Gorst, M.P., 
 and with the refusal to listen to my advice and warnings 
 on the subject of the social persecution of Mr. Seymour 
 Keay. My counsel in those matters was, I conceive, 
 neither unfriendly nor unwise. 
 
 Should I resume office at Hyderabad, and have the 
 pleasure of meeting Mr. Gorst, who, I see from the news- 
 papers, is about to visit the East again, I shall be happy 
 to see him and explain what otherwise he may be unable 
 to comprehend from the few remarks I make. On pub- 
 lishing my next work, however, if we do not meet, he 
 will see that I have much to say in behalf of our common 
 friend the Peshcar. V^fcajah Naraindhar Pershad can 
 hardly be held responsible for the occurrences of 1883,
 
 PREFACE. XIII 
 
 and more especially at the earlier part. He is of a kindly 
 disposition. 
 
 While the greater part of this book has been in type, 
 four long articles, averaging four columns, have appeared 
 in the Times (August 20, 26, September 2 and 10), headed 
 " The Nat ire States of India, from a Correspondent." 1 
 These articles, placed in a position of such advantageous 
 prominence, and reviving, as they do, all the contemptuous 
 aspersions against Indian Princes and their rule, which 
 were the prelude to Lord Dalhousie's annexations, are 
 calculated to excite alarm and ill-feeling in every Native 
 Court throughout India, among our protected Allies, as 
 well as among our tributaries and feudatories. A few 
 words of correction and warning may not, therefore, be 
 out of place here. 
 
 The articles abound with blunders and misunder- 
 standings as to matters of fact, that are somewhat 
 remarkable in a writer who has evidently ransacked 
 Blue Books for his information. For example, one of the 
 articles (No. II, The Mohammedan States, August 26th) 
 is chiefly given up to " the most populous as well as the 
 largest of all the Native States", Hyderabad, or the 
 Nizam's dominions, and especially to what is said to be 
 its " too lavish military expenditure". He very much 
 overrates in numbers, and especially in the number of 
 guns, the troops in the immediate service of the Nizam. 
 Instead of that Prince having 725 guns in "his Army", 2 
 
 1 Since this was in type these articles from the Times have been 
 reprinted in a small volume, with no^e of the errors hereafter pointed 
 out by me corrected, published by Messrs. Chapman and Hall, and dedi- 
 cated to the Earl of Dufferin, who is recommended " to imitate the 
 policy of Lord Dalhousie". y 
 
 2 The Armies of the Native States of India, pp. 63-64.
 
 XIV PREFACE. 
 
 he and the principal Chieftains holding lands under him 
 on military tenure, have not altogether more than 30 guns 
 equipped, a few horsed, and others with bullocks, capable 
 of making their appearance on parade. The large number 
 of guns mentioned in the article can only have been 
 arrived at by counting up all the old guns, mounted and 
 dismounted, for the most part mere old metal, lying 
 about in dismantled forts all over the country, — not the 
 guns of " an Army", and not even capable of being so 
 converted. 
 
 It is only by this enumeration of old honey-combed 
 cannons without carriages or means of transport, that 
 the ridiculous returns can have been made of " Hindoo 
 armies with which the Central India Agency has to 
 deal", of " not fewer than 3,180 Cavalry, 34,000 Infantry. 
 and 434 guns, in addition" — it is added — " to the forces 
 of Gwalior, Indore, and Bhopal" (Article III, 77?^ Hindoo 
 St'itcs, September 2nd). 
 
 The readers of this volume will find a good deal of 
 information in its pages as to the Hyderabad Subsidiary 
 Force and the Hyderabad Contingent, — the origin of 
 those two Forces and the terms on which they are now 
 maintained. The writer in tne Times confounds and 
 confuses the duties fulfilled and the localities occupied 
 by these two Forces in a manner that would alone make 
 his article, apart from its want of principle, utterly 
 worthless as a basis for action or as a guide to policy. 
 He says that the Nizam's own Army, with its "725 
 guns" aforesaid, " is watched and supposed to be kept in 
 check by the Force called the Hyderabad Contingent, 
 numbering 8,000 men, dftd which occupies the cantonment 
 of Secunderabad and eight other places."
 
 PREFACE. XV 
 
 The Contingent does not occupy Secunderabad, and 
 not one of its Regiments is quartered there. 
 The writer goes on to say : — 
 
 "There would not be much ground for surprise if the very 
 generally accepted view as to the doubtful fidelity of this Force, 
 if turned against the Nizam, were to prove the correct one, for 
 the Hyderabad Contingent is nominally an army of the Nizam, 
 although paid out of the revenue of the English-governed province 
 of Berar, and notwithstanding that it is officered by Englishmen. 
 
 "If a Nizam ever could have the courage to unfurl the green 
 Hag of the Prophet, which I admit is doubtful, there would be 
 small thought of opposing his decision among the Contingent at 
 Secunderabad." 
 
 The Hyderabad Contingent is not " nominally an army 
 of the Nizam". It " ceased to be part of the Nizam's 
 Army" 1 under the Treaty of 1853. It is an auxiliary 
 Force thoroughly under British control. It is not only 
 as efficient, but in every respect as trustworthy as the 
 Regiments of Madras and Bombay. 
 
 As to the question of comparative military efficiency, 
 the correspondent of the Times is entirely misin- 
 formed. He speaks of " the antiquated organisation 
 termed the Hyderabad Contingent", and says that " it is 
 admitted to be considerably inferior to the ordinary 
 Native Regiments of the Line". The Infantry Regiments 
 op the Contingent have nothing " antiquated" in their 
 " organisation", and are quite as well drilled and disci- 
 I dined as our Native battalions of the Line. The Cavalry 
 of the Contingent is unequalled in India. 
 
 In one sentence 01 this article, the writer, in his blun- 
 dering confusion as to the Contingent occupying Secun- 
 derabad, has plunged into an admission and a suggestion 
 
 1 Aitchison's Treaties, vol. v, p. 9.
 
 XVI PREFACK. 
 
 for which he deserves no thanks from his friends ! He 
 says : — 
 
 " The Hyderabad Contingent is a survival of a state of things 
 that has long passed away, and it should be reorganised or abolished, 
 and its duties transferred to the Madras or Bombay armies." 
 
 It is quite true, and the truth will be made clear in 
 this volume, that the Hyderabad Contingent, both before 
 and since the Treaty imposed on the Nizam in 1853, has 
 been doing the "duties" properly devolving under the 
 Treaty of 1800 on the Subsidiary Force, which occupies 
 the cantonment of Secunderabad, and that those "duties" 
 ought to be transferred to the Madras or Bombay armies. 
 The "correspondent" who has contributed these articles 
 to the Times recommends "the substitution of an Anglo- 
 Indian garrison for the Hyderabad Contingent". He is 
 quite right, and " the Anglo-Indian garrison" — quite 
 sufficient for its "duties" under treaty — is there on the 
 spot in the shape of the Subsidiary Force at Secun- 
 derabad. Whether the Contingent ought to be 
 "abolished", or "reorganised" as a purely Imperial Force, 
 is a question open to argument, but which I shall not be 
 tempted to pursue here even by the unguarded admis- 
 sions of the writer in the Times. 
 
 The "correspondent" is as unfair and as inaccurate 
 in his assertions regarding the civil government of 
 Hyderabad as he is regarding its military affairs. He 
 says, for example, that "although the Nizam is allowed, 
 by official consent, a position of quasi independence, there 
 is no State in India wherein our interference has been 
 more often rendered necessary by internal discord, and 
 carried into effect in complete disregard of the Nizam's 
 sovereignty."
 
 PREFACE. XV H 
 
 This is not the case. The contents of this hook 
 will prove, from the acknowledgments of a succession of 
 Governors-General, including- Lord Dalhousie, that no 
 "internal discord" or maladministration in the Nizam's 
 dominions has ever "rendered our interference necessary". 
 No such interference has ever taken place. 
 
 A "sovereignty" and an "independence" resting only 
 on what this writer in the Times calls "official consent", 
 would he, indeed, what he terms "a mere fiction and a 
 hollow pretence". Officials are in the habit of magnifying 
 their office and stretching their powers considerably, hut 
 I am not aware that they have yet openly asserted the 
 faculty of granting or withholding the sovereignty or the 
 independence of States. The sovereignty and the inde- 
 pendence of the Nizam, as acknowledged by every 
 Governor- General and Viceroy, without exception, down 
 to the present day, rest on solemn Treaties, and are 
 limited solely by the Articles in those Treaties which con- 
 cede to the British Government the arbitrament of war 
 and peace, the prerogatives and functions of conducting 
 the external and federal relations of the whole Indian 
 Empire. 
 
 The Nizam is not, and never has been, either a feuda- 
 tory or a tributary to the British Government. The 
 Hyderabad State has, on the contrary, for a long series 
 of years, paid subsidy for services to the British Govern- 
 ment, and received from it a tribute for provinces held in 
 feudal tenure under it. These relations have unques- 
 tionably been modified by time and the force of circum- 
 stances, but the Nizam's position at present, under 
 Treaty, is that of a Sovereign Prince, and a jDrotected 
 Ally of the Queen, Empress of India. 
 
 b b
 
 V
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Ancestry and Parentage — Letter from Warren Hastings— Educa- 
 . tion — Appointed a Cadet— Quick Promotion — First Staff Appoint- 
 ment — Aide-de-Camp to the Governor of Madras — Officers' 
 Mutiny in 1809— Letters from Sir Walter Scott — Expedition to 
 Mauritius — Town Major and Military Secretary — Commandant of 
 Pondicherry — Commissioner for French, Danish, and Dutch Set- 
 tlements — Coorg War— Resident at Mysore— Resident at Tra- 
 vancore — Letters to Sir Frederick Adam on the Sequestration of 
 
 Mysore and on Canara Rebellion . . . .1 
 
 • 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Appointed to officiate as Resident at Hyderabad- Sketch of Hyder- 
 abad History — Lord Elphinstone's Announcement — Political and 
 Fanatical Agitation in Southern India — Letter from Lancelot 
 Wilkinson — Letter to Lord Auckland — The Nawab of Kurnool 
 and Mubariz-ood-Dowla . . . . .32 
 
 chapter in. 
 Prospects and Projects of Reform in the Hyderabad State — Views of 
 the Court of Directors, of Colonel Stewart, and of the Govern- 
 ment of India — Costliness of the Contingent and reluctance of 
 the Nizam to maintain it — General Fraser's Plan — Letter to the 
 Resident at Mysore — Chundoo Lall's illness— Lord Elphinstone 
 and the Earl of Munster — Letter from the Prince of Travancore 85 
 
 chapter IV. 
 Stagnation in the State— ;The Minister's Weakness and Strength on 
 both Sides — The Badamee Outbreak— Letters to and from Lord 
 Elphinstone— The Russian Prince Soltykoff — The Subsidiary 
 Force — Great Military Authority and Responsibility of the Resi- 
 dent— Stoppage of the Sepoys' " Batta"£-Disaffection and Mutin- 
 ous Proceedings— Order and Obedience enforced by General 
 Fraser — Thanks of Government — The Resident's Proposal for 
 Inquiry and Relief rejected by Lord F^lenborough . .113
 
 X X CONTEXTS. 
 
 CHAPTEB V. 
 
 Lord Ellenborough's Circular to his Political Agents— Untoward 
 Affair at Murchair — Letters from Captain Gresley and Colonel 
 Fitzroy Somerset — Increasing Financial Disorder in Hyderabad 
 State — Death of Vencata Rao — Chundoo Lall, unable to borrow, 
 tenders Resignation — Mission and Intrigues of Rusheed-ool-Moolk 
 and Ram Buksh — Sooraj-ool-Moolk as the Nizam's Agent — The 
 ex-Minister's complaint against the Resident, and Remittances to 
 Calcutta — Lord Ellenborough's Recall . . .152 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Finances of Hyderabad but little improved in 1845 — Minister not ap- 
 pointed — Contingent more deeply in arrears — Sir Henry Hard- 
 inge's Letter of Warning to the Nizam— Refractory Zemindars — 
 Sooraj-ocl-Moolk granted full powers as Minister — His Letter 
 unanswered— The Resident's Remonstrances badly received at 
 Calcutta— Letters to two Directors — Visit of Commander-in-Chief 
 — Lord Hardinge's Departure .... 205 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Arrival of Lord Dalhousie — Illness of the General's Daughter — Six 
 Months' Leav-; to Sea and the Straits — Letter to the Governor- 
 General's Military Secretary and his Answer — General Fraser's 
 Marriage in 1826 — Growth of his Family — Letters to the Rajah 
 of Mysore and Travancore— Routine of Work and Daily Life at 
 the Residency — Interview of Mr. Dighton with Lord Dalhousie, 
 and Letter to General Fraser — Colonel Low at the Residency — 
 Letter from Sir James Law Lushington — Reply of Colonel Low — 
 Return of General Fraser — Letter of Colonel Low from Calcutta 
 — Financial Difficulties insurmountable — Opposition to Sooraj- 
 ool-Moolk — Conflicting Views as to the Contingent . . 231 
 
 "• 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 A Church Riot — The Portuguese Patriarch and the Vicars- Apostolic — 
 Bishops and Priests under Military Interdict — Letters to and 
 from Lord Dalhousie — -Letter to Major Moore — Intrigues against 
 Sooraj-ool-Moolk — His early efforts to diminish Feudal Tenures 
 and Hereditary Jurisdictions — Dismissal of Sooraj-ool-Moolk — 
 Letters from Lord Dalhousie — Subsidiary Force against the Gool- 
 burga Rebels — Letters to and, from Sir Henry Pottinger — E. B. 
 Eastwick — Pressure for Payment — Letter to Colonel Mark Cubbon 
 — Letter from Lord Dalhousie on Rohillas and Arabs — A Fighting 
 Doctor Shums-ool-Oom^i's Troubles and Resignation — Ram 
 Buksh reappointed Peshcar— Lord Dalhousie fixes a term for Pay-
 
 CONTENTS. XXI 
 
 ment or Mortgage — Ram. Bukah Diamiased — Brigadier Colin 
 Mackenzie'a Dispute and Lord Dalhousie's Deciaion — Interviews 
 with Nizam — An Epistle to H.H. drafted — A puppet Peshcar 
 unrecognised— Brigadier Beatson volunteers for Kaffir War — His 
 offer declined — Lord Dalhousie prefera Appropriation to Reform 
 — His Epistle to H.H. very different from the Resident's Draft 
 — The Nizam's Counterclaim and Reply . . .274 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Apology for the Contingent — Lord Dalhousie denies Extortion — The 
 Subsidiary duties done by the Contingent — Lord Dalhousie will 
 not reduce a man — He admits the Excessive Costliness of the 
 Force, but will not set a good example to the Nizam — Debt of 
 1853 created by Lord Dalhousie'a neglect — Savings by unlawful 
 reduction of Subsidiary Force rightly belong to the Nizam — 
 Excise Revenues of Secunderabad and Jaulnah unjustly appro- 
 priated — No Debt really due by the Nizam in 1851 or 1853 . 351 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Small Payment on account of Debt — Nizam's Jewels pawned — Letters 
 to and from Lord Dalhousie — The Nizam says the Contingent is 
 not to be reduced — Lord Dalhousie declares he has given no hint 
 on that subject — A Respite granted — General Fraser's Instruc- 
 tions for Managing Assigned Districts — No Treaty wanted — 
 Interviews with the Nizam — His Highness doubts whether he 
 should pleaae us if he improved his own Troops — The Resident 
 instructed not to press for Payment of Debt — Lord Dalhousie 
 determined on Territorial Assignment, with a Treaty — His im- 
 portant Letter on this subject and General Fraser's answer — 
 Project of the Hyderabad Bank — Lord Dalhousie's Veto — Honest 
 Abstraction of State Jewels and their Redemption — Trial of 
 Zoolficar Ali Beg — Censure of Government — General Fraser's 
 indignant Rejoinder and Resignation — Departure from Hyderabad 366 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 « 
 The Treaties of 1853 and I860— Their History, Nature, and Results — 
 Both of them compulsory and one-sidejl — The Burdens on the 
 Nizam admitted to be unfair, but f asteiied more firmly by Treaty 
 — Illicit Advantages gained for the Honourable Company — Pro- 
 gressive Reforms effected in the Hyderabad State . . 412 
 
 • C C -
 
 XXII COXTEXTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Departure from Hyderabad — Return to England — No Redress from 
 Court of Directors — Letter to Major Moore — Letter from Mr. John 
 Sullivan — Return to India— Letters from the Rajah of Travan- 
 core and from Sir Mark Cubbon — Home again — Death of Mrs. 
 Fraser — Letter from the Rajah of Mysore— Petition against the 
 Annexation of Mysore— Letters to Major Evans Bell — Blindness — 
 Consulted as to a Reward for Salar Jung — Death — Concluding 
 Remarks on General Fraser's Character and Counsels . . 443 
 
 APPEXDIX. 
 
 A. Letters of Count Du Puy . . . . 467 
 
 B. The Nizanfs Military Co-operation .... 469 
 
 C. " Claims of the Nizam" . . . . .473 
 
 Additional Aitendix . . . . i 
 
 ERRATA. 
 Page 3, line 18 from the bottom, for "1854", read 1852. 
 Page 414, heading to page, for "An Afghan Note", read An Alarming Note. 
 
 V.
 
 GENERAL JAMES STUART FRASER. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Ancestry ■ and Parentage — Letter from Warren Hastings — Education — 
 Appointed a Cadet — Quick Promotion — First Staff Appointment — 
 Aide-de-Camp to the Governor of Madras — Officers' Mutiny in 1809 — 
 Letters from Sir Walter Scott — Expedition to Mauritius — Town Major 
 and Military Secretary — Commandant of Pondicherry — Commissioner 
 for French, Danish, and Dutch Settlements — Coorg War — Resident at 
 Mysore — Resident at Travancore — Letters to Sir Frederick Adam on 
 the Sequestration of Mysore, and on Canada Rebellion. 
 
 Alexander, sixth Lord Lovat, and eleventh of the house, settled 
 the lands of Ardachie in Inverness- shire by charter, in 1552, on 
 his third son, James, from whom 'my grandfather, Colonel Charles 
 Fraser, was directly descended. Thomas, third in descent from 
 James, succeeded to the Ardachie estate in 1637. A century later, 
 my great-grandfather, Thomas Fraser of Ardachie, was married, 
 about the year 1735, to Charlotte, daughter of the Hon. Charles 
 Campbell, third son of Archibald, Earl of Argyll, who was beheaded 
 in 1685. My great-grandfather was Collector of Customs at Camp- 
 belltown in Argyleshire, where he possessed some landed property. 
 His affairs appear to have become disordered, partly in consequence 
 of some costly litigation ; and between 1744 and 1757, in two suc- 
 cessive transactions, the Argyleshire property was sold, and his 
 eldest son, my grandfather, having previously served for six years in 
 the Royal Marines, proceeded to Madras in 1762, in the military 
 service of the East India Company. I shall give one brief extract 
 from an old diary kept by my grandfather from 1755 to 1761 : — 
 
 "1755. Left Campbelltown, Tuesday, the 20th May 1755. Arrived 
 in London, Tuesday evening, the 3rd of June. Came to Portsmouth 
 the 17th of ditto, being Tuesday, and rem/ned at Quarters till Satur- 
 day, the 9th August, when I embarked aboard His Majesty's ship, the 
 Essex, with a party of seventy private marines and Serjeants, two cor- 
 
 B
 
 2 LETTER FROM WARREX HASTINGS. 
 
 porals and one drum, commanded by a Captain. Next day, viz., 10th, 
 we sailed from Spithead to St. Helen's, and from thence to sea the 
 same evening. About the 24th, we joined Sir Edward Hawke's fleet 
 in the Bay, having first met the Monmouth and Savage, who had been 
 separated from the fleet for some days. Upon our delivering to Sir 
 Edward a packet from the Admiralty, the fleet had orders to commit 
 hostilities on the French shipping, and to send as much of their trade 
 as fell into our hands to England ; and accordingly, that cruise, up- 
 wards of one hundred of their merchantmen were detained by our 
 fleet." 
 
 After serving in India for about five years, my grandfather came 
 home on leave. He was married at Campbelltown, on the 16th of 
 December 1768, to Miss Isabella Hook, and after the lapse of 
 about a year they sailed for Madras. Their eldest son, born at 
 Vellore on the 25th of August 1771, was named Hastings, in 
 acknowledgment of kindness and good services received from 
 Warren Hastings, the first Governor-General of India, who at that 
 time was a Member of Council at Madras. A few days before he 
 left that Presidency to take up the higher position of second in 
 Council at Calcutta, he wrote rthe following letter to Captain 
 Charles Eraser : — 
 
 "Fort St. Ceorge, 15th January 1772. 
 
 " Dear Sir,— I learnt with much Pleasure from Mr. Anderson some 
 Time ago the Honor which you had done me in making me one of the 
 Sponsors for your Son. I am much obliged to you and Mrs. Fraser 
 for this Distinction, though I cannot hope for some Years to have the 
 Pleasure of seeing my Godson, or of being a Witness of his Growth 
 and Improvements. I shall be glad, however, to be informed of the 
 Progress which he makes in both, and of his Health, and shall be 
 truly interested in his Welfare. 
 
 " I have taken the Liberty to send a Piece of Shawl directed to you, 
 which I request your Permission to present, as a mere Token of Affec- 
 tion to my young Namesake, and to plead a Right to his Acceptance of 
 it, from the Relation that you have given me to him. 
 
 " I beg you will present my Compliments to Mrs. Fraser, and 
 " Believe me to be, with esteem, 
 
 " Yours very faithfully, 
 
 " Warren Hastings." 
 
 \ 
 
 My grandfather, accompanied by his wife and children, returned 
 home on a second furlough in 1781 ; and my father, the youngest
 
 EDUCATION. 3 
 
 of a large family of six sons and three daughters, was born at 
 Edinburgh on the 1st of July 1783. 
 
 In the year 1776, as the result of some family arrangements 
 consequent on litigation carried through more than one generation, 
 General Fraser of Lovat conveyed the estate of Ardachie to his 
 cousin and clansman, my grandfather, Charles Fraser, the heir 
 male and representative of that branch, on his repaying certain 
 sums that had been advanced for the purchase of the lands from 
 another member of the family. The deed is dated 7th Septem- 
 ber 1776. 
 
 My grandfather returned to India in 1783. He rose in due 
 course to the charge of a brigade, and ultimately of a division, and 
 held the latter command at the time of his death at Masulipatam 
 in 1794. 
 
 His eldest son, Hastings, then a young officer in the 86th County 
 Down Regiment, succeeded to the estate of Ardachie. My uncle 
 led his regiment into action at the storming of Seringapatam in 
 1799, and subsequently at the taking of the island of Bourbon in 
 1810. During this latter expedition he was given the command of 
 a brigade, on which the brunt of trie fighting fell, and so delighted 
 were those who served under him with his fine qualities as a 
 leader, that his own corps presented him with a valuable sword, 
 and the native regiments with a service of silver plate. 1 When 
 General Hastings Fraser died in 1854, at the venerable age of 
 eighty-three — Colonel of his old corps, the Eoyal County Down 2 — 
 the Ardachie estate became my father's property. 
 
 My father's first school was at Ham in Surrey, and, so far as the 
 education of a boy of sixteen can be said to be complete, his was 
 completed at the Glasgow University under the special care of 
 Professor Miller. But he was, in fact, a student all his life, espe- 
 cially of history and science. Even in his latest years of retire- 
 ment at home he continued his favourite astronomical studies. He 
 had, also, remarkable attainments as a linguist, both in Oriental 
 and European languages. 
 
 1 These relics of soldierly goodwill towards a brave and considerate 
 commander are now in my possession. a 
 
 2 I cannot resist mentioning here that it vjfs my happy fortune to be 
 brigaded with my uncle's old regiment during tne Central India campaign of 
 1857-8, when, as everyone would testify, it was to the splendid bearing and 
 spirit of this fine corps that Sir Hugh Rose (now Lord Strathnairn) owed so 
 much of his brilliant success. 3 
 
 e2
 
 4 OFFICERS MUTINY. 
 
 He went out as a cadet to Madras in 1799, and was posted to- 
 the 18th Begiment of Native Infantry. He attained the rank of 
 Lieutenant on the 15th of July 1800, and that of Captain on the 
 16th of November 1809. His military promotion, in a service 
 regulated by seniority, was remarkably rapid. He rose to be 
 Major in 1819; Lieutenant-Colonel in 1824; Colonel in 1829; 
 and Major-General in 1838, before his fifty-fifth birthday. But 
 his advance in the line of special and select employment, where 
 no element of luck, and very little of what is commonly called 
 interest, operated in his favour, was even more marked, and com- 
 menced at a period unusually early in the career of an Indian 
 officer. 
 
 His first appointment was that of Assistant in the Political and 
 Military Department to Lieutenant- Colonel Marriott, engaged in 
 transporting the families of the Mysore Princes, descendants of 
 Hyder and Tippoo, from the Carnatic to Bengal, by land in 1807, 
 one of the precautionary measures taken after the mutiny at 
 Vellore. At Calcutta he seems to have attracted the favourable 
 notice of Sir George Barlow, who was then officiating as Governor- 
 General until the arrival of Lord Minto ; and when Sir George 
 Barlow was made Governor of Madras in 1808, he appointed 
 Lieutenant Fraser, of the 18th Native Infantry, to be his Aide-de- 
 Camp. 
 
 And here it may, perhaps, be appropriately mentioned, as this 
 first substantive office held by my father was of a somewhat 
 courtly and ornamental character, that he possessed the not incon- 
 siderable advantage of a decidedly handsome, not to say imposing, 
 personal appearance — he was upwards of six feet three inches in 
 height, with a light, graceful figure even in old age, and was an 
 excellent horseman. 
 
 It was during the government of Sir George Barlow that one of 
 the most extraordinary incidents in the administrative annals of 
 India occurred, the mutiny — for it was nothing less — of the 
 British officers of the Madras Army in 1809, instigated and led 
 by their Commander-in-Chief, the exciting cause being the aboli- 
 tion of certain contracts for tents and camp equipage which 
 were profitable to regimVrtal officers. The conduct of Sir George 
 Barlow in dealing with tliis incredible outburst of discontent and 
 insubordination, made him for the time excessively unpopular
 
 OFFICERS MUTINY. 
 
 with the English commissioned officers of the army, who for 
 many months withheld from the Governor and his supporters all 
 ordinary courtesies and social observances. His proceedings were 
 also violently attacked at home, but were approved in Parliament and 
 by a majority of the Court of Directors. The following letter to 
 his uncle, Captain Hook, in Scotland, shows that his young Aide- 
 de-Camp, as might naturally have been expected, was not among 
 those who took an adverse view of Sir George Barlow's method of 
 dealing with his contumacious comrades. 
 
 " Madras, 6th May 1810. 
 
 " My dear Uncle, — I have just time to write a few lines, and to 
 forward what perhaps you may have some desire to peruse, the trial of 
 three of those officers whose conduct during the late disturbances in 
 India was considered most reprehensible, and therefore first brought 
 under the attention of a court martial. 
 
 "The most perfect tranquillity is now restored; and I trust the 
 army will never resume those violent proceedings, which have left upon 
 its reputation so indelible a stain. 
 
 " For this happy conclusion of what may justly be considered the 
 most alarming and dangerous commotion which ever agitated an army, 
 England is unquestionably indebted to the wisdom and unequalled 
 firmness of Sir George Barlow. 
 
 "An expedition is just on the point of sailing for the purpose of 
 attacking Bourbon and eventually Mauritius; which have so long 
 afforded to the enemy a means of distressing our commerce, and the 
 capture of which it is so surprising was not long ago attempted. 
 
 " All my family in this country are well. They have written for my 
 sister Charlotte to be sent out; and I am excessively sorry for it. 
 India is, in my opinion, a detestable country for a man, and, if possible, 
 still worse for a woman. 
 
 " Since I last wrote home I have been promoted to a Captain- 
 Lieutenancy, and indeed it was high time, for I have been superseded 
 by great numbers. This circumstance, however, is of little consequence 
 while I remain away from my Regiment, and I do not see much chance 
 of my joining it soon. I am still in the Governor's family ; and, in 
 addition to the situation of Aide- de- Camp, I am now acting as Private 
 Secretary. 
 
 " This last duty, however, I shall probably Jiot have long to perform ; 
 as it will cease at the return of Mr. Bucbjm, who was sent home on 
 public duty soon after the breaking out of disturbances. 
 
 " I hope my sister and Archy will have received the last letters I
 
 6 LETTERS FROM SIR WALTEB SCOTT. 
 
 wrote them, though I am rather inclined to be apprehensive that they 
 may not. 
 
 " For above a year past, I have been in the habit of enclosing all my 
 letters for England in a packet to Colonel Capper's address — and God 
 knows whether Colonel Capper be alive to have received these packets. 
 
 " I am sorry to have to inform you of the death of my cousin, 
 Lionel Hook. He was a Lieutenant in the 22nd Dragoons, and 
 Brigade Major to Colonel Hare. He died in camp about a month ago, 
 of the small-pox, which it seems he caught accidentally. His loss is 
 deeply lamented, for he was highly esteemed and beloved by the 
 officers of his Regiment, and by all who knew him. 
 
 " 1 beg you will give my love to all friends at home, and remain 
 '" Your Affectionate and Dutiful Nephew, 
 
 " James Stuart Fraser. 
 
 " P. S. — If it be not giving you too much trouble, I should be 
 particularly obliged by your sending me out, when an opportunity 
 occurs, any papers or pamphlets which may be published in England 
 on subjects interesting to us in India; and more particularly any 
 which may be relative to the late discussions in the Army, and the 
 disputes between Government and the Commander-in-Chief." 
 
 Anion" a somewhat loner list 6f relatives and connections in the 
 Madras Presidency, one of those with whom my father maintained 
 a very constant and affectionate intercourse was Mr. Charles 
 Carpenter of the Madras Civil Service. 1 He was Captain Fraser's 
 brother-in-law, having been married on May 25th, 1805, at Mount 
 Capper, Cuddalore (where my grandmother lived in her widow- 
 hood until her death on the 19th of October 1821), to Isabella, 
 third daughter of Colonel and Mrs. Charles Fraser. Mr. Carpenter 
 had another brother-in-law at this time in Scotland, Mr. Walter 
 Scott, Sheriff of Selkirkshire, who had married his sister, Charlotte 
 Margaret Carpenter, in 1797. 2 Mr. Scott, already of great note as 
 a poet, and soon to be more celebrated as Sir Walter Scott, author 
 of the Waverley Novels, kept up an animated and constant corre- 
 spondence, seconded by Mrs. (afterwards Lady) Scott, with Mr. 
 and Mrs. Carpenter. From a large collection of these letters, 
 carefully preserved by my au£t, 1 cannot resist publishing a few, 
 though they do not rightly fall within the scope and object of this 
 
 1 He died in India on the 4\a June 1818. 
 
 2 See Life of Sir Walter Scott, by J. G. Lockhart (Cadell, 1848), vol. i, 
 pp. 97 to 102.
 
 LETTERS FKOM Sill WALTER SCOTT. 7 
 
 book, because they give some insight into the political sentiments 
 of their illustrious writer, and into the contemporary effect pro- 
 duced by some of the Duke of Wellington's victories during the 
 war with the French in Spain. 
 
 " My dearest Brother, — I have just received your letter of 18th 
 September 1802, the first I have had from you since you had received 
 the melancholy intelligence which I transmitted to you with so much 
 pain. I am more concerned than surprised at the deep impression 
 which such a loss must necessarily have made upon your mind, but you 
 must give me leave to hope that your reflections are now in some 
 degree turned from so very painful a subject to your own fair and 
 flourishing prospects. I know that good news from Scotland will have 
 considerable effect in enlivening your spirits, and therefore I hasten to 
 tell you that we are well, happy, and prosperous. Charlotte, about four 
 weeks ago, presented me with a little damsel, whom we have called 
 Anne, in compliment to my worthy mother. Had it proved a boy, it 
 was to have been a little Charles. My little Sophia is a thriving, lively 
 Scotch girl, and the boy uncommonly stout, healthy, and robust, in 
 short, quite a model for a little Hercules. My worldly matters jog on 
 very well. Government propose to increase the appointments of the 
 Sheriffs, which will put an additional £100 a year into my pocket. 
 Moreover, I have contrived to turn a very slender portion of literary 
 talents to some account, by a publication of the poetical antiquities of 
 the Border Counties, where the old people had preserved many ballads 
 and ancient songs descriptive of the manners of the country during 
 the wars with England. This trifling collection was so well received 
 by a discerning public, that after receiving £100 profit for the first 
 edition — which, my vanity cannot omit informing you, sold off in six 
 months — I sold the copyright for £500 more. I am seeking a mode 
 of conveyance to transmit to you this precious compilation. You will 
 hear a good deal of our motions from a Dr. Leyden, who goes to 
 Madras in this fleet, should his fortune throw him in your way. 
 Charlotte has given him a few lines to you merely as an introduction ; 
 but I must let you a little deeper into his history. He was the son of 
 a very petty farmer in Roxburghshire, and had so little education that 
 at twelve years old he did not know how to write. Nature had, how- 
 ever, been liberal in her gifts : he ca^ight a taste for knowledge, and, 
 under the most distressing circumstances, /bade himself master of 
 most of the learned languages, of those ofynodern Europe, and even 
 dabbled in Eastern literature. When he f^und his way to Edinburgh 
 College, his merit by degrees became noticed, and at length con- 
 spicuous. 1 had the good luck early to discover both his literary and
 
 8 LETTERS FROM SIR WALTER SCOTT. 
 
 personal worth, and at different times he lived a good deal with us, till 
 it was in nay power to procure him his present appointment of Assistant- 
 Surgeon on the Madras establishment, which I accomplished through 
 Mr. Dundas. Lord William Bentinck 1 is to countenance him in his 
 labours, which I suppose will be rather literary than medical. He 
 will certainly make an effort to see you, if it be possible. You must 
 be prepared to encounter and pardon some peculiarity of manner 
 arising from his early history, and which even his intercourse with the 
 first-class people here and in London has not quite erased ; but you 
 will find this amply atoned for by a great fund of knowledge and native 
 kindness of disposition. He will be able to tell you a thousand little 
 anecdotes regarding our domestic habits, etc., etc., for things of very 
 little importance in themselves are pleasing and interesting when they 
 relate to separated friends. I am rejoiced to see that at length you 
 fix a period at which we may hope for your return to Britain. Happi- 
 ness depends so much less upon the quantity of the fortune than upon 
 the power of enjoying what we have, that I am sure you, my dear 
 brother, after having spent your early years in acquiring a respectable 
 fortune, will not delay enjoying it for the purpose of making it still 
 larger. Remember Scotland will have a claim upon you for one part 
 of the year, if upon trial you like its society and climate, and I am so 
 true a Scotchman that I think it impossible you can dislike them. 
 Besides, our women are generally reckoned handsome and accomplished, 
 and I hope, notwithstanding your attachment to Old England, you will 
 give our nymphs a chance at setting their caps at you. Tour sister 
 says 3 r ou positively must be married soon after your arrival, so you 
 must prepare for fetters, even in the land of liberty. T would send 
 you political news, were there any worth sending. Those from 
 France are singularly gloomy. Subjected to a very rigorous military 
 Government, all attempt at domestic happiness seems to be given up 
 for the fracas of public amusements and immense parties, where none 
 dare tell his mind to his next neighbour, should it involve anything 
 more important than an opinion on the merits of the newest cantatrice 
 or figurante. Besides all this, a pestilential disorder is now raging at 
 Paris. At home, the most remarkable event is the discovery of a plot 
 to assassinate the best of Kings by a gang of low ruffians, the leaders 
 of whom have been executed. Colonel Despard, the ringleader of 
 these miscreants, was once in the army, and had a character for bravery 
 and skill in his profession. Being intrusted with some presents 
 intended to conciliate thetjChiefs of the Mosquito Indians in the Bay of 
 Honduras, the worthy Colo\el chose to appropriate the gifts to his own 
 purposes ; for which peculation he was broken by a court-martial in the 
 
 1 Governor of Madras.
 
 LETTERS FROM SIR WALTER SCOTT. 9 
 
 West Indies. Having become totally desperate, in consequence of this 
 well-merited disgrace, lie embraced eagerly the opportunity of avenging 
 himself on Government by embarking in all the seditious proceedings 
 during the wars, which procured him a lodging in Cold Bath Fields; 
 where his fate was deplored and howled over by Sir Francis Burdett and 
 other reforming members of the House of Commons. The first act of 
 this worthy and oppressed patriot, upon his liberation, was to organise 
 the murder of his sovereign. It does not appear from his trial that 
 any persons were associated with him excepting the ruffians who were 
 to be the immediate actors, but it is generally believed that he acted as 
 the link betwixt these subordinate agents, and a higher rank of con- 
 spirators, as it is hardly to be conceived that a person of sense and 
 education would embark in so desperate a project without being assured 
 of more powerful allies than a set of low blackguards not exceeding 
 30 or 40 in number. Colonel Desparcl died like a true Jacobin, neither 
 fearing God nor regarding man. The Peace seems likely to hold, 
 notwithstanding it is confidently asserted that we are to retain Malta 
 as the only security against the preponderance which the French have 
 acquired in the Mediterranean, by the cession of Elba, and by the Chief 
 Consul's having been placed at the head of the Cisalpine Republic. 
 Those who talk of the retention of Malta (and I have heard some very 
 high authority upon the subject) reason thus. If Buonaparte does not 
 wish to quarrel with this country, or again to possess himself of Egypt, 
 which would produce an immediate breach, then our cession of Malta 
 cannot be to him a matter of such importance as to precipitate himself 
 into war. But if he really wishes to have Egypt, the removal of our 
 fleet and armies from Malta will be an indispensable preliminary, and 
 such a removal would be followed by his immediately invading Egypt, 
 and consequently by a war with this country under circumstances 
 much more unfavourable than if we still held Malta; so that the pro- 
 posed cession might accelerate, but could not possibly avert, a breach 
 with France. Such were the sentiments which I heard delivered by a 
 very eminent statesman, and I think there is good sense in them, 
 though I do not pretend to understand the subject. To revert to 
 domestic affairs. As soon as your sister has quite recovered I intend 
 we shall go to London, •/.here I am called by some professional business ; 
 so we shall have the pleasure of seeing all our good friends in Piccadilly, 
 which will be no small gratification to me as well as to Charlotte. She 
 is recovering from her indispositionauncomm^nly well, and desires a 
 thousand expressions of the kindest affection /> you. Joining cordially 
 in all her good wishes, I am, ever most sincerely, 
 
 " Your truly affection^e Brother, 
 " Edin., 6th March, 1803. " Walter Scott. 
 
 " Charles Carpenter, Esq., Commercial Resident, 
 Salem, Madras, East Indies. "»
 
 10 LETTERS FKOM SIR WALTER SCOTT. 
 
 " Mr dear Brother, — This accompanies a copy of my new poem 
 for Mrs. Carpenter's kind acceptance. I hope it will amuse her as much 
 as she is so good as to say my former ditties did. There are very few 
 hard words in it. I also hope it will reach you safe, as Lady Minto is 
 so good as to take charge of sending it with the Governor-General's 
 baggage. Lord Minto and I used to be very good friends, and if you 
 should happen to see him, I am sure his Lordship will remember me, and 
 perhaps you may experience some civility on my account, which would 
 give me great pleasure indeed. I write to him with a copy of this same 
 poem, and will take the liberty to mention your name, as indeed I have 
 done before. It is very probable all this is of no consequence to you, 
 yet it can do no harm, and I only hope you will not think me officious. 
 The present President of the Board of Control is also my old and 
 intimate friend and schoolfellow. So if you can devise am thing for 
 your comfort, or convenience or advantage, I would try my interest in 
 your behalf, which would give me the greatest pleasure if successful. 
 I sincerely hope this will find Mrs. Carpenter's health amended, 
 which I judge to be the case, since she has altered her plan of coming 
 to England before you. Most heartily do I hope you will look this 
 way together, and soon. Your kindness will make you anxious about 
 our present situation, which is in every respect comfortable, and 
 promises daily to become more so. My literary attempts have been 
 very useful in point of profit as well as for the degree of general regard 
 which I may without vanity say that they have procured me. My 
 present situation is that of one of the principal Clerks to our Court of 
 Session, the income of which runs from £800 to d£l,000 a year. The 
 worst is that the gentleman who retired to make way for me retains 
 the appointment, while I do the duty. But it gives me leisure for my 
 literary pursuit, by which, by my Sheriffdom, and by my private fortune, 
 I can maintain my rank in society, and even make money, en attendant 
 the death of the old life-renter. This was rather a hard bargain, but it 
 was made when the Administration was dissolved upon Pitt's death. 
 All was going to pieces, and I was glad to swim ashore on a plank of 
 the wreck, or, in a word, to be provided for anyhow ere the new people 
 came in. Nobody, to be sure, could have foreseen that in a year's time 
 my friends were all to be in again. There is just now to be appointed 
 a High Commission of Parliament to revise the structure and forms of 
 our Scottish Courts of Jurisprudence, and I believe I am to be named 
 Secretary to the Commissioners. This, I suppose, will be well paid ; 
 but I am principally phased with it as being a very respectable 
 appointment conferred onyie by our principal Law Lords and King's 
 Council, and consequently dh honourable professional distinction. The 
 employment will be but temporary, but may have consequences of im- 
 portance to my future lot in life, if I give satisfaction in the discharge
 
 LETTERS FROM SIR WALTER SCOTT. 11 
 
 of it. I wrote you a few days ago by a little cadet, by name Alexander 
 Russell, a cousin-german of mine, who goes to Madras by these ships. 
 Should chance throw him in your way, I would be much obliged to you 
 to show him kindness. 1 suppose you think by this time that my cadet 
 cousins grow up like crops of pease and beans, but I assure you this is 
 the last you are likely to hear of, for I hope you will be home long 
 before an after-crop comes up of younger exportation commodities. I 
 am sure you are obliged to us, and we to you, for I fancy our frozen 
 climate raises a great number of the soldiers, sailors and merchants 
 that arc transplanted to yours. My little nursery, two of each sex, are 
 thriving and hearty: your little namesake, a merry, cherry-cheeked 
 fellow with an unrestrained stock of health and spirits. 
 
 " I sincerely hope this will find you in health, Mrs. Carpenter quite 
 recovered, and your land in quiet. Since Russia has quarrelled with 
 us, we are looking rather anxiously towards you, from a general idea 
 that Bonaparte has a scheme of marching an army through Persia 
 against our Indian dominions. I am no believer in the possibility of his 
 executing such a plan, though I think it not improbable he may attempt 
 it, as his success hitherto gives him a right to calculate on anything. 
 He seems tired of the threat of invasion, especially since the seizure of 
 the Danish fleet, which might have had its sails bent at this moment, 
 ready to sail north to Ireland with 30,000 Frenchmen, had it not been 
 for the precautionary measures of seizing their ships and stores. The 
 emigration of the Royal Family of Portugal to the Brazils is another 
 of those wonderful events which our time has been destined to 
 witness. Its effect on the spirits of the merchants has been that of a 
 cordial. 
 
 " Once more, dear Carpenter, remember me kindly to your lady, and 
 thank her in my name for two affectionate letters, to which I am sending 
 a handsome reply by the ships, and besides this, by the little cousin 
 cadet. I must have worse than usual ill luck if none of these letters 
 come to hand. 
 
 " Believe me, your affectionate Brother, 
 
 "Walter Scott. 
 
 " Edinburgh, 16th February 1808," 
 
 "Ashesteil, 25th August 1811. 
 "My dbar Carpenter, — I take the <9pportun#y of Sir Samuel Hood's 
 going out to command in your Indian Seas to/n quire after your welfare 
 and that of Mrs. Carpenter, and at the samJr time to make you known, 
 should circumstances permit, to the very^accomplished and pleasing 
 woman who takes charge of this letter. Lady Hood is by birth a 
 daughter of Lord Seaforth, one of our greatest Highland Chiefs, and a
 
 12 LETTEES FROM SIR WALTER SCOTT. 
 
 keen Scotchwoman, so I hope Mrs. Carpenter and she will be agreeable 
 to each other as countrywomen ; although I fear there is small chance 
 of your being at Madras in case the Admiral's vessel touches there. If 
 it should fortunately happen otherwise, you will, 1 am sure, be glad to 
 see a valued friend of Charlotte and me ; and Lady Hood will, 1 know, 
 be happy in making your acquaintance. She has always lived in the 
 first circles of society in London, but deserves regard still more from 
 her valuable personal qualities than from her rank and manners. Sir 
 Samuel Hood is an amiable and unaffected man, and as much distin- 
 guished by his gentle and unassuming manners in society as by his 
 professional gallantry, of which he has given so many proofs. 
 
 " I have very little domestic news to send you. Our little people are 
 shooting fast up from childhood towards youth, and show promising 
 dispositions both for morals aud learning. Your namesake and godson, 
 little Charles, seems to be the cleverest of the family, and indeed 
 exceeds any child at his age I have ever seen. As my lease of this 
 place is out, I have bought for about =£4,000 a property in the neigh- 
 bourhood extending along the banks of the river Tweed for about a 
 mile. It is very bleak at present, having little to recommend it but 
 the vicinity of the river ; but as the ground is well adapted by nature to 
 grow wood, and is considerably various in form and appearance, I 
 have no doubt that by judicious plantations it may be rendered a very 
 pleasant spot ; and it is at present my great amusement to plan the 
 various lines which may be necessary for that purpose. The farm 
 •comprehends about one hundred and twenty acres, of which I shall keep 
 about fifty in pasture and tillage, and plant all the rest, which will make 
 it a very valuable little possession in a few years, as wood bears a very 
 high price among us. I intend building a small cottage here for my 
 summer residence, being obliged by law, as well as induced by inclination, 
 to make this county my residence for some months every year. This is 
 the grandest incident which has lately taken place in our domestic 
 concerns, and I assure you we are not a little proud of being greeted as 
 Laird and Lady of ALLotsford. Wo will give a grand gala when we 
 take possession, and as we are very clannish in this corner, all the 
 Scotts in this county, from the Duke to the peasant, shall dance on 
 the green to the bagpipes, and drink whisky punch. Now, as this 
 happy festival is to be distant for more than a twelvemonth, during 
 which our cottage is to be built, etc., etc., what is to hinder brother and 
 sister Carpenter to give is their company upon so gratifying an occasion ? 
 Pray do not stay broiling^vourself so long in India — not for a moment 
 longer when you have sec\yed comfort and competence. Don't look 
 forward to peace : it will never come either in your day or mine ; for 
 the political atmosphere of Europe looks more gloomy and stormy than 
 ever. Nor do public matters at home look very consoling. The poor
 
 LETTERS FROM SIR WALTER SCOTT. IS 
 
 old King is so very ill that death will be a deliverance which may be 
 soon expected. All parties look up to and claim an intei'est with the 
 Prince, whose plan seems to be to rely upon none of them, but breaking 
 them up by a partial distribution of his favour, to form an Adminis- 
 tration dependent only on the sovereign and not upon any public man 
 or party-leader. This is all very well should such an Administration 
 prove successful and popular ; but if otherwise, the public resentment, 
 which in other cases is confined to the Minister, may, in that supposed, 
 take a higher object. God turn all to the best, but our prospects are 
 at present very unsettled. 
 
 " Adieu, my dear Carpenter, Tour sister sends kindest love to Mrs. 
 Carpenter and you. I daily scold her for her silence, and she always 
 promises to write, as I naturally judge she will know better what can 
 interest you than I. But to say truth, though your sister and my wife, 
 she is the worst penwoman I ever saw. 
 
 "Your affectionate Brother, 
 
 "Walter Scott. 
 
 " Favoured by the Honourable Lady Hood. 
 " Charles Carpenter, Esq., Commercial Resident, 
 Cuddalore." 
 
 "My dear Carpenter, — The melancholy news of poor Leyden's 
 death reached me some time before your kind letter. General Malcolm 
 has touched his character with equal truth and kindness. The little 
 oddities, for they really hardly deserved the name of faults, only served 
 to shade his high attainments and the excellent qualities of his heart. 
 He will be a great loss to Eastern literature, and not less to his Euro- 
 pean friends, especially to myself. Thus as we advance in life our 
 social comforts are gradually abridged. Do think of this, my dear 
 Carpenter, and come back to Britain while the circle of your friends is 
 not materially diminished. I am happy to see from your last expres- 
 sions that affairs promise to let you escape from India in a year or two. 
 As health is better than wealth, I trust you will hasten the period of 
 your return as much as possible ; and pray send us early intelligence 
 as I shall make a point to meet you in London at least, if not at 
 Portsmouth. 
 
 " Our private affairs continue prosperous and our family healthy. 
 They are all fine children, but little Charles, hie youngest, promises to 
 possess extraordinary talent. My income h/s been greatly increased 
 by my predecessor, or rather colleagueVm office being placed by 
 Government upon a superannuated pension, which gave me access to 
 nearly all the emoluments of the office (£1,300 in gross), to which 
 otherwise I could only have succeeded after his death. To bring this
 
 14 LETTERS FROM SIR WALTER SCOTT. 
 
 about was one of the lust labours of poor Lord Melville, whose steady- 
 friendship for me was active in my favour to the very verge of his 
 life. Encouraged by this good fortune, my lease of Ashestiel being out, 
 and it being necessary as Sheriff that I should reside in Selkirkshire 
 occasionally, I have bought a farm of about 120 acres, lying along the 
 side of the Tweed. This indeed is its only advantage in point of 
 situation, being quite bare of wood, and unenclosed. But as the Spanish 
 proverb says, ' Time and I against any two'. I have set to work to 
 plant and to improve, and I hope to make Abbotsford a very sweet 
 little thing in the course of a few years. Till we shall have leisure — 
 i.e., time and money — to build a little mansion, we hnve fixed our 
 residence in the little farm-house, where our only sitting-room is about 
 twelve feet square, and all the others in proportion. So that on the 
 whole we live as if we were on board of ship. But, besides the great 
 amusement I promise myself in dressing this little farm, it is con- 
 venient and pleasant, as lying in my native county, and among those 
 to whom I am most attached by relationship and friendship. We have 
 also a very pleasant friend of yours in our neighbourhood, the fine old 
 veteran, General Gowdie. He lives about three miles from us, and was 
 here the other morning, as keen as a schoolboy, about a fishing party 
 to a small lake in our vicinity. He and I have a debate about a new 
 harpoon for striking salmon, which- he invented, and which I have the 
 boldness to think I have altered and improved. He speaks very often 
 of you, and will be delighted to see you. 
 
 " I left your friend, Captain Campbell, in Edinburgh. He is married, 
 and is desirous of getting upon the recruiting staff in that city. I 
 have used all the interest I had in his favour with the officer who is at 
 the head of the department in Edinburgh, and who happens to be my 
 particular acquaintance, but I fear the appointment will be made in 
 London. 
 
 " Public affairs assume a much more pleasant aspect than of late. 
 Lord Wellington, whose splendid military talents are daily more and 
 more manifest, having expelled the French from Portugal, is now in a 
 fair way of clearing Spain of them ; unless Bonaparte has the means of 
 bringing his Russian quarrel to a speedy termination, which is very 
 unlikely, if the Russians adhere to their plan of avoiding a general 
 engagement, and suffering the invader to involve himself in the inter- 
 minable deserts of their country. This, it is said, is the plan suggested 
 by Bernadotte; I trust^n God $t will not be rashly departed from. 
 Domestic matters are nkt so comfortable. There have been, as you 
 will see from the papers, ^ry serious disturbances among the manu- 
 facturers of the midland counties, which, by the mistaken lenity of 
 Government, have been suffered to assume an alarming degree of 
 organisation. Correspondence has been carried on by the malcontents
 
 LETTERS FROM SIR WALTER SCOTT. 15 
 
 through every manufacturing town in England and Scotland, and the 
 infection had even reached the little thriving community of Galashiels, 
 a flourishing village in my district. I was not long, however, in 
 breaking their association, and securing their papers. The principal 
 rogue escaped me, for having heard I was suddenly come into the 
 place, he observed, "It's not for nought that the hawk whistles", and 
 so took to the hills and escaped. 
 
 "Charlotte is in very good health, and begs her kindest remem- 
 brances. She proposes to write, but I will not wait for her letter, 
 knowing her talents for procrastination in such matters. 
 
 " There is a noble estate, with a fine old house and park, to be sold 
 within ten miles of us. I wish you were here to buy it, with all my 
 heart, as it would suit you very well for a summer residence. Charlotte 
 joins in kindest regards to Mrs. Carpenter, and 
 
 " Believe me, dear Carpenter, ever 
 
 " Your affectionate brother, 
 
 " Walter Scott. 
 " Abbotsford, 4th August 1812. 
 
 " P. S. — The Dumergues were well when we heard last ; but I have 
 uot seen them for two years, and am scarce likely to be in London, 
 unless with the hope of meeting you." 
 
 "My dear Carpenter, — I have just got your letter of 10th February, 
 and a fortnight before Charlotte received the valuable and much 
 admired package of cotton and long cloth, which she values still more 
 as a pledge of Mrs. Carpenter's regard and friendship. Our little 
 girls will be all as fine as so many little queens, and Charlotte herself 
 will feel no little pride and satisfaction in appearing in a dress which 
 she owes to the kindness of so valued a relative. I observe Mrs. 
 Carpenter finally proposes leaving India in October. I should like 
 very much to be in England on her arrival, and if possible I will 
 certainly contrive it. We have two months' vacation from 12th March 
 to 12th May, during which time I should think it likely Mrs. Carpenter 
 will reach Britain ; and should she then think of coming North, I 
 will undertake to be her escort, if she will accept of me. 
 
 " Public news continue favourable. The great victories of Lord 
 Wellington in Spain, and the determined resistance exhibited by the 
 continental Powers, seem to augur a fastourable -^rinination of the war. 
 Yet I think while Bonaparte lives and reigro( peace is hardly to be 
 hoped for, for Sebastiani, one of his favouriteirGrenerals, who knew his 
 character well, told a friend of mine that ifi'Europe, Asia, and Africa 
 were at Bonaparte's feet, he would be miserable until he had conquered 
 America. And I do not think his spirit is of that kind which learns
 
 16 LETTERS FROM SIR WALTER SCOTT. 
 
 moderation from adversity ; otherwise his disasters in Spain and Russia 
 must have taught it. So we poor mortals must abide the course of 
 events, and drift down the stream, making ourselves as happy as we 
 can while we drive on. 
 
 " Our domestic news are limited to our being all well. The little 
 people are much what I could wish them — very affectionate to each 
 other, and dutiful to us. They have all rather good parts, and 
 little Charles, your name-son, shows marks of genius which may, 
 perhaps, turn to something remarkable. But as our Scotch 
 proverb says, ' It is long time to the saddling of a foal.' 
 
 " Upon the death of the Poet Laureate, the Prince Regent was 
 pleased, of his unsolicited and most unexpected goodness, to offer me the 
 situation. But after a little consideration I declined the proposed 
 honour as handsomely as I could. The emolument was not any great 
 object, being under ,£200, and might, I thought, be better conferred on 
 some literary person who was otherwise unprovided for. But besides, 
 I wish to be altogether independent of Kings and Courts, though with 
 every sentiment of loyalty to our own ; and that would not have been 
 easy had I taken a part in the household, however small. So I now 
 have only the hope that my humble excuses will be favourably 
 received. 
 
 " Lord Minto has done great credit to himself by patronising poor 
 Leyden while alive, and honouring his memory when no more. I 
 looked forward to poor John's return as one of the most pleasant 
 events in futurity. But such disappointments are the lot of humanity. 
 I am delighted that you have met my dear Lady Hood, who is a most 
 charming woman. I hope Sir Samuel is in the way of increasing his 
 fortune on your side of the world. I hope Mrs. Carpenter received a 
 4to. volume from me, forwarded by our friends Smith and Jenyns, 
 in the beginning of the year. Charlotte writes at length to Mrs. 
 Carpenter, and sends you her affectionate love, in which all our little 
 folks join, and 
 
 " Believe me ever, dear Carpenter, 
 
 "Tours most affectionately. 
 
 " Abbotsford, near Melrose, " Walter Scott. 
 
 " 5th September 1813. 
 
 "P.S. — It has just occurred to me that it might be agreeable to you 
 to have an introduction to Lord Moira, your now Governor- General. 
 I therefore take the Vbcrty to enclose a few lines for that purpose, 
 having had the honours, o know him pretty well while 1 Commander-in- 
 Chief in Scotland.'"
 
 LETTERS FROM SIR WALTER SCOTT. 17 
 
 " My dear Carpenter, — You must be ill to please with good news, 
 and with a wholesome return to the old European balance of power, if 
 you are not amply contented with the information which this packet 
 will bring you ; for never since Europe was civilised, or I may almost 
 say had a name, has there been such a marvellous succession of good 
 fortune. Our Ministers here have the utmost credit with the country, 
 and most deservedly, for the extraordinary fii'mness with which thej 
 managed matters which otherwise, I am well assured, would have gone 
 wrong more than once but for Lord Castlei'eagh's steadiness. 1 had 
 all the desire in the world to have gone to the Continent, and as I am 
 well acquainted with Lord Aberdeen, and somewhat known to Lord 
 Castlereagh, I should have been well enough off if 1 had ever got to 
 head-quarters. But the difficulty would have been to get to the main 
 army, through the clouds of partisans on both sides, who plundered in 
 every direction ; and truly a non-combatant makes but a foolish figure 
 in such a scrape. 
 
 " I trust India, and you in particular, will soon feel all the advantages 
 which a solid and lasting peace must necessarily afford. The Continent, 
 however, has been so completely drained of specie, that for some time 
 trade will not resume its former activity. Over-speculation on the 
 effects of peace has already made one or two great bankruptcies ; but 
 these were people who had been long in labouring circumstances, and 
 who made a bold dash in the hope of redeeming all. Pray make a 
 heavy purse, for I assure you the expense of living here is doubled 
 since my marriage, and in England has increased in at least a similar 
 l-ate. T trust you will find a summer residence in Scotland, where 
 very advantageous purchases of laud can still be made. I fear London 
 will have too many charms for you in winter to permit us to hope you 
 will become a citizen of Edinburgh. 
 
 " As for my own affairs, they are going on very well. Rich I shall 
 probably never be — contented and independent I am and hope to 
 remain, my whole professional income being now in my own posses- 
 sion. I have been busy with my little property, which I hope will 
 begin to look rather pretty by the time we have the pleasure of receiv- 
 ing Mrs. Carpenter and you there, as the trees are now about three 
 years old, and a couple of years hence, which I now set down as the 
 definitive term of your stay in India, or rather the time of your arrival 
 in Britain, will give them some appearance of covering a bank which 
 is now very bare. We have not built thfre, cont,'y«ting ourselves with 
 the smallest of all small cottages, but which Chayfotte's taste has made 
 very neat within doors, and our out-of-door offij/s are complete enough 
 upon a small scale. The children come up upon us fast ; and in a few 
 years I must look to getting the two boys out into the world. They 
 are both very much what a parent could wish, and particularly affec- 
 
 • C
 
 18 LETTERS FROM SIR WALTER SCOTT. 
 
 tionate towards each other, and to your sister and me. They will' 
 have the advantage of a good education, and, if I live, of good interest 
 in any line which may be thought advantageous for them. Little 
 Charles shows a good deal of genius. I think at present to breed him 
 to the bar, if he continues the same promise of talents. It is but a 
 beggarly profession without them ; but cleverness, joined to the neces- 
 sary degree of attention and a great deal of patience, seldom fail to get 
 forward. All this is only between an uncle and a papa, for the old 
 provei*b says, ' It is a longtime till the saddling of a foal.' The girls 
 are also hopeful, natural children, and in general very well liked. 
 
 "And now, dear Carpenter, make up your pack as fast as you can,, 
 tie it well up, clap it aboard of ship, take Mrs. Carpenter under the 
 arm, and come back to England — Britain, I mean — to see your relations. 
 I hear so much of you that I account myself quite acquainted with, and 
 prepared to love, you both ; and it will go hard but I am one of the 
 first friends that welcomes you to English land, as I shall certainly 
 come up to l-eceive you. Pray come before my head is quite grey, and 
 especially before I turn a stupid old buzzard, for I assure you I am 
 not so as yet. Charlotte and I wrote six months ago to thank Mrs. 
 Carpenter for a superb present of muslins, which we value as coming 
 from her. 
 
 l " Ever yours truly, 
 
 "Edinburgh, 25th June 1814 Walter Scott." 
 
 Here is a letter from Lady Scott, written with the prospect 
 before her of my uncle's almost immediate return to his native 
 country :— 
 
 "My dear Charles, — I hope that my letter dated the 11th January 
 1817, and the other March 1 6th, are come safe to your hands, parti- 
 cularly the former one, as in it I had given you a full account of our 
 family, as it seemed you wished to hear more particularly about them, 
 and had enclosed a few lines to Mrs. Carpenter, whom you had given 
 me to hope we should have seen before this time, and not hearing 
 from you makes me truly uneasy. I cannot account for letters being 
 so often lost, which must be the case, as you sui'ely would not be so 
 long without writing and in answering Scott's letter. We have also 
 been much disappointed in not seeing Colonel Eraser, Mrs. Carpenter's 
 brother. 1 Not even did we receive a line from him, but the letter you 
 sent by him came bjnthe post, so that we had not even the chance of 
 finding in what part Y? England he was, or is, at present, which is a 
 very great disappoint™, >nt. You can have no idea how anxiously I 
 look for the time that is to bring you back, and how many plans and 
 
 1 Colonel Hastings F rater.
 
 LETTERS FROM SIR WALTER SCOTT. 19 
 
 arrangements we make; for we hope that you will settle in Scotland, 
 at least for part of the year. We have already allotted you and Mis. 
 Carpenter a room in our cottage, which is by Tweed-side, so that if you 
 are fond of fishing you may kill salmons as many as you like, and for 
 shooting we have very near, and even upon our own ground, grouse, 
 partridges, and blackcocks, and our little boy Walter, who, as I told 
 you, is six faet high (although not fifteen), will show where they are. 
 He is a very good shot. As for your namesake, Charles, he is not come 
 to that yet. He may retain the name of ' little' with more propriety, 
 and will, I dare say, in the course of three years be quite fit to attend 
 you. Your two nieces, Sophia and Ann, who are both great girls, 
 taller than myself — although that is not saying much — will sing to yon 
 some old Scotch ballads when you return from your fishing or shooting, 
 which will be your country evening amusement. So much, my dear 
 Charles, can I promise you for your country life with us ; but I should 
 not forget to add that, besides our own family, I can promise to intro- 
 duce you to the very best society you can possibly wish, for Scott, 
 having acquired much celebrity among the admirers of literature, we 
 receive visits from the most select and respectable set of men, high in 
 reputation as in rank. I hope, as a specimen I wish to give you, that 
 you may have received the letter in which I sent you word of the very 
 flattering reception Scott received from the Prince Regent, who not 
 only asked him to dine often with him, but made him a present of a 
 handsome box with his picture on it ; the Prince always treating him 
 with marked kindness and, I might almost add, respect. He had, of 
 course, after all that, to be presented at Court, where he was received 
 by the Queen in a most courteous and flattering manner. All this I 
 mention, my dear Charles, that although you should come here as a 
 stranger you would not long remain one; and I know that among the 
 Scotch you will find many and many of your Indian acquaintances, 
 from whom I hear so much in praise of my brother that 1 feel myself 
 so proud and anxious to have him here that I believe I must take my 
 passage for India unless you come soon. In case some of my letters 
 should be lost, I again mention our having had a visit from Miss 
 Dumergue and Mrs. Nicholson, who first arrived at Edinburgh, and 
 remained at our house there a fortnight, then came with us to our 
 cottage on Tweed-side, about thirty-four miles from Edinburgh, 
 where they remained with us six weeks more ; since which time Miss 
 Dumergue and Mrs. Nicholson have been twice to Paris, and have, 
 since poor Mrs. Dumergue's death, become greaYtravellers. I should 
 suppose she has been left a handsome fortune, hJ the style she lives in, 
 as, besides travelling as she does, she continu<yB to keep a very elegant 
 carriage, with three men servants, and that with a delightful house in 
 Piccadilly, but which does not prevent her, like the rest of the world, 
 
 C 2
 
 20 LETTERS FROM SIR WALTER SCOTT. 
 
 to complain of poverty. Miss J. Nicholson, I hear, is going somewhere 
 abroad. 1 am sorry to say she has given np my acquaintance, as with 
 the rest of her old friends ; but of that, as of many other things, 
 I will explain when we meet. I am afraid to tire you, my dear Charles, 
 with all the nonsense this letter contains, therefore will conclude by 
 offering our kind and best wishes to attend you and Mrs. Carpenter, 
 and believe me to remain, 
 
 " Ever your affectionate Sister, 
 
 " M. Charlotte Scott. 
 " Abbotsford, Oct, the 8th, 1817." 
 
 The following letter of condolence from Sir Walter Scott shows 
 that the meeting between the long-parted brother and sister was 
 never to take place. 
 
 " Dear Mrs. Carpenter, — My wife is quite unable at present to write, 
 but I am anxious that a ship should not leave Britain without carrying 
 with it our deep and heartfelt sympathy in our common loss. To us it 
 was a shock as unexpected as afflicting, for we had entertained the vain 
 hope of shortly seeing in Britain the object of our present regret. I had 
 not, as you are aware, the advantage of personally knowing Mr. Carpenter, 
 but all we know and have heard of him makes that circumstance rather 
 aggravate than diminish my regret. Charlotte is very much overcome 
 by her feelings, and it cannot be otherwise — he was the only blood 
 relation she had in the world ; and though long separated, she always 
 looked to Mr. Carpenter, and spoke of him as one of the closest ties 
 which she had to existence. From witnessing her distress, I imagined 
 what, my dear madam, must be your so much more severe affliction 
 when deprived of the object of so many years' affection. It is a con- 
 solation, though a sad one, that no circumstances had accelerated your 
 return to England, as was once proposed. To have been absent at the 
 moment when your affectionate attendance might soothe the mind, 
 though it could not relieve bodily disease, would have been a most 
 painful reflection, and I am thankful, both on your account and my late 
 brother's, that it was otherwise ordered. 
 
 " I was obliged by Mr. Heath's very kind and attentive letter on 
 this melancholy occasion, and I have written to him to request every- 
 thing in the way of business may be managed with the most implicit 
 attention to your wishes. 
 
 " Our regretted fVend has-been pleased to adopt my children as his 
 own, 1 and the least t\?y can do is to have towards you every respectful 
 deference and attentioX which in circumstances of similar distress they 
 
 1 Mr. Carpenter's fortune Avas left to the Scotts, his widow having a life 
 interest.
 
 EXPEDITION TO MAURITIUS. 21 
 
 should have to their own mother. Allow me to claim for them on your 
 part, and as the nearest relation of Mr. Carpenter, some interest in their 
 future views and settlements in life, and that you will consider them as 
 young people who have many ties to love and respect you. My eldest 
 son's choice is the army, for which he is well qualified; but I should 
 wish him to see a little of the world before entering it, and propose to 
 take him to the Continent with me next winter. I should be anxious to 
 be in England at your coming over, although it has pleased God we 
 are not to meet in the joyful manner to which I had been for some 
 time looking forward. I trust that our deep sympathy will be some 
 alleviation to your distress. I will not dwell any more on a subject so 
 painful. My family offer their best wishes, and I am sure my wife will 
 take a very early opportunity to express her own feelings on this most 
 distressing occasion. I have the honour to be, dear Mrs. Carpenter, 
 "Your very affectionate Brother, 
 
 " Walter Scott. 
 "Edinburgh, 6th December 1818." 
 
 Captain Fraser did not continue to perform the quiet functions 
 of Governor's Aide-de-Canip for a very long term. In May 1810 
 he joined, as Deputy Commissary, the force embarked for the 
 invasion of the Mauritius, and acted *on the personal staff of the 
 commandant, Colonel Keating, in all the actions that preceded the 
 surrender of the island. 
 
 From 1811 to 1814, he filled the offices of Town Major of Fort 
 St. George, and Military Secretary to the Governor. In 1815, he 
 took the field as Assistant Adjutant-General of the Army Reserve, 
 under the personal command of the Commander-in-Chief, by 
 whom his conduct was highly commended. 
 
 Immediately on the close of these operations, Captain Fraser 
 was appointed Joint Commissioner with Colonel Caldwell, and 
 subsequently sole Commissioner, for conducting the restitution of 
 the French settlements on the coasts of Coromandel and Malabar, 
 under the Treaty concluded at Paris in 1814, and also for restoring 
 to the Danes their settlement of Tranquebar, under the Treaty of 
 Kiel in the same year. These peaceful arrangements were dis- 
 turbed by the return of Napoleon fromSSIba, wljfen Captain Fraser 
 was appointed Commandant of Pondicherry but were resumed 
 after the battle of Waterloo. Pondicherry w* finally handed over 
 to the French Governor, Count Du Puy, on the 16th of December 
 1816, and the smaller settlements of Karical, Mahe, and Yanam, 
 and the French " factory" at Calicut, in tlje months of January
 
 22 FKENCH, DANES, AND DUTCH. 
 
 and February 1817. The transfer of the French factory at Masuli- 
 patam was not completed until the end of 1817, in consequence of 
 an utterly inadmissible claim made by the French authorities to 
 open what they called " a free port" on the narrow slip of sea 
 beach, not more than a hundred yards in length, which was the 
 territorial extent of the Masulipatam factory, a possession of which 
 the sovereignty was very questionable. This will give some idea 
 of the numerous delicate and intricate points, diplomatic, judicial, 
 and administrative, consequent on the interruption of French rule 
 for twenty-five years, which were eventually decided, to the satis- 
 faction of both the English and French Governments, by the 
 judicious and well-considered proceedings of Captain Fraser. The 
 Government of India repeatedly thanked and commended the 
 British Commissioner for " the marked ability and the conciliatory 
 disposition" which- had "distinguished" his conduct throughout 
 every stage of these long and laborious negotiations, which called 
 forth, likewise, warm expressions of gratitude and esteem from 
 the several representatives of the French Government. 1 The tedious 
 and complicated business of defining the boundaries of each settle- 
 ment belonging to France and Denmark, after many exchanges of 
 territory had been made to obviate the inconvenience of the inter- 
 mixture of English, Danish, and French villages, was not concluded 
 until the end of 1819. 
 
 Major Fraser's literary and colloquial mastery of the French 
 language, an accomplishment by no means common among Anglo- 
 Indian officers in those days, had so very much facilitated the 
 successful conclusion of these important arrangements, as to mark 
 him out as the best, if not the only, person available for work of 
 this description. He was appointed in 1819 Special Agent for 
 conducting correspondence with all the foreign settlements, and in 
 1825, being now Lieutenant-Colonel, Commissioner for taking 
 possession of the Dutch settlements within the Presidency of 
 Madras, ceded to Great Britain by the Treaty of London on the 
 17th of March 1824 A£ the final transfer of the Dutch esta- 
 blishments, the Government of Fort St. George, in a letter dated 
 1st February 1828\expressed " the highest satisfaction and the 
 most perfect confidence" in Colonel Fraser's performance of these 
 important duties. 
 
 1 See Appendix, " Letters of Count Du Puy".
 
 COOKG WAK. 23 
 
 In February 1834, Lieutenant-Colonel Fraser was appointed 
 Acting-Secretary in the Military Department; and the contuma- 
 cious conduct and defiant attitude of the Rajah of Coorg having 
 just then made the necessity of coercive measures evident and 
 imminent, the Governor of Madras, Sir Frederick Adam, proceeded 
 to Bangalore, the base of operations, accompanied by his Military 
 Secretary. Immediately on their arrival at Bangalore, Colonel 
 Fraser was appointed, 3rd of March 1834, by the ' Governor- 
 <General, Lord William Bentinck, to be his Political Agent with 
 the force ordered to proceed against Coorg. Before passing the 
 frontier, Colonel Fraser issued the following proclamation, which 
 will explain sufficiently the cause of the war, and of the Rajah's 
 -deposition : — 
 
 " Proclamation. 
 
 " The conduct of the Rajah of Coorg has for a long time past been of 
 such a nature as to render him unworthy of the friendship and protec- 
 tion of the British Government. 
 
 "Unmindful of his duty as a ruler, and regardless of his obligations 
 as a dependent Ally of the East India Company, he has been guilty of 
 the greatest oppression and cruelty towards the people subject to his 
 Government, and he has evinced the most wanton disrespect, and the 
 .most hostile disposition, towards the great Power from whom he and 
 his ancestors have invariably received every degree of kindness and 
 protection. 
 
 " It would be needless to enumei'ate the several instances of his mis- 
 conduct, but it is sufficient to state that, in consequence of an asylum 
 having been afforded in the British Territories to his own sister Devam- 
 maji and her husband, Channa Basavappa, who to preserve their lives 
 had fled from his oppression, the Rajah has presumed to address letters 
 replete with the most insulting expressions to the Governor of Fort St. 
 •George and the Governor-General of India; that he has assumed an 
 attitude of hostility and defiance towards the British Government; that 
 he has received and encouraged the proclaimed enemies of that Govern- 
 ment ; and that he has unjustifiably placed under restraint an old and 
 faithful servant of the Company, named Kulputty Karnikara Manoon, 
 who had been formerly deputed by the British representative for the 
 purpose of opening a friendly negotiation, thus committing a gross out- 
 rage, not only upon the authority by whom tie above-named individual 
 was deputed, but upon the established rules of all civilised nations, by 
 whom the persons of accredited Agents arfVmvariably held sacred. 
 
 "The ancient alliance and the firm friendship, which had so happily 
 subsisted between the predecessors of the present Rajah and the
 
 24 COORG WAR. 
 
 Honourable Company, have caused his errors to be treated uniformly 
 with indulgence. The most earnest remonstrances have been in vain 
 tried, to bring him to a sense of his obligations, and it is not until 
 further forbearance would be culpable, that his Excellency the Right 
 Honourable the Governor- General, at the suggestion and with the 
 concurrence of the Right Honourable the Governor in Council of Fort 
 St. George, has resolved on employing the only means left of vindi- 
 cating the dignity of the sovereign State and of securing to the inhabi- 
 tants of Coorg the blessings of a just and equitable Government. 
 
 " It is, accordingly, hereby notified, that a British army is about to 
 invade the Coorg territory ; that Virarajendra Wodear is no longer to be 
 considered as Rajah of Coorg; that the persons and property of all those 
 who conduct themselves peaceably or in aid of the operations of the 
 British troops, shall be respected, and that such a system of Govern- 
 ment shall be established as may seem best calculated to secure the 
 happiness of the people. 
 
 "It is also hereby made known to all British subjects, who may have 
 entered the service of Virarajendra Wodear, that they are required to 
 place themselves under the protection of the British authorities, by 
 whom they will be kindly received, and their rights and privileges 
 respected, and that such of them as may in any way render assistance 
 to the enemy will be considered as traitors and punished accordingly. 
 
 " This proclamation will be carefully made known in Chittledroog,. 
 Raidroog, Mysore, Bellary, Malabar, Canara, in order that the relatives 
 of such persons as have taken service in Coorg from those places or 
 adjoining districts, may adopt the earliest means of communicating its 
 purport to the parties in whose safety they are interested. 
 
 "J. S. Fraser, 
 "Lieut.-Col. and Political Agent of H. E. the Right Hon. 
 the Governor- General. 
 
 "Issued at Bangalore this lhth day of March 1834." 
 
 The counter-proclamation by the Eajali of Coorg's Minister 
 (literally translated) is a veritable curiosity : — 
 
 "Proclamation to the Brave People of Coorg. 
 
 " The explanation of the Proclamation, issued through the ignorance 
 of the bad English people, who are mean slaves and servants of the 
 auspicious feet of the Halery Safisthan Maharaja. 
 
 " In answer to a proclamation of the bad Englishman, son of a slave 
 girl, who in a state of forgetting Mahadeva (God) and through pride 
 had written on a paper whatever occurred to his mind, for the purpose 
 of giving information to the inhabitants of Halery Samstan, and fastened 
 the same near the boundary, I, the slave of my Master's Majesty, let
 
 COORG WAR. 25 
 
 you know as follows, that the proclamation (containing the evil subjects) 
 which was fastened in the boundary by the wicked Englishman, the 
 son of a slave, is not at all possible even with our eyes or heard with 
 our cars, and in the very time of tying the said proclamations, which 
 arc replete with indecent subjects, the hearts of all of us, who are the 
 servants of the king's feet, were inflamed as the fire through wind. 
 The wicked Christian European, the son of a slave, who resolved to 
 prepare this, should be beheaded, and his head thrown out; the hands, 
 mouth, and head of the person who wrote this should be cut off, and 
 the generation of the low caste blasphemer and bad European should 
 be burnt down. These hopes are to be soon fulfilled. All the above 
 subjects are certain. All the wicked Europeans, all the sons of slave- 
 girls, have evil intentions that shall come to naught. Very well, very 
 well, my children, we will fill up all your bellies according to your 
 wishes. Be this known to you all, written on Sunday, 6th of the 
 waning moon of the month of Phalguna." 1 
 
 The campaign was brief and decisive, though at several stockades 
 in the passes of the Coorg Hills there was some determined resist- 
 ance. On the 10th of April, the British flag was hoisted over 
 the fort of Mercara. Colonel Fraser offered the Eajah life and 
 honourable treatment, if he surrendered. Accordingly, on the night 
 of the 23rd of April 1834, accompanied by his whole family, a 
 train of about 2,000 attendants, and fifty palanquins containing 
 his female establishment, he arrived at Mercara, and reoccupied 
 his palace, where he remained a close prisoner, until the orders 
 arrived for his future place of residence. The following letters 
 from Sir Frederick Adam, Governor of Madras, will show how 
 Colonel Fraser's management of the expedition was appreciated: — 
 
 " Ootacamund, 16th April 1834. 
 "My dear Colonel, — Tour letter of the 11th reached me on Sunday, 
 and I must explain the delay in thanking you for it, and explain also 
 why I do no more by this post than briefly offer you my congratulations. 
 Monday and yesterday I was really so far from well that I Avas almost 
 incapable of any exertion at all, and the little I could do was to get a 
 few indispensable letters to go by the*Forles steamer. To-day I am 
 rather better, but as an express goes to Madras in hopes of still catching 
 the Forbes, I have been busy writing to Eujiipe all day, till to thank 
 you in these few hurried lines is a race against time. To-morrow I 
 
 1 30th of March 183-!.
 
 26 ' LETTER FROM SIR FREDERICK ADAM, 
 
 will write more at length, and in the mean time you will have received 
 instructions to send away the Rajah. 
 
 "Believe me, with great truth and regard, 
 " Most truly yours, 
 
 "Frederick Adam. 
 
 " P.S. — Your apology fur not writing to me during the progress of 
 active operations was quite unnecessary. I was not so unreasonable as 
 to expect it, seeing that I got all your reports from Lord William 
 Bentiuck, F.A." 
 
 " Ootacamund, 17th April 1834. 
 
 " My dear Colonel, — I wrote such a scrawl to you yesterday, that I 
 must to-day make you an apology for it. I think we have much reason 
 to consider ourselves fortunate in having brought ' the Coorg war' to so 
 earlya conclusion ; and certainly if the means of defence had been properly 
 taken advantage of, it must have cost us a considerable effort to obtain 
 ultimate success. Failure, eventual failure, of course I never contem- 
 plated, but to have been worsted in the first attempt would undoubtedly 
 have led to very serious consequences. We have reason to be very thank- 
 ful that your success has been so, early and so complete. I shall await 
 with anxiety your reports after the Rajah has quitted the Coorg terri- 
 tory, and when you have had an opportunity of ascertaining what the 
 real feelings of the Coorghas are as respects a Government under a 
 descendant of Veera Raj (if any such be in existence) or as to their 
 becoming subjects of the British Circar. 
 
 " In the meantime I am very desirous of ascertaining whether a 
 suggestion thrown out partially by Lord William Bentinck would meet 
 your views. 
 
 "The Mysore question is referred to England for ultimate decision; 
 and until that arrives, the Residency on the present scale of expenses is 
 to be reduced. Mr. Casamajor goes to Travancore, and Lord William 
 thinks that the new Resident ought to have Political charge of the 
 Coorg country also. I presume this may be called administrative 
 charge of Coorg also, for it is clear, whether a minor of the Coorg 
 family be put on the throne, or the country becomes an integral part of 
 the British possessions, it must be governed as a separate and distinct 
 jurisdiction under our management. Now Lord William Bentinck's 
 desire, I am pretty sure, is (o offer you this double office, if it suits your 
 views. He does not thiiik the appointments could be raised higher than 
 2,000 rupees a month, exclusive of your military appointments, which 
 would be on the same footing as they were in your late office at 
 Cuddalore.
 
 RESIDENT AT MYSOBE. 27 
 
 "You are no doubt aware of all the agrements which the Mysore 
 Residency oilers in respect of climate, goodness and variety of houses, 
 etc., and you run judge better than anyone of the probabilities of 
 Coorg being an agreeable residence or otherwise. 
 
 " I ought, in confidence, to tell you that the proposal regarding Mysore 
 is to make a new Treaty, by which the Rajah yields to us the Nnggur, 
 Chittledroogand Baugalore Foujdarrees, and retains in full sovereignty, 
 and paying us no subsidy, the other three Foujdarrees of his actual 
 State, viz., Munjerabad and — I cannot recall the other two names at 
 this moment. 1 It is to a Rajah thus circumstanced that the Resident 
 will be accredited. 2 In the meantime, the Mysore tei'ritory remains as 
 at present assumed by us, and Colonel Morrison sole Commissioner. 
 
 " Will it suit you to hold the Residency of Mysore and Coorg, under 
 such an arrangement as I have sketched an outline of? And I am sure 
 Lord William Bentinck would like to know your sentiments before 
 making you the offer, which it is his intention to do. 
 
 " The only observation I shall venture to make is, that it opens the 
 Political line to you, and I believe the opening is all you require to get 
 to the goal. 
 
 " Forgive the abruptness of the termination of this letter, but not to 
 lose the post obliges me to finish. 
 
 " Eelieve me, my dear Colonel, with truth and 
 regard, very faithfully yours, 
 
 " Frederick Adam. 
 
 " Lieut. -Colonel Fraser, etc., etc., etc. 1 ' 
 
 On the 13th of June 1834, Colonel Fraser was made Resident 
 at the court of His Highness the Maharajah of Mysore, Com- 
 missioner for the affairs of Coorg, and Military Commandant in 
 that province. And in 1836 he was appointed Resident in the 
 States of Travancore and Cochin. It was while he was engaged 
 in the duties of the Travancore Residency that he wrote a letter 
 to Sir Frederick Adam, expressing plainly enough , in the following 
 extract, those views as to the then still recent sequestration of the 
 Mysore dominions and their management by a British Commission, 
 the unaltered nature of which he indicated after the lapse of more 
 than thirty years, by signing, :'ji 18G6, a petition to Parliament 
 recommending the restoration of the Mysore State to native rule. 
 
 1 Ashtagram and Shemoga. / 
 
 - The Court of Directors would not ratify Lord William Bentinck's pro- 
 posal of a partial restoration, so that the new Treaty was never con- 
 cluded.
 
 28 LETTER TO THE GOVERNOR. 
 
 " My dear Sir, — I do myself the pleasure to enclose for your perusal 
 the accompanying letter which I have received from the Rajah of 
 Mysore. As Governor of Madras, you are not very likely to learn the 
 Rajah's sentiments from any other source ; and in the official form I 
 know not how far Major Stokes keeps the Madras Government apprised 
 of the state of affairs at the Mysore Durbar. The poor Rajah has 
 suffered from many afflicting events in his family of late, his last letter 
 to me previous to this one having informed me of the death of a son. 
 I think it will be satisfactory to you to perceive, from his unreserved 
 and familiar communication to me, that he is contented with the 
 increased allowance lately made to him by the Supreme Government," 
 and that he expects to be saved by this grant from any further 
 accumulation of debts. I have never been able to bring myself to be 
 quite satisfied with our treatment of this weak, but good-natured and 
 kind-hearted man ; and our permanent assumption of any portion of 
 his country would have been a stain upon our good" faith and national 
 character of which I should have been quite ashamed. Our system of 
 non-interference, or at least our abstinence from regular and well-con- 
 sidered guidance in his youth, did the mischief, and then we pounced 
 upon the prey which our policy had driven into the toils. I am very 
 glad to find that the Rajah likes Major Stokes, and that the latter is 
 proving himself, so far as I can judge from his letters, an honest friend 
 and a very judicious adviser to the Rajah. He lias lately sent me a 
 good deal of his correspondence with his Highness, and with the 
 Supreme Government, to read; and it strikes me that, under the cir- 
 cumstances in which the Mysore country is now placed, Major Stokes 
 is as good a Resident there as anyone I know, either civil or military, 
 could be; and the same sound sense and judgment will render him 
 perfectly capable of conducting the same duties when he shall have a 
 .rather more independent part to play than at present." 
 
 The rest of the letter refers to Cochin affairs, and is of no par- 
 ticular interest. 
 
 In December 1836, an insurrection broke out in the province of 
 Canara, on the western coast of the Madras Presidency. The 
 insurgents chiefly congregated in that part of Canara that bordered 
 on the hilly country of Coorg, and included two small districts that 
 originally belonged to the little Raj, but had been detached at the 
 time of its conquest, contrary to General Eraser's advice, because it 
 was considered they more Yaturally formed part of Canara, and 
 could more easily be administered by the Collector of that district. 
 The insurgents had calculated on the co-operation of the recently
 
 REBELLION IN CANARA. 29 
 
 annexed people of Coorg, but they were very much out in their 
 
 calculations. The brave Coorgas were so well satisfied with the 
 
 rule of Captain Le Hardy, the Superintendent whom Colonel Fraser 
 
 had placed over them, that they rallied round him in response to 
 
 his call, armed with bows and arrows and battle-axes, and gave 
 
 most valuable assistance in putting down the insurrection. It is 
 
 to this incident that Colonel Fraser alludes in the following letter 
 
 from the Travancore Residency to Sir Frederick Adam, who had 
 
 just returned to England at the end of his term as Governor of 
 
 Madras : — 
 
 " Trevandrum, 17th June 1837. 
 
 " Mr dear Si a Frederick, — You will probably have learned before 
 this letter reaches you that, about the time you got half-way home, this 
 most combustible of all countries exhibited an explosion on the Western 
 coast, which, though not in the slightest degree foreseen at the time 
 you left Madras, rapidly rose to an extent which threatened to throw 
 the whole of this part of India into a flame. The particulars of the 
 progress of the insurrection, and the pouring in of troops from all 
 quarters, especially from Bombay by sea, will be seen in the public 
 papers : therefore I need not recapitulate them here. Bat as I wish 
 you to know exactly what the conduct of my old friends the Coorgs 
 has been, I do myself the pleasure to transmit for your information 
 the accompanying letters and copies of despatches on the subject which 
 I have received at different times from Le Hardy. 
 
 " The Coorgs, in fact, put down the rebellion ; and if they had not 
 proved staunch to the British interest, and firm in their personal attach- 
 ment to Le Hardy, I have not the slightest doubt that we should have 
 got into a disagreeable kind of war of quite indefinite duration. I 
 hope you will be pleased with the conduct of these brave fellows. I 
 confess it is a source of satisfaction with me to have been one of the 
 first among us to become acquainted with them. Le Hardy has 
 deserved well of the Government, and I trust that his conduct, which 
 has been marked by judgment and conciliation, and the talent of pre- 
 serving the affection of the brave people over whom he is placed, will 
 be duly appreciated and rewarded. The whole of the papers I now 
 send form a private communication, for I have no right to regard it 
 otherwise; 'but yet I think, if you deemed it proper to give the perusal 
 of them to your own friends among) the Directors, they would not be 
 found altogether uninteresting, and I should certainly be happy that 
 aii3 T thing were done which would give a good opinion of so estimable 
 a person as Le Hardy. / 
 
 " The real and original cause of the insurrection yet remains, I believe, 
 
 shrouded in mystery. I think it not improbable that the discontent 
 
 f the inhabitants of Ninar Soolia and Pootoor, the two districts we
 
 30 TOBACCO, COTTON, AND COFFEE. 
 
 separated from Ooorg for the purpose of annexing them to Canara, 
 may be found to have been one of the principal and most influential 
 motives with the insurgents. I could not refrain from expressing my 
 apprehension to the inhabitants of those districts, at the time when a 
 party among them petitioned Lord William Bentinck to allow of their 
 being annexed to Canara, that they would regret the day when their 
 request was complied with. And by tins time, I fancy, they are pretty 
 well aware of the dilFerence between our Collector and Courts of Jus- 
 tice and the simple old-fashioned system of revenue and trial by 
 Punchayut which we established in Coorg. 
 
 " The rest of India seems pretty quiet at present, but how long it 
 will remain so, it would be difficult for the wisest politician to pro- 
 nounce. If ignorance is bliss, we have it here in perfection ; for never 
 in the world did human beings live in a more complete state of uncer- 
 tainty in regard to future events than we do, because we are so 
 ignorant as to the feelings and the projects of those around us. 
 
 " We are paying a good deal of attention at this moment to the 
 amelioration of agriculture, the introduction of various kinds of fine 
 cotton, — coffee, also, which I hope to see growing in every garden and 
 orchard of Travancore — the culture of silk, etc. 
 
 " I know not whether I mentioned to you before you left India that 
 I had determined to try tobacco to the Southward. I have done so 
 with both the Ceylon and the Tinnevelly kinds, and they answer so 
 perfectly that it is quite a marvel with me why they were not tried 
 there before. I have several times made the inquiry, but no one could 
 give me an answer. The Ceylon Government, and the revenue interests 
 of Tinnevelly, may suffer a little from this ; but Travancore will save 
 at least a lakh and a half of rupees per annum by it, besides being 
 able to give the article at a much cheaper rate to the inhabitants, with 
 whom it is a necessary of life, though at present a most expensive one. 
 The consumption of it also will probably be thus greatly increased, 
 and a corresponding advantage, of course, derived to the Travancore 
 treasury. 
 
 " The measure of abolishing the transit duties has succeeded perfectly. 
 The people of the country loudly acknowledge this to be an absolute 
 blessing conferred upon them; while a statement which I have just 
 received from the Custom House at Allepee shows an increase of export 
 duties during the last four months to the amount of 10,000 rupees, at 
 that port alone, above any forme^year; and this is attributed by the 
 Customs officers there entirely to the discontinuance of the transit duties. 
 
 " I am happy to say that I have been so fortunate as to obtain from 
 Government the services A£ Lieutenant Horsley, to be permanently 
 attached to the Travancore Circar : and all the various works which I 
 have been contemplating in his department will now be undertaken, 
 without fear of failure, and conducted with spirit to their conclusion.
 
 WISH FOR MILITARY COMMAND. 31 
 
 "But I am dwelling upon matters of which the interest must be 
 gradually fading away from your mind, since you have re-entered into 
 the more distinguished and important scenes of European life. I have 
 now given an incipient movement to all the arrangements I proposed 
 in Travancore, and anybody else can now forward them as well as 
 myself. I have, therefore, no particular wish to remain here, for I can- 
 not help thinking that, with all its advantages, Travancore is a terribly 
 confined spot. In the last most kind and gratifying note you wrote 
 me, on the morning of your embarkation from Madras, you were again 
 so good as to allude to my appointment to the General Staff, and the 
 employment of your interest to this effect with the Court of Directors. 
 This would be pleasing to me, as a fitting termination to a long 
 Indian career, otherwise partaking somewhat too much of the civilian 
 and idler character. I shall not remain longer in India than my 
 poverty demands; but this, unfortunately, demands more than the second 
 sight of my native country to see its termination. While I am here, 
 I should certainly like to be actively and honourably employed. ~No 
 Indian employment can be more honourable than a high military 
 command ; and if blended with the exercise of political duty, it becomes 
 still more so. But if any suggestion with this view, either to your 
 relative, Mr. Loch, the Chairman of the Court of Directors, or to 
 anyone else, were likely to elicit on the part of the Court, or of the 
 Government of India, any disagreeable remark on its being unmerited 
 by me, either by the description of service in which it is my misfortune 
 to have been almost exclusively employed, or by any other circumstances 
 of the case, I would, in the event of this appearing probable, content 
 myself with my present obscurity. The plain truth is, that if such a 
 remark were made, either in England or India, it would, perhaps, not 
 be without some foundation; for if a man has any merit, in any 
 capacity at all, it is pretty sure to be recognised, sooner or later, and 
 to find the level to which it is entitled. I am sensible that I have 
 played a very insignificant, though not a disreputable, part in the game 
 so far ; and this sense comes upon me with the agreeable perception 
 that the fault must somehow or other be my own, and that by this fact 
 alone I am proved to be pretty nearly in the position I ought to hold. 
 
 " I remain, my dear Sir Frederick, 
 
 " With every sentiment of grateful l'egard, 
 
 " Yours most faithfully, 
 
 " J. S. Feaser. 
 
 " P.S. — As I have not your direction, I shall address the envelope of 
 this packet to Mr. Loch. It will have the, /advantage of going free of 
 postage to Madras, and on its arrival in London, cannot but find its 
 way without difficulty to Leadenh; li Street."
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Appointed to officiate as Resident at Hyderabad — Sketch of Hyderabad 
 history — Lord Elphinstone's Announcement — Political and Fanatical 
 Agitation in Southern India — Letter from Lancelot Wilkinson — Letter 
 to Lord Auckland — The Nawab of Kurnool and Mubariz-ood-Dowla. 
 
 In Colonel Fraser's appointment to the post of Officiating Eesident 
 at Hyderabad, coincident with his promotion to the rank of Major- 
 General in 1838, we arrive at the most important scene and the 
 most eventful period of his official career ; and so much of this 
 memoir will be occupied by a full account of his policy towards 
 the Mzam's Principality, and of his efforts for its reform, that a 
 brief sketch of the history of that State and of the reigning 
 family, extracted from one of my previous publications, may ap- 
 propriately, almost necessarily, find a place here, as an explanation 
 of much that follows : — 
 
 " Hyderabad is, for good or evil, the political centre of India, and 
 upon our diplomatic management of that great State must really 
 depend, in great measure, the success and prosperity of the Indian 
 Empire. The story of the Nizams really commences at the period of 
 the death of the Emperor Aurungzebe ; and the rise of a family so pre- 
 eminent in rank and power among the princes of India is well worth 
 tracino-. Nizam is a title, not a name. Family names among Maho- 
 medans are unknown, and those by which living families are known 
 bespeak no relation, and have no reference to any held by 
 predecessors. Hussain son of Abdoollah, for instance, is as intellig-ible 
 as an ordiuary Christian compound, but titles afford in some cases 
 means of distinction, and we find ' Nizam' — part of the original 
 title, Nizam-ool-Moolk or Regulator of the State, — to have been 
 conferred upon an ancestor of the present Nizam by the Emperor 
 Ferokhsir so far back as 1713. Much of this history of native 
 India, immediately preceding our own entry on the scene, is curious 
 and interesting enough ; and the gradual rise of the Nizam, chequered 
 with intermittent conflict at Delhi, and chronic provincial disturbance, 
 would afford ample material for more space than 1 can reasonably seek. 
 The Nizam of the period \fVnvd to found his most formidable rivals 
 at the Court of Delhi in the Syuds of Basha; and his ascendancy 
 there seems to have nearly coincided with their decline. That was
 
 HYDERABAD HISTORY. 33 
 
 indeed a time for a bold leader, a far-seeing diplomatist, to strike out 
 a pathway for himself, and to find, it might be, a kingdom at the end 
 of it. Thus waited and watched the Nizam-ool-Moolk Asof Jah for 
 his crowning opportunity, and revolting in Malwa, under pretext of 
 restoring peace to the disturbed Deccan, contrived to obtain possession 
 of the whole country. This adroitly got converted into a confirmed 
 hereditary right by temporary resumption of his administrative duties 
 at Delhi, whence he finally went to the Deccan, finding the Em- 
 pire untenable under the joint shock of Nadir Shah's invasion 
 and irrepressible internal dissensions. Content, however, with 
 actual sovereignty, he never assumed its title and insignia. The family, 
 indeed, to the last, pi'ofessed subordination to the Court of Delhi ; and 
 the Nizam's successors continued to be formally confirmed by mandates 
 from the Mogul Emperors. The immunity enjoyed by Nizam-ool- 
 Moolk, iu a practical surrender of the Deccan to his rule, appears to 
 have been mainly due to his essential importance, as the only available 
 check to the growing power and harassing incursions of the Mah- 
 rattas — a constant source of distui-bance and alarm to his titular master. 
 
 " The evening of his eventful life, whose span is said to have 
 exceeded a century, was spent by the first Nizam, with singular reten- 
 tion of extraordinary physical and mental faculties, in his so strangely 
 gained Principality, when death closed, in 1748, a career remarkable 
 and prominent in a stirring and productive time. 
 
 " Impartial estimates of his character can hardly begrudge his de- 
 scendants a pride in the founder of their name and renown ; for his 
 politic and tenacious hold of independent power was unstained by 
 treachery or cruelty ; and the later annals of the family are similarly 
 clear of the grosser incidents of conquest. He left them, too, an 
 example of equanimity undaunted in adversity and superior to elation 
 by success. His immediate successor, Nizam Ali Khan, entered upon 
 no undisputed inheritance, and upon far from quiet times. Foremost 
 among formidable competitors for supremacy, and for possession of the 
 Deccan, were the old troublers of Delhi, the Mahrattas. But to enlarge 
 upon their exploits, with the counter-struggles of the Nizam's family, 
 would soon transgress the scope and aim of an unambitious sketch. It 
 is notewoi-thy, however, that this precarious and assailable tenure of 
 a coveted province led, in process of time, more or less directly, to the 
 establishment of French influence at its capital, and to that general 
 ascendancy upon which their leaders, Dupleix and Bussy, had long 
 been bent. So early as 1755 a resolute but abortive effort to arrest 
 and subvert this growing influence, through ajdiversion of English aid 
 to Hyderabad, had been made by Lord Clive, but the final checkmate 
 (disallowed to his urgent advice at home) was reserved for his suc- 
 cessor, Lord Wellesley.
 
 34 HYDERABAD HISTORY. 
 
 "In the meantime the Nizam, French support notwithstanding, was 
 
 -.'(ting- so hard pressed by his inveterate foes, that in 1760 he was com- 
 pelled under treaty (that of Oodgheer) to surrender, in a large slice 
 of his western frontier, a fourth of his revenue, or £620,000 a year. 
 Tins cession, however, was wholly recovered by the Nizam through 
 subsequent alliance with us. Taking advantage of the signal reverse 
 sustained by the Mahrattas at Paniput, the Nizam had retaliated upon 
 Poona, and had exacted from the Peishwas territory valued at £270,000 
 a year, while in 1763 similar vicissitudes of fortune had left neither side 
 stronger or nearer to durable peace. 
 
 " British power, meanwhile, had steadily advanced, mainly through 
 expulsion of the French from the Northern Circars by Lord Clive's 
 vigilant activity, resulting in our acquisition of those provinces, as 
 conferred upon us by the Emperor of Delhi. The Nizam, again defer- 
 ring to French instigation, had essayed to thwai^t us in the Carnatic, 
 with no better result than an abortive campaign, and he was narrowly 
 withheld from attempting recovery of the Circars by an embassy from 
 Madras. This opportune intervention resulted in the first treaty 
 between the two Powers, that of November 12, 1766, which assigned 
 to us the Circars in perpetuity, subject to an annual tribute of five 
 lacs, the contracting parties being bound to mutual military aid. But 
 now was beginning one fierce and protracted struggle with Hyder Ally 
 of Mysore, another dangerous aspirant to independent sovereignty, 
 which ended with the final conquest over Hyder's son and successor, 
 Tippoo Sultan, in 1795, and his death in the storming of Seringapatam. 
 In this conquest the Nizam participated, his troops being commanded 
 by Meer Allum, and half of the conquered territory, after reconsti- 
 tuting the Hindoo State of Mysore, was allotted as the Nizam's 
 share. 
 
 " During the early years of the second Nizam's reign, Scindia and 
 the Bhonsla of Nagpore entered into alliance, and assumed a menacing 
 attitude on the Nizam's frontier. This confederacy General YVellcsley 
 was ordered to counteract ; and, with a view to eventual co-operation 
 with the Subsidiary Force at Secunderabad, under General Stevenson, 
 he advanced towards Poona, where be opened communications with 
 Colonel Collins, our Resident at Scindia's Court. The remonstrances of 
 Collins proving unavailing, he retired from Sciandia's camp on the com- 
 mencement of hostilities. In the north, the battles of Delhi and Laswaree, 
 and those in the Deccan of Assaye and Argauni, were followed by an 
 overture for peace from the allied chiefs. The real aim of Scindia's 
 attack on the Nizam was the recovery of districts, valued at thirty- 
 four lacs, which had been successively wrested from the Mahrattas. 
 The resulting gain to the Nizam was, therefore, a release from this 
 
 serious liability ; and at the close of the campaign lie received the 
 
 i
 
 HYDERABAD HISTORY. 35 
 
 country lying between the Ajuntah bills and the river Grodavery, together 
 with the extensive districts ceded by the Rajah of Nagpore, situated to 
 the westward of the Wurdah river, and sonth of the Sathpoora range 
 of hills, which were added to his dominions. The territory then 
 acquired, including Berar, must now yield not less than £750,000, or 
 seventy-five lacs. 
 
 " Complete reduction of the Mahratta chiefs had now freed the 
 Nizam from all alarm, conferring, too, on the people of the Deccan a 
 tranquillity seldom enjoyed before. After the final subversion, in 1819, 
 of the Mahratta power, and the dethronement of the Peishwa, the 
 British Government abandoned all demands for ' chout', amounting to 
 one-fourth of the Nizam's revenue, ceded to the Mahrattas by the 
 treaty of Oodgheer. Under anything like vigorous administration 
 during the long tenure of Chundoo Lall, the then Minister afc Hydera- 
 bad, the State might soon have recovered from the effects of incessant 
 warfare and vicissitude. The Nizam, Secunder Jab, was but ill-advised. 
 
 " The new Nizam virtually secluded himself from affairs of State, 
 and so made the position of his first Minister, our old friend Meer 
 Allum, most onerous and embarrassing. For many years this upright 
 and able man was mainly instrumental in preserving amicable 
 relations between the two Powers. To our interest he was always well 
 inclined, remaining throughout the* steady friend of England, and 
 loyally attached to the Nizam. But, unfortunately, he was not long 
 spared to discharge the duties of his exalted post. At his death it was 
 conferred upon Mooneer-ool-Moolk, but only as a dignity, Rajah 
 Chundoo Lall remaining in possession of all executive power, and on 
 the death of Mooneer he became Prime Minister. The irresponsible 
 power now established was speedily and injuriously manifest. Sek- 
 under Jah appears to have wholly abandoned the conduct of affairs, 
 and to have surrendered the country to the management of a Minister 
 who entirely neglected the trust. Of Chundoo Lall, however, it is to 
 be noted that to a certain period none had more clearly recognised the 
 importance and advantage of the English alliance, or more consistently 
 and sedulously laboured to maintain it ; but otherwise reckless, he 
 so yielded to the temptations of a virtually irresponsible position that 
 serious embarrassments began to oppress the State. 
 
 " After the settlement which Tin 1822) followed the final Mahratta 
 war, and by which we abandoned all vexatious demands in respect of 
 that country, an attempt was made to improve the Nizam's internal 
 administration by introducing English supervision. Sir Charles (after- 
 wards Lord) Metcalfe was now Resident at IVderabad. This eminent 
 public servant and future statesman was one of that gallant band of 
 merejads who worked under the immediate superintendence of Lord 
 Wellesley, writing to his dictation ; and who, before he was yet twenty, 
 
 * D 2
 
 36 HYDERABAD HISTORY. 
 
 had resigned his appointment at the Court of Scindia, on account of 
 a difference of opinion with Colonel Collins, an esteemed friend of his 
 own father*. In him the civilian garb covered a 'full soldier', as good 
 and daring as ever discipline turned out. So clad, he mounted the 
 breach at Bhurtpore, and met, with unruffled mien, the onslaught of 
 the Rohilla chief Ameer Khan, who, besmeared with gunpowder, 
 vainly reckoned upon intimidating the young diplomatist. At the still 
 early age of twenty-three he was entrusted with a mission to the 
 Coui't of Runjeet Singh, to counteract the suspected design of Napoleon 
 and the Russian Autocrat after their memorable conference at Tilsit, 
 where, it is now known, they arranged for co-operation in the East. 
 It was he, too, finally, who, with his handful of sepoys, engaged the 
 fanatics of Umritsur. Transferred to political or administrative action, 
 Sir Charles now devised, in conjunction with Chundoo Lall, a scheme 
 for settlement of the land revenue through the agency of English 
 officers, so as to secure a levy of equitable incidence, and sufficiently 
 permanent to increase the revenue of the State, by extending cultiva- 
 tion and stimulating production. The measure was immediately and 
 largely beneficial. The Minister, however, began to chafe at the 
 bonds in which, as he alleged, the English supervision held him ; and 
 there can be no doubt that when its primary purpose — increase of 
 revenue and revival of confidence— had been attained, he grew anxious 
 to be rid of it. ' There is not room' (according to a Hindoo proverb 
 which he quoted to Sir Charles Metcalfe) 'for two swords in one 
 scabbard', and he set himself to demonstrate and realise the truism. 
 It was, of course, impossible for the Resident to remain neutral or 
 passive when differences arose between the district executive and his 
 own superintendents ; and consequent discussions too often drifted 
 into acrimony. Supervision specifically arranged for particular ends 
 and junctures was not likely, under divided administration, to be lasting 
 and generally applicable ; and ultimately, at the death of Secunder 
 Jah, and on the accession of his son Nasir-oocl-Dowlah, in 1829, the 
 first step of the new Government was to request the immediate 
 removal of all the English officers engaged in the administration of 
 districts. This was promptly complied with, but not without a stipula- 
 tion that whenever the terms of settlement remained unexpired the 
 district superintendents should remain to see them fulfilled. 
 
 " Lord William Bentinck, as Governor-General, was actuated by a 
 policy of non-interference; but the independence produced no good, 
 and the system so failed that by the end of 1835, after repeated 
 warnings, the Court of LYrectors were impelled to an emphatic remon- 
 strance which plainly threatened to recommend a change of Ministers 
 at Hyderabad. The Nizam and his advisers were, at last, thoroughly 
 alarmed into trying the expedient of a Commission of native officers to
 
 LORD ELPHINSTONE. 37 
 
 rectify provincial abuses. This makeshift proved, as miglit have been 
 expected, an utter and disastrous failure ; and evils already patent 
 became more and more flagrant." 
 
 General Eraser went to the Hyderabad Residency just at this 
 crisis, in succession to Colonel Stewart, and the appointment was 
 notified to him at Trevandrum, the capital of Travancore, in a 
 private letter from the Governor of Madras : — 
 
 " Madras, July 21st, 1838. 
 
 "Dear Sir, — In forwarding the enclosed letter from Lord Auckland 
 to your address, I beg to be allowed to express my gratification at the 
 intelligence which it conveys, and which, I trust, will be acceptable to 
 you as a proof of the Governor-General's appreciation of your services, 
 and not materially inconvenient to you on private grounds. I am not 
 without hope that it may afford me the opportunity of making your 
 personal acquaintance, as you will probably pass through Madras on 
 your way to Hyderabad. If so, and that you have no better engage- 
 ment, I shall be happy if you will consider this house as an inn, and 
 take up your residence in it during your stay in this place. In the 
 meantime, I beg to offer nry services, if I can be of any use in further- 
 ing your arrangements. 
 
 " Believe me, etc., 
 
 " Elphinstone." 
 
 The invitation was more warmly renewed in the following reply 
 to a letter from the General : — 
 
 " Madras, August 2nd, 1838. 
 
 " Dear Sir, — I am honoured with your letter of the 27th ulto., and 
 am very happy at the prospect which it gives rne of your being able to 
 stay a few days with me at Madras. Should Mrs. Fraser accompany 
 you, I hope that she will not be deterred, by any apprehension of 
 crowding the house or of occasioning any inconvenience, from bringing 
 with her all her family and servants. I have plenty of room for all, 
 and should be very sorry indeed if, from any such scruples, she were to 
 decline her share of my invitation, which was, of course, intended to 
 include every member of your family." 
 
 The personal accpuaintance formed in the hospitalities of Govern- 
 ment House at Madras was kept up for several years by a very 
 frecpient correspondence between JLord Elphinstone and General 
 Eraser, not only on the more pressing and confidential topics of 
 public business, but on the more congenial subjects of French 
 literature and general history which int'iested them both. 
 
 When General Fraser assumed his new duties at Hyderabad, the 
 •air was thick with rumours of Wahabee conspiracy and of general
 
 38 LETTEK PROM I'.HOPAL. 
 
 disaffection in many provinces of India, in which one of 
 the Nizam's brothers, Mobariz-ood-dowla, was deeply implicated 3 
 in concert with one of our petty chieftains, the Xawab of Kurnool, 
 whose territory was on the southern frontier of the Nizam's 
 dominions, and who had originally been one of the Nizam's 
 feudatories. 
 
 The best explanation and apology for the Russophobia of 1838, 
 which led to Lord Auckland's memorable proclamation of October 
 the 1st, to the march on Cabul, and the substitution of Shah 
 Soojah for Dost Mohammed as ruler of Afghanistan, is to be found 
 in the spirit of unrest that unquestionably prevailed at that time 
 throughout India, more especially among the Mohammedans, 
 characterised by a prevalent belief that the Russians were coming. 
 and manifesting itself by many conspiracies, and by several inci- 
 pient outbreaks that were only baffled by vigilance and prompt 
 repression. A private letter from Captain Lancelot Wilkinson 
 (afterwards Colonel and Eesident at Nagpore), then Political 
 Agent in the Mussulman State of Bhopal, which Colonel Fraser 
 received soon after his arrival at Hyderabad, will give a better 
 notion of the thoughts that then, filled men's minds than can be 
 gathered from the official despatches of the same period. 
 
 " Sehore, Bhopal, 28th September 1638. 
 
 ''My dear Sir, — I haye the pleasure of enclosing copies of petitions 
 from my newswriter at Bhopal, reporting that an emissary of the 
 Shah of Iran 1 or Russia had made his appearance there, and gone off 
 suddenly, after hinting that he was charged with letters to several 
 Princes of Hindustan. I and all my neighbours made instant in- 
 quiries and pursuit after him, but without any success. I therefore 
 send these papers on to you, as he may have bent his steps towards 
 Hyderabad. Colonel Sutherland told me that he had learned that 
 three or four emissaries of Russia or Persia were now moving about 
 the Bombay Presidency; and that some had Russian passports with 
 them, and had come from Tiflis. You will have heard of Scindia's 
 handing over to Sutherland a letter addressed to him by the Nepaul 
 Rajah, who is said to have sent like missions and emissaries to most of 
 the Indian Chiefs. He is said to have altered his tone when he heard 
 of the new and more strict alliance into which we have entered with 
 Runjeet Singh. . 
 
 " The activity and intrigiie of Russia are surprising. The Russians 
 conduct themselves in a very different way from what we do. Conscious- 
 
 1 Persia. 
 
 4
 
 UNFA1E TAKIFF. 39 
 
 of rectitude, we seem to care nothing whether our policy and mode of 
 proceeding ai'e thought well of by the people or not. The Russians 
 accommodate themselves to all circumstances. — seek to conciliate all 
 the various tribes and nations they wish to bring into subjection. They 
 are all things to all men. Their want of money sharpens their intellect, 
 and makes them rely on clever negotiations more exclusively. We 
 neither study what will be popular and agreeable to the people, nor 
 geek to conciliate them. Some of us, carrying the Anglo-mania to 
 an extreme, would make them all learn English, and expect unheard-of 
 things from this charm. In the meantime we are only adding to the 
 general disgust of our rule. We have set loose most intriguing and 
 talented men among the Faithful against us, by stripping them of 
 their rent-free lands. If they have no right to the lands, let us resume 
 them, but let us grant three-quarters or a half of them to the cleverest 
 and most learned Mussulman doctors of the present day, and not only 
 stop their mouths but raise up a body favourably inclined to us. 
 
 " One of the most disastrous things in our treatment of this country 
 is the gross partiality shown by England to herself by the tariffs of 
 England and India. England insists that we receive all her rnanu- 
 factures and goods either free of duty or with only a nominal duty, 
 while she imposes ad valorem duty, ranging from 30 to 50 per cent., on 
 all our manufactured goods. What, is the consequence ? Chintzes 
 and coloured cottons and Manchester long cloth, cotton thread, and 
 the like, are selling, not only at Madras, Bombay and Calcutta, but 
 even at Delhi and in Central India, cheaper than the produce of the 
 Native looms, and than the thread of the Natives' own spinning. 
 Consumers are little benefited, for they all unite in crying out against 
 the want of durability of our English cloths and cottons. But all 
 our large manufacturing towns here are involved in ruin and decay. 
 The weavers are reduced to beggary. Spinning was formerly a source 
 of subsistence to thousands, or rather to hundreds of thousands of 
 poor respectable females. Now we have robbed them of their daily 
 bread, and of their means of contributing to the support of their 
 families, by inundating the country with our cotton twists. Every 
 friend of India should unite to get this growing evil removed. If the 
 Spitalfields weavers lose their employment for a week, all England is 
 made to re-echo their groans. Queens wear home-made silk aprons 
 that weavers may dine; and Duchesses put on cotton stockings that 
 Glasgow may grow fat. But we and olr ladies, who are the lords and 
 peeresses of this land, have no such sympathy for our starving 
 millions. Our rich men have been known to boast that their soup was 
 English, their salmon English, their carrots English, and their dessert 
 English. Our dress is all English. In short, we in no way supply the 
 place of the princes and nobles whose seats we occupy, nor do we seem 
 
 ft
 
 40 ■' our" dewan. 
 
 to wish to Jo so. If we alter not our policy, we may come to regret 
 our want of foresight. 
 
 " Believe me, my dear Sir, 
 
 li Yours sincerely, 
 
 " Lancelot Wilkinson. 
 
 "P.S. — I sent a couple of copies of a Telugu work on geography 
 and astronomy to my friend, your late predecessor, Major Cameron, 
 shortly before his death. He promised to let me know what some of 
 the best astronomer Joshees of the place thought of it. I should be 
 greatly obliged to you if you could get the written opinions of the 
 individuals consulted on the work. It is a most admirable book, 
 written by one of my Shastrees, who calls it the Sheromani Prukash. 
 It is a comparison of the Pooranik, Siddhantic and Copernican systems 
 of the world." 
 
 Whatever may be thought of Captain Wilkinson's opinions 
 regarding Russian diplomacy, his letter is interesting as a dis- 
 closure of the current views of 1838; and whether his Political 
 Economy be sound or not, his lamentations over the decay of 
 Indian manufactures and the apparent exclusiveness and selfish- 
 ness of English measures and English manners, may remind us of 
 certain results of our administration as they struck the Natives in 
 his day, and as they continue to strike them, in some respects with 
 greater force, at the present moment. 
 
 General Fraser thus commenced his duties as Ptesident at a period 
 that made a great call on his judgment and energy, both on account 
 of the unsettled and fanatical temper of large classes throughout 
 India, and of the disorder and embarrassment in Hyderabad affairs, 
 especially with regard to the finances of the State. 
 
 With an interval of less than five years — from December 1820 
 to August 1825 — filled up by Charles Metcalfe's persistent attack, 
 in spite of the displeasure of Lord Hastings, on the rainier and 
 Eumbold combination, the policy of the Residents at Hyderabad 
 for more than thirty years, down to the date of Colonel Eraser's 
 appointment, seems to have been confined to the unflinching sup- 
 port of the Minister, Rajah Chundoo Lull, against all his rivals, 
 and even against his own sovereign. Metcalfe had succeeded 
 before his departure, as already stated, in instituting certain 
 administrative reformsAand in placing them under the only pos- 
 sible safeguard, the superintendence of English officers; but in 
 1829, on the accession of the Nizam Nasir-ood-dowla, the Eng-
 
 LETTER TO LOUD AUCKLAND. 41 
 
 lish officers were withdrawn, and the unchecked authority of 
 Chundoo Lall reinstated. Immediately before General Fraser's 
 appointment, his predecessor, Colonel Stewart, after making a tour 
 of inspection through the Nizam's dominions, had sent in a report 
 to the Government of India, in which he expressed the opinion 
 that only one thing was wanted to give us the power of reforming 
 the administration, and that was the formal assurance of His 
 Highness the Nizam that he would abstain from any interference 
 in public affairs. Were an assurance of this nature formally given 
 it would lie "most beneficial", according to Colonel Stewart, " by 
 inducing the Minister to look solely to the Resident for support". 
 
 What were the views formed by General Fraser when he had 
 occupied the first few months of his incumbency in studying the 
 situation and outlook of affairs, will be seen from the following 
 private letter addressed by him to the Governor-General, 
 Lord Auckland : — 
 
 " Hyderabad, April 6th, 1639. 
 
 " My Lord, — It would have been as well that I had done myself the 
 honour of writing to your Lordship at an earlier period after taking 
 charge of this Residency ; for my deferring to do so has been produc- 
 tive of but little advantage, nor have I much more information to offer 
 now in regard to the state of the Nizam's dominions than I possessed 
 within a month after my arrival here. It would be the same case were 
 I here for years, under the present constitution of affairs, and of our 
 relations with this Durbar. 
 
 " I concluded, as a matter of course, that men of family and distinc- 
 tion from the city would find the means of introducing themselves to 
 me, and that, from their conversation and remarks, I should be enabled 
 to derive such information, not only of the country in general, bat, to 
 -a certain degree, of the character and views of the Nizam, and of the 
 leading nobles of the State, as might be worthy of being communicated 
 to your Lordship. But in this expectation I have been entirely disap- 
 pointed, and I have remained in the same isolated state as at first, and 
 in which I imagine that most, if not all, of my predecessors have been 
 purposely kept. From a jealousy on the part of the Minister, in which 
 he lias apparently induced the Nizam to participate, scarcely any person 
 above the rank of a merchant or soucar, or, at most, some native 
 gentleman who happens to be entirely unconnected with the Govern- 
 ment, is ever permitted to come near me. It is well known that I 
 should have been happy to receive the visits of any respectable person ; 
 and there can, I think, be no doubt that the noblemen and gentlemen 
 of the city would have been glad to avail themselves of the privilege
 
 42 LETTER TO 
 
 of frequenting the Residency. But this was forbidden, or tacitly 
 prevented; and Shnms-ool-Oomra, Mnbariz-ood-Dowla, Sooraj-ood- 
 Dowla, 1 and others, men of rank and eminence, remain as entirely 
 strangers to me, and I to them, as if I had never come to this part of 
 India. There is nothing new in all this. The same practice lias pre- 
 vailed here for many years; and the persons I allude to are not only 
 debarred access to the Resident, but are, generally speaking, prevented 
 from having intercourse with each other. This system is so thoroughly 
 understood and (by what means soever) rigidly maintained, that no 
 person presumes to come to the Residency who has not an express or 
 implied permission to that effect from the Minister. 
 
 " I might, perhaps, have been able to break through this barrier ; 
 but, in cluing so, I should have altogether changed the terms subsisting 
 between the Minister and the Resident, and probably, on the whole, 
 less good than evil would have been the result. I determined, therefore, 
 on allowing matters to remain, for the present, in this respect, as I 
 found them ; and I so far took advantage of circumstances as to apply 
 direct to the Minister for information on several points, which the very 
 s!:ate of the case I have just described enabled me to do in a manner 
 not likely to excite his suspicion of any intention on my part to exercise 
 any interference in the administration of affairs — in terms, on the 
 contrary, which should indicate, a friendly and exclusive confidence 
 in him. 
 
 " So far as I can judge from the very little I have yet seen of the 
 Nizam's dominions, or heard of them from the English officers who 
 have had any opportunity and capacity of observation, the country is 
 by no means in so very bad a condition as I had previously supposed, 
 and as is generally imagined throughout India. Yet, if the word 
 ' anomalous' was ever applicable to the Government of a country, it 
 is so here. There seems to be no fixed or intelligible system for the 
 management of the Revenue, and protection of the ryots from the 
 inordinate demands of rapacious Talookdars. There is none, or none 
 generally observable, for the administration of justice. The Nizam's 
 military force (exclusive of that portion of it which is under our con- 
 trol), is for the most part, little better than a lawless and useless 
 rabble. The Arabs, of whom there arc (by the latest account) 3,860 in 
 the whole country — 1,600 of them in the city — are a turbulent race, 
 acknowledging no jurisdiction whatever, but such as they choose to 
 establish and recognise among* themselves. Yet, excepting that they 
 bear a bad character, and might give us some trouble if ever we had 
 occasion to take military possession of the city, or any part of it, and 
 
 1 Afterwards entitled Sooraj-ool-Moolk, and Minister of the Hyderabad 
 State.
 
 LORD AUCKLAND. 43 
 
 were to be resisted by these men, I have no reason to complain of them, 
 and have heard but very little against them, since I came here. 
 
 " It may appear remarkable that under the circumstances I have 
 described, the government of the country should have been maintained 
 at all, and that the whole machinery of the State had not been destroyed, 
 or its movement stopped, many years ago. This may, in some measure, 
 be attributed to the Minister's personal character — the mild and 
 clement disposition which prevents him from ever committing a harsh 
 or cruel act, his generosity and lavish, disbursement of money, which 
 secure him many friends and partisans ; and the skill with which he 
 has always managed parties at Hyderabad, so far concentrating the 
 whole power in his own hands as not to have had, for many years, a 
 rival or antagonist to disturb the course of his administration, or to 
 impair or call in qiiestion the autocracy (in the most absolute sense of 
 the word) which he has created for himself. But the general tranquil- 
 lity of the country, and absence of any serious disturbance, are, no 
 doubt, principally to be ascribed to our support, to the presence of our 
 troops, and to the close connection and friendship known to have 
 always subsisted between the British Government and the Minister. 
 Yet all this but accounts for the protracted existence of the Nizam's 
 Government, which may still consist with much wretchedness and 
 degradation. > 
 
 " Different views are entertained by different persons of the real 
 condition of the country ; but I imagine there can be little doubt that 
 it has been in a state of progressive deterioration for some years, and 
 that the crisis so long and often foretold by successive Residents must 
 at length arrive. At what particular period, I cannot say ; but, I think. 
 not while Chundoo Lall lives, and retains his wonted faculties. Upon 
 his death I should not apprehend any fatal or destructive crisis ; but 
 I fear that some confusion and embarrassment might arise, especially 
 in regard to the financial condition of the State, unless means be 
 previously taken to avoid the danger. 
 
 " Before I consider the question more particularly, I may be per- 
 mitted for a moment to touch upon the extent to which, our own 
 immediate interference in the Government would be useful or justi- 
 fiable. I think that a mixed or conjoint administration would be of 
 little or no use, and that it might even be injurious rather than other- 
 wise. 
 
 " The charaeter, the views, moral feeling, and mode of conduct of 
 a European and Native are so different, and, in general, so diametri- 
 cally opposite, that I conceive they cannot, where vested with co- 
 extensive and equal powers, or, a fortiori, where the Native is in 
 possession of superior authority, amalgamate or coalesce to any good 
 purpose. It is an attempt to mingle discordant elements, between
 
 44 LETTER TO 
 
 which there exists an irresistible principle of repulsion. If I were 
 permitted, or enjoined, by the British Government to establish a con- 
 nection with Chundoo Lall which should seem a very close and intimate 
 one, and to avail myself of this coalition to offer him my suggestions 
 and advice, nothing would be easier to me, and, to outward appearance, 
 nothing would be more agreeable to him. He would professedly regard 
 my advances as a proof of friendship, and he would pi-omise implicit 
 submission to my counsels and direction. But no useful result would 
 ensue. Comprehending neither my intentions nor the ends at which I 
 aimed, and having different objects of his own to fulfil, he would 
 counteract while he professed to second me. His designs and political 
 aims are restricted to the present or immediately coming day ; and 
 plans for future years enter not into his contemplation. He would not 
 understand me, and would never, therefore, cordially receive me as an 
 adviser or coadjutor. The execution of the measures I recommended, 
 even if they were approved, not depending upon myself, but upon one 
 who never at any time possessed much energy, and who cannot be 
 supposed to have acquired additional strength of mind when he has 
 arrived at the extreme verge of existence, would never be realised. I 
 should share his responsibility for the distracted state of the country, 
 and for the existence of all those evils which I could not amend ; and 
 I should become — with very .little chance, I fear, of doing good — a 
 participator in the shame and disgrace which attach to a weak and ill- 
 organised Government. But these may be considered rather negative 
 evils than otherwise : there might be positive ones. My interference 
 would impair the power of the Minister. It is, on certain occasions, 
 and in some parts of the country, but feebly and imperfectly acknow- 
 ledged, even at present. If the hand of the Resident were seen — 
 which it has not been, since I came here — complainants and malcontents 
 would address themselves to me. The extant standing order of the 
 Government, that ' it is unnecessary to bring petitions to the Residency, 
 since there are regular Courts of Justice to receive them in the city', 
 would cease to influence the people; parties and intrigues would be 
 formed on my side; and the Government I attempted to aid — concen- 
 trated, such as it is, in the person of Chundoo Lall — would, there is 
 reason to believe, be essentially impaired in strength, in consequence of 
 its being regarded by the country as divided. 
 
 " The application of a partial remedy, then, I regard as promising 
 no advantage. Nothing short of an actual assumption of the govern- 
 ment of the country would, in my opinion, be an adequate remedy for 
 the evils that prevail. , All requires to be reconstituted, and the whole 
 frame of government remodelled. The system of revenue is wretched, 
 and demands reorganisation. The administration of justice — more 
 defective than even the revenue branch — has to be provided for: a
 
 LORD AUCKLAND. 45 
 
 police has to be organised ; thousands of useless soldiers should be 
 disbanded, and a small, but effective, force substituted ; means of 
 education should be supplied, commerce protected aud encouraged, and 
 the resources of the country — with respect to which the most perfect 
 ignorance prevails — should be made the subject of inquiry and 
 research. 
 
 " But is such an assumption of the government as this would imply — 
 or our bringing forward any proposition to this effect — justifiable, or 
 in any way warranted, by the circumstances of the case ? I apprehend 
 not. We have no treaty with the Nizam which provides (as do the 
 Mysore, Travancore, and other treaties) for our taking the country 
 ii.to our own hands under any circumstances, and for even a temporary 
 period. We are, of course, powerful enough to insist upon the 
 measure, and to enforce it. But be the meaning of the word Supre- 
 macy, and the sense in which it is now frequently used in reference to 
 our government, what it may, of course it will never be made to imply 
 a departure from the laws of honour and good faith. If the Nizam 
 could be induced to spontaneously resign to us the management of his 
 country until its financial embarrassments were removed, and a just 
 and rational system of general administration were established, the 
 end desired would be obtained, and the restoration of the country to 
 him might be attended with such a stipulation for the subsequent 
 admission of the counsels and eventual agency of the British Govern- 
 ment as should effectually preclude any risk of its falling, a second 
 time, into the same state of embarrassment as at present. But 
 the Nizam would never agree to this temporary resignation of the 
 management of his country to us ; or, at least, this is so highly im- 
 probable that it would be but a loss of time to contemplate such a 
 contingency and its consequences. 
 
 " Our partial interference in the administration presenting little or 
 no advantage, and entire assumption of it appearing to be impracticable, 
 what remains to be done ? Are we to continue satisfied with the present 
 state of things — content to see so large and fair a portion of India 
 (the dominion of a Prince with whom we are on terms of the closest 
 alliance), if not actually a prey to anarchy and disorder, as generally 
 supposed, yet certainly not in the condition wherein we should wish to 
 see it placed, and in which, if the predominance of our power and a 
 consequent right of interference are to be regarded as grounds of 
 reasoning for the settlement of the question, it becomes our duty to see 
 it placed ? Are we patiently to look on, and await in silence, those 
 events which, under the circumstances of the case, must, almost neces- 
 sarily, lead to increased embarrassment and ultimate confusion, forcing 
 us, in all probability, at some future period, to interfere, as the law of 
 nations would authorise our doing in any part of the world, and, in
 
 46 LETTER TO 
 
 reference even to the most independent States, for the security of our 
 own dominions ? 
 
 "Regarding this as a private letter, and venturing to assume thai 
 your Lordship allows me to address you with the same freedom and 
 absence of reserve which might be permitted in conversation, I find it 
 difficult to abstain from adverting here to the subject on which I recently 
 addressed a public letter to the Supreme Government, as well as to 
 that of Fort St. George, connected with a supposed disaffection to our 
 Govei'nment on the part of the Natives of India, and certain machina- 
 tions now in progress, especially among the Mohammedans, to form a 
 party in our Native Army, and to plan some confederacy, or scheme of 
 hostility against us. 
 
 " I certainly cannot bring myself to think that we possess the affec- 
 tion of either Mohammedans or Hindoos ; and I apprehend that Ave shall 
 commit the most hazardous mistakes, if we found on the opposite sup- 
 position any general system of procedure for the maintenance or 
 extension of our power. It does not seem to me to be surprising, and 
 I am not aware of its arguing any particular fault on our part, that we 
 are not regarded by the Natives with the same feeling as formerly. It 
 appears natural enough that this should be the case ; and it may be 
 sufficient to remark — without entering into any lengthened train of 
 reasoning on the subject — that the dazzling illusion of our early 
 victories has passed away, or, at least, that this cause has ceased to 
 maintain, as it once did, a continued ascendancy over the native mind ; 
 and that the effect of that sudden relief from tyranny and oppression, 
 and from insecurity of person and property, which was the necessary 
 attendant of our first conquests, has become blunted, if not effaced, by 
 remoteness of time, and by removal of the generation which directly 
 profited by those events, and had an immediate and personal interest in 
 them ; while calculation and reality have taken the place of enthusiasm 
 and hope, and Religion — either genuine, or assumed for political 
 purposes — comes in aid of Ambition, to reclaim the rights and splendour 
 of condition which both have lost. 
 
 " In so far as our Empire was one of opinion (which I believe it was, 
 to a very considerable degree) we have ourselves contributed to sap the 
 foundation on which it rested. The Natives know, as well as we, and 
 are able to appreciate our relative political positions. We have unhinged 
 their religion and undermined their superstitions, for which deism and 
 free-thinking have become the substitutes. The Native mind is in a 
 restless and transition state ; and the consequences of all this are 
 sufficiently obvious, uwless physical power, or other powers which 
 wisdom may devise, be brought to supply the place of that superior 
 moral influence we once 'possessed and the implicit obedience we once 
 commanded. 
 
 <
 
 LORD AUCKLAND. 47 
 
 "But this is not all. The power that the Natives of India most 
 required, and in the absence of which a considerable portion of our 
 security consisted, was that of effecting a union among themselves— of 
 imparting common views, of simultaneously influencing the masses, 
 and of exciting and directing their attentior to a specific and definite 
 object. With this advantage we have furnished them ; and if treason- 
 able, or — as they will consider them — religious and patriotic songs and 
 poems, artfully composed, and directly addressed to the strongest 
 passions, obtain, as we have every reason to believe they are now doing, 
 circulation among our Sepoys, we have the example of every nation on 
 the face of the earth, ancient and modern, for the effect they must 
 produce and the excitement they will inspire. 
 
 " The tenets of Wahabeeism are making rapid progress in India, 
 and have found their way, to a considerable extent, among our troops. 
 The Wahabees are actuated by a dangerous principle which they 
 carry farther, perhaps, than the Mussulmans have ever done, 
 namely that it is a meritorious act and enjoined duty to destroy 
 all who are not of their own sect, and who reject their tenets. 
 Ambitious and discontented chiefs may thus handle religious fanaticism 
 in furtherance of treasonous political ends. It is impossible to say 
 how far the two are at present in conjunction, or to estimate the 
 degree in which religious and political feelings are united, 
 or may still be distinct from each other. If the flame ever break 
 forth, it may prove wide and spreading, and difficult to control. 
 The danger, I think, ought not to be despised ; and it will probably be 
 deemed right that the progress of this formidable movement should be 
 attentively watched. I am doing so, as far as I can dare; and, no 
 suspicions having yet arisen that I am aware of what is going on, or 
 engaged in inquiry, I am in hope that in the course of a few days I 
 shall have further information to give to the Supreme Government on 
 this subject. 
 
 " I expect to obtain the perusal of letters — and to be able to take 
 copies of them — which have been addressed to Mubariz-ood-dowla by 
 one of the Ameers of Scinde, by a Beloochee Chief, and by the son of 
 Ameer Khan, the chief of Tonk. 
 
 " That any immediate enterprise will now be undertaken, or any ex- 
 traordinary event occur, does not appear to be likely. The eyes of the 
 South of India are attentively fixed on our proceedings in the North- 
 West ; and our success there has been a blow that has, I believe, 
 destroyed, for the present, all their schemes. My hesitation in propos- 
 ing any new system of management for the Nizam's dominions, or any 
 essential change in the mode of its existing administration, has arisen 
 from grave doubt whether it is practicable to submit any reasonable 
 proposal for your Lordship's consideration at this moment, or unless I
 
 48 LETTER TO 
 
 had a clearer discernment of the ground on which it is deemed likely 
 or desirable that we should stand hereafter. 
 
 " If jour Lordship command me to say whether any immediate 
 suggestions have occurred to me, in reference to the Nizam's dominions, 
 the adoption of which might seem to be desirable, I am constrained 
 to reply that, as long as Chundoo Lall lives, I apprehend little or 
 nothing can be done. He is very old (between 77 and 78) ; and, in all 
 human probability, the grave cannot be far removed from him. He 
 has played the game of government long and skilfully — a word which 
 I use rather than ably ; for I cannot ascribe to him genuine capacity, 
 nor, still less, great talent. We have been the tools in his hand. Adroitly 
 opposing the Nizam to us, or us, at other times, to his sovereign, as 
 might suit the aim and object of the moment — keeping both parties in 
 a state of estrangement from each other, and aided by other means 
 alluded to at the opening of this letter, he has contrived to keep the 
 Government — or, rather, the dictatorship — of the country in his hands 
 for thirty years. Still, whatever his motives may have been, and how 
 far soever actuated by self-interest and determination to uphold his own 
 authority, he has been, truly and essentially, our friend. Were he any 
 other man in the world than what he is, or were his mortal career 
 less far advanced towards the period of its termination, the wdiole 
 existing system of administration could be remodelled; and if this 
 were rendered impracticable by ignorance or perverse opposition, we 
 might justly feel ourselves called upon to advise the Nizam to 
 consult the honour and welfare of his country by the election of 
 another Dewan. ' 
 
 " The extreme age of Chundoo Lall, his infirmities, his gentleness (or 
 I might, perhaps, more correctly call it, feebleness) of character, his 
 apparent (and, I believe, avowed) anxiety to be allowed to sink towards 
 his final rest in peace and repose — all indicate the futility of our look- 
 ing to him for any measures requiring energy and activity, or for even 
 departure from established usage. We might as well pronounce his 
 death-warrant as make the attempt. Any discussion between myself 
 and the Minister which indicated displeasure on my part, or alienation, 
 or withdrawal of support, would probably be followed by the Nizam 
 casting him off; for he completely identifies Chundoo Lall with the 
 British Government, as did his father, Secunder Jah. Parties would 
 be formed against him which are now kept down only by the counte- 
 nance he receives from us ; and it is possible that not only his political 
 career, but his life, might be brought to a sudden close. I do not think 
 he would survive his degradation and loss of office, even if he escaped 
 the poison or dagger of a foe. We have been pursuing here the same 
 course as at present for thirty or forty years, with slight variations 
 not worth describing, which have produced no material consequences ; 
 <
 
 LORD AUCKLAND. 49 
 
 and any extensive change in the Nizam's Government will be found 
 impracticable until Heaven shall have taken this aged being to its 
 mercy. 
 
 " If we but wish the country to remain quiet — which, after all, is 
 something in these disturbed and menacing times — I think this object 
 is secure as long as Chundoo Lall lives, provided that the British 
 Resident be known to remain on friendly terms with him. 
 
 " But his death may cause embarrassment, which it will be desirable 
 that we should, if possible, guard against by adopting some precaution. 
 The debts of the State to soucars will, almost certainly, be productive 
 of financial difficulties ; but if any actual disturbance should occur on that 
 occasion, it will probably arise from the claims of the Nizam's troops, 
 Arabs, battalions of the line, horsemen, and others, for payment of their 
 arrears. This danger might, I imagine, best be obviated by our know- 
 ing who the Minister's successor was to be, and by our having pre- 
 viously concerted measures with that personage to meet the eventual 
 difficulty and demand. But no one knows, or can give any probable 
 indication, who is to be the successor. This appointment to the 
 office of Dewan is left by the British Government to the Nizam; and 
 he has never declared, nor ever — as far as I can learn — hinted, 
 what his intentions are in this respect, if, indeed, he have yet formed 
 any. 
 
 " The Minister and his friends think, and profess to be almost 
 assured, that his son Bala Pershad will succeed ; but I cannot learn 
 that the Nizam has ever said anything to warrant such an expectation. 
 Bala Pershad, I believe, is not deficient in ability ; but he is said to be 
 rapacious in the extreme, and to have accumulated very large treasure. 
 He is so far associated with his father in the transaction of public 
 business that he has abundant opportunities of gratifying his ruling 
 passion by extortion of Nuzuranahs and bribes. The father himself is 
 understood to possess nothing ; yet it is but a small share of merit that 
 can be ascribed to him on this account, if he has knowingly permitted 
 his son to be guilty of the vice he has himself avoided. 
 
 " For some time after I came to Hyderabad, besides Bala Pershad, a 
 person named Gholam Hyder Khan, with the title of Iktidar Jung — a 
 servant of the Nizam, who remains always near his master's person — 
 was sometimes mentioned as not unlikely to be nominated to the 
 Dewan. I never saw the man ; and I know no one who is acquainted 
 with him. He bears, I understand, a tolerably respectable character ; 
 and I have heard nothing particular said against him. 
 
 " Some attention has lately been directed to Sooraj-ood-dowla, the 
 son of Mooneer-ood-Moolk, the former Dewjtn. He is about thirty 
 years of age, and is said to be a man of considerable ability. Him, too, 
 I never saw, nor have I had any communication with him. I believe 
 
 E
 
 50 LETTER TO 
 
 the principal reason for it being supposed that he has a chance of the- 
 appointment is that the Nizam has been a little more attentive to him, 
 of late, than usual, and has received him at the Durbar, on one or two 
 recent occasions, with an observable degree of courtesy. But, in 
 reality, the question of the succession to this office is, so far as I can 
 learn, absolutely undecided ; and I meet no one who seems to possess 
 trustworthy information on the subject. 
 
 " Besides those I have mentioned,- the only other person here from 
 whose character and station it might seem not impossible that the 
 Nizam should select him for the office of Minister, is Shums-ool-Oomi'ah, 
 though I have never heard his name mentioned in this view. He is 
 spoken of as a respectable man. He is, I think, between 50 and 
 60, and, from his office of Commander of the Pagah, 1 may be con- 
 sidered as next in rank and consequence to the members of the 
 Nizam's family. 
 
 " I have never seen Shums-ool-Oomrah, and it may give your Lord- 
 ship a sufficient idea of the thraldom in which the Nobles of this 
 country are kept by the Minister, to mention that even this personage, 
 high in rank as he is, was afraid to have it known that he once sent me 
 a few elementary school-books in Hindostanee and Persian, which were 
 printed by him, a year or two ago. Hearing that he is a literary man, 
 acquainted with certain branches of mathematical science, I one day 
 sent him, through his physician, Dr. Vertue, two or three Persian 
 school-books on Astronomy and Geography, which I happened to have 
 by me, and which I thought he might be pleased to examine and to 
 compare with the similar works he had himself published. In 
 acknowledgment of this slight civility, he sent me, a few days after- 
 wards, a set of his own printed school-books in return. They were 
 forwarded through the same medium ; and the note that accompanied 
 them, written by a French secretary in the service of Shums-ool- 
 Oomrah, is so characteristic and significant, that I requested Dr. Vertue 
 to leave it with me, and I now enclose it, in order that your Lordship 
 may note, in the last paragraph, a proof of the fear I have already 
 alluded to as entertained by the highest Oomrahs of Hyderabad of 
 being discovered in holding intercourse, even of the most casual and 
 conventional kind, with the British Resident. The French secretary 
 appears to participate in the apprehensions of his master, and, instead 
 of naming the Minister, obliquely designates him as ' l'homme que 
 vous savez.' > 
 
 "The only way, I imagine, to ascertain the intentions of the Nizam, 
 with respect to a successor to Chundoo Lill, would be, to ask him the 
 question. But this dtuld scarcely be done without the Minister's- 
 
 1 The household troops. 
 
 i
 
 LORD AUCKLAND. 51 
 
 knowledge; and, unless he considered that onr aim was to promote 
 the views, and, so far as possible, to secure the succession of his son, 
 Bala Pershad, would, doubtless, regard our interference in reference to 
 the contingency it implies, as indelicate and offensive, and as involving 
 a risk of injuring his son's prospects, unless we formally declared a 
 purpose of advocating them. It may also be observed that if the 
 Nizam were once appealed to, and any intimation elicited of an inten- 
 tion not to hereafter nominate Bala Pershad to the Dewanee, it would 
 immediately tend to weaken, if not to subvert, the authority of Chundoo 
 Lall ; and the consequences might then be more mischievous, and 
 fraught with more danger, than those we were seeking to avert. 
 
 " Since, then, it would be difficult, in the circumstances of the case, to 
 obtain this information, perhaps the best way left to secure the tran- 
 quillity of the country on the demise of Chundoo Lall, would be to 
 induce him to render a true and accurate account of the debts of the 
 State, and to authorise the Nizam's Government — in the event of this 
 measure meeting their own views — to open a six per cent, loan, to the 
 extent so arrived at, under the guaranty of the British Government, 
 with adequate security for repayment of the principal in five or six 
 years. 
 
 " The loan thus constituted should be paid into the Resident's 
 treasury, not that of the Minister; and not a rupee of it should be 
 subsequently disbursed, but under the Resident's orders, after thorough 
 and correct understanding of the exact nature and validity of the debts 
 claimed. I know not whether the Court of Directors would sanction 
 this, even if the Nizam (which is not certain) approved of it; but, if 
 both parties concurred, there can be but little doubt that the Minister 
 would gladly avail* himself of the occasion to discharge the debt that 
 oppresses and embarrasses him, a great part of it bearing interest at 18 
 per cent, per annum. Not only would this onerous burden be thrown 
 off, but numerous reductions might be made, and many of the troops 
 disbanded, which cannot now be done for want of means to discharge 
 their arrears. We should know what we never otherwise shall — the 
 precise financial condition of the State ; and a principal source of 
 apprehension, in the event of the Minister's death, would be at once 
 removed. 
 
 " Of course, many subsidiary arrangements would require to be 
 made; and I now merely touch on the subject in a very general 
 manner, reserving more particular discussion of it for future communica- 
 tion, should your ^Lordship be of opinion that any proposition of the 
 kind, emanating from the Minister, would at all be entertained. 
 
 " Another point, to which I may take this opportunity of requesting 
 your Lordship's attention, is the succession to the Musnud itself. It 
 may naturally be supposed that the Nizam will desire to be succeeded 
 
 • e2
 
 52 LETTER TO LOKD AUCKLAND. 
 
 by his eldest son, now a boy of ten years of age ; though he has never 
 yet made any open express declaration of his sentiments on this subject. 
 His Highness is a strong, and apparently healthy man, and not more 
 than fifty years of age. His death, therefore, cannot in human proba- 
 bility, be anticipated to take place for many years ; but as this event 
 may occur unexpectedly, and as, unless arrangements be previously 
 made, we may have before us the difficulties of a disputed succession, 
 and, at all events, the embarrassment of a minority and- temporary 
 regency, it will be for your Lordship to determine whether it may not 
 be desirable to provide against these possible sources of inconvenience, 
 and to embrace the first favourable opportunity of ascertaining the 
 Nizam's sentiments on the subject. This might be impolitic and inex- 
 pedient, were it likely to produce any disagreeable impression on the 
 mind of his Highness; but, with his knowledge of the turbulent and 
 vicious character of his brothers, it would probably tend much to con- 
 ciliate him and to tranquillise his mind, as well as to ensure the future 
 peace of the country, that we should recognise as his heir the person 
 (if unexceptionable) whom he might be disposed to select. 
 
 " If this is to be done at all, I am inclined to think that it should be, 
 in the first instance, by a direct and private communication with the 
 Nizam. Previous admission of the Minister to the settlement of a 
 question so important and interesting might open a road to the deepest 
 and most dangerous intrigue. 
 
 " On this, and, indeed, on most of the other subjects adverted to in 
 this letter, I shall abstain (except in circumstances of the strongest 
 and most imperative necessity) from adopting any measures whatever, 
 or instituting any course of procedure, until I shall have been honoured 
 by the expression of your Lordship's sentiments. 
 
 " The records of the Hyderabad Residency show that very 
 different and opposite systems of policy have been enjoined by different 
 Governments, and that the same public measures have sometimes 
 elicited applause which, at others, have met with disapproval. Not 
 only have varying opinions been entertained at the seat of Government, 
 but the decisions of the Home authorities do not appear to have been 
 always guided by an undeviating rule of judgment. 
 
 " I perceive, on review, that I have presented to your Lordship little 
 else than a tissue of difficulties and doubts ; but such, I regret to say, 
 is inherent in the nature of the case. We may apply, as we have been 
 doing — or endeavouring to do — for many years past, palliatives and 
 expedients ; but I apprehend that the Nizam's country will never be free 
 from embarrassment, nor rise from its present grade of mediocrity, until 
 it shall have been placcu. under a decided British administration. 
 
 " I have expressed myself on the subject with freedom and unrestraint, 
 profoundly sensible of the privilege of addressing your Lordship in a
 
 GHUZNI AND GIBRALTAR. 53 
 
 less formnl and reserved manner than would be suitable to a public 
 and official record. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, etc., 
 
 " J. S. Fbasbe." 
 
 This letter has been given in extenso, not merely to indicate at 
 the outset the grave difficulties of General Fraser's position, but to 
 lay down the first documentary proof that his political foresight 
 ranged far beyond the immediate horizon, and was not bounded by 
 the limits of his official charge. It will prove, also, that his con- 
 victions and his objects, with reference to British relations with the 
 Nizam, were founded on principles of honour and equity, and 
 never varied from the day of his arrival until that of his departure 
 from Hyderabad. 
 
 In a letter dated the 24th of July 1840, Lord Elphinstone 
 reminds General Fraser that the previous day was the first anni- 
 versary of the capture of Ghuzni, while, he continues, " to-day is 
 the anniversary of the taking of Gibraltar in 1704. At the period 
 of the greatest vigour, if not the widest extension of Mohammedan 
 power, these places may be said to have marked its extreme limits. 
 Both now contain a British garrison." Neither of the correspon- 
 dents could then foresee that the brilliant exploit, for which 
 General Sir John Keane was raised to the peerage and endowed 
 with a pension for two lives, would prove so barren and even so 
 disastrous in its results. But we can well understand now, what 
 they cannot but have known well, that the capture of Ghuzni 
 must at the time have been an immense relief to Lord Auckland, 
 giving him apparent assurance, after months of work, suspense, and 
 anxiety, that the expedition into Afghanistan would prove an easy 
 success. We can well understand how it was that, in the midst of 
 the plans and preparations for the double advance on Cabul 
 through the Khyber and Bolan Passes, the Governor-General 
 delayed for a long time replying to the long letter in which 
 the Resident at Hyderabad gave his first impressions and sug- 
 gestions as to the condition and prospects of the Nizam's dominions. 
 The answer came at last, after the lapse of five months. 
 
 "^imla, Sept. 13, 1839. 
 " My dear Sir, — I have many subjects upon which I have long wished 
 
 to write to you; but my time has been sadlv occupied. 
 
 »
 
 54 KURXOOL 
 
 " Your letter of April last, upon the present condition of the Nizam's 
 territories, appeared to me to take a just view of their condition, and 
 one which very much coincided with my own opinion, and with infor- 
 mation previously received by me. The administration is, no doubt, 
 irregular, unequal, in some instances violent and corrupt, and, through- 
 out, apparently inefficient. Yet it holds together ; and the result is, 
 generally, far less bad than — in the absence of system, of regular 
 police, and of courts of justice — might be apprehended. And so it will 
 probably continue through the life of Chundoo Lall. Frequent inter- 
 ference on our part in partial cases would apparently make us liable 
 for evil, and do but little good ; while a general and complete inter- 
 ference is not justified by either treaty or circumstances. For the 
 present, we must, as we have long done, go on with palliatives and 
 expedients. 
 
 " The only proposition, perhaps, which could be usefully entertained 
 would be one by which assistance could, upon certain conditions, be 
 given towards dischai'ge of the present debt of the State, by a loan 
 bearing a lower rate of interest ; but much difficulty would probably 
 occur when the nature of the guarantee and the consequent rights of 
 interference came to be discussed. 
 
 " I shall look with interest for the result of your Commission ; though, 
 at the same time, I hope that inquiries will not be pushed too far. The 
 arrest of an individual so intriguing and turbulent as Moobariz-ood- 
 Dowlah cannot but have done good, and will check the combinations of 
 which he would have been constituted the leader, in vague designs of 
 mischief. 
 
 " But the result of attempts to pursue in detail any alleged Indian 
 plot, is almost always worse than unsatisfactory ; for they generally 
 prove nothing, and leave behind feelings of alarm and suspicion. 
 Enough, perhaps, has already been done at Hyderabad — or is in pro- 
 gress on the side of Kurnool — to prove that the Government is neither 
 blind nor insensible to injury ; and the minor instruments of mischief 
 may be presently allowed to lose themselves in the community. 
 
 " I have only one more subject on which to write ; and as I intend 
 to address the Court upon it, I would gladly have your opinion of it in 
 detail. I allude to the proposal of the Court that all Native States 
 si" uld reimburse to the Company the amount of pay given to officers in 
 the several Contingent services. I hold it to be impossible that we 
 should call upon the Nizam to pay more than he at present does; nor 
 can we, with any justice, withdraw from the officers now in his service 
 the advantages which they possess. And were these advantages with- 
 1 i Id from future appointments, we should not find officers ready to 
 accept them. Unless, then, some means of retrenchment could be 
 devised whereby more money would be made available, I feel that the
 
 CONSPIRACY. 55 
 
 strongest objections may be urged to the proposition ; unci upon this, as 
 upon other points on which I have touched, any information you can 
 afford me will be most gratefully received. 
 
 " Very faithfully yours, 
 
 "Auckland." 
 
 A decided check and deep discouragement were given to the 
 intrigues and plots of this time by the early successes of Lord 
 Auckland's policy of restoring Shah Slmjah to the throne of Cabul. 
 The Nawab of Kurnool, just at that crisis, was clearly detected in 
 the very act of assembling a military force, and of holding com- 
 munications with Wahabee leaders, and other fanatics and malcon- 
 tents at Hyderabad and in other towns of the Deccan and Car- 
 natic. Lord Elphinstone having consulted him as to the smallest 
 force with which the Commissioners of Inquiry about to start for 
 Kurnool ought to be supported, General Fraser sent the following 
 
 reply : — 
 
 " Hyderabad, 12th July 1839. 
 
 " My Lord, — Sir Henry Montgomery's 1 estimate of the strength 
 of Kurnool is certainly very different from mine, if he really thinks 
 half a regiment and a company of Artillery would be sufficient to take 
 it. My impression has been, though it is possible I may be mistaken, 
 that it was one of the strongest native forts in the country, and, judging 
 from the evidence that I have received here, that it was garrisoned 
 by about 4,000 men, mostly of the best fighting castes. On this point, 
 however, I need say no more until my information is more complete, or 
 until I receive an application from the Government of Fort St. George 
 for the service of any portion of the Nizam's troops. 
 
 " I am very sorry, but not much surprised, to hear of the misunder- 
 standing between Mr. Casamajor and Mr. Stonehouse. I have always 
 heard the former spoken of as a very good man, but at the same time, 
 to use the odd French expression, un jjeu difficile a vivre. 
 
 " I tried as far as I could to serve Mr. Cormack, the Postmaster at 
 Hyderabad ; but to tell you the truth, he is not a first-rate artist, and I 
 fancy has not found much to do here in that way. I got the old 
 Minister, Chundoo Lall, to sit to him ; but it was not at all well done, 
 and I therefore made him copy one which had been done by a superior 
 artist some years ago. You may like to see it, and I send it to you by 
 this opportunity. You have only to fancy the countenance a good deal 
 older and more worn, the body infinitely more attenuated and bent 
 
 1 Sir Henry Coningham Montgomery. Bart., of the Madras Civil Service, 
 afterwards a Member of the Indian Council in London and a Privy Coun- 
 cillor, died in 1878. 
 
 »
 
 56 KUBNOOL 
 
 almost double, without a single jewel or other ornament on the person,. 
 — for he never wears them now, — and you have Chundoo Lall still 
 before you. 
 
 " I am not aware whether the Nizam would have any objection to 
 have his picture drawn, but he has at least none to see the pictures of 
 other people. Sooraj-ood-Dowla,the son of the former Minister, Mooneer- 
 ool-Moolk, pleased him very much a few days ago by presenting him 
 with a handsome framed engraving of the Queen. 
 
 " It is singular that I should be so frequently suspected of a wish to 
 interfere in the religion, spiritually considered, of the people of India. 
 There is not a man in the whole country who would abstain from this 
 more scrupulously than I would, not only on political grounds, but on 
 what is more important, moral ones. I would, however, never allow 
 myself to be deceived by a name, and if Wahabeeism chooses to call 
 itself religion, when I know it in fact to be treason, I would toeat it 
 accordingly. 
 
 " I remain, your Lordship's ever faithfully and obediently, 
 
 "J. S. Frasee." 
 
 The Government of Madras was chiefly and deeply indebted 
 to General Fraser for information, derived from his intelligence 
 department, as to the proceedings of the Nawab of Kurnool and 
 his treasonable communications with Mubariz-ood-dowla, . the 
 fanatical brother of the reigning Nizam. Some troops of the 
 Hyderabad Contingent, then usually called " the Nizam's Army", 
 detached and directed by the Eesident, co-operated with the British 
 Field Force under Colonel Dyce despatched against Kurnool. The 
 bands of Bohillas and Arabs assembled by the misguided Nawab 
 having resisted the occupation of the fort, and refused to lay down 
 their arms, were attacked and routed with great slaughter. The 
 Nawab of Kurnool was taken prisoner, and ample proof of his evil 
 intentions was discovered in his palace and its vicinity, especially 
 in the form of a perfectly marvellous accumulation of guns and 
 munitions of war. This is mentioned in a letter to General Fraser 
 from Captain (afterwards General) Fdward Armstrong, of the 
 Madras 34th Light Infantry, dated " Kurnool, 10th October 
 1839":— f 
 
 " It is impossible to describe to you the state of the Nawab's arsenal, 
 his preparations for waiy in ordnance, stores, and ammunition are 
 prodigious, and we are one and all filled with amazement at what we 
 have this day beheld. The gardens of his palace and zenana are
 
 CONSPIRACY. 57 
 
 covered with foundries for casting guns, shot and shells, and pieces of 
 ordnance are to be found in every stage of preparation. Two of the 
 mortars, beautiful brass pieces, are probably the largest in the world, — 
 the diameter of the bore of one being twenty-six and the other twenty- 
 three inches, the thickness of metal at the muzzle nine inches. For 
 these monsters of their kind there is an abundant supply of shells. 
 The various buildings in the palace and zenana are turned into vast 
 magazines of every imaginable weapon, from guns of the heaviest 
 calibre to double-barrelled pocket pistols. In one shed, which had the 
 entrance bricked up to appear a dead wall, we found forty-five brass 
 guns, from two- to six-pounders, mounted on new carriages, while in 
 the same place there were seventy or eighty new carriages for guns 
 that were buried near the shed. It is impossible as yet to form an 
 accurate estimate of the number of guns found, but on a rough calcula- 
 tion I should say we have seen upwards of six hundred of all sizes, 
 most of them new ; some of them six-pounders, with the Company's 
 mark on them. With the exception of fifty or sixty, all of these were 
 buried or placed in sheds and built up, when the Nawab heard we 
 were coming to take a look at him, and they would have escaped 
 discovery had not some of the workmen employed turned traitors, and 
 pointed out the places of concealment. An endless number of tumbrils 
 and waggons have been found, ready packed with powder, shot, live 
 shells, grape and canister, and matted over, — so as to take the field in 
 good condition at a moment's notice. Ranges of godowns of great 
 extent are filled with powder, sulphur, saltpetre, and other matei'ials. 
 In fact, it would appear as if the whole life of the Nawab had been 
 devoted to the collection of warlike stores, and that the revenue of his 
 country must have been expended for years for this purpose. Indeed, 
 it is incredible and impossible that he could, unaided from outside, 
 have collected these materials of war from his own resources. I am 
 satisfied we are on the threshold of important discoveries, and that 
 this place being considered obscure and not likely to be suspected, was 
 chosen as the grand depot for a hostile movement of no ordinary 
 character. Namdar Khan, the vizier, accompanied us, and at each 
 successive discovery affected astonishment, and expressed entire ignor- 
 ance of the Nawab's operations. He has been placed in arrest. The 
 Nawab is still in the hands — voluntarily, I suspect — of a body of about 
 1,000 Rohillas encamped within a mile pr two, under the command 
 of your friend, Shah Wullee Khan. He must be taken, dead or 
 alive." 
 
 In a letter dated the 18th October 183$ Captain Armstrong 
 continues his narrative of events at Kurnool.
 
 58 ACTION AT KUKXOOL. 
 
 " The order I anticipated arrived yesterday morning from the Madras 
 Government — the country to be resumed, the Nawab to be deposed and 
 to submit himself without conditions to the British Government. The 
 foreign mercenaries were guaranteed payment of their arrears, protection 
 of life and property, and a passport to their native counti'ies. Some of 
 them were inclined to accede to these terms, but our friend Shah Wiillee 
 Khan, the Rohilla, was most insolent — refused to receive the letter 
 addressed to him and the other Chiefs, or to permit the Nawab to surren- 
 der, unless his arrears, without further inquiry, were paid up on the spot. 
 He said he looked on Feringhee promises as mere deceit. Finding that 
 persuasion was useless, Colonel Dyce moved his detachment into position 
 — consisting of only seventy-five Europeans of H.M. 39th Foot Ai'tillery, 
 with two six-pounders and two howitzers, and 400 men of my regiment, 
 84th L. I. — to attack the Arabs and Rohillas in a stone enclosure sur- 
 rounding a clurgah, 1 while a squadronof the 13th Dragoons and a squadron 
 of the 7th Light Cavalry were sent off to the right of the attacking force 
 to cut up runaways. After a few rounds of canister from the guns, the 
 line advanced in gallant style and carried all before them. The loss of 
 the enemy has been very heavy, the cavalry having given a good 
 account of them as soon as they were driven from their defences. We 
 have a large body of prisoners, among them the Nawab, untouched, 
 whom I had the good fortune" personally to secure in the durgah. 
 Colonel Dyce's arrangements were admirable, and to the rapid advance 
 under a very heavy fire our trifling loss is alone ascribable. Nothing 
 could have been better than the conduct of our troops on this little 
 occasion, when opposed to more than double their number of well-armed 
 Arabs, Rohillas and Pathans, behind their favourite stone walls and in 
 strong buildings. The Sepoys used the bayonet in a way I have never 
 seen or heard of before. It is impossible yet to say how many of the 
 enemy were killed ; we have a great many wounded among the prisoners. 
 I regret to say Lieut. White of H.M. 39th is killed, and a noble lad of 
 the 34th, Yates, Mrs. Byam's brother, mortally wounded. The 
 doctors say he cannot survive, his wound being a stab in the stomach. 
 Major Wright and Lieut. Ouchterlony of the 39th are wounded. I 
 almost regret Shah Wullee Khan has escaped the halter he so long 
 riclily deserved, by being killed. I have made sure of this by seeing 
 his body. Many other chiefs are killed ; many are prisoners. I think 
 
 party of Blair's Horse, in posts twenty-live miles apart, will be 
 desirable for some little time longer, as the fugitives will no doubt make 
 for your City as opportunity offers." 
 
 Ample evidence of V"s treason having been obtained, the Nawab 
 of Kurnool was deposed and deported, and his country annexed to 
 
 ' A praying place or small mosque. 
 
 i
 
 MUSSULMAN DISAFFECTION. 59 
 
 the Presidency of Madras. After inquiry by a special Commission 
 at Hyderabad, Prince Mubariz-ood-dowla, who had always been a 
 turl iideiit and troublesome character, was confined by his brother, 
 the Nizam, as a State prisoner, to the Fort of Golconcla, where he 
 remained for many years. General Fraser alludes to these matters 
 in the following letter, placed a little in advance of its chrono- 
 logical order, to Lord Elphinstone. 
 
 " Hyderabad, September 10th, 18-10. 
 " My Lord, — I was happy to receive your very obliging letter, with 
 the copy of your Minute which accompanied it, on the subject of the 
 affairs of Kurnool, herewith returned. I entirely agree with the 
 opinions therein expressed, and should hope that they may have 
 the effect of awakening some degree of caution in the Supreme Govern- 
 ment with respect to the state of the Mohammedan mind in the South of 
 India. It is probable that the members of the Government have 
 formed their judgment principally in reference to the character of the 
 Mohammedans of Northern Hindostan, who are, I believe, in many 
 respects, a superior race, and less dissatisfied with the British Govern- 
 ment. Were they better acquainted with the troublesome population 
 of Triplicane, 1 Trichinopoly, Arcot, Yellore, Bangalore, and Southern 
 India generally, I think their opinions would undergo considerable 
 change. 
 
 " I cannot help persuading myself that the majority, if not the 
 whole, of this class — excepting only, perhaps, our own troops, and 
 some other of our immediate dependents — would be delighted to 
 annihilate the British power, and to massacre every Englishman in 
 India, if they possessed sufficient strength to carry their objects into 
 effect. 
 
 " If that disposition really prevails, of which I have no doubt, the 
 mildest term that can be given to it is disaffection ; and the state of 
 affairs must be very much altered before I consent to qualify the desig- 
 nation. I should imagine that no question could exist as to the 
 propriety of the manner in which you have disposed of Kurnool. 
 Any other measure would have been dangerous and impolitic, and 
 tending to perpetuation of a long-acknowledged evil. 
 
 " I think I have the good fortune to concur entirely in the views 
 entertained by your Lordship with respect to the fittest manner of 
 dealing with the petty Native Chiefs and Princes of India. You have 
 explained, in what appear to me very just and correct terms, the nature 
 of the original rise and existing status of m^t of those persons; and 
 I think we should avail ourselves of every opportunity that may 
 
 1 The Mussulman quarter of the city of Madras.
 
 60 LETTER TO 
 
 present itself in the rebellion or serious crimes of tlie parties concerned, 
 to declare their titles forfeited, and their principalities or other posses- 
 sions reannexed to the Empire at large. We ought, however, to 
 continue, on the other hand, to treat with liberality and confidence all 
 those Native Princes whose original titles were of acknowledged 
 validity, with whom we have formed political treaties, and of whose 
 good will towards us we have yet had no reason to entertain distrust. 
 I do not approve, in our dealings with Chiefs of this description, of 
 that ostentatious assumption of what we call ' paramount power' which 
 the Governments — more especially their subordinate political officers — 
 habitually exhibit in an offensive degi'ee. I have always doubted, and 
 have frequently expressed the doubt to Sir Frederick Adam and others, 
 the justice of our having assumed the Mysore country so abruptly and 
 decisively as we did ; and I now learn, by a letter just received from a 
 friend in England, that Lord William Bentinck himself, before his 
 death, repeatedly declared his regret at having ordered that measure. 
 I should be sorry to see any such arrangement contemplated with 
 respect to the Nizam's country, and have argued in both public and 
 private against any project whatever of assumption, or infringement of 
 the independent power of the sovereign, as an act uncalled for, and 
 inconsistent with honour and good faith . I am disposed to think, also, 
 that we ought to employ respectable Mohammedans more than we at 
 present do, bringing them more prominently forward in the higher and 
 more honourable offices of the State. Men will not give us their 
 affection for nothing ; and if we do nothing to conciliate their good 
 will, we ought not to be surprised that we lack it. 
 
 " I have much pleasure in sending you the Duchess of Abrantes' 
 Memoirs, in two successive banghy despatches — one containing the 
 first nine volumes, and the other the three last. These treat of other 
 and more interesting matters than the schemes and confederacies of 
 bearded Mussulmans ; and I think you will be much pleased with the 
 lady's lively account of the interior of Napoleon's life, and of the 
 curious scenes of the Tuileries, Malmaison, and St. Cloud. 
 
 " I either possess, or have commissioned from Calcutta, most of the 
 books which your Lordship mentions, including another work on India 
 which — from the extracts I have read — appears to be interesting, by a 
 Swede or Norwegian with a remarkably long name, whose orthography 
 has escaped my recollection. 1 
 
 " I should be very happy to be favoured with perusal of the first 
 part of Tocquevillc's Democratic en Amerique, when it can be spared 
 with perfect convenience 
 
 " Some of the books required by Lord Munster I have obtained ; 
 but they are still to be copied, as fchc owners of valuable Oriental works 
 1 No doubt General Count Biornstjerna's book.
 
 LORD ELPHINSTONE. 61 
 
 generally decline to part with them. When I see my way a little more 
 clearly to the extent of success upon which I can reckon in this respect, 
 (which will probahly be about the time of departure of the second 
 steamer from this date), I shall do myself the pleasure of replying to 
 his Lordship's letter on the subject. 
 
 " Always, my Lord, yours most faithfully, 
 
 "J. S. Fraser." 
 
 At the time that Mubariz-ood-dowla was sent by the Nizam as 
 a State prisoner to the fort of Golconda, forty six Moulavees and 
 preachers of the Wahabee sect, who had been in close communica- 
 tion with the fanatic Prince, were apprehended and kept in close 
 custody. Some of them were British subjects, and partly on that 
 account, partly on account of the conspiracy in which they had 
 been engaged being mainly hostile to British power, General 
 Fraser was led to propose to the Nizam the measure of a full 
 investigation into the intrigues and plots that had been going on, 
 by means of a mixed Committee of English officers and Mussul- 
 man Sirdars connected with the Nizam's Government. This plan 
 was carried out with the approval of the Government of India, 
 and with very beneficial effect. The following extracts from a 
 despatch dated 19th June 1839, will explain the grounds on which 
 the Besident had arranged the assembly of this mixed Committee. 
 
 " Several reasons have led me to propose to the Nizam's Government 
 a mutual participation in the inquiry. 
 
 "This may be considered due to the Hyderabad Circar, from the 
 offences that are to constitute the subject of inquiry having been com- 
 mitted equally against both States ; to which it may be added that the 
 removal of Mubariz-ood-dowla having been effected by the orders of the 
 Nizam, and by means of his troops exclusively, without the intervention 
 of any of ours, it appears desirable that in a matter so interesting to 
 Mohammedans generally, they should have an opportunity of knowing 
 that its examination had rested equally with the Mussulman as with the 
 British Government, and that the final disposal of the case should be 
 equally the act of both. 
 
 " The principal offender being the brother of the Nizam himself, 
 some delicacy was necessary in proposing arrangements for the conduct 
 of an inquiry that was likely to end in the further incrimination of that 
 person : and his Highness would, perhap^ on this ground, have 
 objected to an investigation in which the officers of his Government 
 had no part.
 
 62 A MIXED COMMISSION. 
 
 " Many of the prisoners in custody are subjects of this State, and 
 the inquiry taking place at Hyderabad itself, it would have indicated 
 offensive distrust if I had proposed to establish an exclusively British 
 and ex parte investigation into these matters. 
 
 "The suo-o-estion of a joint Committee was intended to give proof 
 of a friendly feeling, and a desire to act in union with the Circar, 
 which could scarcely fail to be agreeable to the Nizam, and to inspire 
 him with sentiments of good will which may be of much advantage 
 hereafter. 
 
 "An associated Commission, with a common object in view, has a 
 tendency to draw together the two States, and to make their respective 
 officers known to each other, between whom there has hitherto been 
 little or no intercourse. 
 
 " The whole transaction will contribute, in its further progress and 
 termination, as its antecedent proceedings have already done in no 
 inconsiderable degree, to produce a more familiar acquaintance between 
 the Nizam and the Eesident, and to facilitate any communications 
 which may be requisite with his Highness for objects connected with 
 the future improvement of the country. 
 
 " Points of a religious nature, especially as connected with the 
 distinction that now prevails between the orthodox Mohammedan 
 religion and the reformed or Wahabee faith, will necessarily be brought 
 to the notice of the Committee ; and in this respect it will be attended 
 with obvious advantage that the Mohammedans of this country 
 generally, who hear of these proceedings, should know that they have 
 been submitted to persons of their own tribe and creed, conjointly with 
 British officers, and not to the latter exclusively. 
 
 " Proof will be given to the country at large that we not only 
 acknowledge a community of interests between 'this State and the 
 British Government, but we shall exhibit upon a small scale, what I 
 think it is highly desirable we should begin to do on a more extensive 
 one, a wish to see brought prominently forward and employed in 
 honourable office, and united with us in our councils and deliberations, 
 men of rank and respeetability among the Mohammedans. 
 
 " I should have wished for the instructions of the Supreme Govern- 
 ment before I adopted the measures above described; but the time 
 required for this would have annulled, or at least weakened, some of 
 the anticipated results ; and procrastination or apparent hesitation 
 might only have emboldened the Chiefs and others who are in league 
 against us, to proceed to the completion of their treacherous designs. 
 
 " This State cannot but be regarded as a powerful and important 
 
 one ; and situated, as the Nizam's countiy is, in the heart of India, of 
 
 which it constitutes a large portion, the disposition of its Government 
 
 can scarcely fail to exercise a considerable moral influence over the 
 
 <
 
 A PRETENDER. G3 
 
 Mussulman population in our own dominions. It is of the greatest 
 consequence, therefore, to preserve the tranquillity of this country, and 
 to maintain the friendly feelings which the Nizam now maintains for us. 
 " Mubariz-ood-dowla, from his rank and family, and his ambitious 
 and sanguinary character, might have proved a very dangerous foe to 
 the public peace ; and it is a source of gratification to me to know, 
 from the assurances of the Nizam himself, that he is quite secure in the 
 Fort of Golconda, and that there is no risk of his making his escape." 
 
 By the labours of this mixed Commission it was very clearly 
 ascertained that Mubariz-ood-dowla had been deeply engaged in 
 treasonous conspiracy with the Nawab of Kurnool, and had 
 attempted to open negotiations with the Nawab of Tonk, the 
 Nawab of Eampore, and many other Mussulman Princes and 
 Chiefs, with hostile intent against the British Government, and 
 against his brother the Nizam, whom he was endeavouring to 
 supplant. It was proved that he had provided himself with two 
 new seals, on one of which he described himself as " Omar, the 
 son of Abd-ul-Azeez, Leader of the Moslems (Rais-ul-muslimln), 
 Mubariz-ood-dowla, Successor of the martyr, Syud Ahmed". On 
 the other was the inscription, " The Protector of Religion, the 
 Defender of the Moslem Faith, Mubariz-ood-Dowla." These self- 
 assumed titles were, as everyone who understands the forms and 
 maxims of Mussulman Government will understand, a flagrant act 
 of rebellion against his own Sovereign, and proof positive of 
 determined hostility to British power. 
 
 The much more serious and alarming fact was also proved in the 
 course of this inquiry, that Mubariz-ood-dowla and his gang, 
 through the medium of Moulavees and fakeers, chiefly professing 
 the new Wahabee tenets, who visited the lines of our Native 
 Regiments at Secunderabad, and in some instances resided there, 
 had been tampering with the loyalty of our Mussulman Sepoys — 
 the Madras troops including a much larger and more influential 
 Mohammedan element than either the Bengal or the Bombay 
 Army. Lord Auckland had, from the first, been of opinion that 
 when the conspirators were distinctly baffled, and their designs 
 fathomed, the inquiry had better not be pushed too far, and that 
 public prosecutions should, if possible, be p/oided. 
 
 General Fraser had arrived at the same conclusion, when in 
 May 1840 he submitted to the Government of India the pro-
 
 64 THE CONTINGENT AND THE DEBT. 
 
 ceedings of the mixed Commission of Inquiry. He recommended 
 that Mubariz-ood-dowla and the Moulavees in custody, who were 
 his most active agents, should be detained as State prisoners "until 
 the perfect tranquillity of the country, and the cessation of external 
 war", should admit of their being liberated without danger to the 
 peace of India. 
 
 The wave of fanatical and malcontent excitement which swept 
 through India about 1839, was by no means unknown or un- 
 precedented in the annals of Indian history, and might, perhaps, 
 be considered liable to recur; but it was, after all, a passing 
 phenomenon, and had been successfully encountered and subdued. 
 There were difficulties of a far deeper and more fundamental 
 character connected with the administration of Hyderabad, with 
 which General Fraser, from his first assumption of the Residency 
 in 1838 to the day of his departure in 1852, conceived himself 
 bound in duty to contend, equally with a regard for Imperial 
 interests, and for those of the allied and protected State to which 
 he was accredited. The finances of Hyderabad were in a condition 
 of disorder and embarrassment that precluded all efficient adminis- 
 tration and impeded every plan of reform, while this condition had 
 lasted for so many years that it might be considered permanent, 
 unless it could be cured by some heroic remedy. Such a remedy, 
 General Fraser believed, was within our reach and capable of 
 application. Although from our original relations with the Nizam, 
 and under the stipulation of existing Treaties, we had no right of 
 direct interference or dictation in his internal affairs, a long chain 
 of circumstances had established so many and such close ties 
 between the affairs of that Prince and our own, that it was im- 
 possible for the British Resident to abstain for any length of time 
 from offering counsel and suggesting measures with more or less of 
 energy and persistence. The chief cause at once of the Nizam's 
 financial difficulties, and of the inability of our Government either 
 to check them, or to escape being entangled in them, was — 
 in the opinion of Lord Dalhousie and others, — the Contingent, 
 commonly called in those* days the Nizam's Army, commanded 
 by British officers under the direction of the British Resident. 
 "The debt to the British Government which burdens the 
 Nizam", said Lord Dalhousie in 1853, "has been produced by 
 the Contingent. The monthly subsidy, for which the Resident at
 
 THE CONTINGENT. 65 
 
 Hyderabad maintains a perpetual wrestle with the Dewan, and 
 which transforms the representative of the British Government by 
 turns into an importunate creditor and a bailiff in execution, is the 
 pay of the Contingent. Were that sort of demand and dispute 
 once adjusted, there is no Native State in India whose relations 
 with the British Government would, as far as we know, be more 
 friendly and unruffled. The Nizam has been our ally for much 
 more than half a century." 
 
 " This Government," continues Lord Dalhousie, "disclaims not 
 only the intention, but the wish, of doing any act by which the 
 independence of the Nizam can be in any degree impaired. The 
 Treaty itself offers a bar to any such design, by declaring, in the 
 most emphatic terms, that the Government of India binds itself 
 in no way to interfere with His Highness's subjects, servants, or 
 concerns." 1 
 
 Two years previously, Lord Dalhousie had expressed himself 
 even more strongly and clearly to the same effect : — 
 
 " Were it not for the existence of the Subsidiary and Contingent 
 forces, our relations with the State of Hyderabad would be merely 
 those which usually are formed between two independent Powers, 
 and the position of the Resident would correspond in every respect 
 with that of any accredited Minister of a foreign State." 2 
 
 Very confused and contradictory notions as to the origin and 
 legal status of the Hyderabad Contingent, or Nizam's Army, 
 having prevailed, and having been officially stated, from time to 
 time, at home and in India, it will be as well to introduce here a 
 document dated four years before General Fraser assumed charge 
 of the Residency, dealing with the history and constitution of that 
 force from the very beginning, very slightly abridged. 
 
 " The first notice I find on the Records regarding the reformation ot 
 the Nizam's army is contained in a letter from Mr. Henry Russell, then 
 Resident at Hyderabad, dated the 10th July 1811, from which I beg 
 leave to subjoin an extract. JVl" Russell, in describing the deteriorated 
 condition of Berar, stated that various causes might be assigned for 
 that deterioration. Having treated of trie number and power of the 
 Naieks (a description of rebel and plunderer) as the first cause, of the 
 local position of Holkar's district of Umber as the second cause, of the 
 invasion of the Pindaries as the third, he proce/ds : — 
 
 1 Papers, Nizam's Debts (.418 of 1854), pp. 98, 99. 
 - Ibid., p. 37. 
 
 » F
 
 G6 THE HYDERABAD 
 
 " ' Fourthly, — The defects in the military establishment. The whole 
 of the Nizam's troops now stationed in Berar, including those of the 
 Jageerdars subject to the authority of the Local Government, consist of 
 about 9,000 cavalry, about 3,000 irregular and about 5,000 regular 
 infantry, with about 25 guns. Of the cavalry, about 5,500 are Sircar, 
 and about 3,500 Jagcerdar troops. All the irregular infantry are 
 Sircar troops, except one small corps of about 700 men belonging to 
 Shums-ool-Oomrah. Of the regular infantry, two battalions, consisting 
 of about 900 men each, belong to Salabut Khan, and the remainder 
 compose what is called the Nizam's establishment of regular infantry in 
 Berar. Salabut Khan's two battalions, and Shums-ool-Oonmih's irre- 
 gular corps, have each of them two guns. All the remaining guns are 
 attached to the Sircar troops. 
 
 " ' The cavalry in Berar are of as good a description as the ordinary 
 run of Native cavalry in India. In every party, some will be found 
 better than others ; but, upon the whole, they are very much upon an 
 equality. They are all of the kind called Silladar, where the horse is 
 the property of his rider, to distinguish them from the Bargeer cavalry, 
 who are mounted on horses belonging to the Government. Their pay 
 varies from 40 to 50 rupees a month for both the rider and his horse, 
 and one of the express conditions of the service is, that the horseman is 
 not to receive any compensation 'if his horse is either maimed or killed 
 in battle. The horseman's subsistence depends entirely upon his horse. 
 He generally borrows the money with great difficulty to buy him, 
 and if he loses him, can seldom raise money to buy another. The loss 
 of his horse, therefore, is the loss of his bread. The cavalry is very 
 irregularly paid, too, as all the troops of Native Governments are, so 
 that it would be unreasonable to expect much activity or exertion from 
 them on any occasion. 
 
 " ' In the year 1804, a proposal was made by us to the Nizam to 
 maintain a regular establishment of the Silladar cavalry, on the same 
 footing as that maintained by the Government of Mysore. This pro- 
 posal led to a long negotiation ; and the Nizam at last consented 
 generally to raise a body of Silladar cavalry, but he objected to all 
 those parts of the plan by which alone its efficiency would have been 
 ensured, and the proposal was therefore abandoned. The Nizam 
 refused to make any satisfactory arrangement for their being regularly 
 paid; and without thai, fchej would not have been at all superior to 
 any other party of horse in his service. 
 
 u ' The defects in this part of the establishment are too radical to be 
 removed; but, although nothing cau perhaps be done to make any 
 substantial improvement in the condition of the cavalry, our influence 
 may no doubt be usefully exerted in keeping their numbers as complete 
 as possible, in getting them paid more regularly than they arc at
 
 CONTINGENT. 67 
 
 present, and in suggesting plans for their disposition and employ- 
 ment. 
 
 " ' The irregular infantry chiefly perform the duties of Sebundies, 
 and are indeed fit for nothing else. They may be useful in obviating 
 the necessity of employing the regular troops for the collection of the 
 Revenue, but it would be vain to think of their ever being made useful 
 in any other way. The pay of the Sepoys in the irregular corps is 
 from five rupees to five rupees and a half a month. There is also 
 a party of about 200 Arabs included under the head of irregular 
 troops. 
 
 " ' The two regular battalions belonging to Salabut Khan are very 
 respectable corps. They ai'e commanded by an Englishman of the 
 name of Drew, who has a few other Englishmen employed as officers 
 under him. The men are dressed like our 'Sepoys, and aimed with 
 our muskets, and, what is of much greater importance than anything 
 else, they are very regularly paid. These corps are always stationed 
 in advance, and I believe that their fidelity and discipline may on all 
 occasions be confidently relied on. 
 
 " ' The Nizam's own establishment of Regular Infantry is the most 
 important part of his whole army to us. It is that which we are most 
 concerned in improving and maintaining in efficiency, and to which 
 our influence and attention may be most usefully and most successfully 
 directed. It consists of six battalions, nominally of 800 men each, 
 which are divided into two brigades. Each brigade is commanded by 
 an European officer, who is called a Major, and each separate battalion 
 has an European Captain Commandant and an European Adjutant. 
 The men are dressed like our Sepoys, and armed with our muskets, 
 and their establishment of native officers is nearly the same as that 
 maintained in our native corps. The nominal pay of the men is seven 
 rupees a month. Each battalion has a brigade of sis-pounders and 
 four tumbrils attached to it. 
 
 " ' To make his establishment really useful, both the number and 
 respectability of the British officers ought to be gradually increased, 
 the corps ought to be maintained at their full nominal Establishment ; 
 the men ought to be well paid and regularly disciplined, and they 
 should be supplied occasionally with arms, accoutrements, and ammu- 
 nition, to be purchased by the Nizam out of our stores. But the 
 prescribing of these measures will be of fno avail unless the Resident 
 has the means of ascertaining that they ai*e really adopted ; and this 
 he cannot have if he is obliged to rely for information upon the officers 
 immediately belonging to the corps ; both became, being dependent in 
 a considerable degree upon the Nizam's chief officer for the advantage 
 and security of their situations, they would be afraid to report any of 
 his abuses to the Resident, and because they would, in many c: 
 
 * F 2
 
 68 THE HYDERABAD 
 
 find tlnir own personal interest, either in joining in the extortions and 
 peculations of the Mootsuddies, or in practising extortions and pecula- 
 tions of their own. But if an officer, on the part of our own Govern- 
 ment, were stationed in Berar, and invested with a general superintend- 
 ence and control over these corps, he would he able not only to keep 
 the Resident constantly and accurately informed of their real condition, 
 but also to exercise, upon the spot, that immediate personal authority 
 which is indispensably necessary, first to raise them to a state of effi- 
 ciency, and afterwards to check the operation of the numerous causes 
 which would otherwise tend to reduce them to decay. If this measure 
 were adopted, the establishment would soon become extremely 
 respectable, and would conduce, in a very important degree, to 
 preserve the internal tranquillity of the country, to support the autho- 
 rity of the Nizam's Government, and to confirm the security of our 
 own interests. The maintenance of our establishment of regular 
 troops, officered by persons of English birth or descent, is at once the 
 most safe and the most effectual method of improving the military 
 force of our Native allies, and affords perhaps the best remedy that 
 can be applied to the defects which are inherent in the system of 
 subsidiary alliances.' 
 
 " In consequence of the absence of the Governor-General from the 
 Presidency, no determination was come to at the" time on the above 
 communication, and Mr. Russell addressed a second letter to Govern- 
 ment, dated 31st March 1813, of which the following is a copy of the 
 first four paragraphs : — 
 
 " ' Soon after the mutiny which took place in his corps last November, 
 Mr. Gordon expressed a wish to retire from the Nizam's service, and 
 Rajah Chundoo Lall transferred the men of his corps to Mr. Beckett, 
 with orders to complete the battalion previously raised by him to the 
 strength of 800 privates, and also to raise a second battalion of the 
 same strength. Mr. Beckett has already made considerable progress 
 towards the completion of this corps, to which the name of the 
 " Russell Brigade" has been given. The men are armed, clothed, and 
 equipped in every respect like our own Sepoys, and I trust they will 
 be paid also with equal regularity. The first battalion is now paid out 
 of my treasury on the 1st of every month by an order on the Peishcai', 
 and I hope I shall be able to prevail on Rajah Chundoo Lall to extend 
 the same arrangement to the second battalion as soon as it is completed. 
 By the enclosed Return of the detail which has been fixed for this new 
 brigade, the Right Honourable the Governor- General will see that it 
 will amount altogetk^r to very near two thousand men, and that a 
 train of artillery, consisting of one - 1-pounder, four G-pounders, and 
 two 5|-inch howitzers, is to be attached to it. 
 
 "'In consequence of the application contained in my despatch to
 
 CONTINGENT. 69 
 
 the Chief Secretary of the 4th August 1812, Captain Beckett's original 
 battalion has already been supplied with arms and accoutrements. I 
 have now the honour to enclose a list of the articles which are required 
 to complete the equipment of the new brigade in its full strength, 
 and have been desired by the Minister to request that he may be 
 permitted to purchase them out of our stores at Secunderabad, on 
 indent under the signature of the Commandant and the counter- 
 signature of the Resident, to be, of course, paid for by the Nizam's 
 Government. 
 
 " ' Mr. Beckett, by whom the Russell Brigade is now commanded, is 
 a gentleman of birth and education. He has been for several years in 
 the military profession, has seen a great deal of service, and is perfectly 
 well acquainted with the languages, manners, and customs of India. I 
 have the fullest confidence in his integrity and talents, and am satisfied 
 that he is in every respect qualified to do credit to the situation in 
 which he is placed. All the other officers are gentlemen of unques- 
 tionable character, and as soon as the Native part of the Establishment 
 is completed, I shall recommend the Minister to make some addition to 
 the number.' 
 
 " The suggestions of the Resident were approved of in a letter, 
 dated 15th of May 1813, in the following terms : — 
 
 " ' I am directed to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 
 31st March, reporting the progress which has been made in forming a 
 brigade of regular infantry in the service of the Nizam, under the 
 command of Mr. Beckett, and communicating an application from 
 Rajah Chundoo Lall for permission to purchase from the public stores 
 the arms, accoutrements, and other articles required to complete the 
 equipments of the brigade. 
 
 " ' The Governor- General in Council having been pleased to comply 
 with the Rajah's application, the necessary communication will be 
 made to the Honourable the Governor in Council of Fort St. George, 
 who will be requested to communicate with you on the subject. 
 
 " ' Tour report on the state and progress of the new brigade, and of 
 the respectable and efficient footing on which it is to be placed, is very 
 satisfactory to the Governor- General in Council. His Lordship in 
 Council entirely concurs with you in the expediency of gradually 
 effecting a reduction in the Nizam's Irregular Infantry, and of supply- 
 ing their place with corps formed on the plan of the brigade com- 
 manded by Mr. Beckett, and his Lordship in Council would approve 
 of your availing yourself of any favourable opportunity which may 
 present itself of pointing out the advantage of such a measure to the 
 Minister.' 
 
 " Captain Sydenham had been previously invested with the general 
 superintendence of the Nizam's troops in Berar, and he was assisted in 
 the duty by a Brigade Major. *
 
 70 THE HYDERABAD 
 
 "I find a letter from the Secret Committee, dated the 3rd April 
 1815, in which they deprecated onr disciplining the troops of onr 
 Native allies generally, on the ground of its furnishing means of offence 
 against ourselves ; and another letter, dated Sth December 1819, strongly 
 objecting to the appointment of half-pay officers of His Majesty's 
 Army to the service of the native Powers. 
 
 " In reply to the last communication, the Supreme Government 
 wrote as follows : — 
 
 " ' At Hyderabad and Nagpore the Residents had seen the policy of 
 fashioning a portion of the allied army, so as that it might be eventually 
 serviceable to your Government, while it would really be efficacious 
 towards keeping within due submission the Zemindars who were other- 
 wise habitually refractory. Having satisfied the Ministers of the 
 benefit which would be derived to the State by the proper organisation 
 of part of the forces, the Resident agreed to furnish a certain number 
 of European officers to discipline what were called the Reformed Corps. 
 The perfecting those troops in military exercise might not have been 
 politic unless their devotion to us were secured by the stipulation that 
 they should receive their pay through the European officers, from funds 
 furnished for the purpose by the Minister to the Resident. The 
 Reformed Corps thus became in truth a part of your army, though an 
 inexpensive one, as they were maintained by their ostensible Sovereign. 
 Their fidelity to your Government was not a delusive speculation. At 
 the battle of Kirkee the Peishwah's Reformed troops fought on our 
 side against their nominal master, and this was merely through the 
 influence of their officers, their pay being received by those troops 
 directly from the Peishwah. 
 
 " ' After such an experience, the motive for keeping those corps 
 efficient at Hyderabad and Nagpore was much strengthened. The 
 supplying them with officers could not afford any private gratification 
 to the Governor-General or Members of . Council which might uncon- 
 sciously bias their judgment as to the measure. Holding the Residents 
 responsible for the condition and management of those Reformed 
 Corps, Government left the selection of officers absolutely and exclusively 
 to those gentlemen. The request of the Residents was met in every 
 instance where some decisive obstacle did not oppose itself. 
 
 " ' As this was a temporary provision for the maintenance of corps in 
 themselves liable to be suddenly reduced at the- will of the Native 
 Sovereign, it did not occur 'to the Governor-General in Council as 
 necessary to submit the arrangement specially to your Honourable 
 Court, though the applications of the Residents, and our assent to them, 
 of course appeared on Vur proceedings.' 
 
 " The letter from the Secret Committee, dated the 3rd April 1815 ) 
 was not replied to until 1823, when the arguments contained in it were
 
 CONTINGENT. 71 
 
 combat ted in a letter which I understand was written by Mr. Adam 
 while at Bombay. The main arguments used are, that if commanded 
 by British officers the Native troops of our allies would be virtually 
 ours, or that if they deserted their European officers, they would be 
 unable Id act with discipline, and that under any circumstances such 
 reformed troops would never be able to compete with our regular 
 armies. 
 
 " In the meantime, in the year 1816, I find a correspondence re- 
 garding the Nizam's cavalry, of which the following is an extract of a 
 letter from the Resident at Hyderabad, dated 15th April 181G : — 
 
 " ' There are two measures, however, which before all others, would 
 be fundamentally necessary to the proper constitution of this force — the 
 provision of funds for its regular payment, and the placing it under 
 the direction of European officers. Any plan of reform which might 
 be undertaken would, I am persuaded, be found totally nugatory 
 without the security of these two measures. 
 
 " ' The cavalry would neither be placed upon a respectable footing, 
 nor maintained in efficiency, nor employed with judgment, promptitude, 
 or effect in any case whatever, unless it were commanded and led 
 by European officers. For all ordinary and internal purposes, the 
 command might still be exercised by their own officers, and each 
 division, when they are separately employed upon any service, should 
 also have an European officer to lead and direct it. 
 
 " ' These two principal objects, for both the regular payment and the 
 efficient command of the cavalry, being once accomplished, there would 
 be no difficulty in introducing such few minor provisions as would be 
 necessary. The following are perhaps the principal : — 
 
 '"1. Every man and horse should be examined and registered, 
 either by the European commanding officer or by some person dele- 
 gated by him for that purpose. 
 
 '"2. All musters shall be made in the same way. 
 
 " ' 3. The value of every horse should be estimated and entered in the 
 Register ; and the owner of every horse killed or disabled in service 
 should be paid for him by the Government at that rate. 
 
 " ' 4. The European commanding officer should be authorised to 
 see that every man is regularly and duly paid, and to receive and 
 redress all complaints which may be made to him of injustice or 
 severity of any kiud. 
 
 " ' The pay of every Silladar horseman should not be less than 
 forty rupees, and that of every Bargeer not less than fifteen rupees a 
 month, and this pay they should receive Avithout any stoppages or 
 reduction whatever. J 
 
 " ' The European commanding officer would correspond regularly 
 with the Resident and the Ao-cnt in Berar.
 
 72 THE HYDERABAD 
 
 " ' The introduction of this plan in the first instance will certainly 
 be attended with difficulties, but I hope they will not be insurmount- 
 able. The joint authority of Rajah Chundoo Lall and Rajah Govind 
 Buksh would probably be sufficient for the adoption of every measure 
 that would be necessary ; and as the plan in its present proposed extent 
 would not involve the interests of any of the principal Ameers about 
 the Court, it might not be found necessaiy to make any reference to 
 the Nizam's personal authority. This, indeed, it would be desirable 
 to avoid if possible, as we are almost sure of encountering his opposition 
 in every measure we propose, be the intrinsic merits w r hat they may. 
 It would also be important to abstain as far as possible from any 
 proposal that would be likely to excite the opposition, either of Rajah 
 Chundoo Lall or Rajah Govind Buksh. 
 
 " ' For the present, also, it would be sufficient to propose the plan to 
 Rajah Chundoo Lall, both as limited in its extent and temporary in its 
 duration. If it should be found on trial to answer the expectations it 
 is reasonable to entertain of it, the Ministers themselves would derive 
 so much security and advantage from its operation, that they would 
 hereafter concur with little difficulty in any proposal for increasing the 
 numerical strength of the party and making it a permanent Esta- 
 blishment.' 
 
 " To the above propositions, a reply was sent to the Secretary to 
 Government, in a letter dated 27th of July 1816, from which the 
 following is an extract: — 
 
 " ' I now proceed to the still more important object of the reform of 
 the Nizam's cavalry. This subject, and the means of effecting it, appear 
 to have been so carefully examined and fully discussed by yourself and 
 Captain Sydenham, with a perfect knowledge of all local and personal 
 considerations involved in the plan, as to leave little more to be stated 
 by the Governor- General in Council than his concurrence in your senti- 
 ments on the question generally, as well as on the details and his desire 
 that the necessary communications may be opened with the Govern- 
 ment of His Highness the Nizam without delay, with a view to carrying 
 it into effect.' 
 
 " From the period when the above despatch was written, the number 
 of European officers in the service of the Nizam appears to have been 
 gradually increasing. At the recommendation of the Resident, 
 Company's officers, King's officers, and individuals not in either of 
 the Services, were appointed. 
 
 " On the 7th of May 1828, the Honourable Court wrote in the 
 following terms : — 
 
 "After acknowledging the receipt of our despatch of the 21st 
 January 1824, and referring to your previous letter of the 18th of 
 December 1823, you express a hope that the arguments therein con-
 
 CONTINGENT. 73 
 
 fcained will have induced us to review the whole question, and to 
 modify the orders conveyed in our despatch in the Military Department 
 of the 21st January 1824, which, in consequence of a continued state of 
 war. and the demand thereby' occasioned for the services of the officers 
 _:ing' to our army, you had hitherto been unable to carry into effect 
 without completely disorganising the disciplined corps of the Native 
 Towers. You further advert to the tranquillity and good order which 
 had been maintained during the late war, by means of those disciplined 
 corps, in the States of Hyderabad and Nagpore ; and after quoting a 
 passage from the Minute of the Marquis of Hastings, dated 3rd June 
 1820 (which was before us when our political despatch of the 21st 
 January 1824 was written), you conclude by urging on our considera- 
 tion the extreme severity with which our orders would operate on the 
 British officers not in the service of His Majesty or of the Company, 
 now employed with these disciplined corps, should their removal be 
 insisted on. 
 
 " ' That portion of your letter which respects our orders in the 
 Military Department has been replied to from that department. That 
 having been done, there is little for us to add in this depai'tment 
 further than that our sentiments on the general question remain 
 unchanged. 
 
 " ' The arguments contained in yo^r letter of the 18th December 
 1823, bear exclusively on the view of the subject taken in our Secret 
 Committee's despatch of the 3rd Api'il 1815, and we are willing to 
 admit that, in that particular view of the question, they have great 
 weight. But you must be sensible that the more serious objections to 
 the system were stated in considerable detail in our despatch from this 
 department of the 21st January 1824. 1 We have never denied nor 
 doubted that the system is productive of some important advantages ; 
 but what we have contended is, that these advantages are too dearly 
 purchased, and that on the whole the disadvantages preponderate. It 
 appears to us that you look at one side of the question only, whilst we have 
 endeavoured to regard it in its various bearings; and until it is shown 
 that we have committed some mistake either in our data or in our con- 
 clusions, we cannot be expected to alter our opinions. 
 
 " ' That we never contemplated a sudden and total change of system 
 must have been obvious to you from paragraphs 78 and 90 of 
 our despatch from this department of the 21st January 1824. But 
 
 1 This is a very long and discursive despatch, containing a great variety 
 of objections to the system of interference with, the internal concerns of 
 Native States. The most forcible objection, to my mind, appears to be that 
 which refers to the loss of influence and emolument which it occasions to 
 the Native officers of such States.
 
 74 THE HYDERABAD 
 
 there is a wide diffei'ence between reluctantly tolerating for a time an 
 evil which cannot be promptly and radically cured without the inflic- 
 tion of a greater (every palliation of which it is susceptible being in 
 the meanwhile applied), and pronouncing it to be a benefit which, 
 so far from wishing to withdraw, we should be anxious to diffuse. 
 
 " ' In conclusion, we refer you to the positive instructions which will 
 be conveyed to you from the Military Department in an early despatch.' 
 
 " Sir Charles Metcalfe, shortly after the receipt of this despatch, 
 recorded a Minute under date the 17th May 1829, from which the 
 following is an extract. 
 
 " ' The existence of a force paid by a Native State, but commanded 
 by our officers and entirely under our control, is undoubtedly a great 
 political advantage. It is an accession to our military strength at the 
 expense of another Power, and without cost to us ; an accession of 
 military strength in a conquered Empire where military strength is 
 everything. The advantage is immense. But I cannot say that I think 
 the arrangement a just one towards the Native State. The same cir- 
 cumstances which make it so advantageous to us, make it unjust to the 
 State at whose expense it is upheld. 
 
 The subserviency of the Minister at Hyderabad has rendered this 
 kind of force in the Nizam's territories a sort of plaything for the 
 Resident, and an extensive source of patronage, at the Nizam's expense. 
 The temptation is difficult to resist, and it is more to be regretted than 
 wondered at that the expense is increasing. It appears from returns 
 prepared in the Secretary's office that the military and civil allowances 
 paid by the Nizam's Government to British officers amounted, according 
 to earliest report received from Hyderabad, under date 1st January 1824, 
 to 11,11,098 Hyderabad rupees, the number of officers being 101. On 
 the 28th January 1825, to 9,16,260 for 83 officers. On the 1st March 
 1826, 9,99,420 rupees for 101 officers. On the 3rd December 1826, to 
 rupees 11,34,828 for 116 persons. On the 31st December 1827, to 
 rupees 12,48,696 for 119 persons; and on the 1st December 1828, 
 rupees 13,49,880 for 123 persons. The necessity for this increase in 
 the last two years is by no means obvious. The intermediate decrease, 
 in 1824 and 1825, was no doubt owing principally, if not wholly, to the 
 absence of officers duriug the Burmese War, who must, however, have 
 returned by the end of 1826. 
 
 " ' It is not to be expected that we could withdraw entirely from all 
 civil and military interference *in the Nizam's Government with perfect 
 and unalloyed benefit. 
 
 " ' We must be prepared for mismanagement in the civil administra- 
 tion, whoever might beV linister. The loss of the force at our disposal 
 would be a positive diminution of our military strength ; and in future 
 we should again have to complain of the inefficiency of the auxiliary
 
 CONTINGENT. 75 
 
 force which the Nizam is bound by treaty to furnish. We must also 
 be prepared, if we withdraw oar officers, to see the formation of corps 
 under European or East Indian adventurers, such as formerly existed 
 in the Nizam's service. 
 
 " ' Nevertheless, the restoration of independence to the Nizam's 
 Government appears to me to be an object worthy of our attention; 
 and worth some loss and some hazard, whenever it can be effectually 
 accomplished.' 
 
 " It is within the recollection of Government that the Secret Com- 
 mittee, in a despatch dated lGth June 1830, strongly disapproved an 
 arrangement which had been entered into with the State of Nagpore, 
 by which we relinquished all control over the troops of that State, 
 receiving in lieu a tribute or subsidy of eight lacs of rupees per 
 annum. It is curious to find the Secret Committee of that day holding 
 a line of argument wholly at variance with that of their predecessors, 
 and finding fault with Government for doing that which the Govern- 
 ment, considering the measure as an abstract question, had all along 
 been opposed to. Not that there was any inconsistency on the part or 
 Government; it parted with a positive good for what it conceived 
 would be a greater benefit. 
 
 " This will appear more clearly from the following passages extracted 
 from Sir Charles Metcalfe's Minute, recorded on the receipt of the 
 above dispatch. 
 
 " ' The real effects of the modification of our engagements with the 
 Nagpore State were these : — We relinquished to the Rajah the com- 
 mand of a body of his own troops before commanded by British officers, 
 and the government of a portion of his territory which had been 
 reserved for the pay of those troops. We also abrogated several 
 stipulations which gave us the right of interference in his internal 
 administration, and that of introducing our troops into his fortresses, 
 retaining nevertheless the right of interference in extreme cases. We 
 became entitled at the same time to a tribute of eight lacs per annum, 
 applicable to our own expenses. Such are the changes actually pro- 
 duced by that arrangement, and as they do not necessarily involve any 
 consequences beyond what are apparent, the good and evil of the scheme 
 may be at once estimated. The good seems to me to predominate, 
 because we gain an accession of income highly desirable to meet our 
 own expenditure, and more, because we improve the condition of our 
 ally, and release him from galling bondage. The loss of the command 
 of the auxiliary force is not a loss of such extent as need be attended 
 with any serious apprehension. One half of it is replaced by the 
 tribute acquired ; and neither our security in India, nor our power to 
 effect every proper object of an alliance with a Native State, will depend 
 on the other half. 
 
 »
 
 7G THE HYDERABAD 
 
 " ' It appears, in the case of Nagpore, that, under the peculiar circum- 
 stances of our conquest of the country, and subsequent establishment 
 of an infant Rajah, whose territory we ruled for him during his 
 minority, we acquired both the right and the habit of internal inter- 
 ference, and secured the former by treaty when we were relaxing the 
 latter. With respect to Nagpore, therefore, whether it was desirable 
 to maintain or relinquish some of the rights which we had acquired 
 first by conquest and afterwards by treaty, is a question of policy, on 
 which there may naturally be a difference of opinion. But the case of 
 Nagpore is a singular one. That of Mysore approaches it the nearest. 
 No other great State is in the same predicament. 
 
 " ' Let that of Hyderabad, for instance, be taken as an example. We 
 never conquered the Nizam's territories. Our relation with that Prince 
 has always been one of alliance, and his alliance was once held to be of 
 so much importance, that the officer who negotiated the treaty esta- 
 blishing it, was rewarded with a baronetcy. Since that period we have 
 assumed much interference in that country, not warranted by any of 
 our treaties. We effected the elevation of a Minister, who, emboldened 
 by our support, ceased to be the Minister of his own Sovereign, and 
 became, in fact, the reckless ruler of the country. Our extended 
 interference then became necessary to remedy the mischiefs created by 
 our former interference. We became bound to rectify our own mis- 
 doings. But when a new Nizam, succeeding to the lost rights of his 
 father, demanded that our interference should be withdrawn, the claim 
 could hardly, in justice, be denied. It was granted, and the opportunity 
 was taken to withdraw the protection which we had granted to the 
 Minister, and what had so long been a cause of constant embarrassment 
 in our proceedings. Our command of a considerable portion of the 
 Nizam's troops still continues, but this is not derived from any treaty, 
 but from an arrangement with the Minister whom we supported, and 
 who, being still in power, finds this force essential for his own security 
 and domination. When that cause for its continuance shall cease, it is 
 not improbable that the Nizam's Government will become impatient of 
 the burthen, and demand its removal. I am disposed to think that we 
 should have no right to resist the claim, although nothing, I presume, 
 would now be done on such a demand without pi'evious sanction from 
 home. We should have a right to revert to those stipulations of treaty, 
 in lieu of which an auxiliary force was placed under the command of 
 European officers, and thence became subject by degrees to our entire 
 authority ; but I do not believe that any of our treaties with the 
 Hyderabad State would justify our assumption of the permanent com- 
 mand of its armies ; anVl it is only with regard to a specific force that 
 we have ever pretended to exercise the command. Not only is our 
 command of the Nizam's auxiliary force liable to be withdrawn on the
 
 CONTINGENT. 77 
 
 Nizam's requisition, but it is likely to cease from another cause. It 
 gives an undue power to the Government over its subjects, and may 
 lead to our being the instruments of oppression. The aid of that 
 force ought to be refused when we doubt the justice of the cause for 
 which it may be required ; and if the demand were often made and 
 often rejected, such a state of things could not last long. It would 
 almost necessarily lead to a dissolution of the arrangement by 
 which we hold the practical command of a body of the Nizam's; 
 troops. 
 
 " ' I have taken the instance of Hyderabad, because our interference 
 there has been great and of long continuance in various forms. But it 
 is not justified by treaty, and what remains of it must in justice yield 
 to a proper demand on the part of the Nizam.' 
 
 " From the correspondence out o" which the above copious extracts 
 have been made, two facts may be held to be established — first, that the 
 disciplining the troops of the Native Powers by means of British officers 
 was regarded as a positive accession of strength to ourselves ; and 
 secondly, as involving such an undue interference with the affairs of 
 our allies, that it was a proceeding not altogether just to them. 
 
 " The question for present consideration seems to be whethei 1 , in the 
 event of the Nizam's requiring the withdrawal of the European officers 
 from the troops, we should be warranted in refusing compliance, and 
 whether, under the instructions from the Home Authorities, we should at 
 all events await their instructions before doing so. 
 
 " With regard to the first question, I am decided 1 y of opinion that 
 there is no agreement, express or implied, between us and His Highness s 
 Government which could warrant our keeping European officers with 
 His Highness's troops against his wishes. 
 
 " With regard to the second point, all I can find on record with 
 express reference to the point, is an order from the Secret Committee, 
 dated the 18th June 1830, in these words : — ' Tou will not, except in 
 any case of emergency, alter any existing Treaty with a Native Power 
 without a previous communication with us.' The entire despatch, 
 however, is so hostile to our relinquishment of any military advantages 
 we may have obtained, that it is doubtful how far Government would 
 be justified in withdrawing its officers at the requisition of the Nizam 
 without a previous reference to the Home Authorities. 
 
 " But we have no treaty stipulating for the retention of European 
 officers, or otherwise authorising us to interfere with the Nizam's troops. 
 The treaty says he shall furnish a certain force in time of war. Would 
 it not be a very strained interpretation of the treaty to ai^gue that we 
 are justified in appointing our own officers to his troops as a pre- 
 cautionary measure to secure their efficiency in time of war?"
 
 78 LETTER TO 
 
 Much of the information contained in this note has already 
 appeared in the Hyderabad Papers submitted to Parliament in 
 1824, and this precis, coming down to a later date, drawn up by 
 General Eraser's friend, Mr. (afterwards Sir William Hay) 
 Macnaghten, was probably forwarded for the Resident's guidance 
 on his arrival at Hyderabad. 
 
 Here is another letter to Lord Elphinstone, in which General 
 Fraser describes his first interview with the Nizam. It is dated 
 26th October 1838 :— 
 
 " I am much obliged to your lordship for the intelligence you were so 
 cood as to give me regarding political events, for though there are 
 gentlemen here who have correspondents in Lord Auckland's camp, I 
 do not think we get much more news by this means than we find in 
 the public papers. We seem to be in rather a difficult situation all 
 over India ; and what with the Burmese, the Ghoorkas, several hostile 
 tribes of Afghans, the Persians, and the Russians against us, and pro- 
 bably much disaffection to our Government on the part of many of the 
 native Princes, our position cannot be considered to be exempt from 
 danger, or such as .not to require all the ability, foresight and energy, 
 with which nature or experience may have endowed the Governor- 
 General. 
 
 " If Russia is really in the background of the melee, our danger is 
 largely increased. Her Government is too calm, and possessed of too 
 calculating a judgment to have promoted war, or to have given us 
 grounds for commencing it, without being well aware of the circum- 
 stances and the probable course of future events. It is impossible to 
 say how far the Russians may have tampered with the external enemies 
 around our frontier, or with the Native States that are nearer to our- 
 selves. I have found no Russian vakeel here yet, though I have 
 received communications from other Residents respecting Nepaulese and 
 Persian emissaries. There is one of the latter at this moment in the 
 city of Hyderabad, who is supposed to have letters about him for the 
 Nizam's Government. The Persian friend with whom he is living, 
 obtained possession of some of his papers, and sent them to my 
 Assistant, Capt. Malcolm. They were two genuine Khureetas in 
 original, from the Governor- General and the Governor of Bombay, 
 addressed to the Prince (Heir apparent) of Persia, and contained 
 nothing but the ordinary compliments. The Persian with whom the 
 man is living, still supposes that he will discover some letters from 
 Persia, if he is allowecX'o remain quiet for a few days. There was a 
 traveller of this description at Bhopaul a few days ago, as the Resident 
 wrote to me, who distinctly stated to the person with whom lie put up 
 on his arrival there : that t he had some letters about him from the Persian
 
 LORD ELPHINSTONE. 79 
 
 Court for different Native Princes; but he unfortunately made his 
 escape before he could be apprehended. That person, however, from 
 the description I received of him, cannot be the same that 1 have been 
 Speaking of. You mention that the Russian expedition on Khiva has 
 failed. We have not yet heard how this event occurred, but whether 
 the Russians have met with a repulse or not, it is important to know 
 that they had actually commenced their march in that direction. If 
 they have really met with a reverse at Khiva, the newspaper reports of 
 their being in force at Samarcand, and intending to proceed in the direc- 
 tion of Candahar, cannot be true. 
 
 " I can hardly say yet whether I like or dislike my duty here, for I 
 have as yet had little or none to perform. About a dozen Persian notes 
 pass every day between the Minister and myself; but they are of such 
 little importance that I have usually nothing more to do than to hand 
 them over to Captain Moore or Captain Malcolm in their several 
 departments. Men of rank, influence and ability, connected with the 
 Court, are prevented from coming near me by the jealousy of the 
 Minister. I have tried to turn this custom to advantage, by applying 
 to the Minister for a report on the state of the country, which, as I 
 have truly said to him, I can obtain from no one but himself. This 
 may furnish me with materials, which I shall try to strengthen from 
 other sources, for such observations aa. I may see fit to make, either 
 officially or privately, to Lord Auckland, on the condition of the Nizam's 
 dominions. I am inclined to suspect there has been some exaggeration 
 in the accounts we have heard of the maladministration of this 
 country. I found it, on crossing the Kistna, more fertile and better 
 cultivated than many of the Company's districts I had passed through. 
 Very few complaints have yet reached me, though this may, perhaps, 
 be attributed to a system that appears to have been long established 
 here, of discouraging the presentation of petitions to the Resident. I 
 understand from officers who come in here occasionally from different 
 parts of the Nizam's country, that the ryots are at least as happy as in 
 our own territory, and that they are by no means disposed to consider 
 as a grievance the absence of our artificial arrangements for the 
 administration of justice and the collection of revenue. 
 
 " Chundoo Lall, the Minister, is a remarkable man. Above seventy- 
 seven years of age, attenuated to a mere shadow, and bent nearly 
 double, he yet has all the active intelligence of earlier life, and the 
 same keen and expressive eye, with that pleasing and benevolent smile 
 that never abandons him. When he called upon me he was obliged, on 
 alighting from his elephant, to be borne uj) the steps of the Residency 
 in a tonjon. 1 He conversed with me for an hour in the most animated 
 way possible, speaking Hindustani and Persian with equal fluency. 
 1 A sort of sedan chair.
 
 80 rin: nizam. 
 
 "When I returned his visit, which was in the evening a few days 
 afterwards, he gave me a magnificent entertainment in the grandest 
 and most Oriental style. I had paid my respects to the Nizam on the 
 same day that the Minister first called upon me, and immediately after 
 his visit, so that he only just had time to go from my house to the 
 Palace to conduct me to His HIghness's presence. The Nizam received 
 me standing in front of his musnud, and embraced me in the usual 
 Mohammedan fashion. He is a tall, fine-looking man, but with rather 
 a heavy, unintellectual expression. He spoke to me, from some motive 
 of form and etiquette, only through the channel of the Minister, who 
 sat on the ground immediately behind me. He said very little, and his 
 principal questions were to ask after your Lordship's health and that 
 of the Governor. General — how long I had been on the road, and what 
 sort of climate there was at Madras. He abstained as much as pos- 
 sible from looking me in the face, but was occupied in moving his lips, 
 as if he were muttering something to himself, while he stared in a 
 vacant manner upon the empty air before him in the open apartment 
 where we were sitting. Tired of his silence, and fancying that he, 
 perhaps, expected me to say something, I addressed a few remarks to 
 him on the honourable office to which I had been appointed at his 
 Court, and expressed the usual diplomatic hope that I might be so 
 happy as to maintain and strengthen the friendly relations subsisting 
 between the two Governments. I thought that this would have sti- 
 mulated him to some civility in return, but he replied oidy by the two 
 words, ' Insha Ullah', — Deo volente. When we came away I questioned 
 the gentlemen who were with me whether there had not been some 
 apparent want of politeness on the part of His Highness ; but they 
 informed me that, on the contrary, he had spoken rnore than they had 
 ever heard him do before, and that his manner had been unusually 
 gracious. 
 
 " The question inspecting the rate of exchange at which the troops at 
 Secunderabad should be paid is rather a difficult one, and I have sent 
 your Lordship a' memo, on this subject by the Military Secretary, 
 Major Moore, rather than commit my own judgment on a matter which 
 I have not yet studied sufficiently. 
 
 " The best and most effective measure, perhaps, is that which at once 
 suggested itself to me, and which, indeed, I have often thought of as 
 being very desirable in Travancore also. This is to propose to the 
 Native State to coin rupees not only of an undeviating value, but of a 
 value exactly equal to the Company's rupee. The legend on the 
 money might still be that of the Nizam, so that the sovereign right of 
 coinage would still be\tvcserved to him. To insure a fixed and per- 
 manent value, it would be requisite that there should be but one mint 
 in the Nizam's dominions, and that it should be superintended by a
 
 THE SUBSIDIARY FORCE. 81 
 
 European officer. At present money is coined at several places in the 
 country. The next best, and indeed the only alternative plan, so far 
 as I can perceive, would be to fix the exchange of the Company's rupee 
 according to the intrinsic value of the average Hyderabad rupee, which 
 Major Moore thinks would be about 100 Madras rupees for 117 or 117^ 
 Hyderabad rupees. I enclose Major Moore's written report on the 
 subject. 
 
 " I have adopted the same plan with regard to the information 
 which you desire as to the number of troops which should be kept in 
 this country to ensure its tranquillity, and of the number which might 
 be spared for service beyond the frontier. I should myself have been 
 disposed to be satisfied with a less number in this country, but I would 
 by no means think of placing my opinion in opposition to Major Moore, 
 who is a man of the soundest sense and discretion, and, from his long 
 residence in the country, intimately acquainted with its peculiarities 
 and with the disposition of the people. Although perfectly quiet now, 
 he thinks there are many jaghiredars, Naiks, Bheel chiefs, and others, 
 who remain so only because they know we have a force at command 
 by which they could at any time be coerced and punished, or reduced 
 to obedience. A sketch map accompanies Major Moore's memorandum, 
 by which your Lordship will at once perceive the disposition of our 
 military posts furnished by the Nizam's Army throughout the country. 
 The great number of detached posts on the North- West are for the 
 purpose of keeping in order the Bheels, who abound there ; and I 
 understand that whenever the experiment has been tried of withdraw- 
 ing any of those small detachments, the Bheels have always descended 
 from their fastnesses, and renewed their depredations. 
 
 " The Subsidiary Force should consist, according to the 3rd Article of 
 the Treaty of 1800, of 8000 firelocks, and 1000 horse, besides artillery, 
 which it certainly does not do at present ; and by the 12th Article of 
 the same Treaty, if war breaks out between the contracting parties and 
 any other Power whatever, the Subsidiary Force, with the reserve of 
 two battalions to remain near H.H.'s person, may be immediately put 
 into motion for the purpose of opposing the enemy. 
 
 " The same Article specifies the number of troops of the Nizam's 
 own Army who, upon such an occasion, are to accompany and 
 co-operate with the Subsidiary Force. 
 
 " If anything particular occurs connected with the great arrange- 
 ments in progress around us, or with the events that may arise out of 
 them, and not so secret as to be incommunicable, it would give me 
 peculiar pleasure to hear of them occasionally from your Lordship, if 
 you could spare a moment's leisure for the purpose. I am rather sur- 
 prised that the Governor-General does not direct one of his Secretaries 
 to keep the Residents and Political Agents apprised, secretly and
 
 S2 MAJOK MOORE'S RETIREMENT. 
 
 confidentially, if necessary, of tlie course of important measures now 
 being undertaken on every side of our Indian possessions. A correct 
 knowledge of these might materially influence the line of policy that 
 would he expedient at the different Native Courts." 
 
 In a letter to his friend, the Foreign Secretary to the Govern- 
 ment of India, he mentions a second interview with the Nizam. 
 
 " Hyderabad, 29th November 1838. 
 
 " My dear Macnaghten, — I have just been writing to you officially 
 about the retirement of Major Moore. 1 A better or more useful public 
 officer has never served in India, and we lose by his departure more 
 than I can well express. Circumstances have rendered his return to 
 Europe unavoidable, and accounts recently received of the dangerous 
 state of his father's health have only hastened the fulfilment of the 
 resolution he had already entertained. I send you the Minister's 
 original note on the subject of Major Moore's pension, which you can 
 return to me after perusal. It will appear to you to be oddly worded, 
 till you recollect that the Minister never troubles himself about the 
 discipline or officering of the Army, but thinks only of papers, and 
 hoondees and finance accounts, and of Major Moore's character and 
 ability as exhibited in the management of these matters. The offer of 
 a pension has been perfectly spontaneous on the part of Chundoo Lall, 
 for, until my receipt of his note, the day before yesterday, I had no 
 communication with him or any human being on the subject. It is 
 probable that I should have adverted to it in sending in the official 
 announcement of Major Moore's resignation, though I had not thought 
 much about it, or by any means determined what I should propose. I 
 am satisfied, also, that Major Moore was as ignorant as myself of what 
 the Minister intended doing for him, and I am sure that no extraneous 
 means or influence whatever has been used to promote this object. I 
 hope that the Supreme Government will permit Major Moore to accept 
 this boon , for though the provision is a handsome and liberal one, it is, 
 in my opinion, well deserved. There are few other men uuder whom 
 the Nizam's Army would have attained so high a pitch of excellence. 
 Major Moore has not only acted as Military Secretary, Adjutant- 
 General, and Chef cl'Etat Major in every respect, but his general know- 
 ledge of the country and of Durbar politics, with his calm judgment 
 and conciliatory temper, have rendered him, in all other departments 
 as well as in his own, the most useful Assistant, I feel sure, that the 
 Residents here have ever had. 
 
 " I really do en\V you the task of regenerating Afghanistan, and 
 more so your acknowledged ability to accomplish that task. You seem 
 
 1 Afterwards for many years a Director of the East India Company.
 
 INTERVIEW WITH NIZAM. 83 
 
 to me to have an arduous duty before you, though I know not its exact 
 nature, nor do I suppose you know it yourself. I had some desire 
 formerly to go to Persia, though I never expressed it, because I thought, 
 and think still, that I could have managed the Russians at Teheran at 
 least as well as any of the Envoj^s we sent there. I knew a great 
 number of these Scythians in England, including Prince Lieven, then 
 only Count, and in training to succeed the then old Ambassador, 
 Count Woronzoff. They all spoke French as well as the French them- 
 selves, but English very imperfectly. This reminds me that I had a 
 good deal of conversation a few months ago at Cochin with Captain 
 Laplace, of the French frigate Artemise, on the affairs of India and 
 the views of the French Government, or what he thought ought to be 
 their views, in reference to this country. He spoke to me very 
 unreservedly, and I saw that his real mission was that of a military 
 and political observer and reporter. I should talk to you more about 
 this if we were sitting together, but it would be tiresome for both of 
 us in a letter. 
 
 " If you are with the Governor-General, pray give his Lordship my 
 respectful compliments, and say that I shall have the honour of writing 
 to him at the earliest opportunity . 
 
 " We are getting on very well here, and I have no fears of any sort. 
 There are alarmists, of course, as there are everywhere, but I see no 
 reason to attach importance to their representations. 
 
 " I requested another interview with the Nizam a few days ago, and 
 everybody here seems to think that very happy effects have resulted 
 from the visit. His Highness, they say, never appeared more pleased, 
 nor ever spoke so much or so graciously. He probably expected to be 
 censured, or to hear his country abused, as has, I imagine, been a good 
 deal the custom hei-etofore. But instead of this I gave the administra- 
 tion all the praise which I certainly thought it deserved, and abstained 
 from saying anything that could offend the feelings of His Highness 
 or of Chundoo Lall. Neither of them knew what I was going to talk 
 about, and therefore their satisfaction and relief from previous appre- 
 hension were the greater. After I had done speaking to His Highness, 
 which I did at some length, he dropped his proud and distrustful 
 expression of countenance, turned to me with a smile, and addressed 
 me direct for several minutes. He has since given proofs that what 
 there passed had produced a beneficial influojice on his mind, and those 
 here who know him better than I do, predict that with a few more 
 such interviews our mutual relations will assume a decided change for 
 the better. I am disposed, however, to think thatJt will be as well to 
 abstain from pressing for more frequent intercourse just at present, 
 until I have an opportunity of addressing Lord Auckland on certain 
 
 G 2
 
 84 LETTER. 
 
 leading points, and ascertaining his Lordship's sentiments regarding 
 them. 
 
 " I am very sorry I am going to lose you from your present situation 
 at head-quarters. I doubt not that all is for the best, and I am sure 
 that wherever you are you will be essentially serving the interests of 
 your country."
 
 85 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Prospects and Projects of Reform in the Hyderabad State — Views of the 
 Court of Directors, of Colonel Stewart, and of the Government of 
 India — Costliness of the Contingent and reluctance of the Nizam to 
 maintain it — General Fraser's Plan — Letter to the Resident at Mysore 
 — Chundoo Lall's illness — Lord Elphinstone and the Earl of Munster — 
 Letter from the Prince of Travancore. 
 
 When General Fraser had been long enough at the Hyderabad 
 Residency to become acquainted with the actual situation, as 
 revealed by the current records, and by such insight as he could 
 obtain, under the difficulties explained in his letters, into the lead- 
 ing personalities of the Court and Ministry, he soon formed and 
 expressed very decided views as to the malady with which the 
 State was afflicted, and as to the prospects and means of a cure. 
 The Court of Directors and the Supreme Government of India 
 seemed to have arrived, almost with unanimity, at a conviction of 
 the utter hopelessness of any internal, natural, or spontaneous 
 reform of the disorderly finance, and the want of all rule and 
 regularity that characterised the administration of the Nizam's 
 dominions. The only remedies that had at last come to be con- 
 sidered efficient amounted to practical annexation. The Court of 
 Directors in 1835 had disapproved of a proposal made by General 
 Fraser's predecessor, Colonel Stewart, for the reintroduction of Sir 
 Charles Metcalfe's European superintendents of districts — with- 
 drawn, it will be remembered, in 1829, on the accession of the 
 Nizam Nasir-ood-dowla — on the ground that it was liable to the 
 same objection as the direct assumption of government, without 
 possessing the same advantage, while it was evident that the dis- 
 orders of the Hyderabad State " must speedily work its own ex- 
 tinction, when the financial embarrassments x>f the Government 
 and the wretchedness of the people would constitute a case which 
 would justify, and in fact compel, a resort to the ultimate remedy
 
 86 COLONEL STEWART'S ADMISSIONS. 
 
 contemplated by Colonel Stewart, viz., that of taking the adminis- 
 tration, both financial and judicial, entirely into our own hands." 
 With this prospect in view, the Court of Directors, " in order to 
 avoid the imputation of having purposely allowed the country to 
 fall into ruin, so as to have an excuse for taking possession of it", 
 considered that the Nizam ought to be warned that we could not 
 be indifferent spectators of his misrule, and that he should be 
 urged to change his Minister, and to adopt such other measures as 
 might appear advisable for the purpose of securing good government. 
 
 The measure of changing the Minister never seems to have been 
 welcomed at Calcutta, where it had apparently become a settled 
 article of faith that Chundoo Lall, being dependent on our support, 
 was devoted to British interests, and was, therefore, the best man 
 for Hyderabad. A warning communication, something to the 
 effect suggested by the Home authorities, was consecpiently made 
 to the Nizam by Colonel Stewart, through the Minister, without 
 any beneficial results. The Eesident was expressly told that the 
 " entire responsibility" for the success of the measures of reform 
 recommended must rest with the Nizam's Government. 
 
 It is very remarkable that, in the following extract from one of 
 his letters to the Government of India, written in 1834, Colonel 
 Stewart had very distinctly admitted that the responsibility for the 
 maladministration of the Nizam's dominions chiefly rested with 
 our Government, this admission being very much in accordance 
 with Sir Charles Metcalfe's views already published in a Blue 
 Book. 
 
 " Those who have witnessed the course ot our policy at this Court 
 
 for the last thirty years, who have seen how we put up creatures of our 
 
 own as Ministers, and supported them against their Sovereign ; how we 
 
 have obtained the control of all the effective troops, and how we assumed 
 
 the civil control of the country, can hardly feel a doubt, least of all can 
 
 the Nizam himself, that we have considered ourselves as the actual 
 
 rulers of the country. Many of the evils that exist in the State are 
 
 unquestionably the almost unavoidable result of the anomalous nature 
 
 of our connection with it. # It seems hardly fair, therefore, to hold 
 
 either the Nizam or his Minister responsible for the evil, situated as 
 
 they are. I do not think that they had the power to correct them. In 
 
 fact, we may, perhans, more properly be regarded as responsible for 
 
 them, having the power in our hands to remedy them, and having 
 
 shown that we are no ways scrupulous about making use of that power 
 
 when we think fit to do so." 
 t
 
 INSTITUTIONS AND EESULTS. 87 
 
 Colonel Stewart, with whose views on this head General Fraser 
 almost entirely coincided, proceeds to make a comparison between 
 the results of revenue administration in the Hyderabad provinces 
 and in our own, not entirely favourable to our symmetrical 
 system, and, with a view to recent famine experiences, not 
 unworthy of serious consideration at present. 
 
 •• When I alluded to the extent of the comforts, or rather of the 
 necessaries of life left to the Ryot under the different modes of 
 administering the revenue as being nearly alike in all the different 
 parts of India, I did not take at all into account the degree of: security 
 which the Ryot had either for his property or for his life. I did not 
 require the reports of the officers under me to know that acts of violence 
 •and oppression were committed by the revenue officers in the Nizam's 
 territories. These acts have no connection with the assessment on the 
 land, which is, I believe, generally moderate. They are the unauthor- 
 ised acts of the Talookdars, and are unchecked from the want of 
 anything like the administration of justice throughout the country. 
 
 " We are so much in the habit of praising our own institutions, and 
 vituperating those of the Natives, that I fear we do not always do 
 justice to the latter. There are some things in our revenue administra- 
 tion that shock the feelings of Natives far more than the plundering of 
 the Ryots even of their cattle and implements of husbandry. The sale 
 of lands, for example, for arrears of revenue, is considered by the 
 Natives as shockingly oppressive. I remember having occasion to 
 speak to an intelligent Native in Scindia's camp regarding some glaring 
 act of violence and oppression committed by some of Scindia's revenue 
 officers on the Ryots under them. ' It is true', he said, ' these things 
 are very bad ; yet still, after the people have been plundered in this 
 unmerciful way, the roots remain. But with you, when people fail to 
 pay the revenue, you sell their lands — you dig them up by the roots.' 
 
 " Bad as the Native mode of administering the revenue is, it is not 
 unmixed with good, and by attending to its operation we may some- 
 times obtain hints that may be useful to ourselves. I shall illustrate 
 this by stating some occurrences which have lately come under my own 
 observation here. 
 
 " During the scarcity which prevailed last year in this country, and 
 in the Company's neighbouring districts, & was the subject of remark 
 by every traveller coming here from Madras or Masulipatam, that the 
 moment they entered the Nizam's dominions all the worst appearances 
 of famine in a great measure ceased. They no )enger saw the villages 
 filled with the dead and the dying, as they did in the Company's 
 •country, although the price of grain continued to be as dear, and in
 
 88 FARMERS AND CULTIVATORS. 
 
 some cases actually dearer than it was in the Company's country. 
 ^\iany people of observation inquired ol me what I conceived to be the 
 cause of this. I was unable at the time to give any satisfactory reason 
 for it. I supposed, however, the cause to be that the cultivators of the 
 soil in the Nizam's dominions probably possessed more substance and 
 capital, which enabled them to roist the effects of a season of scarcity, 
 while those of the Company, being in a state of greater exhaustion, 
 sank under it. But on making close inquiries from those best qualified 
 to give me information, I became satisfied that it was from no superior 
 condition of the Ryots themselves in the Nizam's country that they 
 were enabled to resist the effects of famine, but, on the contairy, that 
 it was the result of what we regard as the very worst parts of the 
 Native revenue system, viz., the farming of the districts, and the taking 
 of large advances from the farmers. When the farmers of the Nizam's 
 districts on the Madras frontier — persons of large capital here — saw 
 the probability of a famine, they well knew that if their Ryots either 
 died from starvation or fled the country, the large advances they had 
 made to the Minister could never be recovered. They, therefore, imme- 
 diately purchased up grain from all quarters, so as to be sure of 
 having a sufficiency in their districts to subsist the people through the 
 season of scarcity. They in this manner not only preserved the Ryots 
 alive, but prevented their quitting the country ; and thus, while many 
 thousands of- people in a state of starvation fled from the Company's 
 territory into Hyderabad, where they were subsisted for several months 
 by public and private charity, I heard of none that came from the 
 Nizam's adjacent districts. 
 
 "Now, although I would not in consequence of the good which in 
 this instance resulted from the revenue farming system recommend that 
 system for our adoption, yet I would ask why our Collectors cannot do 
 that for the public which the farmer does for himself. When the 
 famine is partial, it can, I conceive, be easily done. Had the Collectors 
 of Guntoor and Masulipatam, for example, been empowered, at a time 
 when the scarcity might easily have been foreseen, to import and to 
 purchase up grain to subsist their Ryots through the hot weather, 
 much misery and a great sacrifice of human life would have been 
 prevented. 
 
 " When Government takes from the cultivator of the soil such a 
 proportion of his produce as to render it impossible for him to accumu- 
 late capital sufficient to subsist himself evea for a few months of 
 scarcity, it would appear to be as incumbent on the Government to 
 feed the Ryots during such a season as it is on a West India planter to 
 feed his slaves. But e$. en laying aside all considerations of justice or 
 I ] n inanity, it would be found to be the most economical plan. When 
 the population of a district is destroyed, many years must elapse before
 
 i -dST OF CONTINGENT. 89 
 
 it can again yield its usual revenue, whereas by going to the expense of 
 feeding the cultivators for a few months the district continues as 
 productive as ever." 
 
 Colonel Stewart visited Calcutta in 1837, and had several per- 
 sonal interviews with Lord Auckland on the subject of Hyderabad 
 affairs, the result being that on his return to the Residency he was 
 exhorted in a despatch to make the maintenance and payment of 
 
 the Contingent an object of primary importance, and that the 
 assignment of special districts for the pay of those troops should 
 be " sedulously sought for at any favourable opportunity". Colonel 
 Stewart is also- told that he should use his best endeavours " to 
 establish some feeling of confidence with the Nizam", with whom, 
 he is informed, it rests exclusively to appoint anyone to the place 
 of Dewan on the death of Chundoo Lall ; and on this point the 
 Resident is desired not to be forward in indicating any opinion, 
 but to give " your honest assistance and advice if it is asked". 
 
 Writing privately on the 7th of November 1839, in reply to 
 Lord Auckland's letter on the subject of the Court of Directors' 
 proposal for charging the Nizam and other Princes with what is 
 technically called the "pay proper" of the English officers attached 
 to British Contingents, in addition to the handsome allowances 
 which were their chief emolument, 1 General Fraser pointed out 
 that there was a legal difficulty in the way, for if the " pay proper" 
 ceased to be issued by the British Government to the English 
 officers of the Nizam's Army, they, being no longer in British pay, 
 would no longer be subject to the Articles of War or Mutiny Act, 
 which are applicable only to officers on full pay, while discipline 
 could not possibly be enforced by any law of the Nizam's Govern- 
 ment, But he urged, moreover, that such an additional demand 
 on the Native Government would be "very unpalatable, if not 
 odious", and that " if it had been necessary or just, it should have 
 been so determined from the beginning". 
 
 " To impose it now, after the lapse of, so many years, without any 
 apparent cause to necessitate the change, would be to exhibit a saving 
 disposition exercised at the expense of others, aud to exact from the 
 Native State what their subjection to us alone would oblige them to 
 concede. The expense of the Nizam's Regular Army 2 is already about 
 
 1 Ante, pp. 54, 55. a The Contingent.
 
 90 AN ARMY OX SUFFERANCE. 
 
 (3,800,000) thirty-eight lakhs of rupees per annum ; an amount which 
 the Circar finds it extremely difficult to pay, and which they pay, I 
 believe, but very reluctantly, especially distributed as the army now is, 
 tending not so much as it might do to maintain the general peace 
 of the country, and therefore not admitting of the disbandment of 
 many of the irregular troops." 
 
 On the 17th of January 1840 he writes as follows to the 
 Governor-General on the same subject: — 
 
 " I have already offered generally my opinion to your Lordship on 
 the subject of the proposal of the Court of Directors, that the 
 Company's officers in the service of Native Governments shall receive 
 that portion of their allowances which is technically termed 'pay' from 
 the States under which they serve. It would be particularly unpalat- 
 able here, because the Nizam's Government already view with dislike 
 the Native Army we have officered, and would most willingly get rid 
 of the heavy expense which it involves. The Army is always four 
 months in arrears ; and even in this way, they pay it with so much 
 difficulty that any additional expense might be expected to become the 
 subject of serious remonstrance, more especially when this expense has 
 no reference either to the amelioration of the Army or the security of 
 the Nizam's country, but is merely to be incurred as a measure of 
 relief to the Company's finances. The very Army itself exists but 
 upon sufferance, and if any decided objections were made to it, however 
 we might be able to insist upon its maintenance, we should find it diffi- 
 cult to justify this act by a reference to treaties, or to any agreement 
 which has ever been passed on the subject between His Highness the 
 Nizam's Government and our own. I think, therefore, it were advis- 
 able to abstain from proposing a measure of which the justice would 
 certainly not be perceptible to the Native State, and which might give 
 rise to questions and propositions regarding the Army itself which it 
 were, perhaps, as well to avoid." 
 
 In fact, in a letter to the Government of India in January 1834, 
 the Resident, Colonel Stewart, had reported that the Nizam had 
 expressed a wish that as the English officers employed in civil 
 administration had, on his accession, been removed, so also the 
 English officers might be removed from his Army, and his own 
 control restored. There were no rebels, the Nizam urged, and no 
 Eorces to annoy his Government; therefore the Contingent Force 
 was unnecessary. Tl^ Minister subsequently informed the Presi- 
 dent that he had persuaded the Nizam not to ask for this virtual 
 abolition of the Contingent.
 
 PERMANENCE WANTED. 91 
 
 Upon this, Colonel Stewart suggested that some arrangement 
 should be pressed upon the Nizam's Government for the permanent 
 dishment of the Contingent. In their reply to this, the Govern- 
 ment recognised the advantage that would arise from any measure 
 that saved the Contingent from being " dependent on the caprice of 
 either the Euler or the Minister of Hyderabad, the means for 
 paying that force being vested permanently in our Government", 
 and recommended the Resident to seize upon any favourable 
 opportunity for urging such a measure on the Nizam's attention. 
 
 The Minister and the Contingent were, in short, the two points 
 of incessant contact and communication between the Resident and 
 His Highness on the one hand, and between the Resident and the 
 Honourable Company on the other. The Minister was always to 
 be maintained if he " saved the Contingent from being dependent 
 on the caprice of the Euler", and left it entirely to our discretion. 
 The Resident was constantly told that, above all things, permanent 
 security for the payment of those troops was to be " sedulously 
 sought for at every favourable opportunity", and that, except 
 with that great object in view, " it were as well, perhaps, to avoid 
 questions and propositions regarding the Nizam's Army." 
 
 How much the Supreme Government of India had come to rely 
 upon the Contingent — or " Nizam's Army" — as virtually part of 
 its own army, may be seen from the following extract of a letter 
 dated October 26th, 1838, from Mr. J. E. Colvin, 1 Private Secretary 
 to Lord Auckland, to Major Moore, Military Secretary to the 
 Resident, afterwards a Director of the East India Company. The 
 Governor-General's Private Secretary writes : — 
 
 " Kindly let me know, after consulting Colonel Fraser, what portion 
 of the Subsidiary Force could, in his and your opinion, be spared from 
 the Hyderabad territories for other service in emergency. I should 
 say at least half. For your fine army is amply sufficient to maintain 
 the general tranquillity of the country. But there should always be, 
 doubtless, an imposing force near the City. Would it be ever safe to 
 remove the Queen's corps from Secunderabad ?" 
 
 
 
 General Eraser's opinions as to the condition and prospects of 
 
 the Hyderabad State, and as to the part our Government might 
 play in their improvement, were, I will venture to say, more 
 
 1 Died in 1857 at Agra, when Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West 
 Provinces.
 
 92 SUCCOUE NOT SUBVERSION. 
 
 • 
 
 characterised by hope, by good will, and by good faith towards 
 the faithful ally whose fortunes lay so entirely within our hands. 
 than those expressed by any of his predecessors at the Residency, 
 except Lord Metcalfe, with whose policy, in fact, he entirely con- 
 curred. To begin with, all his observations and inquiries continued 
 to prove the accuracy of his original impression that "the country 
 was by no means in so very bad a condition, as was generally 
 imagined throughout India." 1 It did not follow, apparently, that 
 trade or agriculture should languish for want of judges and 
 lawyers ; or that because the troops were in arrears, courtiers 
 complaining of their unpaid stipends, and bankers refusing further 
 advances to the Minister, the ryot should be in distress. As from 
 time immemorial, in every part of India under Native rule, it was 
 well understood that the ryot, the milch-cow of every class and 
 interest, must not be pressed too hard, and would prosper and 
 produce the more, the less he was harassed with rules and regula- 
 tions. Neighbourly and communal authority, embodied in the 
 village patriarchs and the punchayut, gave him, without taking 
 him far from home, all the judicial protection he could appreciate, 
 and gave less advantage to rich? litigants than the costly process of 
 regularly constituted Courts. 
 
 And thus, although General Fraser from the very first con- 
 sidered that " nothing short of an actual assumption of the Govern- 
 ment would be an adequate remedy for the evils that prevailed", 2 
 he never suggested anything but a temporary assumption — for 
 from three to five years — and always contemplated bringing 
 prominently forward in honourable office, and united in the 
 counsels of the Resident and his English Assistants, men of rank 
 and respectability belonging to the Hyderabad Slate who could be 
 trained and installed in the reformed Administration. The consent 
 of the Nizam, which he deemed indispensably essential, under the 
 obligations of existing treaties, to any temporary transfer of 
 power, would never, he was convinced, be obtained, if anything 
 like the sequestration of Mysore were proposed to him. That 
 General Fraser never formed any plan for permanently managing 
 the Hyderabad territories, or any portion of them, or for substi- 
 tuting a monstrous and highly salaried Commission of English 
 officers — such as gradually grew up in Mysore, and subsequently 
 
 1 Ant'-, p. 4:.'. J J nte, }'■ 44.
 
 THE MYSORE RAJAH. 93 
 
 in Berar — for the Sovereign and the Native dignitaries, will be 
 amply shown in the course of this work. The general bent of his 
 mind on these points, about this time, is conspicuous enough in 
 the following letter to Major Stokes, his successor in the Mysore 
 Residency, in which he expresses once more his doubts as to the, 
 continued degradation of the Maharajah. 
 
 " Hyderabad Residency, 7th March 1839. 
 
 "My dear Stokes, — If I could have replied to your last letter in any 
 manner that would be useful to you, I should not have delayed doino- 
 it so long. The questions respecting the Rajah's privilege of settling 
 all disputes, and other matters of whatever nature, among the 
 Rajbindees, 1 was agitated, or at least brought to our notice, when I was 
 at Mysore ; and to the best of my recollection, although I am by no 
 means sure, the privilege was then conceded to him. I certainly do 
 not remember any case arising to indicate that it was otherwise. 
 
 " With respect to the abstract right of the Rajah to exercise this 
 authority, it may be difficult, perhaps, to form a clear and unexception- 
 able opinion. His right as to marriages, the adoption of children, and 
 other caste usages, could hardly, I think, admit of a doubt. The 
 division or disposal of property may be more questionable. But to 
 express a definite sentiment on the subject, I should know, what I do 
 not know, the position in which the Rajah stands. Is he, or is he not, 
 ever to have his country restored to him ? If we are merely, as I 
 believe we profess to be doing, administering the country until we bring 
 it into good order, and secure ourselves from eventual future loss, but 
 still regarding the Rajah as him who is to be the future ruler and 
 sovereign of the country, I have no hesitation in saying that I think 
 we ought to concede to him the privilege you have alluded to in its 
 utmost extent. Delicacy, and the respect due to his rank and station 
 demand it ; and it is rendered proper, I conceive, and almost indispens- 
 able, by every consideration referring to the relative position in which 
 he and the Rajbindees will hereafter stand towards each other. 
 But if he is never to be reseated on the Musnud, and is to remain for 
 life but a wretched and powerless dependent on our bounty, the 
 necessity for which I now contend might perhaps not be so impera- 
 tive. 
 
 "But even in this event, under the circumstances of the case, I 
 would concede to him the right in question, and I would not hesitate 
 to recommend this measure to the Supreme Government. I should 
 think it was by no means more than was du r j to this most unfortunate 
 and (I cannot but think) hardly used Prince. But I trust that the event 
 
 1 Connections of the Royal Family.
 
 94 RESTORATION ASSUMED. 
 
 alluded to is hardly to be contemplated ; and in that case every motive 
 for conceding this authority to him would necessarily press upon me 
 with ten-fold force. Either as Resident or Commissioner, these, I think, 
 would be my sentiments, and this my course of proceeding. But I 
 know not what instructions Colonel Cubbon may have, or what views 
 may have been imported with him with regard to the future destiny of 
 tin' Mysore country. His proceedings may perhaps be plainly neces- 
 sitated by the policy and future intentions of the Supreme Government, 
 but if so, that policy and those intentions should not, I think, be kept 
 a secret from you. You have at the end of your letter addressed some 
 specific quei"ies to me, which I fear it would be impossible to answer in 
 such a manner as might not in many supposable cases lead to error and 
 mischief, unless I possessed the full information alluded to above in 
 regard to the views of superior authority for the future government of 
 Mysore. 
 
 " Much might be done if you and Colonel Cubbon were on intimate 
 and unreserved terms together. But not being so, you cannot, I 
 imagine, know any more than I do what is in the mind of the Governor- 
 General or of the Commissioner. Under these circumstances, I do not 
 think I would hesitate, if I were in your place, to assume that we should, 
 at no distant period, restore the Rajah to his power, and recommend on 
 this, as a sufficient ground (even -if no other existed), that the Rajah 
 should exercise all the control he ever did over the Rajbindees, consis- 
 tent, of course, with the absence of cruelty or violence — a very improbable 
 contingency, but which, in my ojunion, should be abundant reason for 
 the Resident's immediate interference, equally whether the Rajah 
 were on the Musnud and in the plenitude of his power, or in the low 
 and degi'aded condition as at present ordained. 
 
 " This is a strange Court I have got into, and I know not what will 
 happen to it, though I imagine that some very considerable change 
 must take place one of these days. There is, I am afraid, a good deal 
 of bad feeling against us throughout India, and it is supposed thai 
 many emissaries are at work endeavouring to spread disaffection to our 
 Government. Pray let me know the state of Wahabeeism in your part 
 of the world. Is it spreading, or do you not hear it spoken of at :i!l ? 
 Religion has often been a cloak for political designs. 
 
 " Give my kind regards, if you please, to Mrs. Stokes. I continue to 
 receive good accounts of my family. Tlicy arc all still at Southamp- 
 ton, excepting my eldest boy at an excellent school at Kensington." 
 
 Although, in accordance with his ] tvedecessor, Colonel Stewart 
 lie was aware that the\Nizam viewed the Contingent — called his 
 Army, but oil Lrely under our control — " with dislike", that lie paid 
 it " reluctantly", and " would most willingly get rid of the heavy
 
 PLAN OF RELIEF. 95 
 
 expense it involved", 1 General Fraser was not of opinion that 
 retrenchment and reform should commence in this quarter. What- 
 ever might have been the origin of the Contingent, whatever 
 excess there might he in the cost of some of its details, he found 
 it, as a force, on a recognised and accepted footing, and in a high 
 state of discipline. It was not merely the most effective body of 
 troops in the service of the Nizam, but the only one upon which 
 any reliance could be placed in an emergency. Its existence was 
 actually a reform accomplished in one department of the State, 
 and an example of efficiency to the others. To commence by 
 reducing the Contingent, while maintaining in full force the 
 turbulent Arabs and Rohillas, the half-disciplined troops called 
 " the Line", and a host of more or less irregular levies, existing to 
 a great extent on paper only, and yet costing more than ninety 
 lakhs of rupees (£800,000) per annum, 2 would not have been, in 
 his judgment, an economy but a waste, and that from financial as 
 well as from military considerations. 
 
 General Fraser's plan, in outline, was that the British Government 
 should assist that of the Nizam with a loan — probably not ex- 
 ceeding a million sterling — at six per cent., with which all arrears 
 due to the Arabs and other troops could be discharged, the neces- 
 sary preliminary to their disbandment or reduction. The credit of 
 the State would be restored by this measure, and by the payment 
 of advances at heavy interest made by the soucars, or native 
 bankers. This relief to the Hyderabad finances would be admi- 
 nistered from the Resident's own treasury, and under his super- 
 vision, so that its clue application should be ensured; and tin- 
 repayment could be secured, if not as one essential incident of a 
 period of temporary and reforming management of all the Nizam's 
 dominions, at least by the assignment of districts for a certain 
 term to the charge of persons in the Resident's confidence and 
 under his control. 
 
 General Fraser was for some time inclined to think that these 
 
 restorative measures must be deferred until the demise of Chundoo 
 
 l 
 
 Lall ; but the incorrigible corruption and prodigality of the aged 
 Minister's rule very soon convinced him that every year's delay in 
 Chuncloo Lall's removal was bringing the Nizam's Government 
 
 1 Ante, pp. 89, 90. 
 
 2 About double the cost of the Contingent in 1839.
 
 Oi; PROFESSIONS AND BOPES. 
 
 more close to the utter verge of ruin. Even when General Fraser, 
 however, had arrived at this conviction, the removal of Chundoo 
 Lull was not such an e tsy matter. The belief at the Court and in 
 the city of Hyderabad in the irresistible support given to Chundoo 
 Lall at Calcutta, was nut at once to be dispelled! There was to 
 the last a st range reluctance on the part of the Government of India 
 to acquiesce in the Minister's retirement, that when all its publicly 
 expressed grounds have been taken into consideration, still seems 
 partially unaccountable. 
 
 It is clear, also, that for some months, perhaps for more than a 
 year, after his arrival at Hyderabad, General Fraser was led, on 
 several occasions, to entertain some hope of being able to institute 
 certain measures of reform by the consent and with the co- 
 operation of Rajah Chundoo Lall. It was only by degrees, 
 the process of disillusion being very rapid when it once com- 
 menced, that the Resident learned to estimate how little depth 
 or earnestness there was in the charm of the Minister's manner, 
 or the grace of his professions. " The Minister and myself", 
 wrote General Fraser privately to Lord Auckland on the 13th 
 of October 1839, "are on friendly terms, and I believe that 
 he has some confidence in me. He tells me that he places him- 
 self entirely in my hands, and that he will act in everything as 
 I advise. This leads me to hope that, without having recourse to 
 any extreme or violent measures — for which, indeed, there is at 
 present no just ground — a gradual improvement may be introduced 
 into the administration of affairs by means which, if judiciously 
 maintained for two or three years, may, in the course of that time, 
 produce a considerable change for the better in the affairs of 
 the Nizam's country and the condition of its inhabitants." 
 
 Within a week from the date of this letter, there was great 
 alarm and anxiety in the city of Eyderabad and at the Residency 
 in consequence of the aged Minister being taken dangerously ill. 
 General Fraser expresses his feelings on the subject in the follow- 
 ing extract from a letter to the Governor-General, dated the 21st 
 October 1839 :— 
 
 "I regret to say thai I have this moment learned that the Minister 
 is unwell. He was explaining during the night, and this morning, 
 while at the Mutli, or liin.ily place of worship, fainted. The Nizam was 
 in a garden outside the City, hut on hearing this he immediately
 
 NO PREJUDICE. 97 
 
 returned to his Palace, and sent particular inquiries after the old man's 
 health. I have written to the Minister's son, Bala Pershad, to make 
 inquiries, and if I receive a reply in time for this evening's tappal, 1 I 
 shall either enclose it in this letter, or send it to your Lordship's 
 Private Secretary. I should think the Minister's death at this junc- 
 ture an event greatly to be deplored." 
 
 Iii a postscript he gives the substance of a note received from 
 Bala Pershad, explaining that his father had suffered for some time 
 from a chronic disease of the kidneys, and that the case could "not 
 be considered altogether exempt from danger". The Minister was 
 soon, however, restored to his usual health, and all went on as 
 usual. 
 
 Everything thus concurs to show that General Fraser entered on 
 the course of policy which he pursued until his retirement, with 
 no intolerance for the system he found in force, and with no pre- 
 judice against the persons in power. He desired neither to super- 
 sede the men, nor to subvert the institutions of the country. In 
 a despatch of the latter part of 1839, he" expressed a decided 
 opinion that "the disorder and misrule supposed to prevail 
 throughout the Nizam's country will be found to have been some- 
 what exaggerated, and that they do not exist to such an extent as 
 to render necessary any extreme measure of interference by the 
 British Government". " The Nizam's Government", the Kesident 
 urged, " is a sovereign and independent one, and I perceive nothing 
 in the present state which would justify any infraction of that 
 independence which would be involved in an authoritative or 
 violent interference on our part." 
 
 General Fraser, moreover, expressed his belief that " the inhabi- 
 tants of this country are as happy and contented as our own 
 subjects are in the Company's dominions. The administration is 
 anomalous in many respects, but it may be doubted whether 
 our rules and regulations would be advantageously applicable 
 here, or whether they would be generally desired by the inhabi- 
 tants." » 
 
 The General's views on Hyderabad affairs, as well as on the 
 general politics of India, are more fully expressed in the fol- 
 lowing letter to Mr. J. R. Colvin, Lord ^Auckland's Private 
 Secretary : — 
 
 i Mail. 
 
 H
 
 98 LETTEB TO 
 
 " Hyderabad, 28th October 1840. 
 
 "My dear Sir, — I am much obliged by your kind communication 
 of a copy of your letter to Colonel Sutherland on the affairs of Afghan- 
 istan. It is, I think, very useful that officers in political situations 
 should be kept apprised, not only of the current incidents of the time, 
 but also, in so far as may be convenient, of the general intentions and 
 policy of the Government. This must tend more to effect a general 
 union of purpose and an effective co-operation, than the simple issue of 
 occasional orders and a blind obedience to them. The whole question 
 of the extension of our arms towards the north-west is of immense 
 importance, and one upon which no individual can form a correct 
 opinion without such a knowledge of the ulterior views of Russia as I 
 for one cannot pretend to possess. Letters which I received from one 
 or two of the Directors soon after I came to Hyderabad expressed con- 
 siderable and anxious apprehensions of the consequence of our passing 
 the Indus. But in these I never participated, because, though person- 
 ally unacquainted with the probable intentions and policy at that time 
 of either Persia or Russia, I was quite sure that Lord Auckland pos- 
 sessed better information, and that he certainly had not without ample 
 connaissance de cause given effect to measures which necessarily in- 
 volved the risk of dangerous results, both proximate and remote. 
 
 " The late defeat of Dost Mahomed was a happy circumstance in 
 reference not only to Afghanistan, but to the rest of India ; and the 
 Brigadier and troops by whom it was achieved deserve all our grati- 
 tude. I fear the interior much more than the exterior of India. The 
 ultimate success of our arms in the field can never be doubtful against 
 such enemies as we have now to contend with ; but the slightest tem- 
 porary check produces a reaction in the minds of our own subjects, 
 which requires to be vigilantly observed, and is attended with perhaps 
 the only real danger we have to dread. Major Clibborne's defeat was 
 a source of great exultation among certain parties at Hyderabad, and 
 messages were sent by persons of high rank and consequence to the 
 Nizam himself that our Iqbdl 1 was on the wane, and our Doi'-htl- 
 departing. It gave me, therefore, great pleasure to be able to commu- 
 nicate to the Circar officially the intelligence of our victory over Dost 
 Mahomed, which was received by the Nizam with expressions of satis- 
 faction that I have no reason to believe feigned, and with an order for 
 the immediate firing of a royyil salute, which came most opportunely to 
 quench the hopes of the disaffected who had been speculating on our 
 downfall. They are so very ignorant, that they appear to have no 
 more conception than children of the real nature and source of either 
 our strength or weakness. 
 
 1 Fortune. 2 Dominion.
 
 J. R. COLVIX. 'J9 
 
 " You appear to be contemplating the possibility of a war with the 
 Sikhs. This may be very necessary, and there may be good reasons 
 for it, but they must be stronger than those to which your precis 
 refers. The mere refusal of the Sikh Government to allow our troops 
 to march through its territory, unless attended with other indications 
 and proofs of hostility, would hardly, T imagine, give sufficient grounds 
 for war if the international relations of Asia at all assimilate to those of 
 Europe. If the transit of our troops through the territory were the 
 only or principal object in view, abstractly considered, and irrespec- 
 tively of other circumstances, it would seem that this might be a fit 
 subject for diplomacy and negotiation, rather than a legitimate cause 
 for war. However, I hope that the demonstration of the large force 
 now to the Northward will altogether provide against the chance of 
 war either with the Sikhs or Nepaulese, and effectually secure the 
 peace of Afghanistan until that newly established empire is organised 
 and better able than it appears to be at present to maintain its own 
 tranquillity. 
 
 " With reference to the late concessions of Nepaul to our demands, 
 and the diminished probability of a rupture with that State, we must 
 still bear in mind the possible consequences of our war with China, 
 which I wish most heartily had never been undertaken. To say the 
 best of it, it came most inopportunely. » A hostile cordon was already 
 completed around us, when this unfortunate aggression comes in to 
 support and confirm it in the two dangerous points of Burmah and 
 Nepaul, independently of its involving on its own account an eventual 
 drain of means from India, both in men and money, which we can 
 ill afford, and the extent or duration of which it is impossible to 
 foresee. 
 
 " To turn from great things to small, I am happy to say that the 
 Nizam's country is quite quiet, and that I anticipate no danger or dis- 
 turbance in it whatever. It will be my object to keep it quiet, for this 
 I think of considerable importance, and that in the present state of 
 affairs the Supreme Government would have but little reason to thank 
 the Resident who should disturb the existing tranquillity of so impor- 
 tant a portion of India. 
 
 " I recommended some time ago to the Supreme Government certain 
 measures for the gradual and unobtrusive amelioration of the Nizam's 
 country, such as the Circar could fully goncur in, and which should 
 in fact be the measui-es of the Nizam's Government itself. But the 
 Supreme Government did not reply to my suggestions on that subject, 
 and I have just heard that the grounds no longer exist on which I had 
 principally founded my expectations of success. My views demanded 
 not British agency, but that of natives, and of a native, especially in 
 the Revenue Department, of peculiar and rare qualifications. These I 
 
 • h 2
 
 100 NEW BLOOD WANTED. 
 
 knew were to be found in a person of the name of Venketa Rao. He 
 possessed just what I wanted — energy, capacity (particularly in the 
 Revenue Department), and conciliation and kindness, with a gentle- 
 manly manner and deportment. 1 have never communicated to this 
 person that I entertained any decided expectation of being able to 
 employ bis services here, but my attention was fixed on him, and the 
 Minister had confidentially expressed to me his full and cordial assent 
 to receive the benefit of his assistance. Venketa Rao applied to me 
 some time ago for my attestation of his character, etc., with a view to 
 obtain a pension from the Company. I gave him what he required, 
 and in acknowledging its receipt and thanking me for it two days 
 ago, he informs me at the same time that he has just been re- 
 appointed as Assistant to the Commissioner for the Government of 
 Mysore. 
 
 " The qualities that he possesses, and which I had looked to make 
 available for the improvement of the Nizam's dominions, may possibly 
 exist elsewhere, but I know them not, and am ignorant where they are 
 to be found. Perhaps there is nothing better for it now, and under 
 actual circumstances, than to remain quiet, and for the present at least 
 to permit matters to take their usual course until I learn that eithei 
 the Government of India or the Court of Directors entertain other 
 views, or that incidents arise .here which may naturally suggest a 
 change of policy. With respect to the Court of Directors, I distrust 
 them greatly as far as the Nizam's country is concerned, for I suspect 
 they know very little about its real condition, and that they imagine it 
 infinitely worse than it is. 
 
 " The Minister is at present in good health and in excellent spirits. 
 He and I are on the best terms, and I believe he is quite prepared to do 
 anything I suggest to him which he can do. Bat he can do nothing. 
 He cannot deviate from the old-established routine of half a century 
 past, and he is trammelled and bound hand and foot in a thousand 
 ways. New life-blood must be infused, and new energy inspired into 
 the whole frame of Government, which I had hoped might be done in 
 the manner I explained — gradually, and without exciting alarm or 
 disturbance. That was a dangerous conspiracy which existed lately 
 against the Minister connected with the financial affairs of Poorun 
 Mull, and I believe the former attributes, in a great measure, even the 
 present continued possession of his office to the support which I gave 
 him on that occasion. I am myself disposed to participate in this 
 view, and believe that if I had addressed the Nizam less decidedly 
 than I did, the Minister would either have fallen a victim to party, or 
 would have allowed hfrnself to be bullied into concessions which would 
 have disgraced both the Government and himself. 
 
 " I am ill requiting your agreeable and instructive communication
 
 LETTER FROM MACNAGHTEN. 101 
 
 with a long and tedious letter; and returning you again my best 
 acknowledgments for your kindness, 
 
 " I remain, my dear Sir, 
 " J. R. Colviu, Esq., " Yours very faithfully, 
 
 " Private Secretary." "J. S. Fraski:." 
 
 The following letter is from the General's unfortunate friend, 
 ♦Sir William Macnaghten, then quite recently rewarded with a 
 baronetcy and the reversion of the Governorship of Bombay for 
 the brilliant restoration of Shah Shooja, and still pursuing with 
 confidence the regeneration of Afghanistan. 
 
 " Camp, Jellalabad, February Gth, 1840. 
 " My dear Fraser, — The enclosed will explain to you why 1 take up 
 my pen to address you at the present moment, and I fear you will not 
 thank me much when you find I am actuated by so selfish a motive in 
 this attempt to renew our ancient feeling of friendship. I should have 
 written to you oftener, and at length, upon all the interesting opera- 
 tions in which I have been engaged for the last twelvemonth, could I 
 have ever secured the necessary leisure ; but this has been denied me, 
 and up to this hour it is as much as I can do, fagging from morn till 
 night, to get through the current business of this situation. The 
 progress of affairs in this quarter is exceedingly satisfactory. We are 
 relieved of all apprehension from Russia or Persia ; and the Dost, as 
 Dost Mohammed is invariably called here — on the lucus a nun lucendo 
 principle, I presume 1 — is said to be in a bad way in Bokhara. I know 
 you will have rejoiced to see my elevation, and, therefore, I accept 
 your congratulations offered "in spirit", as the Persians say. But to 
 the purpose : this youth, William Carruthers, 2 is a godson of my father, 
 who feels a great interest and anxiety in his welfare. If you could 
 befriend him, I need hardly say you would confer a great obligation on 
 me. I know nothing of his character of my own personal knowledge, 
 but I have heard nothing but good of him. You, I imagine, are to 
 the full as much occupied as I am, but if you ever have a leisure half- 
 hour, I should be really delighted to hear from you, and to know how 
 you are getting on in the Deccan. We are living in critical and 
 exciting times, when neither the Indus nor the Irrawaddy presents 
 a barrier to our arms. ,a 
 
 " Believe me, my dear Fraser, 
 
 " Most sincerely yours, 
 
 ",1V. H. Macnagstkn." 
 
 1 Don/, in Persian, means " friend". 
 
 2 The bearer of the letter.
 
 102 LORD MTJNSTER'S 
 
 A letter from Lord Elphinstone, a few words of which have 
 already been quoted, introduces a person whose gallantly as a 
 soldier was not unworthy of that illustrious though irregular 
 parentage, the morbid consciousness of which appears to have 
 cast a shadow over his life, and to have led to his tragical end. 
 George, Earl of .Minister, the eldest son of King William IV, by Mrs. 
 Jordan, the celebrated actress, had served with great credit in 
 the Peninsular war, and had passed two years in India, from 1815 
 to 1817, as Aide-de-Camp to the Marquis of Hastings. He came 
 home by the route, then seldom traversed, through Egypt, and 
 published an interesting account of the journey. He also wrote 
 a narrative of the campaign of 1809 in Spain and Portugal, in 
 which he had taken part, and made many contributions to 
 periodical literature. In 1827 lie published, in the Journal 
 Asiatigue, three papers on the employment of Mohammedan 
 mercenaries, a subject to which he appears to have devoted 
 considerable attention. The contemplated work regarding which 
 he and Lord Elphinstone wrote to General Fraser seems to have 
 grown out of his extended researches in the same quarter. 
 
 " Ootacamund, July 24th, 1840. 
 
 " My dear General Fraser, — It is long since I have written to, or 
 heard from you. I take the opportunity afforded me by Lord Munster 
 having asked me to assist him in procuring materials for the work, the 
 objects of which are explained in the enclosed circular, and beg to say 
 a few words on my own behalf as well as on his. If you can assist 
 him, I am sure you will readily do it. The military nature of the 
 work would alone be a recommendation to you, but this is not the only 
 point of view in which it will interest you, embracing, as it does, the 
 history of events which have influenced, and still continue to influence 
 so powerfully, the destinies of mankind. Lord Minister's letter and 
 books reached me yesterday — the anniversary of the capture of Ghizni — 
 and to-day is the anniversary also of the taking of Gibraltar in 1704. 
 At the period of the greatest vigour, if not of the widest extension of 
 the Mohammedan power, these places may be said to have marked its 
 extreme limits. Both now contain a British garrison. It seems, 
 therefore, that the military history of the Mohammedan conquests may 
 not unfitly be undertaken by a British officer. Whether Lord Munster 
 be equal to the task or not, is more than I am competent to judge, but 
 I honour the attempt and wish him success. 
 
 " I hear that the proceedings of your Committee on the intended 
 episode or supplement of the Mohammedan Fasti are come to a close-
 
 RESEARCHES. 103 
 
 I should like much to sec them, and if you would send me a copy I 
 should be much obliged to you. The fate of the principal actor in 
 this part of the scene has been tragical, but as unlike that of a Ghazi 
 as possible, to be stabbed by one of his own followers in a Christian 
 Church I 1 
 
 " Since Edward Elliot's departure there has been a great falling off 
 in the secret department of the Police, and I have no means of forming 
 an idea of the spirit and disposition of the Mohammedan population ; 
 though, from the absence of any reports to the contrary, I hope that 
 the events of last year have produced a most salutary and sedative 
 effect upon their minds. Foreign emissaries continue occasionally to 
 .be observed; and lately two Europeans, dressed as Arabs, but with an 
 imperfect knowledge of Arabic, embarked on board the Shah Alum 
 for Calcutta. Between themselves, and when they thought they were 
 unobserved, they spoke German, and communicated their wants at 
 Madras in Portuguese, but it was of the European, and not of the 
 half-caste idiom. 
 
 " I am sorry to say that your successor in Travancore is not likely 
 to hold his j)ost much longer, if indeed he is able even to return to it. 
 Poor Colonel Maclean is laid up at Coimhatore, on his way to this 
 place, with such a bad swelling of his knee, and other symptoms so 
 unfavourable, that for some time his 'life was considered in imminent 
 danger; and although we have better accounts of him to-day, I fear 
 that he is in a bad way. 
 
 " Believe me, my dear General, 
 
 " Yours very faithfully, 
 
 " Elphinstonb. 
 " P.S. — Pray remember me to Captain Malcolm." 
 
 About the same time the General received the following letter 
 — it has no date — from Lord Minister himself on the subject of 
 the contemplated work, to which Lord Elphinstone had referred, 
 on Mohammedan military science. 
 
 " Sir, — I beg to apologise for addressing you, but my object in so 
 doing being of an interesting literary nature, I trust that will not only 
 forgive my thus intruding on your valuable time, but that you will (as 
 much depends on your co-opei'ation) kindly and warmly enter into my 
 views. 
 
 " I have been for many years employed in collecting materials for a 
 military history of the Mohammedan nations, jfrom the rise of their 
 Founder till the present time, and have already made great progress in 
 
 1 Such was the end of the Nawab of Kurnool.
 
 104 LETTER FROM 
 
 all details relative to the different people who have embraced that 
 religion, whether of Arabian or Tartar origin. 
 
 " I have lately drawn up in Arabic a list of military and historical 
 books which I am desirous to procure, and have accompanied it with a 
 military notice of some length, in order to point out the subject of the 
 works which would be most adapted to my researches. 
 
 " Perhaps you maybe so situated as to assist me in its dissemination, 
 and. although I am fully aware of the difficulty that surrounds an 
 attempt of this nature in some Mohammedan cities, yet I hope you may 
 have formed an acquaintance with some sheikh or learned man who 
 might be persuaded to aid in searching for and purchasing for me the 
 books I require. 
 
 " Should such a person exist, I shall be grateful if you will — with 
 whatever precaution or secrecy that may be deemed necessary — put 
 the accompanying memoir into his hand, and invite him to meet my 
 wishes by procuring for me the class of historical and military works 
 named or indicated in it, not only in Arabic, but in Turkish, Chagatai, 
 or Tartar, in Persian, Hindostanee, and in all the indigenous languages 
 of India. 
 
 " But not only do I look for books, but I should be greatly pleased 
 and aided by any learned and intelligent Mohammedan gentleman or 
 officer (some of the latter of Western Asia having been of late years 
 educated in Europe) referring to my military memoir, and answering 
 my questions one by one ; and if he would give me in writing the 
 information I desire, including all military technical synonymous terms, 
 of the present as well as the past times. 
 
 " It is possible in Egypt, Western Asia, and Russia, and still more 
 likely in India, that some European gentleman, from long residence in 
 those countries, may be equal to answering the various items of my 
 memoir. I have reason to believe that there are several intelligent 
 European officers in the armies of the Osmanli, of Mehemet Ali Pasha, 
 amd of Persia, thus situated ; while in India, many civilians and officers 
 of the India Company's Service I know to be highly qualified to give 
 me the aid I solicit, and who might, from advantages of vicinity and 
 other cirouinstances, enter fully upon the Mohammedan art of war in 
 India of all past centuries to the present time. 
 
 " If any gentleman of India would thus enter into my views, I would 
 particularly point out (besides the past art of war of Persian and 
 Tartar origin, and the collection of the past and existing military ideas 
 and expressions of the present native camps and armies) the ancient 
 indigenous Hindoo mode of warfare, previous to and wholly uncon- 
 nected with that introduced by their Northern conquerors, and to the 
 military forms (not forgetting the modern) either in the Sanskrit, or as 
 preserved in its cognate existing languages.
 
 LORD MUNSTER. 105 
 
 "I need - hardly say that I shall not be backward in acknowledging, 
 both privately and publicly, any such assistance. 
 
 " I have limited the notices in my memoir to the end of the temporal 
 power of the Eastern Khalifs (334 H.) ; considering the details I have 
 brought forward sufficient to be a guide for similar research in after- 
 periods and dynasties, and which I wish to be equally illustrated, 
 whether of the Ommiades of Spain, of the Fatimites of Egypt, of the 
 minor kingdoms of the West of Asia on the decline of the Court of 
 Baghdad, of the Seljuks, of the Moguls of Genghis Khan, of Persia, 
 and of farther East, of the Ghisnivides and Goarides, of the Pitan 
 Khans, and of the family of Timour at Delhi, and of the numerous 
 sovereignties both of Hindostan and of the Dekhan. 
 
 " I have reason to believe that the price of books (whatever it may 
 be in Persia, India, or Cabul) in Western Asia is far from exorbitant, 
 having just received two volumes from Egypt of considez*able intrinsic 
 value, for which I only paid 123 piastres, or twenty- three shillings, and 
 would not wish you (as I am making similar purchases throughout the 
 Mohammedan world) to give on ordinary occasions above one pound, or 
 thirty to one hundred piastres, for- a single volume. 
 
 " But as some peculiarly scarce, interesting, and valuable works may 
 be offered, I shall beg of you to use your own discretion as to their 
 prices and immediate purchase, or in 'first letting me know what is 
 asked for them, or in that of the alternative of having them, if possible, 
 copied. 
 
 "You may rest assured I shall be perfectly satisfied with your 
 decision, and shall be grateful (should you be inclined to meet my 
 wishes) if you will, as soon as you have ascertained that the books 
 selected are pertinent to my objects, to pay for them, and I will 
 instantly, on receiving your letter, transfer the amount to your bankers 
 in London, including any expense in their transmission to 13 Belgrave 
 Square, London, the mode of which I must leave to your friendly 
 arrangement. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, Sir, 
 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 
 "Munster." 
 
 In the next letter Lord Elphinstone again refers to the same 
 
 subject. , 
 
 " Ootacamund, 15th November 1840. 
 
 " My dear General Fraser, — I am really more than ashamed to find 
 not only that I have not yet sent ' Tocqueville ' to you, but that I have 
 actually not thanked you for ' Madame D'Abrantes ' ! I can offer no 
 excuse for such remissness, which I can, however, in some degree 
 explain by the way in which I have been for some time past living —
 
 106 HOPES OF PEACE. 
 
 having everything packed and ready to return to Madras, and in the 
 meantime living partly at Ootacamund and partly at Kaity, four miles 
 off. Among my packages I have accidentally stumbled on the books 
 which I meant to have sent to you, and which I put off sending, with 
 the intention of writing at the same time. 
 
 " It is rather provoking, after having undergone two monsoons, to 
 leave these Hills at the very moment when the weather has become 
 delightful, and when their freshness and beauty are at their height; 
 but the next two months are also the most agreeable that we have at 
 Madras, and I must comfort myself in having escaped a very hot 
 season, and in returning at the moment when the change will be least 
 felt. Mr. Sullivan, you will have seen, has resigned his seat in Council, 
 rather than leave the Hills. Mr. Lushingtou sets out to-day, proceeding 
 by Trichinopoly, and by slow stages. I am going first to see the 
 Khondas, and then run down as fast as I can to Madras. 
 
 " Lord Munster is very fortunate in meeting with anyone so well 
 able, and so well disposed to assist him, as you are. He will be the 
 more delighted, as I wrote him in a most discouraging strain upon the 
 subject of his inquiries, and sent him a letter from Mr. Brown of the 
 Civil Service, who is one of our best Orientalists, which gave him no 
 hopes of his being able to furnish him with any information. Sanskrit 
 or Hindoo works illustrating the progress of the Mohammedans and 
 their method of warfare, there were none ; and the few Hindustani 
 works wdiich treated of these matters were translations of Persian and 
 Arabic authors already well known in Europe. This was the sum of 
 Brown's reply. 
 
 " Major Havelock left me some time ago to join his regiment — two 
 squadrons of it having been ordered to Scinde. He was at first dis- 
 appointed at finding that a junior regimental officer had been appointed 
 to the command of these squadrons, but they have since been counter- 
 manded by order of the Supreme Government. The defeat of Dost 
 Mohammed will do much to tranquillise this part of the world, though 
 the assemblage of a large force on the frontiers of the Punjaub looks as 
 if the occurrence of hostilities with the Sikhs were not impossible. I 
 shall look Avith much interest to the arrival of the next Overland — if it 
 is to arrive ! — for though I am inclined to put much faith in Louis 
 Philippe's declaration to Mr. Romeo Coates on the staircase of the 
 Hotel du Nord at Boulogne-^-that there will be no war — yet the state 
 of affairs was not altogether settled when the last mail came away. 
 " Believe me, my dear General, 
 C, " Yours most faithfully, 
 
 " Elpiiinstone. 
 
 "P.S. — I have sent also some sketches by Jules Janin, which I
 
 LETTER TO LORD MUNSTER. 107 
 
 think you will find lively and amusing. I thought those which I read 
 had more spirit and nature in them than most of the French pro- 
 ductions of a similar class that I have seen lately. The name need not 
 repel you, though it is somewhat ominous — Les Cataco7nhes." 
 
 The alarm of war to which Lord Elphinstone refers was caused 
 1))' our bombardment and storm of Acre, in pursuance of Lord 
 Palmerston's policy of helping the Sultan to take Syria from 
 Mehemet Ali. This being done without French concurrence, 
 M. Thiers was very warlike, but Louis Philippe decided for peace, 
 and Guizot took the place of Thiers. 
 
 General Fraser did his best for the advancement of Lord Mini- 
 ster's object, and sent the following reply to his letter : — 
 
 "Hyderabad, 22nd March 1841. 
 
 "My Lord, — I have much pleasure in sending you a list of such 
 books in the general catalogue you transmitted to me as are procurable 
 at Hyderabad, with a slight memorandum of each, and the price at 
 which it may be obtained. I greatly regret that so considerable a delay 
 has occurred in executing your commission, but this has necessarily 
 arisen from the isolated position in which the Resident here is placed, 
 debarred from personal communication with the respectable part of 
 the Native community. The list now forwarded has been prepared 
 principally through the instrumentality of Moulavee Mohammed Kara- 
 mut Ali, Darogha of the Foujdarree Adawlut of Hyderabad ; and even 
 this gentleman I have never personally met. He has, however, ex- 
 pressed a wish that on my transmitting the list of books I should men- 
 tion his name to you as that of the person who has been employed in 
 preparing it. I have accordingly much pleasure in doing so. He is 
 said to be a highly respectable and well-informed gentleman, and it 
 will probably be very gratifying to him to know that the little assistance 
 afforded by him has been approved by you. 
 
 " In the event of its suiting your Lordship's purpose to have any of 
 the books mentioned in the list, I beg that you will have the kindness 
 to inform me how they are to be addressed. I shall direct this letter to 
 the United Service Club, as I conclude it will reach you by this means 
 without risk. 
 
 " I remain, my Lord, very faithfully yours, 
 
 " J. S. Fkaser. 
 " Colonel the Earl of Munster, etc., etc., etc." 1 
 
 9 
 1 In the brevet on the birth of the Prince of Wales in 1841 , Lord Munster 
 was made a Major-General. He was also Lieutenant and Constable of 
 "Windsor Castle.
 
 108 LETTEB FEOM LORD ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 The General having communicated the substance of his reply to 
 Lord Minister's application, Lord Elphmstone again refers to the 
 subject in the course of the following letter. The " late dis- 
 turbances" mentioned are those connected with the occupation of 
 the Fort of Badamee in the Southern Mahratta country, on which 
 much will be said shortly. 
 
 •' Madras, 7th August 1841. 
 
 "My dear General, — I am really ashamed of myself for having so 
 long delayed to thank you for the papers on the subject of the late 
 disturbances, and for your kind letters. The former I have not had 
 time to read as yet, but I shall take an early opportunity of looking into 
 them. We can scarcely wonder at these occasional outbreaks, when we 
 take all circumstances into account, though I think that with a better, 
 or, indeed, any system of Police, they might frequently be prevented. 
 One of the first effects of a real system would be that we should know 
 the movements of all the roving adventurers and other suspicious 
 characters that infest the country. Without it, I fear that it will be 
 impossible to prevent the ingress of Arab mercenaries which you so 
 justly object to. 
 
 " It is a sad pity that the sympathy of the public in England towards 
 this country should be so misdirected as it is. Under different guidance 
 it might strengthen our hands, and produce a corresponding feeling on 
 the part of the people of India. At present I think the effect is the 
 very contrary of this ; for the discussions about the Rajah of Sattara 
 have no interest for them, while the Indian Governments are dis- 
 credited in proportion to the belief in the sensation against them at 
 home. 
 
 " But I must stop, as it is getting late, and I am exhausted with the 
 heat, which is great between the showers, which have at length reached 
 us. I am much obliged to you for letting me keep the ' Duchesse 
 U'Abrantes ' a little longer. I have just received the second part of ' De 
 Tocqueville,' and as I think you liked the first, 1 send it you for your 
 perusal. I am reading my uncle's History of India, the first two 
 volumes of which have been lately published, but I have not yet 
 received my copy of it, otherwise I would send it, as I daresay you 
 would like to see it. Lordf.Munster will be agreeably surprised if you 
 send him any Mohammedan war treatises. I think he has given up all 
 hopes of getting any from this quarter. I had a letter from him some 
 time ago, reproaching me for not seconding his endeavours. He seems 
 as full of his subject as ever. 
 
 " 1 have written to Lord Auckland on the subject of Mr. Strachey's 
 appointment, which I took it upon myself to say would be acceptable
 
 SUICIDE OF LORD MUNSTER. 109 
 
 to yourself as well as to me. I have not done anything about the Post- 
 mastership, as I believe that the nomination rests with you, so J bav< 
 given this answer to all applicants. 
 
 "Believe me, my dear General, 
 
 " Ever faithfully yours, 
 
 " Elphinstone." 
 
 There is no further correspondence on the subject of Lord 
 Minister's researches. The book on Mohammedan Military 
 Science was never completed, and no vestige of it remains extant 
 beyond the preliminary circular in Arabic, of which there is a 
 copy in the British Museum Library. 1 Just a year after the date 
 of the Resident's letter, in his house in Belgrave Square, on the 
 night of the 20th of March 1842, Lord Minister shot himself 
 through the head with one of a pair of gold-mounted pistols that 
 had been gy/en to him by King George IV. He had for several 
 days exhibited symptoms of mental disorder. At the coroner's 
 inquest, Mr. Hamerton, the surgeon who was called in when the 
 dreadful occurrence took place, and who had attended the Earl 
 daily for the preceding fortnight, said 'that the deceased "appeared 
 very much affected by the late news from India, and often spoke 
 on the subject, expressing himself in strong terms about the 
 females who had been taken as hostages at Cabul. He was on 
 these occasions much excited. He appeared deeply interested in 
 the fate of the women. These thoughts, I have no doubt, increased 
 the depression. He frequently said, ' Suppose one's own family 
 had been in such a situation, what a dreadful thing to reflect 
 upon'." The following letter from Lord Elphinstone, in which 
 there are a few interesting remarks, is introduced here some- 
 what in advance of its proper place, in order to complete this 
 episode. 
 
 " Madras, September 19th, 1842. 
 " My dear General Fraser, — I have been very busy lately packing 
 up and preparing for my departure and journey homewards, which has 
 
 1 Kxtab-'i-fihrist al kutub, etc. A List of desiderata of books in Arabic, 
 Persian, Turkish, and Hindustani on the Art of Warare among the Moham- 
 medans, compiled under orders of Lord Munster, by A. Sprenger, London, 
 1840.
 
 110 LETTEE FROM 
 
 interfered with my correspondence, and you must accept the excuse. 
 Even now I cannot answer your very Interesting Utter of the L 29th of 
 August as I should wish, but must content myself with thanking von 
 for it. It is possible that Lord Twceddale may be the bearer of the 
 grant of some indulgence or allowance to the Sepoys at Hyderabad, 
 and I find that this opinion is very prevalent here ; but I cannot 
 discover upon what it rests. I shall be very happy to hear that 
 it is well founded. I have never concealed from Lord Ellenborough, 
 or anyone else, my opinion that it was due to you that something 
 should be done. 
 
 "Poor Lord Munster ! Disappointment, I fear, pimluced that 
 aberration of mind under the influence of which he destroyed himself. 
 He was always very ambitious, and overlooked the difference of the 
 present age and that of King Charles the Second ; therefore, he 
 considered himself ill-used when he did not receive a dukedom, and 
 returned the ribbon of the Guelphic Order which his father sent him, 
 with the observation that he would be happy to receive one of a little 
 darker blue, meaning, of course, the Garter. The Kii»g, who was 
 kindness itself to all his children, was obliged to give him to under- 
 stand that his expectations were unreasonable. But, in fact, his ever 
 having entertained them is almost a proof that upon some points his 
 judgment was not under the control of bis reason. 
 
 " I am writing in such a turmoil of interruption and packing, that I 
 am afraid you will not think that my ideas are of the clearest order, 
 and, therefore, I will conclude this short letter. I shall have abundance 
 of time to write before I leave this country, as I am going to pass a 
 month or six weeks quietly in the Hills, as soon as I am relieved by 
 Lord Tweeddale. I shall avail myself gladly of the opportunity of 
 writing again to you. Meanwhile, I beg to thank you most sincerely 
 for your most agreeable and valuable correspondence, and to assure 
 you that I shall look back to it, and to having made your personal 
 acquaintance, as one of my most pleasing recollections daring my 
 stay in India. 
 
 "Believe me, my dear General, 
 
 " Yours most sincerely, 
 
 " Elphinstone." 
 
 The exchange of letters t-f occasional congratulation and greeting 
 with those members of the princely families of Mysore, Cochin, 
 and Travancore, with whom he had become personally acquainted 
 in his official capacity, was always kept up at Hyderabad by 
 General Eraser, and even after his return to Europe. Here is the 
 text of an autograph letter from the Elliah Rajah, or Heir
 
 THE PRINCE OF TRAVANCORE. Ill 
 
 Apparent of Travancore, Prince Martanda Vurma, written when 
 he was eighteen or nineteen years of age. 1 
 
 " General J. S. Fraser, etc., etc. 
 
 " My dear Sir, — 1 am favoured with the receipt of your most kind 
 letter of the 30th November last accompanying the beautiful chains 
 you have so kindly sent to me, in accomplishment of the request I 
 made in my former letter. I gave one of each description to His 
 Highness my Brother, Mother, Father, and other friends, with your best 
 compliments. We are all so much astonished at their neat workman- 
 ship that we are not yet enabled to satisfy our curiosity on the method 
 of their construction ; and we highly value them, especially on account 
 of their coming from the hands of such an esteemed friend as you are, 
 and I beg you to accept my warmest thanks for the same. 
 
 " As I am aware of the nature of business you are to transact there, 
 I beg to inform you need not make any apology for the delay. 
 
 " I am in want of words to thank you for your most kind and 
 interesting advices you were so good as to give, encouraging me for 
 my English studies, which is the source of all manners of happiness, 
 a test for distinguishing good from evil, and also a best plan for 
 improving the mind ; and, in consequence, confirming your advice 
 always in my mind as a fundamental rule, I shall always continue them 
 with much assiduity. 
 
 "The grand festival, Morajapom, having commenced on the 9th of 
 November, is to expire on the 13th instant, and as I am much engaged 
 in it, I beg you would kindly excuse the delay that occurred in 
 answering your favour. 
 
 " How happy we shall be to see you returned to Ti'avancore, and 
 incessantly pray God Almighty to favour lis with such an agreeable 
 opportunity. 
 
 " I and the rest of my family are in the enjoyment of good health, 
 and His Highness my Brother, as well as my Mother, desire me to 
 present their best compliments and respectful remembrances to you ; 
 and my Father is highly thankful for the kind memory you still 
 retain in your heart of the day we passed at Valy, and the conversation 
 on our return ; and he is always wishing to enjoy soon the happiness 
 of such an agreeable company ; and at the same time I beg you to 
 accept the respectful regards of 
 
 " Your sincere autl ever faithful friend, 
 " Trevandrum, 2nd January 1840. " Martanda Vurmah, E.R. 
 
 " P.S. — I beg to acquaint you that the Governor, Lord Elphinstone, 
 
 1 He succeeded to the throne in 1846, and died in 1860. His immediate 
 successor, as well as the present Rajah, were pupils of a very distinguished 
 Indian statesman, Sir T. Madhava Rao, K.C.S.I., successively Minister of 
 Travancore, Indore, and Baroda. ,
 
 112 RAJAH OF MYSORE. 
 
 was so good as to send me a book, Don Quixote, through Colonel 
 ane, who delivered it to mj Brother in a public meeting held on 
 hi^ arrival here ; and Dr. Eaton desires me to offer you his compli- 
 ments. "M. V." 
 
 The Genernl was in the habit of receiving one or two letters 
 every half-year from the Kajah of Mysore — to which, of course, he 
 regularly responded, — but His Highness not being an English 
 scholar, like the Prince of Travancore, his letters were dictated to 
 an amanuensis, and then translated into English. For the most 
 part they contain little but complimentary and friendly expres- 
 sions, but some of them of a later period bear evident marks of 
 the Rajah's own thoughts on several subjects of interest, and will 
 appear in their proper place in this memoir.
 
 113 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Stagnation in the State — The Minister's Weakness and Strength on both 
 Sides — The Badam.ee Outbreak — Letters to and from Lord Elphinstone 
 — The Russian Prince Soltykoff — The Subsidiary Force — Great 
 Military Authority and Responsibility of the Resident — Stoppage of 
 the Sepoys' " Batta" — Disaffection and Mutinous Proceedings— Order 
 and Obedience enforced by General Fraser — Thanks of Government — 
 The Resident's Proposal for Inquiry and Relief rejected by Lord Ellen- 
 borough. 
 
 There was decidedly no progress of any description in the 
 Hyderabad State during the years 1841 and 1842, unless it was 
 that slow progress, through ever-increasing financial embarrass- 
 ments, towards actual insolvency, which General Fraser desired to 
 avert, and which yet sometimes appeared to him to be almost 
 desirable, as a crisis that would necessitate some decisive step 
 towards an effectual measure of reform. The Minister continued 
 to be invariably courteous and cordial in manner and address, 
 profuse in professions of his desire to meet all the Resident's 
 wishes, but utterly impracticable as to any real change in the 
 existing system, especially as to admitting any person of rank or 
 capacity to undertake any part of those executive duties which 
 he could not really perform in person himself, but which he would 
 entrust to no responsible colleague. He would have none but 
 submissive subordinates in any department, for fear he should be 
 nursing a rival, or endangering the succession of his own son, 
 Bala Pershad, to the Dewannee. He did not want anyone else to 
 be trained for high office, or to be placed in a position to establish 
 a claim to promotion by recorded service or manifest ability. 
 Besides this, the debts of the State at exorbitant interest were 
 accumulating at such a rate — the annual deficit, as it was after- 
 wards proved, being about sixty lakhs of ripees in each of the 
 four years from 1839 to 1843— that Chundoo Lall must have 
 shrunk from communicating the facts to anyone who would have 
 
 i
 
 114 THE MINISTERS SECUEITY. 
 
 been capable of appreciating their true import. Certain it is that 
 General Fraser found great difficulty in obtaining accurate in- 
 formation as to the financial condition and exigencies of the State ; 
 although at this very time Chundoo Lall was most anxious to 
 obtain relief, either by an advance from the British treasury or by 
 the support of British credit, and must have known that no relief 
 would be given without a full disclosure. General Fraser was not 
 long in mastering the general outline of the situation, and lost no 
 time in drawing a descriptive picture for the enlightenment of the 
 Governor-General in Council. Chundoo Lall was manifestly the 
 great obstacle to reform, — the incubus that weighed heavily upon 
 the Hyderabad State, sunk in uneasy slumbers, — and yet the 
 removal of that obstacle seemed a more and more delicate and 
 troublesome operation. The Minister's position, both in Hyderabad 
 and at Calcutta, was a very strong one, if only from his extreme 
 old age, and his thirty years of undivided power. He had the 
 repute on our side of having, in concert with Sir Henry Bussell as 
 Piesident, established the Contingent, of having never opposed its 
 augmentation in numbers or expense, and of having never refused 
 his assent to any demand, or his concurrence in any plan, formed 
 with a view to some advantage for the Honourable Company. 
 Nothing apparently could be gained for the Government of India 
 by changing the Nizam's Minister. On the other side, the Minister, 
 besides the awe with which he was invested from the prevailing- 
 belief in his having British authority at his back, had, to his great 
 honour, in the eyes of the Nizam and of all persons of distinction 
 at His Highness's Court and capital, the reputation of having won 
 for the State by his policy of alliance and active co-operation with 
 our Government, entire freedom from the Mahratta claims of chout 
 or tribute, and from the last vestiges of Mahratta participation in 
 the revenues and sovereignty of Berar, now unquestionably the 
 richest province in the Nizam's dominions. The Contingent might 
 be costly, but the advantages of the Treaty of 1822 would never 
 have been won but for t^he exploits of "the Bussell Brigade". 
 After all, it was the Nizam's Army, an army from which the 
 Nizam's Government derived great security, and of which His 
 Highness might wejl be proud. Such were sonic of the con- 
 siderations, not without some plausibility, and even some degree 
 of justice, that may well have been advanced by Chundoo*
 
 INSURGENTS AT BADAMEE. 115 
 
 Lall and his more immediate adherents, and that cannot but have 
 given greater weight and solidity to his credit in the Council- 
 chamber of Calcutta, and to his absolute supremacy in the 
 Hyderabad Durbar. 
 
 In the midst of the administrative stagnation of 1841 and 1842, 
 some stirring events occurred which gave new proofs at once of 
 the value and usefulness of the Nizam's Contingent, and of the 
 very small aid, even in the way of local information, that the 
 Resident could obtain from the Nizam's Minister. Early in May 
 1841, General Fraser had received reports from Captain Jackson, 
 commanding one of the regiments of the Contingent at Muktul, 
 that armed men were assembling in the southern part of the 
 Shorapore Raj, tributary to the Nizam, and that an Arab Jema- 
 dar named Kohran was at their head, while information came 
 from other sources that small parties of Arabs were daily quit- 
 ting the city of Hyderabad, to reinforce the insurgents. In 
 the following letter to Lord Elphinstone the Eesident describes 
 the progress of this movement, and his own proceedings in con- 
 nection with it. 
 
 '" Hyderabad, June 11, 1841. 
 
 "My Lord, — I have the pleasure to return the four volumes of 
 ' Janin,' with two of ' Tocqueville,' which you were so good as to send me, 
 with a thousand thanks for the gratification they have afforded. 
 
 " We have, just now, had another proof here of the volcanic character 
 of the soil on which we tread. About six weeks ago, vague reports 
 reached me that some Arabs and other vagabonds were assembling in 
 the Nizam's country, at or near a place called Deodroog, in the district 
 of Shorapore; and, almost day by day, their numbers were said to 
 increase, though no one knew under whose orders they were acting, or 
 with what ulterior designs. 
 
 " The Minister ordered down some of the Government troops to seize 
 or disperse them; but the detachment, far from executing the pre- 
 scribed duty, placed themselves in friendly communication with the 
 insurgents. At length, an inroad upon the Company's territory began 
 to be spoken of; and, determining therefore to defer no longer, I 
 ordered the 4th Regiment N. I. to march immediately from Muktul. 
 and the undermentioned forces to move forthwith from Bolarum : — 
 
 6th Regiment Nizam's Infantry. 1 8 in. mortar. 
 
 3 Troops N. Cavalry. 2 5^ in. do. 
 
 2 5i-in. Howitzers. A small party of Pioneers. 
 
 2 G-pounder Guns. 
 
 12
 
 116 RECAPTURE OF 
 
 " With this force I was going down myself, and within four-and- 
 twenty hours should have been en route y when I received an express 
 from the Political Agent in the Southern Mahratta country, apprising 
 me that the insurgents had suddenly entered the Company's territory, 
 seized upon the unoccupied fort of Badamee, plundered the town, and 
 murdered many of the inhabitants. He added that a large military 
 force had been ordered against them. 
 
 " Now, it was no business of mine to go in quest of adventures on the 
 Company's territory. I therefore countermanded the movement of the 
 Bolarum force, and confined myself to sending one of the Nizam's N.I. 
 to the frontier, for the purpose of co-operating with the Company's 
 authorities in any measure that might be deemed expedient against the 
 insurgents. At the same time I ordered the three troops of the Nizam's 
 Cavalry which I had at Bolarum, with four troops, or half a Risalah, from 
 Mominabad, to move down immediately, by forced marches, to join the 
 4th N. T. I also ordered more Cavalry, to the extent of a complete 
 Risalah, or eight troops, to be held in readiness to move from Momi- 
 nabad on requisition of the Collector of Sholapore. 
 
 " I have further offered the Political Agent in the Southern 
 Mahratta country any aid he may require from me in Artillery or any 
 other arm. The Collector of Sholapore has availed himself of the 
 power vested in him, and has written to Brigadier Blair to send half a 
 Risalah of horse for protection of this district. 
 
 " Here matters are in suspense ; and I am daily in expectation of 
 hearing that hostilities have commenced. Badamee is an extremely 
 strong place, and I hope that the military authorities in the Southern 
 Mahratta country have sent thither a considerable force, especially 
 of guns. The Nizam's Cavalry, if they arrive in time, will be the 
 most useful arm when the insurgents shall have been driven out of 
 Badamee. 
 
 " It is supposed, but not certain, that the insurgents are acting 
 under the orders of an emissary from the ex- Rajah of Sattara, although 
 the Resident there has not yet been able to obtain any authentic infor- 
 mation on the subject. 
 
 " The insurgents have plenty of money ; and the leaders (an Arab 
 Jemadar named Kohran, and a Brahmin) pay their followers very 
 high rates. The estimates of their number vary from 500 to 5,000. 
 Of these fellows there is, of course, no real fear ; but I should be 
 somewhat apprehensive of the insurrectionary spirit spreading, and 
 gaining over the other Mohammedans. These gentlemen I distrust ; 
 und I therefore regard it as highly important that this seditious 
 movement should be i*Amiediately quelled, before gaining further head. 
 
 " I have again suggested to the Supreme Government to remove all 
 the foreign mercenary troops, especially the Arabs, from India, assured
 
 BADAMEE. 117 
 
 that they are most dangerous to the peace and tranquillity of the 
 country. 'There are, perhaps, 5,000 Arabs in the Nizam's territory 
 alone, of whom probably 3,000 arc collected at Hyderabad. The whole 
 of this race are banded together in strict union ; and I received the 
 other day, a report that, had I moved down with the Bolarum force, 
 600 Arabs from the city had determined to instantly join and reinforce 
 their insurgent brethren in arms. Orders are now given to put to 
 death any Arab who shall attempt to leave the city for the purpose of 
 proceeding to the scene of disturbance ; and every measure of precaution 
 that I can devise has been taken to seize any of the rebel force 
 endeavouring to escape, after expulsion from Badamee, into the 
 Nizam's country. 
 
 " The Wahabee spirit, too, seems to be showing itself here. Some 
 of this sect, a few days ago, murdered two Mahdavi Pathans near 
 Kulburga, which has produced a strong excitement in the city; but I 
 do not interfere in the matter. The Nizam, I hear, has ordered a 
 strict watch to be kept over his brother at Golcondah. 
 
 " I remain, my Lord, 
 
 " Yours very faithfully, 
 
 "J. S. Fraser." 
 
 * 
 
 Lord Elphiu stone promptly replied to this letter, and in his 
 reply introduced to General Fraser a very interesting and then a 
 somewhat mysterious person — whose name, in the person of his 
 relative and successor, is now well known on the turf and in 
 society — the Russian Prince Soltykoff. , 
 
 "Madras, June 22, 1841. 
 
 " My dear General, — Your kind letter has been most acceptable, for 
 I had no other information of the disturbances beyond the Toombuddra, 
 except the reports which reached the Collector of Bellary, and led him 
 to detach parties of Cavalry for the protection of our frontier. I hope 
 that this singular outbreak may now be considered at an end, and. that 
 I may congratulate you upon the fall of Badamee and the capture of 
 its garrison. Walter Elliot, 1 who is just returned from sea, knows the 
 place, and desci'ibes it as a most formidable position, — once invested, 
 however, there was no escape, according to him, for those who had 
 trusted to its inaccessibility ; they must have been caught, as in a 
 trap. 
 
 " What was the motive of this attempt at insurrection ? Was it a 
 remnant of the ostensibly Wahabee movement ?t Or was it instigated 
 
 1 Now Sir Walter Elliot, K.C.S.I., who rose to be a Member of Council 
 at Madras.
 
 118 THE RUSSIAN PRINCE. 
 
 by some petty Chief who had his own cause of discontent, and no very 
 precise idea of how he could show his teeth ? At all events, your plan 
 of expelling all the Arabs and foreign mercenaries of every nation from 
 India, is a sound and politic measure, and I trust it will be adopted. 
 Equally so appears to me your idea of stationing a portion of the 
 Nizam's Regular Force in the south-west angle of his dominions. It 
 would cut off in times of disturbance the Mahratta Chiefs from the 
 disaffected in the Nizam's country, and thus prevent a dangerous com- 
 lii nation, and it would protect the districts in which it is located, as 
 well as those south of the Toombuddra, from the raids and forays to 
 which they are now occasionally exposed. I hope that the Kurnool 
 Sowars will in time become a useful body of troops for this purpose, in 
 patrolling the southern bank of the river. 
 
 " Excuse a hasty letter, which I am ashamed to send, when you 
 found time to write to me in the midst of the busy time which you 
 must have had lately. 
 
 " There is here a Russian Prince, Soltykoff, who claims my acquaint- 
 anceship, and whom I believe that I remember in London, where he was 
 Attache to Mie Embassy. He was afterwards in a diplomatic situation 
 in Persia, when Count Simonich was Minister, and I understand that 
 he was at Teheran during the siege of Herat. He has brought no 
 Letters, and professes that his coming here at all is the effect of chance, 
 as he had no idea of doing so till he met Sir Colin Campbell in Egypt. 
 He is going to Hyderabad, and I commend him to your hospitality and 
 kindness. He is a gentlemanlike man, and a most beautiful draughtsman. 
 His groups of Persians, and other drawings of figures and landscapes, 
 are very clever. He of course says he is only here for his amusement, 
 and he even affects to fear that the Emperor will be displeased with 
 him for coming here without leave. 
 
 " Believe me, my dear General, 
 
 " Very faithfully yours, 
 
 " Elphinstoxe." 
 
 In a letter to Lord El pi tinstone, dated the 12th of June, General 
 Eraser reports that " our troops are fairly in position before 
 Badamee". "The Minister", he continues, "wrote to me this 
 morning to state that the Arab Jemadars of Hyderabad had dis- 
 covered in an adjacent village, and had seized, the wife and family 
 of Kohran, the leader of the insurgent party. The family con- 
 sisted of a son aged sixteen, and a daughter six years of age. All 
 these, the Jemadars added, according to the Minister, might now 
 be blown away from guns, or punished in any manner the Govern- 
 ment pleased. The Minister referred the case to me, and I have
 
 BADAMEE TAKEN. 119 
 
 <desired him to keep these persons in confinement without any- 
 unnecessary harshness. All this proves that the Hyderabad Arabs 
 are beginning to take alarm, and that they desire to exhibit some 
 appearance of subordination." 
 
 On the 16 th of June the Resident reports in private letters to 
 the Governor-General's Private Secretary and to Lord Elphinstone 
 the recapture of the fort of Badamee, with very small loss to our 
 troops. Kohran, the Arab, and Nursing Eao, the Brahmin leader 
 of the insurgents, fell into our hands, and more than a hundred 
 Arabs were taken prisoners. The causes of this extraordinary 
 outbreak remained most obscure after every possible inquiry had 
 been made, — local rumours, for they amounted to nothing more, 
 generally attributing it to a conspiracy fomented by the deposed 
 Rajah of Sattara, then residing under surveillance, a sort of state- 
 prisoner at large, at Benares. But there was no clear, or even 
 intelligible evidence to that effect. 
 
 On the 25th of June he writes to Lord Elphinstone : — 
 
 " I imagine that these matters are now drawing to a close ; and 
 upon the old principle of ' shutting the stable door after the steed 
 is stolen,' I hope we shall now either garrison our forts in the 
 Southern Mahratta country, or dismantle them so far as to be 
 useless to others." 
 
 A month later he writes more fully on the subject, and notices 
 Lord Elphinstone's introduction of Prince Soltykoff, who had not 
 as yet made his appearance at the Residency. 
 
 " Hyderabad, 25th July 1841. 
 " My Lord, — The copying of the accompanying despatches being 
 now finished, I do myself the pleasure to send them for your perusal. 
 I cannot, however, suppose that you will actually read them, for they 
 are dreadfully wearisome. I had scarcely patience to do so myself, 
 although I was under the necessity of saying something about them to 
 the Supreme Government. What I did say you will find in the copy 
 of a letter to the Secretary to the Government of India, dated the 21st 
 instant. It says, in fact, very little; fey the singular cunning and 
 secrecy of the rogues we have to deal with leaves little ground for the 
 formation of any positive judgment. I have now no more certain 
 knowledge than I had two months ago who was the real originator of 
 this criminal enterprise ; and it appears by a private letter which I 
 received last night from the Political Agent in the Southern Mahratta 
 .country, that though he has possession of both the Brahmin, Nursing
 
 120 SOCIAL AMENITIES. 
 
 Rao, and the Arab Jemadar, Kohran, he yet labours under just the 
 same ignorance as myself. I do not think the Minister Chundoo Lall 
 possesses any real information cither. He has several times mentioned 
 the name of the Rajah of Sattara, and upon one occasion distinctly 
 stated that he was the author of the mischief. But the ridiculous and 
 insufficient grounds on which he made this assertion will be seen in the 
 translations of three notes that passed between us on the 13th and 14th 
 instant. 
 
 " Your lordship has conferred a favour upon me in giving me, by 
 your introduction, the pleasure of Mr. and Mrs. Strachey's society. 
 The lady is evidently a very superior person, and the charms of her 
 conversation make me regret that I am but little likely ever to enjoy 
 the same advantage on a wider scale in England, where I suppose 
 a cultivated mind and polished manner are rather more frequently met 
 with than they are in India. Mr. Strachey is expecting that your 
 lordship will assist his views by recommending him to Lord Auckland 
 for the Nizam's service, and I have afforded what little aid I could by 
 writing to Mr. Colvin, the Governor-General's Private Secretary, an 
 attestation to the good conduct and abilities of Mr. Strachey, recently 
 furnished by his commanding officer. 
 
 " I beg that you will not hesitate the keep the 'Duchesse d'AbranteV 
 as long as you are pleased with her. She is a delightful companion,, 
 and carries one off to times and scenes very much more attractive than 
 the monotony of Indian life. If it were not almost a treasonable con- 
 fession, I should feel inclined to remark that even a little insurrection 
 every now and then is better than nothing. I imagined before I came 
 here that the life of the Resident at Hyderabad must necessarily be an 
 active and well- employed one ; but, on the contrary, I find myself sink- 
 ing down into a state of unwelcome and morbid stagnation. To see a 
 Russian Prince here will be quite an adventure, and I beg that your 
 lordship will be so kind as to assure M. de Soltykoff that I shall be 
 most happy to receive him at the Residency. 
 
 " It will be quite an amusing problem to find out how far he deserves 
 the character that has been given him of being ' a Russian spy'. My 
 mind happens just at this moment to be filled with terrible visions of 
 Russian ambition and projects of aggrandisement, in consequence of 
 having read a work lent me by Mr. Strachey, called by a very long 
 title, which I must give at frll length : — ' Exposition of Transactions in 
 Central Asia, through which the Independence of States and the 
 Affections of People, Barriers to the British Possessions in India, have 
 been sacrificed to Russia by Henry John, Viscount Palmerston, H.M.'s 
 Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, constituting grounds 
 for the Impeachment of that Minister,' — a most terrible array of charges 
 against poor Lord Palmerston, if he deserves them. The pamphlet is
 
 UKQUIIART V. PALMERSTON. 121 
 
 ■written by Mr. David Urquhart ; but what degree of credit it is likely 
 to receive in England I cannot conceive. . It is very likely, after all, that 
 we are apt to exaggerate the absolute views and settled intentions of 
 nations and States, as we are the qualities, good or bad, of individuals. 
 " Believe me, my dear Lord, 
 
 "Very faithfully and obediently yours, 
 
 "J. S. Frasee." 
 
 It will be seen hereafter that one of the greatest, if not the 
 greatest, of all difficulties that General Fraser had to encounter in 
 pursuing his plans for the reform of the Hyderabad administration,, 
 lay in the inexplicable reluctance of the Government of India 
 to do anything, or to press any course of action on the Nizam, that 
 had nothing more to recommend it than the intention and the 
 hope of a beneficial effect on the allied State and its large popu- 
 lation. If it were anything that might consolidate the Contingent, 
 or ensure the regular payment of that force, or otherwise promote 
 what seemed our direct interests, the authorities at Calcutta always 
 found good and sufficient cause for strong words and effectual 
 measures to enforce them. Where no such incentive presented 
 itself, there were invariably, as will' be seen, some scruples as to 
 the Nizam's independence under Treaty, or some equally grave 
 consideration, which forbade any exercise, however good the object 
 might be, of our irresistible influence. An early instance of these 
 peculiar scruples, in a case where our motives could not have been 
 suspected, while the objects and benefits of the measure suggested 
 were obviously and essentially Imperial, occurred as one of the 
 consequences of the Badamee outbreak. In accordance with the 
 opinions expressed in the preceding letter to Lord Elphinstone, 
 General Fraser proposed to the Supreme Government that he should 
 be authorised to press upon the Nizam's Government a general 
 measure for destroying or dismantling the numerous hill-forts in 
 various parts of the country, useless for military purposes, and in 
 fact left open and abandoned as a temptation to freebooters and in- 
 surgents. The substance of the reply ftjpm the Government of India, 
 in October 1841, was that " under present circumstances it was not 
 the Governor-General's desire that he should authorise any mea- 
 sures for that purpose. Where the stronghold of a freebooter or a 
 rebel, against whom it had been found necessary to employ troops 
 commanded by British officers, had been occupied, it might be
 
 122 AN EXPECTANT POLICY. 
 
 right to destroy it, and to take precautions against its being 
 reconstructed, 1 nit no more general proceedings were contemplated, 
 or could be sanctioned by the Governor-General." 
 
 " When", indeed, continued the despatch, " circumstances may 
 call for our direct interference in the management of the country, 
 it will then be perfectly warrantable and expedient to insist on 
 the disuse of means of defence against an authority, the just use 
 of which will be within our own control." 
 
 "You will be sensible from the whole tenor of the policy of 
 the Government in connection with the Hyderabad Residency, 
 that it is not intended to force on any change of our position with 
 respect to the Nizam's dominions, but only to watch the course of 
 events, and to provide for the exigencies which may occur, as the 
 actual state of facts and a just regard to all claims may render 
 necessary." 
 
 Such was the general conception of a dignified and enlightened 
 Imperial policy when Lord Auckland was Governor-General, and 
 Mr. (afterwards Sir Herbert) Maddoek Secretary to Government 
 in the Foreign and Political Department ; and this was very little, 
 if at all, modified during the whole period that General Fraser 
 occupied the post of Resident at Hyderabad. It really amounted, 
 if properly analysed, to nothing more than this, — that the great 
 duty of the Resident was to see that the Contingent w r as regularly 
 paid, or was, at any rate, not more than four months in arrears ; 
 and that every precaution being taken, and every advantage seized, 
 to secure the pay and permanence of the Contingent, all the 
 diseased places in the Nizam's territory, even those that were 
 dangerous to the general health of the Empire, might be left to 
 fester and to inflame, until some pretext was afforded for our 
 " direct interference in the management of the country". Then, 
 and not till then, it would be " warrantable and expedient" to use 
 the "authority" that would be "within our own control" for the 
 reform of abuses and the redress of grievances. 
 
 From this doctrine, as will be abundantly made manifest in the 
 course of this work, General Fraser continuously and consistently 
 dissented, and throughout his unusually long tenure of the Hydera- 
 bad Residency — under the rule of Lord Auckland, Lord Ellen- 
 borough, Lord Hardinge, and the Marquis of Dalhousie — contended 
 against it on every possible opportunity, and to the extreme verge
 
 A REFORMING POLICY. 123 
 
 of official deference. His doctrine was very unlike that accepted 
 at Calcutta. He conceived that it was at once the duty and the 
 interest of the British Government, as the de facto paramount or 
 Imperial Power of India, to prevent the arrival of a disastrous 
 crisis in the affairs of our faithful and useful ally, the Nizam, by 
 the timely promotion of reforms, under our predominant influence, 
 without assailing the administrative independence guaranteed by 
 treaty, without destroying local customs and institutions, without 
 displacing the native dignitaries and officials of the Hyderabad 
 State by an inundation of English gentlemen, or of Natives 
 trained in our system. He did not consider it either just or 
 politic to wait and to watch for what were called " exigencies", 
 but to anticipate them and to guard against them. 
 
 In September 1841 the Eesident reminds the Government that 
 he had already suggested certain measures " that might lead to the 
 gradual improvement of the country, which, however, elicited no 
 reply", and that he had since "remained silent on the subject, 
 because no more decided policy presented itself to his mind, which 
 did not involve the removal of the Dewan Chundoo Lall from 
 office," for which measure he had no " reason to suppose the 
 British Government was prepared". 
 
 In summing up, in June 1841, the results of his inquiries into 
 the causes and incidents of the Badamee outbreak, and forwarding 
 copies of all the correspondence with Chundoo Lall, and all the 
 reports received from him, General Fraser observes : — " These 
 papers are for the most part of a very vague and unsatisfactory 
 nature, and exhibit a proof of the extraordinary manner in which 
 the affairs of this Government are carried on, and of the ignorance 
 in which the Minister endeavours to keep the British Resident 
 with respect to any transaction that may appear to be indicative 
 of his own weakness, and discreditable to his personal adminis- 
 tration." 
 
 In December 1841 he writes very much to the same effect, 
 commenting with perfect candour, ?#id without any disguise, at 
 once on the incapacity of Chundoo Lall, and on the apparent 
 indifference of our Government. " A great difficulty", he says, " is 
 presented by a point in the Minister's character to which I have 
 formerly adverted, his insurmountable propensity to concealment, 
 so as to keep me in ignorance of everything that may discredit his
 
 124 THE minister's reticence. 
 
 own system of government, or exhibit the Nizam's dominions in 
 any other condition than that in which the Supreme Government 
 would wish them to be. The disturbances and disputes between 
 the local authorities and Zemindars or others, which frequently 
 occur in different parts of the country, never reach my ears until 
 reported by the officers of the Nizam's army ; or are incidentally 
 discovered at Hyderabad ; or are brought to my knowledge by the 
 Minister when he either stands in absolute need of the aid of the 
 troops to extricate him from his difficulties; or, as is generally 
 the case, when he finds that the information has already reached 
 me from other sources." 
 
 The following paragraphs complete the picture of General 
 Fraser's position, with reference to the Nizam's Minister and to 
 his own Government, at the close of 1841 : — 
 
 " It is the case, as I have observed on former occasions, that the 
 whole of the Minister's administration is embarrassed by his financial 
 difficulties. He is not his own master, but a slave to his creditors on 
 every side, and entangled to an inextricable degree with various classes 
 — Soucars, Arab mercenaries, talookdars, assignees of revenue, and 
 others, — with whom he is connected in his pecuniary transactions. 
 
 " A proposition for introducing our civil administration would no 
 doubt be strongly opposed by the Nizam ; and I do not perceive that it 
 would be justified by any extraordinary crisis that has arisen, or 
 that any circumstances connected with the safety of our own territory 
 would authorise so decided an infringement of the independence of this 
 State. 
 
 " My proposition for strengthening the hands of the Minister by the 
 assistance of Native agency, and the transfusion of vigour which might 
 thus have been given to every decayed or weakened branch of the 
 administration, was not entertained by the Governor-General in Council. 
 I think, however, that it might have been attended with good effect, 
 because it would not only have given an accession of talent and energy 
 to. the Nizam's Government, but it would have removed what I consider 
 one of the principal sources of existing evil, which is the concentration 
 of the whole power of Government, and exercise of its authority, in the 
 person of the Minister alone, who exclusively directs, in such manner 
 as we see it to be directed, every transaction of the State, from the 
 highest and most important, to the meanest and most insignificant. 
 This was the most moderate change I could recommend with any 
 chance of advantage, and the Minister had expressed his willingness to 
 consent to it."
 
 THE MINISTER'S WILLINGNESS. 125 
 
 The Minister's " willingness", it is, of course, understood, was 
 contingent on the approval and instructions of the authorities at 
 Calcutta, and the full support they could, if they chose, give to the 
 Eesident's recommendations. But that support was always with- 
 held when it was wanted, and somehow or other the Minister seems 
 always to have known that it would be withheld. If his plan of 
 introducing a few able Native functionaries of tried ability and 
 integrity, such as the Brahmin Vencata Rao, 1 who had been 
 Minister of the Travancore State, was not to be carried out, then, 
 said General Fraser — 
 
 " I perceive no remaining course of policy but to remove the 
 Minister from office upon a pension for the remainder of his life, and to 
 recommend the Nizam to appoint another Dewan. Into the details of 
 this particular part of the subject, however, I shall not deem it 
 necessary to enter, unless the British Government shall be of opinion 
 that a total and radical change in the administration is indispensably 
 called for." 
 
 Early in 1842, General Fraser's attention was for a time, and 
 with good cause, turned from the administrative stagnation and 
 financial disorder of the Hyderabad State to matters more imme- 
 diately beneath his own authority, and more directly affecting the 
 British Government. The Subsidiary Force, composed of Company's 
 troops, became a more urgent object for his consideration, and for 
 that of the Governor of Madras and the Governor-General, than 
 the Nizam's Army. In consequence of certain alterations, very 
 much to their disadvantage, in the scale of pay allotted to them in 
 the stations most distant from the provinces in which they are for 
 the most part recruited, and in which their homes are situated, a 
 spirit of discontent manifested itself among the Madras Sepoys 
 of the Subsidiary Force, in the great military cantonment of 
 Secunderabad, near the city of Hyderabad. 
 
 The Sepoys refused to take their pay without the additional 
 allowance called " batta", which they had been accustomed to 
 receive, and the issue of which was suddenly and, as it seemed to 
 them, arbitrarily and unfairly stopped. The Sepoy's pay was only 
 14s. a month, out of which, he had to find his own subsistence, and 
 the " batta", supposed to compensate him for ? the higher price of 
 grain and other necessaries, and for other expenses consequent on 
 
 1 Ante, p. 99.
 
 126 PAY AND BATTA. 
 
 great distance from home, amounted to from 4s. to 5s. more — a very- 
 appreciable and welcome addition to his monthly pittance. " Batta" 
 was originally an allowance made to troops in the field, on active 
 service, and was continued to them so long as they remained in 
 what was called "foreign" territory. But as territory was con- 
 quered or ceded, it ceased to he foreign. As internal peace and 
 British supremacy in India were established, there was a falling off 
 in prize-money, plunder, and special gratuities. From 1756 to 
 1856, in proportion as the British dominions extended in area, the 
 Sepoy's marches became longer, and his emoluments were curtailed; 
 while the excitement of warfare gave way to the brooding dulness 
 of garrison duty. This gradual change was varied, but not 
 relieved, by expeditions to Afghanistan, Burma and China, — out- 
 landish and odious in Hindu estimation, — and by the wars in 
 Scinde and the Punjaub, which brought those distant regions within 
 the range of the Sepoy's ordinary service. Mr. H. M. Durand, the 
 present Under Secretary in the Indian Foreign Office, has very 
 justly observed in a recent publication, that " the sweeping annexa- 
 tions of Lord Dalhousie, while they weakened our military position, 
 unsettled the minds of our Indian feudatories, and sowed fear and 
 distrust broadcast." 1 But the most dangerous results of annexation 
 consisted in the distrust and unsettled temper of our Sepoys. 
 Lord Dalhousie contemptuously charged Sir Charles Napier, who 
 had suppressed a most dangerous mutiny in the Punjaub, arising 
 out of this same question of batta in a recently annexed province, 
 with having made use of "extravagant and mischievous exaggera- 
 tions", with having brought "unjust and injurious imputations" 
 against the Bengal Army. He had read " the statements" of the 
 Commander-in-Chief "with incredulity". He declared that "the 
 safety of India had never for one moment been imperilled by 
 partial insubordination in the ranks of its army". 2 He pronounced 
 in liis Farewell Minute, that "the position of the Native soldier in 
 India had long been such as to leave hardly any circumstance of 
 his condition in need of improvement". 3 Even with regard to their 
 
 1 Life of Sir II. M. Durand (W. H. Allen, 1883), vol. i, p. 282. 
 
 8 Pajier* jyr'uded by the East India Company, Discussion beticecn the Marquis 
 of Dalhousie and Sir Charles Napier, 1854, p. 15. 
 
 3 Minute by the Marquis of Dalhousie, 28th February 1856 (para. 151), 
 p. 39.
 
 ILL-ADVISED SAVINGS. 127 
 
 material condition, much lowered by the increased length and 
 frequency of marches, Lord Dalhousie was quite wrong. The moral 
 condition, the temper, and good will of the Sepoys, the faith and 
 confidence with which they looked up to the British Government, 
 and the hope with which they regarded their own prospects, were 
 all impaired and perverted by the incidents of territorial extension. 
 I may add here, without saying my last word on the condition of 
 the Indian soldier, that since 1857 the emoluments of almost every 
 branch and every rank of the Native Army have been directly or 
 indirectly augmented. But from about 1836 to 1856 there was a 
 steady decline in the Sepoy's fortunes. 
 
 This decline was just beginning to be seriously felt by the 
 Native troops, though not rightly understood or appreciated by the 
 authorities, in 1842. It more immediately affected the Sepoys of 
 the Madras Army, who had for two or three years been pushed 
 on from the south to occupy stations which they had been accus- 
 tomed to consider outside their latitude, but which had been 
 vacated by the Bengal and Bombay troops engaged in Afghanistan. 
 The military budget of India was swelled beyond all precedent by 
 the expeditions to Scinde and Cabul, but savings were sought, 
 under strict injunctions from the Court of Directors, by cutting off 
 their accustomed batta from the Sepoys. This measure of economy 
 was put in force just at the time when the Sepoys were being 
 harassed with most unwelcome changes of quarters, — changes 
 entailing special expenses on the Madras troops, who, unlike those 
 of Bengal, are always accompanied by their families. 
 
 There is an early hint of the coming trouble in the following 
 letter from Lord Elphinstone. 
 
 " Madras, January 21st, 1842. 
 
 " My dear General Fraser, — You have heard of the refusal of a 
 whig of the 52nd Native Iufantry to take their pay without batta at 
 Asseerghur, and of the mutinous conduct of the other wing, who, how- 
 ever, have taken their pay. I hear from various quarters that the 
 whole of the regiments at Hyderabad intend to refuse their pay unless 
 batta is issued to them. I should be very much obliged to you if you 
 would tell me whether you believe that there are grounds for this 
 rumour, and if so, in what manner you think that such a resistance can 
 best be met. I fear that it would be impossible to compel so large a 
 body of troops to receive their pay if they decline simultaneously to 
 receive it; and the passive mode of resistance which the wing at
 
 123 PASSIVE RESISTANCE. 
 
 Asseergliur has adopted is perhaps of all others the most difficult to 
 contend with. I shall be very happy to receive your suggestions, if, as 
 there is too much reason to apprehend, there is any probability of the 
 refusal said to be in contemplation at Hyderabad. I write in a great 
 hurry, to save the post. I have just received the overland letters, and, 
 what was even more interesting to me, a few lines from Meerut of the 
 Gth of January, giving me the then latest rumour from Cabul, where an 
 action is said to have been fought on the 12th of December, in which, 
 after a sanguinary struggle, the insurgents were completely routed. I 
 hope and trust that this may be true, for then the news of the capitu- 
 lation (said to have taken place on the 9th December) must be false. 
 But you will probably have later intelligence. 
 
 " Believe me, my dear General, 
 
 " Most truly yours, 
 
 " Elphinstone." 
 
 There was in 1842 no functionary in any part of India under 
 the rank of a Governor, invested with such extensive authority 
 and control over so large a military force of all arms as the Kesi- 
 dent at Hyderabad. Including the Subsidiary Force and the 
 Nizam's Contingent, General, Fraser had about 15,000 men at his 
 beck and call ; there being in those days no telegraph to check his 
 proceedings, and the post between Hyderabad, Madras, and Calcutta 
 being carried by runners on foot at the rate of about 120 miles a 
 day. No Commander-in-Chief, or military department of the 
 Honourable Company — no one but the Governor- General — could 
 interfere with the Resident's initiative and absolute discretion with 
 regard to the Nizam's Army. Over the Subsidiary Force, concen- 
 trated at Secunderabad — about midway between the Residency and 
 the headquarters of the Contingent at Bolarum — the Resident's 
 authority, as will be seen in the following extracts from a reply 
 given in 1848 to a reference on the subject, was decisive and 
 paramount. 
 
 " The Governor-General thinks you are substantially right in the 
 view you take of the authority which the Resident at Hyderabad ought 
 to hold over the Subsidiary as well as the Contingent Force. The 
 Governor- General desires that it may be distinctly understood that the 
 Resident at Hydei'abad, acting on behalf of the Supreme Government, 
 has full authority ovei the Subsidiary Force and the Officer commanding 
 it, excepting in matters of discipline and detail. 
 
 " The Resident has power to direct the movement of the Subsidiary
 
 CARTE BLANCHE POWERS. 129 
 
 Force, or any part of it, for purposes of military service within the 
 Nizam's dominions. 
 
 " The power of seeing the Force under arms, of inspecting arsenals, 
 and everything connected with the Subsidiary Force, and reporting 
 thereupon to the Supreme Government, must belong to the Resident. 
 
 " The Supreme Government will expect that the Resident and the 
 Officer commanding the Subsidiary Force will on all occasions act cor- 
 dially together for the promotion of the public service, without any un- 
 necessary doubts or difficulties as to the precise limits of their respective 
 authorities, which have now been pointed out so distinctly as to be 
 readily recognised." 
 
 These instructions hold equally good, it must be explained, 
 whether the Resident be a soldier or a civilian ; always, in either 
 case, with the reservation to the Commandant of the Force, of 
 authority in matters of detail and discipline, and in the actual 
 conduct of military operations. But even this reservation was 
 removed when mutiny was impending in 1842 ; and in considera- 
 tion of General Fraser's rank in the army, and his high repute for 
 cool judgment and the capacity of command, complete military 
 authority over the Subsidiary Force w#s placed in his hands. He 
 was invested by the Government of Madras, under secret orders 
 dated 27th of January 1842, with " unlimited discretionary power 
 to act, in the event of necessity arising for prompt decision, in 
 whatever manner he may consider most expedient, in the case of 
 the whole of the troops composing the Hyderabad Subsidiary 
 Force refusing to receive pay without batta." The General was 
 even authorised to take the extreme course of concediim the 
 demands of the Sepoys, of ordering batta to be issued, and of pro- 
 mising its continuance, if no other mode of preventing a serious 
 conflict should present itself. He was, in fact, given carte blanche, 
 and these unlimited powers were subsecpuently confirmed by the 
 Supreme Government, Lord Auckland being still Governor-General. 
 
 The feelings with which General Fraser entered upon the task, 
 which might possibly compel him to lead European soldiers against 
 their Indian comrades, may be gathered R'om the following extracts 
 of a letter to Lord Elphinstone, dated the 26th of January 1842. 
 He was of opinion " that no measure should be taken to commit 
 the Government finally either one way or the other, but that the 
 question should be left as far as possible open to ulterior con- 
 sideration and decision. This can be done without showing sym- 
 
 K
 
 130 BAD NEWS FROM CABUL. 
 
 ptoms of fear or vacillation. If the order is once given to the men 
 to receive their pay, the measure must, of course, he carried 
 through, for there is but one way in which actual disobedience of 
 orders can be dealt with." 
 
 " But," he continued, " the whole case is one that I do not at all 
 like. The condition of the English officers has been ameliorated 
 but that of the Sepoys has been made worse than before, notwith- 
 standing the boon of the 21 per cent, I should be very sorry 
 indeed that it were necessary to use coercion, or that a single drop 
 of blood were shed in such a miserable cause. The discontinuance 
 of the batta ought properly never to have been ordered, for pay or 
 allowances which Sepoys once get, they are apt to consider ever 
 after as their inalienable right, I do not consider the Madras 
 Army to be in a state to be safely tampered with, and, least of all, 
 in the present position of India, with our foreign Asiatic wars 
 around us in every point of the compass. 
 
 " The Agra WMar of the loth, which I received yesterday, imme- 
 diately after your Lordship's letter, gives a shocking account of the 
 state of things at Cabul, and in case you should not have seen the 
 paper, I enclose an extract from it. 
 
 " I send also copies of some papers which I have just received 
 from Major Wilkinson at Nagpore, to whom they had been sent by 
 Sir Claude Wade, the Resident at Gwalior. 
 
 " I observe by the Madras papers received this morning that the 
 death of General Elphinstone at Cabul is mentioned ; but I con- 
 clude this must be a mistake, as it is not alluded to in either your 
 Lordship's letter to me of the 21st, or in any of the Bengal papers 
 I have seen. 
 
 " I begin to think that this Afghan expedition of ours, or, at least, 
 our replacing Shah Shoojah on the throne, is not quite the most 
 prudent thing we could have done. But in this policy we are 
 unfortunately 'stept in so far, that should we wade no more, 
 returning were as tedious as go o'er'." 
 
 On the 28th of January- 1842 he again writes to Lord Elphin- 
 stone : — 
 
 " I have already remarked that I thought the retrenchment of the 
 batta in itself a false and inexpedient step. It is hardly just to the 
 Sepoy, for it leaves him with inadequate pay, and gives him reasonable 
 grounds of complaint. Even if the measure were finally carried out
 
 DOUBTFUL STRENGTH. 131 
 
 here, and that no overt act of mutiny took place, a strong spirit of dis- 
 content would be left in the minds of the men ; and it is impossible to 
 say how far this might spread to other portions of the Madras Army. 
 We cannot afford to try so rash an experiment. We are risking a pearl 
 to gain a grain of wheat. To save a few paltry thousands of rupees per 
 annum, we are perilling the allegiance of the Army, and perhaps the 
 safety of the country. Besides all this, if the Secunderabad troops 
 positively refuse their pay, I am by no means sure that we should have 
 it in our power to coerce them. Some days ago I thought we might 
 reckon on about a thousand men of the Madras European Regiment, 
 but I find that, excluding recruits, sick in hospital, etc., there are not 
 more than five hundred bayonets actually available. These, with the 
 Company of European Foot Artillery, are all that we should have to 
 depend upon, while on the other side we might have the force under- 
 mentioned against us : — 
 
 " Troop of Horse Artillery with six guns, 
 
 " Company of Golundauz with six guns, 
 
 " One Regiment of Light Cavalry, and 
 
 " Three complete Regiments of Native Infantry. 
 
 " I beg to repeat that, under the whole of these circumstances, it 
 seems to be a rash and unwise measure 'to discontinue the batta, and 
 that this projected order should be abandoned. General Riddell fully 
 concurs with me in this opinion." 
 
 On the same date lie wrote the following letter to Major Lancelot 
 Wilkinson, Resident at Nagpore. 
 
 "Hyderabad, 28th January 1842. 
 
 " My dear Sik, —I beg to return you my best thanks for your three 
 kind notes of the 22nd and 23rd instant, and to return herewith the 
 papers of intelligence to which they gave cover. I hope you will not 
 be displeased at my having sent copies of them, confidentially, for the 
 information of Lord Elphinstone, as I was already in private corre- 
 spondence with him, and know that he feels much anxiety on the sub 
 ject of Cabul. I shall say nothing at present of the miserable news 
 from Afghanistan. The late atrocious proceedings there require acts, 
 not words. In poor Sir William Macnagn'ten I have lost one of my 
 oldest friends, as I believe the Government has one of its ablest and 
 most enlightened servants. 
 
 " We are threatened here in a few days with a very disagreeable 
 crisis in consequence of the projected measure of discontinuing the 
 Sepoys' batta ; and it is possible, I think, that this may give rise to a 
 mutiny, which we have hardly sufficient force to put down. On our 
 
 K2
 
 132 INCIPIENT MUTINY 
 
 side wo should have only about five hundred bayonets of the Madras 
 European Regiment and a Company of European Foot Artillery; while 
 on the other there might be arrayed a Troop of Horse Artillery and a 
 Company of Golandauz, each with six guns, a Regiment of Cavalry, 
 and three complete battalions of Native Infantry. I may inform you 
 confidentially that under these circumstances, and as the Government 
 has not yet committed itself bj^ any positive order or announcement to 
 the Sepoys, I have taken the liberty of suggesting to Lord Elphinstone 
 to defer this measure, and to continue the batta for the present. I 
 know not whether this suggestion will be acted upon ; but in the 
 meantime I have privately requested the Officer Commanding the 
 Hyderabad Subsidiary Force not to issue pay, and not to do or say 
 anything which can commit the Government either one way or the 
 other, until he receives further instructions from Madras. You may, 
 perhaps, deem it advisable to offer the same suggestion to your Com- 
 mandant at Kamptee, and I have informed Lord Elphinstone that I 
 should venture to recommend your doing so, leaving it, of course, to 
 you to be guided by my suggestion or otherwise, according to your 
 better judgment. 
 
 " Believe me, my dear Sir, 
 
 " Yours very faithfully, 
 
 " J. S. Fraser. 
 " Major L. Wilkinson, etc., etc., Nagpore." 
 
 Distinct and positive orders from the Government of India, 
 based on the absolute commands of the Court of Directors, for the 
 issue of pay without batta to the troops at Secunderabad, having 
 been communicated to the Resident, he proceeded resolutely to 
 carry them out to the letter. General Fraser, although convinced 
 in his own mind, as was, also, Lord Elphinstone, that the stoppage 
 of batta was a great mistake and an injustice, was not the man to 
 commit the Government of India to a capitulation before the 
 sullen and menacing contumacy of their soldiers. He was willing 
 and desirous to obtain a fair hearing for the Sepoys' claims, but 
 insisted on immediate compliance with the orders of Government, 
 acceptance of their pay according to the actually authorised scale, 
 and the uninterrupted performance of all military duties. He 
 held out to the Sepoys no promise or hope that the batta should 
 be restored, but only that a full inquiry should be made into the 
 prices and expenses of which they complained, and of the full 
 cost of their subsistence, and that the final decision of Government 
 should be given after such an inquiry. He took each Regiment
 
 SUPPRESSED. 133 
 
 separately, making such a demonstration with the small force of 
 European soldiers and Artillery at his disposal, and of the 
 Nizam's Cavalry, as to impress them with his determination to 
 exact obedience; and by his firm demeanour and persuasive 
 language order and discipline were restored. A very small 
 number of ringleaders in several regiments, who refused even in 
 the General's presence to take their pay and return to their duty, 
 were disarmed and made prisoners on parade by the European 
 troops, and reserved for trial by court-martial. The arrangements 
 were so complete that no attempt at resistance was made, and not 
 a shot was fired. The whole work was done on the 7th, 8th, and 
 9th of February, the General being several hours in the saddle on 
 each day. Lord Auckland was on the eve of his departure, and 
 his successor, Lord Ellenborough, was then expected almost every 
 day. The disastrous news from Afghanistan contributed to make 
 the situation more critical. It was just at this time, a few days 
 before the successful suppression of the threatened mutiny at 
 Secunderabad, that Lord Elphinstone wrote the following letter to 
 the Eesident. 
 
 " Madras, 2nd February 1842. 
 " My dear General, — I have just received your letter of the 28th 
 January, and hasten to reply to it. On the day before yesterday I laid 
 my own views upon the batta subject before you very unreservedly, 
 and if it were for us to discuss the policy of the reduction, I fancy 
 there would be little difference of opinion between us, — but that is no 
 longer the question. After the strongest remonstrances on the part of 
 the Madras Government, the order of May 1837 was finally pressed by 
 the Supreme Government, and, after further remonstrances from Madras, 
 confirmed and approved by the Home authorities. It was first ordered 
 to be carried into effect about a year after its promulgation, when the 
 whole of the troops at Secunderabad were simultaneously relieved, that 
 all might be on the same rate of allowances, while none would be 
 deprived of an advantage they were previously enjoying. The execu- 
 tion of this order, however, was stayed, upon a representation that the 
 agio, or compensation for the debased Hyderabad currency in which 
 the troops were paid, was not adequate to the loss which they sustained 
 from this cause. The Government of India consequently appointed 
 two officers, one belonging to the Nizam's service, the other to the 
 Subsidiary Force, to revise the rate of exchange. This was concluded 
 a few months ago, and orders were again received to relieve the troops 
 simultaneously, and to give effect to the reduction (originally ordered 
 
 •
 
 13-1 LORD ELPIIIXSTONE'S 
 
 in 1837) immediately after the reliefs. Thus you will observe that this 
 Government is neither responsible for the measure itself, nor for the 
 time of carrying it into effect; but I believe you are under a great 
 misapprehension in supposing that no announcement on the subject 
 has ever been made to the men ; for both upon this, and on the previous 
 occasion, when the troops were relieved simultaneously, the strictest 
 orders were given by this Government that the terms upon which they 
 were going to Hyderabad were to be explained to the Sepoys, that they 
 might make their arrangements for taking or leaving their families 
 accordingly ; moreover, two of the Regiments have already had their 
 pay issued to them without batta. The 18th have received theirs 
 quietly at Ahmednuggur, and so have the left wing of the 52nd at 
 Mallegaum. The right wing of the latter at Asseerghur have, unfor- 
 tunately, refused theirs, but measures have been taken to bring the 
 leaders of the opposition to punishment, and to reward the few men 
 who came forward in an orderly manner, and took their pay. Under 
 these circumstances I think the thing has gone too far for us to yield 
 any point now at Hyderabad. The decision, however, does not rest 
 with me, but with the Supreme Government, and without indispensable 
 necessity I am very much averse to postponing the execution of the 
 orders of superior authority. In the present instance there will, I 
 trust, be no such necessity, for I wrote privately to Lord Auckland on 
 the same day that I first wrote to you upon the subject (21st ulto.), 
 and I again wrote to him by express on the 26th and on the 27th, 
 when the collective sentiments of this Government were forwarded. 
 There will be time, therefore, for the Supreme Government's instruc- 
 tions to reach Hyderabad, especially if, as I recommended, they are 
 sent direct to you, and by express. 
 
 "In the meantime, if you apprehend combination, I should not 
 hesitate to break up the Force. I would, at all events, detach any 
 Regiments which are supposed to be determined to resist. You can 
 never be at a loss for pretexts in the Nizam's country ; while in the 
 field the troops will of course be entitled to batta, and at the end of the 
 campaign it will be open to the Supreme Government to deal with the 
 question as it likes. I am sorry that the 1st Europeans should be so 
 ineffective; — 500 men for duty out of 1,000 (which is the exact strength 
 given in the returns of the 1st of January) is a very inadequate 
 proportion. ( 
 
 " I am waiting most anxiously for further news from Cabul, and was 
 much obliged to you for the extracts you sent me yesterday. General 
 Elphinstone, who commands there, is my relative, and though I heartily 
 despise the anonymous gentlemen who supply the newspapers with 
 hints and inuendoes, and believe not a syllable (no — not one of the 
 asterisks in the Englishman) that has been printed or whispered
 
 LETTERS. 135 
 
 agaiust his honour and character, yet knowing his wretched state of 
 health, — he was about to return to England in consequence of a Medical 
 Committee having, as he wrote to me, ' cast' him as unfit for further 
 service in this part of the globe, — I feel anything but easy about him. 
 Who can, indeed, feel easy about any of the poor fellows who have to 
 face the hostility of an armed population, and the difficulties of mountain 
 passes almost blocked up with snow, without carriage or tents, or 
 adequate supplies of any kind, perhaps not even of ammunition ? 
 
 " Great as have been the reverses, and sad the tragedy, the former may 
 be retrieved by energetic measures. How can any other feeling but 
 that of hatred ever exist between the Afghans and us ? If we treat 
 them leniently they will despise us, and attribute our clemency to fear. 
 The alternative is to pay them off their present reckoning, and thus to 
 run up another score to be settled, perchance, when the Russian plans 
 of invasion or menace are matured ! To steer a middle course will be 
 almost impossible. And yet it must be attempted ; and this will be the 
 great difficulty of Lord Ellenborough's Government. 
 
 "Believe me, my dear General Fraser, 
 " Most truly yours, 
 
 " Elphinstone. 
 
 " P.S. — It is only the corps that are relieved this year that are to lose 
 the batta. None of those at Nagpore or Jaulna are in this predicament." 
 
 Here is another letter from the Governor of Madras, written 
 before he could have received by post the intelligence of General 
 Fraser's complete success in warding off the danger of mutiny, 
 and when his mind, as will be seen, was more occupied with the 
 terrible news of Akhbar Khan's treachery and of the destruction 
 of our little army after the evacuation of Cabul. 
 
 " Madras, Feb. 11th, 1842. 
 
 " My dear General Fraser, — I should have written to you before 
 to congratulate you on the success which attended the first day's 
 payment of troops at Hyderabad, and which you communicated to me 
 by express, if that intelligence had not reached us on the same day 
 which brought those sad tidings from Cabul, which have since been 
 confirmed by the Calcutta Gazette. Thes% ought not certainly to have 
 taken me by surprise, nor can I say exactly that they did ; yet though 
 in some degree prepared for the worst, I had always hoped that that 
 worst might be avoided. Even now it appears strange that the 
 Brigade should have halted so long at Peshawur — but it is useless to 
 speculate now upon what might have been. 
 
 " I have seen a letter from Pottinger to Captain Macgregor, dated
 
 136 OA.BTTL DISASTERS. 
 
 the 28th, in which he accounts for their renewing the negotiations 
 which had been broken off by the assassination of Sir William 
 Macnaghten. It appears that, as a preliminary step, Sir "William had 
 agreed to give up some detached forts to the Chiefs, the possession of 
 which forts unfortunately was extremely important. This false move, 
 and the absolute want of provisions, and the numbers of sick and 
 wounded within the Cantonment, whom they could not leave to the 
 mercy of the Afghans, and had no carriage to remove, compelled them 
 to treat with the enemy. They, however, seem to have been fully aware 
 how little dependence was to be placed in their good faith, for Major 
 Pottinger particularly alludes to this, but there appeared to be 
 no alternative. The disastrous issue of the unequal contest which 
 subsequently took place might have been anticipated, and can hardly 
 reflect upon the military leader any more than the broken treaty can 
 be considered a disparagement to the political one. We know the 
 difficulties that General Sale encountered when he forced those passes 
 in November ; but they were nothing to what General Elphinstone's 
 unfortunate force had to contend with. It is always more difficult to 
 keep order in a retreating than in an advancing army. Sale believed 
 that he had a strong force in his rear to support him, or to fall back 
 upon; he had ample supplies and carriage; he was unencumbered by 
 sick and wounded, and women and followers of all kinds ; and the 
 weather, though cold, was not so severe as in January ; yet he had 
 much to do to fight his way through. Need we wonder that the ill- 
 supplied, half-starved Cabul Force was broken up ? 
 
 " There is something in the very fact of disaster so humiliating, that 
 it is hardly to be expected that people will weigh the circumstances 
 under which it has occurred, or distinguish nicely between a reverse so 
 complete, and a defeat disgraceful to our arms. Impartial people, how- 
 ever (and I do not suppose I am one of them, though I feel sure in this 
 respect of their concurrence), will acknowledge that the disgrace in this 
 case rests with the successful party, and I still trust that this will be 
 the general opinion. Meanwhile, the fate of all those who were in the 
 Force is a matter of most painful uncertainty. 
 
 " I sat down intending to write about matters connected with the 
 issue of pay without batta to the troops at Hyderabad, and I have 
 suffered myself to get upon the topic which absorbs so much of my 
 thoughts. It is, however, really a matter of earnest satisfaction and 
 congratulation to me, that amid the many embarrassments in which the 
 Government of India is placed, it should have been spared the additional 
 one of a mutinous spirit in any portion of the army. The present 
 difficulty once fairly overcome, I should be glad to see the restoration 
 of batta conceded to the troops ; but this is a very different thing 
 from i<s being extorted by them.
 
 WELL OUT OF THE SCRAPE. 137 
 
 " Captain Grant has earned the best acknowledgments of the 
 Government, and I am glad to find that he possesses much influence 
 among the men. I should be very happy if I could do something to 
 mark the sense which I entertain of the conduct of the two regimental 
 officers, Captain Scotland and Lieutenant Brown, who persuaded their 
 Companies to set a good example to the others. I would beg you to 
 .tell me anything that you can about these officers. Lord Auckland has 
 desired me to name two Artillery officers to him for your army. They 
 are to be junior to Lieutenant Lloyd ; and as the senior I am going to 
 send in the name of my aide-de-camp, William Orr. He will be able 
 to join immediately, and I hope that, whoever the other may be, you 
 will give him the benefit of his standing and the choice of appoint- 
 ments. There are some very excellent officers in the Artillery, junior 
 to him, whom I should be most happy to serve in any way in my 
 power ; but it is only fair to him that he should not be deprived of the 
 benefit of his seniority by his position on my staff, as he is ready to 
 start at a moment's notice. 
 
 " Believe me, my dear General Fraser, 
 
 " Yours most truly, 
 
 "Elphinstone." 
 
 On the 13th of February, when pay had been issued to the 
 whole Force, and for the time, at least, the danger of actual mutiny 
 breaking out appeared to have been overcome, the Eesident sent 
 the following letter to the Governor of Madras. 
 
 "Hyderabad, 13th February 1842. 
 " My Lord, — I have the pleasure to send you Lord Auckland's letter, 
 which I received by express on the 9th instant, in the midst of the 
 scenes then going on at Secunderabad, and when I was much too far 
 committed to a certain course of procedure to admit of the slightest 
 pause or retractation. I send you, also, copies of the private letters I 
 have written to Lord Auckland. We are well out of the scrape in 
 which this batta question had involved us ; and it will be a lesson to 
 the Court of Directors not to be making any further reductions in the 
 pay of their Native Army. I do not now anticipate the slightest 
 renewal of any commotion here, and some»of the Native officers of the 
 7th and 10th N. I., who have been with me to-day, have expressed to 
 me their full assurance that the men of their respective Regiments 
 will take their pay without the slightest murmur when tendered to 
 them at the befiinninsr of next month. The whole of the Native 
 troops here are, in fact, quite subdued ; and even if they were not so, 
 we have abundant force to do what we please with them, now that wo
 
 138 INQUIRY PROPOSED. 
 
 have got rid of the violent 4th Cavalry, and the insubordinate portions 
 of the 32nd and 48th. 
 
 " The labours and indefatigable exertions of Captain Grant, 1 night 
 and day during the whole of these scenes, have been almost super- 
 human. I should have hardly thought it possible for a man to go 
 through so much." 
 
 A letter to Lord Elphinstone, dated the 16th of February, proves 
 that while recommending inquiry into the cost of the Sepoy's 
 actual subsistence, and a fair measure of relief, the General never 
 dreamed of any such concession to clamour as Lord Ellenborough 
 will be seen to have subsequently deprecated. 
 
 "I have just had the pleasure to receive your letter of the 11th 
 instant, and I trust my public despatches and last letter will satisfy 
 you that the crisis had passed, and that no lasting injury is likely to 
 arise from what has occurred here, either to the discipline of the* Army 
 or the authority of the Government. Remedial measures constitute a 
 question which I hope will at once be taken into the serious considera- 
 tion of the Government of India. Some measure of relief should, I 
 think, be granted to the Native troops at Secunderabad, but it must 
 depend on the information to be collected by a Committee. Your 
 Lordship alludes at the end of your letter to the restoration of batta to 
 the troops ; but with my present view of the case I am not prepared 
 to express an opinion that this could ever be a suitable measure. What- 
 ever is to be done should, I think, take some other form. I am 
 disposed to say that the restoration of batta is not the step to be 
 taken. I trust that Government will do nothing which may be seen 
 in the remotest degree to compromise or weaken its authority. The 
 danger of this, and its probable evil consequences, are greater than 
 those which could arise even from a hard and unbending course of 
 procedure. 
 
 " Your observations regarding Afghanistan appear to me to be 
 perfectly just. There is a wide difference between disaster and disgrace. 
 Our reverses may have been most signal, and are most deeply to be 
 regretted, but I trust and believe it will be found that no dishonour 
 attaches either to General Elphinstone or to the army under his 
 command. 
 
 " You may rely upon my" taking care of Captain Orr when he joins, 
 and I hope that the other Artillery officer whom you select may be 
 active and intelligent. We have so few officers in the Nizam's service, 
 that we can ill afford to have bad ones. One of the young Infantry 
 officers recently given to me has proved not of the least use, for he 
 
 1 Assistant Adjutant-General of the Subsidiary Force.
 
 THANKS OF GOVERNMENT. 139 
 
 devotes to the brandy-bottle tbe time tbat should be occupied in 
 studying his profession and the Hindustani language. 
 
 " May I beg sans indiscretion to know whether you have heard any- 
 thing from Lord Auckland on the subject of Mr. Strachey's admission 
 into the Nizam's Army ? This young man left a tolerably good staff 
 appointment which I gave him at Jaulnah to come down and take the 
 command of my escort, but he is alarmed that his Regiment may be 
 removed out of the Nizam's country, which would involve his removal 
 also. A vacancy will almost immediately occur in the Nizam's 
 Cavalry. In the event of this appointment being left open till Lord 
 Ellenborough has assumed the reins, I shall take the liberty of re- 
 questing the amiable Bishop of Madras, who is interested for the 
 Stracheys, to be so good as to favour me with a note to his Lordship, 
 which I may forward to him at the same time that I report the vacancy. 
 Heaven knows, however, whether this will be of any use, for I well 
 know that Governors are dreadfully tormented with applications. One 
 of the things which I certainly do not envy them is their patronage." 
 
 Both by the G-overnment of Madras and from the Government 
 of India the highest credit was given to General Fraser for the 
 judicious measures he had taken to deal with " the disturbances 
 among the Native troops of the Hyderabad Subsidiary Force", and 
 for the firmness and promptitude with which he had acted. A 
 letter dated the 19th February 1842, conveyed to the Resident 
 "the cordial thanks of the Government of Fort St. George to 
 Major-General Fraser for having so readily undertaken the respon- 
 sibility of the unlimited discretionary power vested in him", and 
 furthermore stated that " the result has borne out the previously 
 formed opinion of the Government of Fort St. George that such 
 authority could not have been delegated to anyone more entitled 
 to their confidence". • 
 
 " The judgment displayed throughout by Major-General Fraser 
 during the crisis, the temper, decision, and energy by which, he 
 acted upon the judgment so correctly formed, are beyond any 
 tribute of approbation which this Government can record." 
 
 In the last letter which General Fraser received from Lord 
 Auckland before his departure from Iftclia, dated " Calcutta, 21st 
 February 1842", the retiring Governor-General says : — 
 
 " I have to thank you for your several communications upon the 
 subject of the refusal of a large portion of the men of the Subsidiary 
 Force at Hyderabad to receive their pay, unless with an allowance of 
 batta, and upon the proceedings which you had adopted in consequence.
 
 140 INQUIRY REFUSED. 
 
 And I Lave, in the first instance, to inform you that the Government 
 entirely approves of those proceedings, and that we all regard with 
 admiration the firmness, the prudence, and the discretion which you 
 have exhibited upon this most difficult occasion. We feel that we have 
 been well justified in the confidence which we placed in you for dealing 
 with this question." 
 
 These commendations were publicly confirmed in General 
 Orders, issued both at Madras and Calcutta in April 1842, when 
 the proceedings in these matters were finally concluded. But not- 
 withstanding the official and public approval of his conduct and 
 proceedings, General Fraser was much disappointed and mortified 
 by the determination of the newly arrived Governor-General, 
 Lord Ellenborough, not to carry out the recommendation which 
 the Resident had made, in conformity with his promises on parade 
 to the Sepoys, that there should be a careful inquiry into their 
 grievances and their claims. This determination was conveyed to 
 him in the following private letter from Lord Ellenborough, the 
 first that he received from that Governor-General. 
 
 " Government House, 
 
 "Calcutta, March 17th, 1842. 
 
 " Gene hal, — My predecessor, Lord Auckland, left Calcutta on the 
 12th in st., and your letter of the 9th inst. was, by his desire, opened by 
 me. It enclosed a copy of your letter of the same date to Lord 
 Elphinstone, the Governor of Madras, in which you renew the expres- 
 sion of an opinion already communicated in favour of the appointment 
 of a ' Committee to investigate the nature of the Sepoys' complaints, 
 with a view to the grant of such a measure of relief as the case might 
 require'. 
 
 " I cannot but observe to you that if Committees of officers be 
 appointed to investigate the nature of the Sepoys' complaints, with a 
 view to the concession of what they ask, the next step will most 
 probably be to form Committees of officers to investigate their own 
 complaints, with a view to the concession of whatever they may think 
 themselves entitled to claim ; and the result will be an Army without 
 subordination, and its inevitable result, the ruin of that Army and of 
 the Government it serves. 
 
 " It is the duty of a Government to do justice to its Army, and 
 justice .shall be done ; but the dignity and authority of the Government 
 must be supported, and the discipline of the Army must be strictly 
 maintained, or we shall be unable to preserve what we nOw hold in 
 India.
 
 PLEDGED FAITH SLIGHTED. 1-41 
 
 " Whatever may be done must proceed from the Government alone. 
 We have not in India a wholly independent Government, and it is to 
 those upon whom we depend in England that we must refer the 
 ultimate decision of this question. 
 
 " I have been much struck by what you say of Lieut.- Col. James of 
 the 1st L. 0. You observe that he is a very excellent officer, much 
 beloved by the whole of his Regiment, and you add that when his 
 Regiment were informed of the recent insubordination of the 4th L.C., 
 1 they volunteered to return to Secunderabad, from whence they had 
 just marched to Sholapore, and to serve here upon pay, without extra 
 batta, as ordered by the Government.' When you consider this conduct 
 on the part of Lieut.- Col. James's Regiment, and advert to the opinions 
 entertained by him, as expressed in his letters enclosed in yours of the 
 9th inst., I think you cannot but come to the conclusion that the 
 discipline and good conduct of a Regiment depend mainly upon the 
 discretion and ability of their officer in command. 
 
 " I hope you will favour me with the same confidential communica- 
 tions which you have hitherto addressed to Lord Auckland. 
 
 " Yours faithfully, 
 
 " Ellenborough." 
 
 It was obviously a misstatement of what General Fraser had 
 proposed, to say that " Committees of officers were to be appointed 
 to investigate the nature of the Sepoys' complaints, with a view to 
 the concession of what they ashed". The Committees were intended 
 to ascertain whether there were any grounds or not for those com- 
 plaints, and only in the event of those complaints appearing just, 
 then to suggest concession. But the General felt most acutely 
 that he was forced by the Governor-General into a position of bad 
 faith towards the Sepoys. He had not gone beyond the unlimited 
 discretionary powers, entrusted to him, and yet, after he had publicly 
 pledged himself that inquiry should be made, the Government 
 made him seem to repudiate his promise by peremptorily refusing 
 to allow a Committee* to be appointed. Lord Elphinstone, as will 
 be seen from the following letter, fully sympathised with the 
 General's disappointment and dissatisfaction on this point. 
 
 " Chingleput, 30th March 1842. 
 
 "My dear General Fraser, — Your letter of the 27th instant has this 
 
 moment reached me. I was very sorry to learn that the Government 
 
 of India disapproved of the Committee of Inquiry. I am still in hopes 
 
 that your letter to Lord Ellenborough may inducehis Lordship to alter his
 
 142 rPJYATE OB NO INQUIRY. 
 
 opinion — if, indeed, he may not already have been led to do so by some 
 extracts from your private letters to myself, which I took the liberty 
 of inserting in a Minute which I recorded about a fortnight ago. 
 Meanwhile, the delay is much to be regretted ; and unless it is resolved 
 to take some steps without inquiry — which I really should almost 
 regret, as it is tantamount to an acknowledgment of the injustice of 
 of the measure which gave rise to the late disturbances, and of our 
 consciousness of the hardships which it entailed upon the men, — I fear 
 that there will be risk of great discontent, and perhaps further muti- 
 nous conduct. 
 
 "I feel, too, that it is due to you that an inquiry should take place. 
 When you told the Sepoys that you would recommend such an inquiry, 
 you had it in your power to restore the batta, if you judged it necessary : 
 and surely, having exercised those extensive powers which were com- 
 mitted to you with so much moderation and discretion, your recom- 
 mendations ought to carry with them the greatest weight. But I hope 
 that they will yet be attended to. 
 
 " I consider the question, of course, as entirely taken out of the 
 hands of the Madras Government. After the official despatch of the 
 16th instant, it seems to me that we can only wait until we see what 
 effect may have been produced by our despatch in answer to their 
 previous one (which I have not by me to refer to, but I believe it was 
 dated the 3rd instant), which must have been sent to Bengal a few days 
 after their orders of the 16th were despatched. 
 
 " Believe me, my dear General, most truly yours, 
 
 " Elphinstone." 
 
 In another letter on the same subject, dated the 10th March, 
 Lord Elphinstone says : — 
 
 "The Supreme Government do not wish that a formal inquiry 
 should be made just now, and suggest that a private and preliminary 
 one should be instituted. I think that they cannot be aware how many 
 such inquiries have been made. Sir Peregrine Maitland and Mr. 
 Sullivan, if I recollect aright, each gave the data collected by such a 
 private inquiry, and the result was that the Sepoy had barely enough 
 to subsist upon at Hyderabad without batta : since that, he gets 10 per 
 cent, more upon the exchange, however. 
 
 " It was considered that it would be of no avail to recommend the 
 appointment of a Line Adjutant at Secunderabad for sanction, but for 
 the present Captain Scotland's appointment has been confirmed. The 
 Supreme Government properly notice the little acquaintance which the 
 European officers appear to have had of the feelings of the Sepoys, and 
 observe that they cannot have much knowledge of their men until they
 
 BAD SYMPTOMS. 143 
 
 are conversant in their language. I do not mean to undervalue the 
 study of Hindostanee, which I think ought to be made an indispensable 
 qualification to every officer (I would oblige every one to pass within 
 three years after his arrival in the country, on pain of forfeiting his 
 appointment), but I cannot but be struck, with the fact that Lieut. 
 Brown, one of the two officers who seem to have had the most influence 
 with the men, is a very bad Hindostanee scholar. 
 
 " I believe that twenty or thirty years ago, when the Native languages 
 were even less studied than they are now, the European officers possessed 
 far greater influence with their men than their successors do with the 
 present generation. I fear that the cause lies deeper, and that we are 
 too apt to jump at a plausible reason, without considering how far it 
 is borne out by experience." 
 
 And here is Lord Elpliinstone's reply to the Resident's letter of 
 the 16th February. 
 
 " Guindy, 20th February 1824. 
 
 "My dear General Fraser, — I have not time to thank you as 
 I should wish to do for your letter of the 16th instant, but I must 
 endeavour to answer some of the points on which you require informa- 
 tion. The decision of this Government (as far as it goes) which has 
 been adopted regarding the disposal of the prisoners, and on the subject 
 of the late manifestation at Hyderabad, will reach you as soon as this 
 letter. I, therefore, need not go into that subject, but I may tell you 
 privately, that if it had depended upon myself alone, you would have 
 heard of it nearly a week sooner, and that I entirely agree with you in 
 thinking that Government should do nothing which may tend in the 
 remotest degree to weaken its authority, and that the dangers and evils 
 of any measures which would have this effect would far more than 
 counterbalance any temporary convenience which might be expected 
 from them. I have heard nothing of disturbance at Vellore. There is 
 a fanatical Mussulman population there, and I know that the most 
 seditious doctrines are preached by Fakirs and others, some of whom 
 actually eat the salt of the Circar ; but I do not expect that they will 
 succeed now in causing a disturbance, although the coincidence of the 
 Moharrem with the evil tidings from Afghanistan, and the discontent 
 evinced by the troops at Hyderabad, is unfortunate. I have been 
 threatened with a refusal to embark, on the part of the Regiment under 
 orders for China, but I trust that the men will maintain the credit of 
 the Coast Army, and will cheerfully go on board ship. The small 
 alteration (which has been in force now for three or four years) in pen- 
 sions can only be viewed as a pretext for their unwillingness, and I 
 suspect that there is some evil more radical than that which has been 
 produced by these alterations, either of batta or pension. The second
 
 144 AFGHAN DISASTERS. 
 
 officer whom I proposed to Lord Auckland for the Artillery was Lieu- 
 tenant Balmain, and who appeared to me a very intelligent, gentle- 
 manlike young man. He has passed in Hiudostanee. Orr speaks it 
 after a fashion, though I suspect badly. I trust, however, he will do 
 well. He has a very good, soldierlike feeling, besides a most amiable 
 disposition in private life to recommend him, and I feel much interested 
 in him. His brother of the 23rd is now in Shah Shoojah's service (if, 
 indeed, such Shah or service exists), and is at Jellalabad. I have seen 
 a letter from him, dated the 21st of January, which Orr received this 
 morning. He gives no additional news, but many details. If I could 
 o-et a copy made in time I would send his letter, but I fear I must defer 
 it at all events till to-morrow. Several officers have been heard of, and 
 a party of several officers and men had been offered for ransom by one 
 of the tribes in the neighbourhood of Jellalabad, but they had not 
 agreed upon the terms, which probably was prudent, as they might 
 expect the same price (a lakh of rupees) for every small detachment ; 
 and I hope and believe that many such will be found scattered through 
 the land, if, indeed, the main body have not been made prisoners in a 
 mass, which perhaps would be the best thing that we can now expect. 
 They had plenty of provisions and sufficient ammunition at Jellalabad 
 — had made the town quite secure against an Afghan attack, and 
 appeared to be in the highest spirits. I fear, however, that it will cost 
 us some brave men to hold this miserable post until it can be relieved. 
 It is, however, the only bright spot in the gloomy horizon of Afghan 
 prospects at the present moment. 
 
 " I have not heard from Lord Auckland upon the subject of Mr. 
 Strachey, whose name I brought to his notice some months ago, and 
 whose interests, in the strongest manner I was able, I endeavoured to 
 advocate. I do not know who the other officer you allude to is — who 
 has not conducted himself to your satisfaction — but I hope he was not 
 of my recommendation. Lord Auckland has more frequently appointed 
 officers to the Nizam's service of his own choice than of my suggestion. 
 Believe me, my dear General Fraser, in great haste, 
 
 " Most truly yours, 
 
 "Elphinstoxe." 
 
 Tlie next letter from Lord Elpliinstone refers to the disasters in 
 Afghanistan, as well as to r the objections of Lord EUenborough to 
 have any inquiry made into the Sepoys' grievances. 
 
 " Chingleput, 31st March 1842. 
 " My dear Glnekal Fkasek, — I have just received your letter of the 
 28th instant with its enclosure (Lord Ellenborough's letter), which I 
 return. The only letter besides the copy of your reply to Lord Ellen-
 
 LOUD elphinstone's letters. 145 
 
 borough, which came in your letter of the 27th, received yesterday, was 
 Major Cunningham's, which I also beg to return. I have written to 
 Lord Ellenborough, and I am still in hope that when he has seen the 
 further letters to which you allude, and has received the strong recom- 
 mendation of the Madras Government in favour of the appointment of 
 a Committee of Inquiry, he will be induced to reconsider the subject. 
 Meanwhile, of course, no steps can be taken. I trust that there will 
 be no recurrence of misbehaviour on the part of the troops. In the 
 event of such a contingency, I would rather trust to your judgment and 
 discretion in doing whatever the circumstances may appear to require, 
 than hamper you with any instructions or prescribed line of conduct. 
 You cannot be more averse to measures which involve the loss of life 
 and of all harmony and good feeling between the different branches of 
 the Service than I am ; and I am sure you will at all events do your 
 utmost to avoid this extremity, whatever may arise. But I trust and 
 hope that the troops may be quiet, which will not only relieve us from 
 any such painful necessity as you have hinted at, but will best serve 
 their own interests. 
 
 " Believe me, my clear General, 
 
 " Yours most truly, 
 
 " Elphinstone." 
 
 A few months later another letter from the Governor of 
 Madras refers again to the final decision still required on the 
 subject of the withdrawal of batta. 
 
 " Madras, 29th June 1842. 
 
 "My dear Gexeral Fraser, — It is a long time since I have written 
 to you, but I have had little or no news of public interest. From a 
 private letter which I received from Lord Fitzgerald, the President of 
 the Board of Control, I should infer that the Home Government would 
 order an inquiry to be made on the subject of the batta reduction, but 
 I have not heard one word on the subject from Lord Ellenborough, 
 either privately or officially. The appointment of Lord Tweeddale to 
 the double office of Governor and Commander in-Chief is put on the 
 ground of the expediency of uniting the authority of both in the 
 hands of a single person, but it is not in this that the real difficulty 
 lies. The Local Government is deprived of all power of independent 
 action ; and, moreover, the present number in Council is a radical 
 error, which arose from the accidental absence of the Commander-in- 
 Chief, and will be rendered permanent by the new arrangement. It 
 does not, however, become me to criticise the new regime before it has 
 been tried ; and I only hope Lord Tweeddale will escape the incon- 
 venience which I own that I apprehend from it. 
 
 " Having already written to you very freely upon the subject of the 
 
 L
 
 146 GENERAL ELPHINSTONE'S 
 
 imputations cast upon my late relative, General Elphinstone, and 
 having always expressed my firm conviction that he would be found 
 not to deserve them, you will not be surprised at my returning to the 
 subject, which, amidst other matters of more immediate interest, I 
 have allowed somewhat to drop. I have received the most full and 
 complete confirmation of what I then ventured to assert. ■ I think I 
 must have sent you copy of a letter from Major Pottinger to Colonel 
 Elphinstone (General jE.'s brother), written from Tazeen after the 
 General's death, but I had several copies (perhaps half a dozen), 
 which I have sent to relations and friends, and I know not whether I 
 sent one to you or not. If not, and you would like to have one, I shall 
 be most happy to send you one. The papers which I now enclose are 
 lithographed facsimiles — one, of the last letter I received from the 
 General, dated 26th July last ; the other, of an extract from a long 
 letter, dated the 24th and finished the 28th of December 1840. One 
 cannot believe at first that they are written by the same person ; but 
 when the second was written he had lost the use of his right hand 
 from rheumatism in the wrist. They tell their own story, and clear 
 him of the only blame which (after Pottinger' s and his other fellow- 
 prisoner's testimony) can attach to him, viz., his having accepted a 
 command for which he was unfit, and retained it after he felt himself 
 physically unequal to perform its duties. It is clearly proved that he 
 did not seek the command, but accepted it when offered from a sense 
 of duty ; and that he did not wish to remain at Cabul an hour after he 
 felt himself disabled. But I have to apologise for taking up your time 
 with these, to me, painfully interesting particulars. 
 
 " Believe me, my dear General, 
 
 " Yours most truly, 
 
 " Elphinstone." 
 
 The first of the facsimiles enclosed in the previous letter is the 
 following " extract from a letter from General Elphinstone to Lord 
 Elphinstone, dated Meerut, December 24th and 28th, 1840." 
 
 " I yesterday heard from Lord Auckland that I am to succeed Cotton 
 in the command of the troops in Afghanistan. He wrote to me some 
 time ago, before the surrender of Dost Mahomed, to ask if I had any 
 objection; to which I replied I was ready to serve wherever required 
 or he wished. I do not like the change from this, as there are more 
 troops here, and an opportunity of practising the moving of them. 
 The climate, I hear, is good, and there is some additional pay ; but in 
 the present state of things I think I should have preferred staying 
 here ; but we must go when ordered. It is a long march, but will have 
 novelty to recommend it."
 
 TWO LETTEES. 147 
 
 The other facsimile is the " copy of a letter from General 
 Elphinstone to Lord Elphinstone", the contents of which explain 
 the reversed slope and tremulous character of the handwriting. 
 
 " Cabul, 2Gth July 1841. 
 
 "My dear Elphinstone, — I have been prevented writing to you 
 since I came here by almost incessant severe illness. I arrived on the 
 30th April, and on that day had an attack of fever, followed by 
 rheumatic gout, which laid me up till the 24th May, when I got about 
 for fourteen days; but on the 6th Juue I was again ill with fever, 
 followed, as before, with gout and rheumatism, by which I have been 
 confined, frequently to bed, ever since, and with little prospect of 
 recovery. I am worse to-day than a month ago. My right wrist is so 
 painful I cannot move it, and am obliged to write with the left hand. 
 My medical attendants tell me I cannot recover in this country, and 
 that I ought to leave it, as it is most unfavourable to rheumatism (from 
 which many have suffered since they came here), and therefore to gout 
 too. They also say that the repeated severe attacks 1 have had in my 
 hands, knees, and ankles, frequently all at the same time — and I have 
 it now in the wrist, knee, and ankle — will leave my joints weaker every 
 time. If this opinion is borne out by the Medical Committee which 
 assembles next month, I shall apply to Lord Auckland to be relieved. 
 I shall deeply feel being obliged to give up a command I should have 
 liked, had I been possessed of health to perform its duties. It is one 
 of interest and excitement, requiring great activity, mental and bodily ; 
 but my stay would be useless to the public service and distressing to 
 myself. I must try to get to Bombay, and thence home. I hope I 
 may be able to do so. I will dwell no longer on my w r retched prospects, 
 but come to the object of my writing to you to-day, which I other- 
 wise should not have done. I, to-day, heard from Havelock of his 
 appointment to the 14th, and if you have not named his successor as 
 your Military Secretary, I beg in the strongest manner to recommend 
 my A. D. C, Major Thain. He is the best man of business I ever 
 met with ; thoroughly conversant with everything connected with 
 troops, having been constantly on service ever since 1813, when my 
 acquaintance with him commenced. In all matters connected with the 
 affairs and military arrangements of this country, his judgment and 
 opinions I have found most sound ; and iie has greatly assisted me in 
 the various and voluminous correspondence I have had since I came 
 here, and which, without him, I hardly know how I could have got 
 through. Believe me when I say this is no attempt to palm off my 
 A. D. C. on you, but a wish to serve a most honourable and deserving 
 man, whose merits I am sure you would soon appreciate. 
 
 " I was happy to hear you had appointed Boyson to an acting office, 
 
 • l2
 
 148 LETTER TO CTBBON. 
 
 which I hope may lead to a permanent one, for which, as one of his 
 patrons, I have to thank you. I hope to write you a hetter letter 
 shortly. This country is much] as it has been, and will be for some 
 time — frequent insurrections till reconciled to the new order of things. 
 I get on well with Macnaghten, and am much pleased with Burnes. 
 
 " Yours affectionately, 
 
 " W. K. E." 
 
 The following private letter to Colonel (after General Sir Mark) 
 Cubbon, Commissioner of Mysore, offers additional proof that 
 General Fraser never went beyond the recommendation — not the 
 appointment — of a Committee of Inquiry, and that lie never con- 
 templated an apparent submission to the Sepoys' demands by 
 restoring the batta. 
 
 " Hyderabad, 18th May 1842. 
 
 " My dear Cubbon, — I daresay you will have heard exaggerated 
 accounts of some disturbance we have recently had in the Hyderabad 
 Subsidiary Force, but the accompanying copies of my letters to 
 Government on the occasion will show you pretty exactly what has 
 occurred, and that we are now quiet. I trust we shall remain so, but I 
 have recommended in private letters, both to Lord Auckland and Lord 
 Elphinstone, a Committee here for the purpose of ascertaining the real 
 nature of the case as regards the pay of the Sepoys, and of proposing 
 such relief as in justice shall seem due. No proposition for restoring 
 the batta ought now, I think, to be entertained. I should not wish the 
 head-quarters of any of the corps here to be removed. Their reputation 
 is yet untouched, and they ought not to be disgraced for the fault of the 
 guilty portions of those corps which I have sent away. Neither should 
 the general arrangements of the Government, with respect to the 
 particular Regiments that were to form the Subsidiary Force, be 
 marred or unnecessarily altered. If this were done, the malcontents 
 would have so far gained their object as to be enabled to boast of a sort 
 of victory over the Government. 
 
 " I do not apprehend any ultimate injury to the public interests 
 from what has occurred, if the Government pursue the course I have 
 taken the liberty of suggestirg to them. For the consequences that 
 might arise from the advice of ignorant Secretaries, and the weakness 
 of any of the members of Government, Heaven forbid that I should be 
 responsible. 
 
 " Pray show the papers to any person to whom you think it prudent 
 to entrust them ; but perhaps it may be as well not to communicate 
 them to all indiscriminately, as they might not be properly undei'stood,
 
 REFERENCE TO "THE DUKE". 149 
 
 and might give rise to fear and conjectures as to the future, for which 
 I really believe there is no ground. 
 
 "Believe me, my dear Cubbon, sincerely yours, 
 
 "J. S. Eraser." 
 
 Lord Elphinstone and General Fraser continued to be of one 
 opinion, as the next letter will show, regarding the method that 
 should have been adopted for finally setting at rest the several 
 questions raised by the disturbances in the Subsidiary Force. 
 
 "Madras, 11th April 1842. 
 
 " My dear General Fraser, — Late last night I received the Supreme 
 Government's reply to our reference on the subject of the disposal of 
 the prisoners at Bellary. The views of the Supreme Government have 
 undergone but little alteration, as you will perceive by the official 
 papers which accompany this letter, and which I send by express, as I 
 am anxious, after the delay which has been unavoidably incurred, that 
 the decision should be known as soon as possible. I am glad that the 
 4th Light Cavalry are not to be disbanded, but I am not quite satisfied 
 that the amnesty granted to the 32nd and 48th Regiments is altogether 
 prudent. I trust that there will be no difficulty in carrying into effect 
 the views of the Supreme Government as to their location, and their 
 replacement at Hyderabad by the troops of the Nizam. 
 
 " No notice is taken of our recommendation that a Committee should 
 be appointed, but from a few words in a private letter I received by 
 the same opportunity from Lord Ellenborough, I perceive that he 
 intends to refer the whole subject to the Duke of Wellington. His 
 decision, I doubt not, will be satisfactory, as he knows the wants of the 
 Madras Sepoy, and the dearness of rice in the Deecan. Many allubions 
 to the subject are to be found in his admirable Despatches. If the 
 reference did not involve a delay of five or six months, probably it 
 would be the most expedient course ; but delays are dangerous, and I 
 wish that Lord Ellenborough had been content with less weighty but 
 more immediate authority. I will send you, if I can get a copy in time, 
 the answer which we sent to the despatch upon the receipt of which 
 the Committee was countermanded. 
 
 " Believe me, my dear General Fraser, most truly yours, 
 
 * " Elphixstone." 
 
 From Lord Ellenborough's Indian Administration, edited by 
 Lord Colchester, we learn that the Governor-General wrote in 
 these terms to the Duke of Wellington on the 21st March 1842 : — 
 
 " My great difficulty has been in dealing with the question of 
 allowances to the Madras troops. The Government there was in a
 
 1-jO the duke's onxiox. 
 
 state of great apprehension, — all the military men I saw were. At 
 Hyderabad, though the Resident put down the mutiny, he and all his 
 officers took the part of the men — that is, in feeling, and in the expres- 
 sion of that feeling. 
 
 " All is at present quiet. All the Regiments have taken their pay 
 without batta, but they have done this in the expectation that the batta 
 would be restored, and this expectation was encouraged and engendered 
 by the Resident, and especially by the appointment of a Committee of 
 officers to inquire how far the complaints of these men were well 
 founded. 
 
 " Upon this point I send you a letter that I addressed on the 17th 
 instant to the Resident, General Fraser. 
 
 " It was imprudent to begin changes in the allowances of the Sepoys. 
 I believe the making of this change was for several years postponed by 
 Lord Auckland under the impression of its impolicy; but this is a 
 question to be decided at home now, as it was before. To me it was 
 quite new. I had never heard of it. Indeed, at Hyderabad, it came 
 lately for the first time into operation." 1 
 
 The Committee of Inquiry, countermanded by the Supreme 
 Government before it could be assembled, was not appointed by 
 the Resident, but by the Government of Madras. The Duke of 
 Wellington's views on the whole subject are very sufficiently indi- 
 cated in the following extracts from a memorandum dated 25th 
 May 1842. After showing that he has a full recollection and 
 knowledge of the origin and merits of the Madras Sepoys' claim to 
 batta, and of that claim being equally strong in quarters at 
 Hyderabad as on the march there, and referring to the uncertainty 
 with which this allowance had been given and withheld, the Duke 
 says : — " It is not astonishing that a regulation so capricious in its 
 operation and effect should excite dissatisfaction and even resist- 
 ance, and that authority should more than ten times have found 
 itself under the necessity of making concessions and of altering 
 this regulation. There is nothing which soldiers, particularly the 
 Natives of India, bear so unwillingly as injustice, or those hasty 
 and changeable decisions regarding their pay which have the 
 appearance thereof." 
 
 When we reflect upon the extraordinary fact that the stoppage 
 of batta was considered by the Government of India, under Lord 
 
 1 Lord Ellenborough's Indian A dministrat ion, edited by Lord Colchester 
 ("Rentier, 1874), p. 178.
 
 GENERAL FKASEK JUSTIFIED. 151 
 
 Auckland and Lord Ellenborough, by the Government of Madras, 
 and by the Duke of Wellington, to be impolitic, imprudent, capri- 
 cious, and unjust, and was viewed, surely with good reason, by 
 "all the military men" on the spot and in Lord Ellenborough's 
 vicinity, with " great apprehension", it is almost impossible to 
 avoid the conclusion that the Resident who, in Lord Ellenborough's 
 words, had " put down the mutiny", came to a sounder judgment 
 when he recommended a Committee of Inquiry, than the Governor- 
 General — to whom the question was " quite new" — when he 
 countermanded it. General Fraser " took the part" of the Sepoys 
 only in confidential communications with superior authority, and 
 there were no grounds whatever for saying that he had " engen- 
 dered or encouraged" their expectations. He had been from first 
 to last most cautious in protecting the dignity and authority of 
 Government, and in abstaining, though fully empowered, from 
 giving any pledge or promise as to concessions.
 
 152 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Lord Ellenborough's Circular to his Political Agents — Untoward Affair at 
 Murchair — Letters from Captain Gresley and Colonel Fitzroy Somer- 
 set — Increasing Financial Disorder in Hyderabad State — Death of Ven- 
 cata Rao — Chundoo Lall, unable to borrow, tenders resignation — Mission 
 and Intrigues of Rusheed-ool-Moolkand RamBuksh — Sooraj-ool-Moolk 
 as the Nizam's Agent — The ex-Minister's complaint against the Resident, 
 and remittances to Calcutta — Lord Ellenborough's recall. 
 
 Within two months of Lord Ellenborough's arrival at Calcutta to 
 assume the reins of Government, he issued a very important cir- 
 cular to all the Political Agents in India, from which, as mainly but 
 not exactly harmonising with , General Fraser's notions regarding 
 the scope and limits of his duty as Resident at Hyderabad, some 
 extracts may usefully be given here. The circular is dated 
 "Allahabad, the 26th April 1842". The Governor-General en- 
 joins " the utmost personal respect for the several Native Princes 
 with whom" his Agents "may communicate"; that they "will 
 consider themselves to be placed near those Princes as the repre- 
 sentative of the friendship as much as of the power of the British 
 Government, and will be mindful that even the necessary acts of 
 authority may be clothed with the veil of courtesy and regard." 
 It then proceeded as follows : — 
 
 "You will distinctly understand that the further extension of its 
 dominion forms no part of the policy of the British Government ; that 
 it is desirous on all occasions of respecting the independence of Native 
 States ; and that, satisfied with the extent of its own rule, it has no 
 other wish than that every State within the limits of India should 
 freely exercise its rights as recognised by Treaty, and contribute, by 
 the maintenance by its own means of peace and good government 
 within its dominions, to the general happiness of the whole people." 
 
 The Governor-General, alluding to the successes of Generals 
 Nott and Pollock and the recapture of Cabul, said that he had
 
 NATIVE AID REQUIRED. 153 
 
 " advisedly selected the moment of victory for laying before his 
 Political Agents, for their guidance, these principles of justice and 
 moderation". " They are," he continued, " the principles upon 
 which his policy will ever be founded, adopted upon deliberate 
 reflection, and as little liable to be changed by reverses as they 
 have been by success." 
 
 This circular despatch was accompanied by a Persian translation, 
 which each Resident or Agent was directed to communicate to the 
 Princes and Chiefs to whom he was accredited. " The strict appli- 
 cation to the Nizam's country of the principle laid down here", 
 wrote General Fraser to Lord Elphinstone on the 17th of Ma}' 
 1842, "will, I am afraid, keep us in rather an unsatisfactory and 
 unimproving state, but it may, however, be said that a partial 
 interference here would not perhaps do much good, while a more 
 complete and extensive exercise of authority might not be justi- 
 fiable on the ground of any of the Treaties at present subsisting 
 between us and the Nizam.'" 
 
 In June 1842 the Resident fully explained to the Supreme 
 Government the "glaring defects" m the system of collecting 
 revenue and in the admistration of civil and criminal justice, and 
 the ever-growing financial embarrassments of the Hyderabad State, 
 together with the utter impossibility of extracting from Chundoo 
 Lall anything like a clear or full account of what were the debts 
 and pecuniary liabilities of the Nizam's Government ; and urged 
 that it was " in vain to expect the establishment of a more pro- 
 mising state of affairs, without a more direct interference on our 
 part than has yet been authorised." The re-establishment of 
 British superintendence, as in Sir Charles Metcalfe's time, would 
 certainly be at variance with existing treaties, unless the Nizam's 
 consent were obtained. 
 
 "As a more practical measure", and the only one available, 
 "short of removing Chundoo Lall altogether from office", the 
 Resident renewed the suggestion he had made on several previous 
 occasions, of affording some efficient Native aid to the Minister, 
 especially in the finance department. On the last occasion of 
 discussing the subject with the Minister, General Fraser had gone 
 the length of mentioning the name of the person whose assistance 
 he had thought would be most valuable, and the Minister had 
 assented to his recommendation. This person was the Brahmin
 
 154 VENCATA RAO WANTED. 
 
 Vencata Rao, who had been Minister at Travancore, and was then 
 special Assistant to Colonel Cubbon, the Commissioner of Mysore. 
 General Fraser describes him as "a man of great ability", whose 
 administrative talents, especially in affairs of revenue and finance, 
 were of " a first-rate order". " I have not as yet", said the General, 
 - bad any communication with him on the subject of his coming 
 here, nor do I know whether, at bis advanced age, and in his inde- 
 pendent circumstances, it would have suited his views or wishes to 
 enter upon so new and difficult a scene of labour." With reference 
 tn this plan, the Resident addressed Colonel Cubbon. 
 
 " Hyderabad, 14th July 1842. 
 " My dear Colonel, — Lord Ellenborough seems to be paying some 
 attention to the affairs of the Nizam's country, and it is not improbable; 
 I think, that means may be taken for endeavouring to improve its 
 present condition. In this case it is impossible that anything could be 
 done without either removing the Minister Chundoo Lall from his 
 office, or at least giving him such aid as appears indispensably requisite, 
 especially in the revenue department of the State. Should anything of 
 this sort ever be proposed, will you be so kind as to let me know, in 
 confidence, whether you could spare Vencata Rao ; and if you are of 
 opinion that he would like to serve here, as well as whether you think 
 that his faculties are still clear and unimpaired, and that he is as 
 capable as I formerly knew him to be of discharging his public duties ? 
 
 " Believe me, very truly yours, 
 
 " J. S. Fraser." 
 
 Colonel Cubbon entirely concurred with General Fraser as to 
 Vencata Rao's character and capabilities, and, though sorry to part 
 with him, would not stand in the way of his accepting a more 
 important place in the service of the Nizam. Many months, 
 nearly a year, in fact, elapsed before official sanction was given 
 from Calcutta to the assistance of this able Brahmin being prof- 
 fered to Rajah Chundoo Lall with the distinct and explicit recom- 
 mendation of the Government of India. It was then, as will be 
 seen, too late for that assistance to be rendered. 
 
 In June 1842 one of those disturbances took place in a southern 
 district of the Nizam's dominions, that were constantly occurring 
 in the lawless days before the period of administrative reform 
 under the late Nawab Sir Salar Jung. Such disturbances may
 
 AX ESCALADE CHECKED. 155 
 
 he said now to have entirely ceased. 1 It at once illustrates the 
 great share that was taken by the Contingent for many years in 
 maintaining peace and in the gradual establishment of good order, 
 and proves the sound judgment of General Fraser in urging, almost 
 from the time of his arrival, the dispersion and deportation of all 
 wandering parties of Arabs and Eohillas. 
 
 In June 1842 there was a dispute between the Hyderabad 
 Government and one of its great landlords, the Bajah of Murchair, 
 regarding some alleged arrears of revenue. The Minister threatened 
 coercive measures ; and, taking advantage of the alarm and excite- 
 ment thus caused in the neighbourhood, Siddee Yakoob, the chief 
 of a small band of Arabs, just then out of employ, took possession 
 of the fort of Murchair, plundered several villages, committing 
 several atrocities in order to procure money and supplies, and set 
 up a local reign of terror. Then, and subsequently, he represented 
 himself as acting in the Eajah's interests and under his orders; but 
 the zemindar's connivance, though much suspected in the early 
 stage of the outbreak, was not proved. After the usual application 
 from the Minister to the Kesident, a ^detachment of the Nizam's 
 Contingent from Muktul, the nearest station, was ordered to the 
 disturbed district, with orders to take the fort and capture the 
 insurgents. Unfortunately, in the first attack on Murchair, the 
 troops met with a check. An escalade was attempted, but a well- 
 directed fire from the Arabs caused the storming party to commence 
 firing in return instead of mounting the ladders : a cry was raised 
 that the ladders were too short, and, in spite of all the efforts of 
 their European and Native officers, who are said by all accounts to 
 have behaved most gallantly, the Sepoys retired in disorder. 
 Another attack on one of the gates of the fort, meant merely to 
 •draw off the attention of the garrison, succeeded. The gate was 
 forced open and one of the bastions occupied ; but, on the failure of 
 the principal assault, this position had to be abandoned, and the 
 failure appeared complete. Only three of the Arabs were killed, 
 and about twenty of the Nizam's troops. The insurgents, however , 
 were not elated with their success, and Siddee Yakoob immediately 
 sent several messages proposing to capitulate on favourable terms, 
 
 1 It is observed in the Annual Report of the Resident for 1869-70 that 
 "the Hyderabad Contingent had not fired a shot, except in its parade- 
 grounds, since the Mutinies."
 
 156 FORT OF MUBCHAIR TAKEN. 
 
 to which Captain Gresley replied, insisting on an unconditional 
 surrender. Such an impression was made by Captain Gresley' s 
 determined preparations for a second assault, that, " in the evening 
 at about eight o'clock", in the words of his private letter to 
 General Fraser, " the Siddee came to my tent, threw himself at my 
 feet, said he and his garrison were ready to do whatever I ordered, 
 and that I might cut off his head, and so forth. I went down to 
 the gate with a party of Sepoys ; and the Siddee, who had pre- 
 ceded me, came out with thirty-three men unarmed, and they 
 delivered themselves up as prisoners. I said that they should be 
 tried by the laws of the country, and that I would undertake that 
 their women and children were allowed to come safe out of the 
 fort, and were not ill-treated ; and that if they did not like these 
 terms, or imagined that I had given them any koiul, 1 they might go 
 back again, and fight as long as they liked. I then put a strong 
 guard at the gate, which I have not taken away yet. However, I 
 shall report my own proceedings to you officially as soon as I have 
 made over the fort to Shahamut Khan, which I expect to do 
 to-day. I shall send off the prisoners to-day. Another man was 
 seized, while trying to escape the next day, by Booden Khan's 
 people. He had secreted himself in the Pettah 2 somehow or other. 
 All I am afraid of now is the fellows escaping, for, having no irons 
 or handcuffs, all we can do is to have a lot of sentries and orderlies 
 round them. Luckily the nights are moonlight. I hope to leave 
 this to-morrow, for we are losing numbers of people from cholera." 
 
 It was ascertained that at the time of the attempted escalade 
 there had only been forty-two armed Arabs in the fort — three 
 were killed, four managed to escape, and thirty- five were made 
 prisoners. 
 
 Lord Ellenborough's Military Secretary, Captain Mtzroy Somerset, 
 in the following letter to the Resident, remarks on the lesson in 
 tactics to be derived from this affair. 
 
 " Allahabad, July 4th, 1842. 
 
 " My dear SlR, — I return Captaiu Gresley's letter, with many thanks 
 from Lord Ellenborough and myself. The account is most interesting, 
 and well told. Captain Gresley must be a good soldier, and seems to 
 
 1 Quarter, or promise of pardon. 
 
 2 Walled village outside a fort. 
 
 <
 
 THE ARAB PRISONERS. lf>7 
 
 have his heart in the business. It is a pity they did not adopt the 
 plan, I believe first brought into practice by Major (now General) Sir 
 George Napier at Ciudad Rodrigo. He led the storming party, and 
 would not allow his men to load, so that when they faltered and tried 
 to fire, as at Murchair, their muskets snapped, and they had nothing 
 for it but to carry all at the point of the bayonet, or be shot down like 
 dogs — and they succeeded. 
 
 " Yours faithfully, 
 
 " A. W. Fitzroy Somerset." 
 
 Three days after the occupation of the fort, Captain Gresley 
 writes to the Resident from his own cantonment, to which the 
 prisoners had been removed. 
 
 " Muktul, 25th June 1842. 
 
 " Mr dear General, — I mentioned in my letter to you yesterday 
 that I intended to take down the depositions of the Arabs and of the 
 Joalahudjee 1 ryots, but upon second thoughts it occurs to me that you 
 will probably consider our part of the business to be over. My notion 
 is that we have nothing further to do beyond making over the prisoners 
 to the Nizam, stipulating that they are to be tried by the Mohammedan 
 law. If he or his officers choose to see that the law is properly 
 administered, well and good. If he connives at their escape, it is no 
 fault of ours : we are not the responsible party ; but if we begin to con- 
 duct the investigation, we shall be considered as such. It is a pity the 
 brutes were not all put to death at Murchair. I dare say they will now 
 get off, for the vdlagers will shirk giving evidence against them, and — 
 as you have no doubt frequently observed — there is a jealousy on the 
 part of the Nizam's Government, from Chundoo Lall down to his 
 chobdars, against us, which prompts them to thwart any affair which 
 we take in hand. 
 
 " Tours sincerely, 
 
 "Francis Gresley." 
 
 A judicial officer, named Karaimit Ali, was sent from Hyderabad 
 to conduct an investigation into the Murchair insurrection, and to 
 try the prisoners. Captain Gresley's next letter mentions this 
 person's appearance on the scene. 
 
 " Muktul, July 7th, 1842. 
 
 "My dear General, — Karamut Ali arrived here yesterday, and 
 proposes to commence proceedings forthwith. The old gentleman 
 seems to have rather a juld mlzoj, as the natives say. 2 I have given 
 
 1 A village which had been plundered with circumstances of great cruelty. 
 
 2 A quick temper, as we say.
 
 158 LETTERS FROM 
 
 hini a brief statement of the case, and told him what witnesses will 
 give evidence on certain points, and that I am ready to give my own 
 evidence whenever he calls upon me. Of course, I shall abstain from 
 all interference or advice during his further proceedings. It is of no 
 use my writing to any of the Talookdars or Zemindars hereabouts, or 
 the Government issuing ahkams 1 to them, to assist in seizing persons 
 connected witli this affair. They will not do it ; and if I could get 
 intelligence, and were to send a party of troops to apprehend anyone, 
 it would be 100 to 1 that they would not effect the capture, for the 
 inhabitants and officials are all inclined to protect such delinquents. 
 We must, in fact, always expect to meet not merely with unwillingness 
 to assist us, but also with underhand opposition, from Chundoo Lall 
 down to the lowest Government piadah, 2 in any affair of this kind 
 which we attempt to settle. This Murchair business has had one good 
 effect in bringing the petty Rajahs in this region to their senses. It was 
 fortunate we moved upon Murchair so rapidly, for I have been assured 
 that, had Siddee Yakoob been aware of our intentions a week sooner, he 
 would have collected from Raickore, Gungawatty, and various other 
 places, at least 300 or 400 of these Arab adventurers, who, though 
 nominally in Government service, are ready to join in any villainy ; and 
 we then could not have reduced the place without a large force and a 
 regular siege, while the country all round would for weeks or months 
 have been at the mercy of these brutes of Bedurs, Kolies, and other 
 professional robbers, who plunder both friend and foe. It is to be 
 regretted that Siddee Yakoob's vakeel, Bheemuna, escaped, with all his 
 papers. The Siddee declares that these papers would have exonerated 
 him from all blame in this affair. We shall see whether he will speak 
 out on his trial. 
 
 " Yours sincerely, 
 
 "Francis Gresley." 
 
 Another letter from the same officer throws more light on the 
 relations between the Residency and the Hyderabad Durbar, 
 arising from the services of the so-called Nizam's Contingent being 
 afforded only at the discretion and pleasure of the British Resi- 
 dent. 
 
 "Muktul, July 3rd, 1842. 
 
 " My dear General, — Malcolm 3 sent me yesterday the Minister's 
 ahkam to Boodun Khan, directing him to take possession of the Mur- 
 chair talooka. The Rajah objects most strenuously to this measure, 
 
 1 Orders. 
 
 2 Messenger — lit., footman. 
 
 3 The Assistant Resident, and afterwards Resident at Baroda. 
 
 t
 
 CAPTAIN GRESLEY. 159 
 
 and not, I think, without reason. Next to putting him to death, it is 
 the heavest punishment which can be inflicted upon him. The Minister 
 does not understand our English maxim, that a man must be con- 
 sidered innocent until proved guilty. Chundoo Lall would be delighted 
 to pounce upon the zemindaree with our assistance. If this order is 
 attempted to be carried into effect, either by Boodun Khan or Bheekoo 
 Meean, it is probable that the people who at present hold the villages 
 under the Murchair Rajah will resist, and as they have several strong 
 ghurries; 1 this would lead to our troops being called out to dispossess 
 the Rajah's retainers, who would not oppose us. Thus the whole 
 responsibility would be thrown upon us, which I take it is what Chun- 
 doo Lall is driving at. The Rajah is a poor wretch, and declares he 
 was never consulted, and was kept under restraint by the Ai*abs. Like 
 Kistnapa Naik, and most of the zemindars round about, he has always 
 been under the control of some of his own household. His mamoo, 2 
 who was his chief manager, and is now in irons here, will probably 
 turn out to have been the prime mover in resistance to the Govern- 
 ment, but may very likely have had no power whatever over the move- 
 ments of the Arabs. But whether the charges against him and against 
 the Rajah be true or false, it would be but fair to let the poor creatures 
 have an opportunity of clearing themselves before condemning them or 
 confiscating the estate. What I wish to suggest is, that the Minister 
 should be moved to defer putting into execution so very severe a 
 measure until after Karamut Ali has investigated the affair, and re- 
 ported as to the degree of blame to be attached to the Murchair Rajah. 
 I was rather amused at the Minister writing that he had given the 
 talooka to Boodun Khan as a reward for his good services ! I believe 
 the old man is in reality coquetting with Bheekoo Meean, who wants 
 the talooka, has been trying to get it for a long time, and is probably 
 prepared to come down with a nuzzurana for it, if the Rajah can be 
 turned out. 
 
 "Yours sincerely, 
 
 "Francis Gresley." 
 
 Eventually the Rajah of Murchair and his relatives were ac- 
 quitted ; the leaders and chief delinquents among the Arabs, seven 
 in all, were sentenced to death, and the others to various terms of 
 imprisonment ; but, as will be seen shortly, the capital sentences 
 and their execution were deferred for several months. 
 
 Here is a characteristic and interesting letter from Lord Ellen- 
 borough, with some very judicious remarks on the check of the 
 Nizam's Contingent troops before the fort of Murchair. 
 
 1 A village fortification. 
 
 2 Maternal uncle. *'
 
 160 CONDUCT AND GALLANTRY. 
 
 "Allahabad, July 10th, 1842. 
 
 " General, — I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your 
 letter of the "J'.'th ultimo, and I am much obliged to you for the perusal 
 of the enclosures, which I return. I remain of the opinion I have 
 already expressed, that it would be unadvisable to have a public inquiry 
 into the conduct of the troops at Murchair. If such inquiry involved 
 the conduct of the officers towards their men, it would be still more 
 objectionable. 
 
 " I believe no Native Regiment ever misconducted itself which had 
 confidence in and was attached to its officers, and that few ever behave 
 well where that confidence and attachment do not exist. I know 
 nothing more important than the selection of officers to serve with the 
 Nizam's Regiments. I regret exceedingly whenever they are called 
 away to serve with their own Regiments, as I know the inconvenience 
 and mischief of any change where there are so few. I must endeavour 
 to find a remedy for this, and for other evils in our present system. 
 
 " While I deem it to be a matter of conscience to appoint only such 
 officers as are likely to be really useful in the Nizam's Force, I deem it 
 to be incumbent upon me, likewise, to take measures for relieving that 
 Force from the presence of any officer, however brave he may be in the 
 field, w r ho does not by his general conduct towards his soldiers con- 
 ciliate their confidence. I shall be obliged to you if you will furnish 
 me from time to time with a confidential report with respect to the 
 officers of the Nizam's Army. 
 
 " In the present instance, I think you would be quite right in writing 
 very seriously to the officers who were present at Murchair, and in 
 informing them that you should transmit a copy of your letter to me. 
 
 " An officer by risking his life upon a glacis affords no compensation 
 to his country for the risk he may have brought upon its interests by 
 neglecting to win the confidence of his soldiers, and so occasioning a 
 reverse. 
 
 " We cannot bear many reverses. 
 
 " I have the honour to remain, General, 
 
 " Very faithfully yours, 
 
 " Ellenrorough." 
 
 On the 2?>rd August 1842 the Resident writes to his friend 
 Major Edward Armstrong 1 : — 
 
 "I wish I could anticipate the pleasure of seeing you again at 
 Hyderabad, and still more, that we could by any means have the benefit 
 of your valuable services in the regulation of this embarrassed Govern- 
 ment. But I do not learn that any scheme is in preparation which 
 
 1 J nt'\ p. 56.
 
 LETTER TO LORD ELPHINSTONE. 101 
 
 would give civil employ to European officers in the Nizam's country, 
 and, though I have written a good deal lately on the subject of the 
 evils which require to be corrected, I do not think Lord Ellenborough 
 appears very much disposed to adopt any decided measures, at least 
 until he can disengage himself from his present entanglement in 
 Afghanistan." 
 
 In a letter to Lord Elphinstone, dated 29th of August 1842, 
 General Fraser gives his general impression as to the progress of 
 his plans for the benefit of the Nizam's country under the govern- 
 ment of Lord Ellenborough. 
 
 " I must have appeared extremely remiss in not having sooner replied 
 to your kind and obliging letter of the 29th June last, but as I have 
 been in constant communication with the Supreme Government 
 respecting the affairs of this Government, and have taken the liberty of 
 suggesting a number of important measures which would, I think, 
 remove a great deal of existing evil, although not perhaps placing 
 matters on the very best possible footing, I was anxious to be able to 
 inform you how these propositions had been received, and what like- 
 lihood there was that any events of interest might occur— one in par- 
 ticular that I have long been anxious for, and have often made the 
 subject of suggestion to the Supreme Government, the removal of the 
 Arabs, who have acquired an overwhelming force and influence in the 
 State. Lord Ellenborough seems fully to concur in the necessity of 
 something being done, but he is terribly afraid of any movement being 
 made until his own hands are liberated from the embarrassment of the 
 Afghan war, and we have all our military force to support us again in 
 the interior of India. He seems a good deal alarmed, too, at the pros- 
 pect of my getting into a war in the Shorapore country, the Rajah of 
 which has just died, probably by poison. The regulation of affairs in 
 that district is, however, as I told him would be the case, progressing 
 quite quietly, and I have got military occupation of the only parts of it 
 in which I anticipated any difficulty. Lord Ellenborough does not 
 seem to realise that we have quite force enough here to contend against 
 any opposition we might meet with in the execution of the measures we 
 might think it necessary to carry into effect for the benefit of the 
 Nizam's Government, and appears to imagine that our reverses in the 
 North-west have produced a greater and more adverse influence than 
 they really have. I do not participate, myself, in any of these appre- 
 hensions, and think that we are quite strong enough here for anything 
 that could occur, — or at all events that we shall be strong enough 
 when the Hyderabad Subsidiary Force is replaced on its former footing. 
 Lord Ellenborough talks of his being free to act if) the course of a few 
 
 M
 
 1G2 WITHDRAWAL FROM AFGHANISTAN. 
 
 months, from which I conclude — and it is the only means I have of 
 forming this opinion — that he is meditating a withdrawal from Afghan- 
 istan. In this he may be right. I do not pretend to judge, nor have 
 I the means of forming a decided opinion on the subject. But so far 
 as I can see, and so far as my own personal inclinations bring me, I 
 would Vather have seen the views that Lord Auckland apparently 
 entertained carried out, and the Afghans taught to feel and to acknow- 
 ledge the superiority of our power, if not permanently as a conquered 
 nation, at least until we should have found it convenient to bid them 
 farewell and to leave them to themselves. 
 
 " General Elphinstone's letters which you were so kind as to send 
 me fully establish the inferences you draw from them, and I have no 
 doubt that his memory will be fully vindicated from the calumnious 
 aspersions which have been cast upon it by the slanderous writers in 
 the Englishman. I have taken the liberty of sending the copies of 
 General Elphinstone's letters to Captain Orr at Hingolee, with per- 
 mission to show them to the excellent officer who commands that 
 division, Brigadier Onslow, and I hope you will not think that I have 
 transgressed the bounds of discretion in doing this. You have not 
 mentioned to me whether you wish these copies to be returned, but I 
 shall be prepared to do so on their coming back from Captain Orr. You 
 have never sent the letter to which you allude, written by Major 
 Pottinger to General Elphinstone, but I should very much like to see 
 it, if you can favour me with a perusal of it. 
 
 " I have not heard a syllable further from the Supreme Government 
 respecting our Secunderabad disturbances in February last. In the 
 meantime the troops here are quite quiet, and seem to be quite 
 benumbed, if I may use the expression, by the treatment they met 
 with. I wish, notwithstanding this apparent success, that some inquiry 
 may be made into their complaints, both on their merits, and in re- 
 demption of the implied word I gave them. If another mutiny were 
 to occur, and I went on parade, I should expect to be shot forthwith ; 
 at least, this, I conceive, would be the natural impulse of the men, who 
 must necessarily believe that I lied and deceived them most shamefully 
 on the former occasion." 
 
 In a letter dated the 25th of June 1842, General Fraser again 
 explained to the Governor-General the impossibility of obtaining 
 from Chundoo Lall anything but a fictitious account of the debts 
 and liabilities of the Nizam's Government. He returned also to 
 the subject of the virtual prohibition of all intercourse between 
 the Eesident and the Hyderabad notables. " The city of Hydera- 
 bad," he said, " is but a large prison where all persons above the
 
 UNKNOWN LIABILITIES. L63 
 
 lower class are kept under strict surveillance, and prevented from 
 quitting the precincts of their own houses, and having any social, 
 or still less any political, connection with each other, or with the 
 Resident." 
 
 " The Minister has, no doubt, persuaded the Nizam of the advantage 
 of maintaining this system, as a means of preventing intrigue, and of 
 maintaining the permanence of His Highness's own authority." 
 
 " It must be recollected that the Minister was originally raised, and 
 has since been upheld by our power ; and that the Nizam considers 
 him as a creature and friend of the British Government, whom, there- 
 fore, it would be dangerous on his part to quarrel with or resist." 
 
 " If," continued the Eesident, alluding to the views prevailing 
 at Calcutta, " in consequence of the extreme age of the Minister, 
 and the valuable and acknowledged services which he has long 
 rendered to the British Government, we are to abstain from being 
 parties to his removal from office, it only remains to apply such 
 expedients for the temporary removal of existing evils as may 
 appear best suited to the several cases, that arise." 
 
 The most important step was to obtain financial statements " on 
 the authenticity of which reliance could be placed"; and although 
 it was useless to expect the Minister voluntarily to furnish any 
 such information, the Nizam himself, the Eesident was assured, 
 would be perfectly willing to adopt such measures as might con- 
 duce to that object, " either by the appointment of an individual 
 or of a Commission of inquiry". The Nizam was " understood to 
 be extremely anxious on the subject of the liabilities that had 
 been incurred", and also to " consider the Minister, or his family 
 after his death, personally responsible for many of those debts 
 which the Minister professes to regard as exclusively of a public 
 nature, chargeable against the State." 
 
 On the 13th of July 1842 General Fraser observes that " it 
 remains for the Government of India to determine whether matters 
 shall be allowed to go on as at present, with the few changes that 
 may now and then suggest themselves as being of practicable 
 execution, without affecting the general constitution of the Nizam's 
 Government, or whether recourse shall be had at once to the more 
 decided measure of proposing the removal of the Minister Chun- 
 doo Lall from office, and the appointment of another Dewan, whos 
 
 m2
 
 164 CANDIDATES FOR OFFICE. 
 
 first and indispensable duty it should be to furnish a correct 
 account of the financial liabilities of the State." 
 
 There were difficulties undoubtedly in the way of adopting such 
 a strong measure at once. "This was not, perhaps, the most 
 fitting time for trying experiments in the heart of India, and at a 
 Mohammedan Court, when we were engaged in so many external 
 wars as to have removed a large portion of our army, and to have 
 weakened to a certain extent our assurance of continued peace in 
 the interior of the country." 
 
 Then there was the special difficulty, so often mentioned, of 
 making inquiries, and forming a fair estimate, as to the disposition 
 and capacity of the several candidates for office. " The Minister 
 Chundoo Lall is," the Resident admitted, " the warmest and most 
 devoted friend we have throughout the whole extent of our 
 dominions in the East, because he knows that his very existence is 
 bound up in the maintenance of our authority. What might be 
 the principles and feelings of another Dewan towards us, it is 
 impossible to say." 
 
 Among all the persons whose names had been put forward at 
 any time as possible successors of Chundoo Lall, — his son, Bala 
 Pershad, Shums-ool-Oomra, Iqtidar Jung, Bal Mookund, and Sooraj- 
 ood-Dowla, — General Fraser was inclined, on the whole, to con- 
 sider that the last mentioned, a son of the former Minister, 
 Mooneer-ool-Moolk, was the most eligible, and the most likely to 
 find favour in the Nizam's eyes. Under the higher title of Sooraj- 
 ool-Moolk, he became Minister some years later. In July 1842 
 General Fraser believed that the Nizam not only had made no 
 choice of a future Minister, but that " notwithstanding the assur- 
 ances he has received to the contrary, he supposes the choice will 
 depend less on his personal judgment and wishes than on the 
 suggestions of the British Government". 
 
 On the 14th of July 1842 the Resident writes privately to Lord 
 Ellenborough : — 
 
 " Improvement here is, I am afraid, hopeless, if we are to retain 
 Chundoo Lall in his present office. 
 
 " The Minister is so slippery and so false, and so reckless of every- 
 thing but the acquisition of money, an object which he effects by the 
 most ill-judged and ruinous means, that perhaps the only effectual 
 mode left to us of doing justice to the country is to propose to the
 
 CONTINGENT IN DANGER. 165 
 
 Nizam the retirement of Chimdoo Lall on a handsome pension, and the 
 appointment of another Dewan. We could not well propose to the 
 Nizam to appoint anyone who was not a subject of his own ; but 
 I certainly should be very glad, if it were possible, to obtain in some 
 way the services of Vencata Rao, the person mentioned in my letter to 
 the Supreme Government of the 25th ultimo. I should have every 
 confidence in his ability, and in his power to aid in bringing about a 
 radical reform. It was after conversing with him for an hour or two 
 that Lord William Bentinck remarked it was such men who might be 
 placed with advantage in the Supreme Council of India." 
 
 But neither for pressing on the Nizam the removal of Clmndoo 
 Lall, nor for the minor measure of strongly suggesting the nomi- 
 nation of a commission of financial inquiry, could the Resident 
 obtain during the year 1842 the sanction or support of Lord 
 Ellenborough's Government. 
 
 Some notes from the Minister and from the Nizam himself, 
 disputing and rejecting advice given by the Resident, led General 
 Fraser to express his fear that " His Highness had misunderstood 
 the purport of the Governor-General's circular letter under date 
 26th April last, 1 and that lie regarded it as placing him in an 
 absolutely irresponsible position." The General more particularly 
 reiterated the caution with regard to the Contingent that he had 
 given in 1840. 2 
 
 " If the Nizam is permitted to retain this impression it is not 
 improbable that, beside other evils which may arise, we shall experience 
 one of very considerable magnitude in a proposition on the part of 
 His Highness for the disbandment of the Contingent, to which he is 
 known to be averse, and of which neither the continued maintenance 
 nor the original organisation is provided for by any existing Treaty. 
 In the year 1833 His Highness actually stated his objections to the 
 continuance of the Force ; and the expense attending it has ever been 
 a source of complaint from the Minister." 
 
 This at once called forth a direct letter from Lord Ellenborough 
 to the Nizam, dated 1st October 1842, from which the following 
 extracts will be sufficiently significant : — 
 
 " I am sorry to learn that the Minister of Hyderabad does not 
 act according to the counsels of the Resident, as he has done 
 hitherto." 
 
 " It is expedient that you direct the Minister to attend to the 
 
 1 Ante, p. 152. « Ante, p. 90.
 
 166 THE NIZAM EXHORTED. 
 
 wishes of the Eesident. It is a great pity if anything contrary to 
 the former friendship and concord between the two Governments 
 should occur." 
 
 General Fraser pointed out at this time that the reduction of 
 the number of Arab mercenaries in the Hyderabad territories, and 
 the deportation of the more turbulent bands among them to their 
 own country, could not with justice be carried out until tin it 
 arrears were paid up, while the Arab claims, though urgent, only 
 formed one item in the liabilities of the State of which it was 
 impossible to induce the Minister to furnish an accurate statement. 
 
 With a view to this initial and indispensable step being taken, 
 General Fraser suggested that it should be " urged upon His 
 Highness to appoint some individual of his Court altogether inde- 
 pendent of the Minister, or a Commission of three or more persons 
 possessing this advantage, and that the course of their proceedings 
 should be subject to the superintendence of the Eesident, or of 
 such person as may be appointed by him, or by the superior 
 authority of the Government ©f India." 
 
 Without this decided measure, the whole question would be left 
 " in its present state of darkness and confusion". 
 
 General Fraser then proceeded to observe that it did " not appear 
 to be in the contemplation of the Governor-General to propose 
 the removal of Chundoo Lall from his office, but merely that 
 provision should be made for a successor in the event of his death". 
 " Many circumstances combined to give rise to this policy, in 
 which successive Residents at Hyderabad, as well as the authority 
 at Calcutta which they represent, have alike participated." 
 
 "But upon a calm, dispassionate view of the case", continued 
 the Eesident, " and setting aside all considerations of mere indul- 
 gence and humane forbearance, it may be doubted how far the 
 policy is right which leads us to maintain a person in this high 
 office who is daily becoming more incompetent for the discharge 
 of its duties, and whose administration will ever continue to act as 
 a clog to any possible improvement in the state of the country." 
 
 After a long private interview with His Highness on the 13th o 
 December 1842, General Fraser again recorded his opinion that 
 "the Nizam would not object to any plans which might be pro- 
 posed for the improvement of his country if he thought them 
 practicable. But the great obstacles to improvement and to the
 
 MEADOWS TAYLOR. 167 
 
 adoption of any system of essential reform, under the present 
 constitution of the Nizam's Government, and as long as the exist- 
 ing Treaty remained in force and unmodified, would be found", 
 the Eesident urged, " in the Minister's age and incapacity, and 
 in those pecuniary embarrassments, so often mentioned, which 
 could never be removed without such decided measures of relief 
 as the British Government alone could afford, either directly, 
 upon territorial or other security, or by means of a loan negotiated 
 under our guaranty." On this occasion the General states, " His 
 Highness's manner throughout was kind and friendly. He was 
 apparently frank and sincere in his communications. No one 
 but he and myself was present in the room where he received 
 me." 
 
 Captain Meadows Taylor, mentioned in the following letter 
 to Lord Ellenborough — well known subsequently as author of 
 Confessions of a Tliug, and several other works — was one of the 
 local officers of the Nizam's Army, and had been, at General 
 Fraser's instance and with the Minister's consent, placed in charge 
 of the small State of Shorapore, tributary to the Nizam, which 
 had fallen into confusion during fche minority of its Eajah, and 
 under the disputed guardianship of his step-mother. 
 
 " Hyderabad, 7th January 1843. 
 
 " My Lord, — I beg to send your Lordship four private letters from 
 Captain Taylor, which may perhaps aid his official ones in giving a 
 correct idea of the state of affairs at Shorapore. I am quite satisfied 
 with the manner in which Captain Taylor is conducting his proceedings 
 there, and I shall not now hesitate in the execution of measures for 
 reducing the Ranee of Shorapore to obedience, and to oblige her to 
 render an account of her past administration. The Shorapore business 
 is sufficiently illustrative of the general state of confusion and disor- 
 ganisation of the whole of the Nizam's country. It is upon a small 
 scale what the latter is upon a large one ; and the same remedy 
 would be found equally efficacious in the latter case as in the 
 former. 
 
 " If it is the intention of the British Government to maintain the 
 system of non-interference in the affairs of this and other native 
 States, we must look for frequent commotions and distui'bances of one 
 kind or another throughout India. If, on the other hand, it is our 
 object to establish a well-regulated and uniformly organised govern- 
 ment, maintaining peace and good order in every part of the Empire,
 
 L68 VENCAJA RAO'S VISIT 
 
 with the hope, if nut the immediate realisation, of great improvement, 
 then instead of non-interference our best policy may be one of inter- 
 ference, by which I mean the imposition of our advice, guidance, and 
 support, to the utmost limit which good faith and adherence to existing 
 treaties will allow. Any essential or permanent change for the better 
 in the Nizam's country is quite hopeless under the present constitution 
 of affairs ; for as long as Chundoo Lall remains in the office of Dewan, 
 lie will never cease to retain, or endeavour to retain, in his own feeble 
 grasp, the exclusive power of the Government. 
 
 " Unless we cancel our actual treaties Avith the Nizam, we cannot 
 propose anything like the Mysore system, and place the whole country 
 under the charge of British officers ; but 1 cannot perceive any suffi- 
 cient reason why we should not, on principles that, I think, could 
 easily be shown to be justifiable, explain to the Nizam the evils existing 
 here, and sufficiently obvious for years past, and recommend him the 
 appointment of a younger and more capable Dewan than Chundoo 
 Lall, to be assisted by such persons, natives of India, and, if practicable, 
 His Higlmess's own subjects, as should be required for the superin- 
 tendence of the different departments. 
 
 " Any less comprehensive and decided measure would leave matters 
 in the same state as before throughout one of the finest parts of India, 
 leaving open a fertile source of constant petty interference, as at 
 present, which, from want of any certainty of information, is frequently 
 attended with doubt as to the justice of the course adopted, and never 
 leads to any permanent or general amelioration. 
 
 " Under the impression that your Lordship might perhaps propose 
 some change in the Nizam's country, and anxious, as I formerly 
 mentioned, to obtain in that event the assistance of Vencata Rao, at 
 present employed at Mysore, whose services would have been invalu- 
 able, especially in the Revenue Department, I requested General 
 Cubbon some time ago to let me know, without any direct communication 
 on the subject with Vencata Rao himself, whether, with your Lordship's 
 permission, he thought that Vencata Rao would be willing to come, 
 and whether increasing age had impaired his faculties. General 
 Cubbon had no means of ascertaining the wishes of Vencata Rao 
 without a confidential communication with him, and I now take 
 the liberty of enclosing for your Lordship's perusal General Cubbon's 
 reply, as well as the letter to his address from Vencata Rao. 
 
 " I remain, 
 " Your Lordship's very faithful and obedient servant, 
 
 "J. S. Fraser." 
 Here is Lord Ellenborough/s answer, dated —
 
 SANCTIONED. 1G9 
 
 " Camp, three marches N. of Delhi, February 2nd, 1843. 
 
 " General, — I thank you for the perusal of Captain Taylor's letters, 
 and of those of Major- General Cubbon and Vencata Rao, all of which 
 I return. 
 
 " If Vencata Rao would go for six months to Hyderabad in the 
 manner proposed, and reside there privately, having no apparent 
 intercourse with the Residency, other than such as must necessarily 
 result from his holding an office under the Government of Mysore, he 
 might manage to acquire a great deal of information as to things and 
 persons which an European would hardly be able to obtain ; and his 
 being put forward hereafter as Dewan may be for future consideration. 
 It must be kept perfectly secret that there exists any idea of ever 
 putting him forward as Dewan. The public letter addressed to you a 
 few days ago will have put you in possession of my general views. 1 
 must adhere to the plan of doing one thing at a time, and I must wait 
 till all is ready for action before I act. 
 
 " I shail be in the neighbourhood of the Nizam's dominions myself 
 in January next, as I am going as far as Jubbulpore. 
 
 " I have the honour to remain, General, 
 
 " Your very faithful friend and servant, 
 
 ' " Ellenborough." 
 
 There was here a slight misapprehension on the part of Lord 
 Ellenborough. General Fraser did not propose that Vencata Rao 
 should be Dewan, but only that he should be financial adviser to 
 the Dewan, at the most a sort of Chancellor of the Exchequer. 
 In the following letter the Governor-General tells of the very 
 inadequate substitute for the lost batta that was bestowed, without 
 any further inquiry, upon the Madras Sepoys. 
 
 " Camp, Purtallao, February 23rd, 1843. 
 
 " General, — I issued a G.G.O. to-day granting compensation to the 
 troops at Jaulnah, Secunderabad, and Kamptee, when the price of rice 
 is above 30 seers the rupee, at the rate of two seers a day to each man. 
 Here compensation is given when the price of attah 1 is above 15 seers 
 the rupee, and one seer of attah is considered equal to two seers of 
 rice. 
 
 " I am glad to find by your letter that you think you have made 
 some way with the Nizam in your interviews with him. It is a great 
 object to obtain that degree of influence which may enable you to lead 
 his mind gently and to make him seek your aid ; but great tact must 
 
 1 Wheat flour.
 
 170 SIK JAMES LAW LUSHINGTON. 
 
 be used in bringing this about. A very delicate band must be applied 
 to a man educated as be must have been. 
 
 " It is a painful appeal to read, that made by Captain Taylor on 
 behalf of the State and the people of Shorapore. I shall be very much 
 pleased when things have assumed a quiet regular course there, and the 
 threats cease which are now used to compel the payment of money. It 
 is not a position of a very dignified or conciliatory character that we 
 are in there ; but there is no helping it at the present moment. 
 
 " I have the honour to remain, General, 
 
 " Your very faithful friend and servant, 
 
 " Ellenborough." 
 
 The extracts given in the following letter, from Mr. Charles May 
 Lushington, Member of Council at Madras, convey the impression 
 that the Home Government was very soon convinced of its own 
 mistake in having stopped the Sepoys' batta. The letter, written 
 from Madras, but undated, must have been sent in June or July 
 1842. The writer's brother was General Sir James Law Lushing- 
 ton, the Chairman of the Court of Directors. 
 
 " My dear Fraser, — As you will naturally be anxious to know what 
 they think in England of your outbreak at Secunderabad, and as there 
 is nothing yet published on the subject, I send you an extract from my 
 brother James's letter — first premising that everything you have done 
 is highly approved of. You will, of course, understand that this com- 
 munication is between ourselves. 
 
 (Extract.) 
 " ' I have read with great attention all the papers connected with 
 the unhappy outbreak at Secunderabad. The policy of the Governor- 
 General in Council in awarding punishment to the discontented, lias 
 been a mistaken policy; and next month I am not without hopes that 
 despatches recommending a more lenient course to be adopted may be 
 sent out. Under the peculiar circumstances of the case, and feeling 
 that the discipline of the Army must be wholly left to the decision of 
 the local authorities, with whom the responsibility must rest, we can 
 only recommend, not order. I am in hopes, also, that at the same time 
 authority will be conveyed for retaining the old rates of pensions for 
 the families of those Sepoys who may lose their lives in the Chinese 
 expedition.' 
 
 " The overland mail arrived yesterday. There seems to be very 
 little news in it. The Marquis of Tweeddale will, I imagine from my 
 letters, soon be here.
 
 VISIT TO THE MINISTF.lt. 171 
 
 " We are off, God willing, in January next. You must let me know 
 where to find your children, and I will go and see them. 
 " Believe me, my dear Fraser, 
 
 " Yours very sincerely, 
 
 " C. M. LuSHlNGTON." 
 
 On the 28th of February the Eesident received the following- 
 brief note from his Assistant, Captain Malcolm, with enclosures of 
 considerable interest, pointing to a crisis in the Minister's career 
 that now could not be far off. 
 
 " My dear General, — You will see by the enclosed that the proposal 
 you have so long anticipated has at last been made — whether in sin. 
 cerity, or as an attempt to intimidate the Nizam, time will show. I 
 incline to the latter supposition. The old man was most earnest with 
 me to keep this matter secret, which has led me to give you the 
 enclosed in the shape of a letter in my own abominable hand. 
 
 "Yours very sincerely, 
 
 " 28th February 1843. " D. Malcolm." 
 
 " My pear General, — In the course of the afternoon yesterday I 
 waited on the Minister, in compliance with your request, to offer him 
 and his son your condolence on the occasion of the death of his daughter- 
 in-law, and I have now the pleasure to convey to you in this form a 
 general outline of the conversation which occurred during my inter- 
 view, and the substance of a proposition for the settlement of his 
 affairs, which the Minister earnestly requested me to communicate to 
 you. 
 
 " On arriving at the Palace I was received at the entrance of the 
 Dewau-khana by the Minister, his son Bala Pershad, and his grandson, 
 a youth of seventeen, with whom we adjourned to an inner apartment, 
 sufficiently removed from the crowd of guards and attendants, who 
 usually throng about the Minister's person, to admit of conversation 
 being carried on in an undertone without being heard. 
 
 " After the delivery of the messages of condolence with which I was 
 charged, and the exchange of the usual civilities, the Minister addressed 
 me a number of questions regarding the proceedings and probable 
 future movements of the Governor-General. Many of these were 
 frivolous in the extreme, but others, which I had not the means of 
 answering, showed that he had been kept well informed of passing 
 events in the North of India, and indicated a considerable degree of 
 anxiety in regard to the fate of the King of Delhi, whose removal from
 
 17- CHUNDOO LALL PROPOSES 
 
 that city has for some time past formed a topic of general conversation 
 among the Natives of this place. 
 
 " Several questions were also addressed to me in regard to the state 
 of our relations with the Sikhs, and though I assured the Minister that 
 I believed they were on the most satisfactory footing, he did not appear 
 to be able to reconcile my assertion with the fact, to which he repeatedly 
 referred, that no exchange of visits had taken place between the Ruler 
 of the Punjaub and the Governor- General during the sojourn of the 
 latter at Ferozepore. It would be useless to attempt giving even an 
 outline of the conversation which the Minister afterwards maintained 
 with me for about half-an-hour. Many portions of it I could not 
 understand, from the indistinct manner in which he spoke, and others 
 were of so puerile a nature as to lead me to conclude that a considerable 
 change for the worse had lately taken place in the intellect of the feeble 
 old man with whom I was conversing. 
 
 " When I was on the point of taking my departure, the Minister, 
 who had previously been silent for a few minutes, turned suddenly 
 round, and, laying his hand on my arm, requested me to listen atten- 
 tively to what he was going to say. He then commenced with a long 
 narrative of his faithful services to the Nizam's Government and his 
 attachment to that of the British, whose interests he had always advo- 
 cated and supported to the utrdOst of his power ; and that the time was 
 now come when he had nothing to support him but the hope that we 
 would come forward to extricate him out of his difficulties. He then 
 began to describe the embarrassed state of his affairs, which in his 
 usual plausible manner he ascribed chiefly to the decrease of revenue 
 entailed on the country by the introduction of civil interference by Sir 
 Charles Metcalfe, and the increased expenses incurred of late years on 
 account of the Contingent. His liabilities he estimated at 75 lakhs of 
 rupees, exclusive of the amount claimed by Poorun Mull (32 lakhs), 
 which he did not intend to take into consideration, as the document on 
 which Poorum Mull founded his claims had been given to him merely 
 as a trick to suit a particular purpose. The possession of 75 lakhs, tic 
 said, would enable him to decrease the number of his irregular troops, 
 and altogether to introduce such measures for the amelioration of the 
 country that, to use his own words, when we saw what he hod done we 
 would overwhelm him with praise. 
 
 " The Minister then reverted to the mode in which, when the claims 
 of Messrs. Palmer and Co. were pressing upon the State, the British 
 Government had come forward with assistance by advaucing upwards 
 of a crore of rupees in redemption of the peishcush, x and that what he 
 
 1 The tribute payable to the Nizam by the Honourable Company for the 
 Northern Circars, redeemed in 1823 at about seventeen years' purchase.
 
 CESSION OF TERRITORY. 173 
 
 had now to propose was au arrangement of a similar nature. As ] 
 did not exactly understand what the Minister had said, I observed that 
 as there was now no peishcush to redeem, I did not see how a similar 
 arrangement could be effected. ' That is true', replied he, ' but we can 
 cede districts, and my wish is that the British Government should 
 advance me 75 lakhs of rupees, for which lands yielding 450,000 
 rupees per annum would be ceded in perpetuity, the choice of the 
 cession, either in the Baichore, Beer, or Berar country, being left to 
 your selection.' I asked him if he had consulted with H.H. the 
 Nizam on this subject, as it appeared to me improbable that H.H. 
 would have recourse to the extreme measure of selling a portion of the 
 dominions inherited from his ancestoi^s, to relieve the exigencies of his 
 Government, when it was well known that he had ample means of 
 doing so with the funds now lying idle in his coffers. To this the 
 Minister replied that it was useless communicating with the Nizam on 
 the subject till the sentiments of the British Government were known, 
 when he would undertake to gain his consent to the proposed arrange- 
 ment ; that the Nizam had refused lately, on all occasions, to afford 
 him any pecuniary assistance, and that, so far as he was himself 
 concerned, he would prefer meeting the present exigency in any way 
 rather than by trenching upon the Nizam's private funds. To the 
 Minister's repeated and earnest entreaties to assist him in gaining the 
 object in view, and questions as to how it would be received by Lord 
 Ellenborough, I could only return replies of a general nature, and 
 shortly afterwards took my leave, receiving to the last the most earnest 
 assurances that on the success of the proposed measure depended all 
 his hopes of extricating this Government from the difficulties with 
 which it was surrounded, and an earnest appeal to you to further his 
 wishes. 
 
 " Before leaving the Minister's house I procured from Bala Pershad 
 a Persian memo., which I now enclose, embodying the heads of the 
 proposal above referred to. I was led to adopt this precaution from 
 having found from experience that when matters do not take the 
 course he wishes, the Minister's memory in regard to what has 
 occurred during a personal interview is not always to be depended 
 upon. 
 
 " The Minister's mode of managing the affairs of this Government 
 is so crooked, and differs so much from the course of ordinary men, 
 that it is extremely difficult to form any definite opinion as to the 
 object he has in view, but in the present instance I think it will be 
 found that his sole aim is, by placing himself in communication wdth 
 us in the present instance, to work upon the fears of His Highness,
 
 174 DOUBTFUL 
 
 and intimidate him into yielding a supply of money sufficient to satisfy 
 the demands of his more clamorous creditors. 
 
 " I may he mistaken in this supposition, but I could not help 
 remarking that while the Minister, with apparent sinoerity, was 
 urging me to allude to the proposition he was making to no one but 
 yourself, he assumed so loud a tone that his words must have been 
 heard by his attendants and guards. On my mentioning this to the 
 Minister, he desired them to fall back, but in a few minutes they were 
 allowed to resume their former position. 
 
 " In the course of the interview an opportunity was offered to me of 
 inquiring what steps had been taken to induce Bin Shams's discharged 
 Arabs to proceed to their native country. The Minister at first stated 
 that several of them had left ; and on my replying that I did not think 
 more than five or six at the utmost had gone, he told me that he 
 supposed they were collecting their debts, and would go away in time. 
 As the subject appeared distasteful, I did not press it any further ; but 
 frcm the manner in which the Minister afterwards spoke of eventually 
 discharging only 500 Arabs on receiving the anticipated relief from the 
 British Government, I conclude no further steps are likely to be taken 
 to procure the removal of any Arabs to Bombay. 
 
 "Yours very truly, 
 
 " D. Malcolm." 
 
 Translation of the Persian Memorandum written Inj Rajah Bala 
 Per.shad, in the presence of Captain D. Malcolm, on the '27/1/ 
 February 1843. 
 
 " A peishcush of seven lakhs of rupees was formerly paid to the 
 Hvderabad State by the British Government. A debt of one crore 
 and sixteen lakhs of rupees was due to the firm of Messrs. Palmer 
 and Co. by the Nizam's Government. Sir Charles Metcalfe paid the 
 aforesaid sum on the part of the British Government to Messrs. 
 Palmer and Co., and to others, and in lieu of it received a release for 
 the peishcush. At the present moment this Government is in difficulty, 
 and if the same assistance as was formerly extended to it could now be 
 given by the British Governmenb, the embarrassments of the State 
 would be relieved. 
 
 " This is the mode in which it can be done, viz., by the British 
 Govex'nment having the kindness to advance seventy-five lakhs of 
 rupees, and receiving in lieu of it country yielding an annual revenue 
 of four lakhs and fifty thousand rupees. I b this manner the difficulties 
 of the State, and the pressing demands of the bankers and people holding 
 assignments will be removed ; a reduction of the supernumerary
 
 OVERTURES. 175 
 
 troops shall also be effected ; and hereafter the receipts and disburse- 
 ments shall be made to correspond. 
 
 " List 
 
 of Reductions. 
 
 
 " Sikhs ... 
 
 ... 
 
 1,000 
 
 " Arabs 
 
 
 500 
 
 " Rohillas . . . 
 
 
 500 
 
 " Ali Gol ... 
 
 ... 
 
 1,000 
 
 " Men of various 
 
 descriptions 
 
 1,000 
 
 " Total 
 
 
 4,000 
 
 " (True translation) 
 
 D. Malcolm.' 
 
 On the 1st of April 1843 General Fraser addressed a very 
 important letter to the Governor-General, describing' the last 
 struggles of Chundoo Lall to retain power in spite of the desperate 
 condition of his finances and the utter stoppage of credit, and 
 mentioning his recent proposals for a territorial cession. 
 
 " The financial difficulties of the Nizam's Government have at length 
 induced the Minister to determine on applying to us for pecuniary- 
 assistance, and he talks of asking for an.advance of 60 or 70 lakhs of 
 rupees. I doubt very much whether the double of this would clear the 
 Circar of debt, and I therefore think it possible that the Minister may 
 be merely desirous of liberating himself from his more immediate and 
 pressing difficulties, rather than of obtaining such a complete discharge 
 from heavy debt and exorbitant interest as would be consistent with a 
 large reduction of establishments and a thorough reform of administra- 
 tion. He proposed at first, in a private communication, to make a per- 
 manent cession to us of any part of the Nizam's country we might 
 prefer in compensation for the amount we may now advance ; and upon 
 my observing to the Vakeel whom he sent to me on this subject that so 
 important a proposal would require the assent of H.H. the Nizam before 
 I could submit it to the Supreme Government, the Vakeel remarked 
 that if we agreed to give the money the Nizam's assent would neces- 
 sarily be given to the remainder of the arrangement. I stated, how- 
 ever, that I should require more distinct information on this point 
 before I could take any official step, and in the course of a day or two 
 the Minister sent another message by his Vakeel to inform me that the 
 proposition had been made to the Nizam, and that he had refused to 
 agree to it. 1 believe it is now the intention of the Minister to propose 
 that if the required loan be advanced by us, it shall be gradually liqui- 
 dated, with interest, by assignments on the territorial revenue of the 
 country. I have informed him that, whatever he does, he must act with
 
 176 VENCATA RAO'S VISIT. 
 
 honesty and candour, and furnish me with an authentic account of the 
 liabilities of his Government ; and I have suggested to him to address 
 me on the subject without delay, if he intends to do so at all, in order 
 that the case may be submitted to the Supreme Government. These 
 private communications, and anything like a secret negotiation going 
 on between the Minister and myself, are productive of mischief, for 
 they are rendered subservient to the purposes of intrigue ; and are 
 made use of especially to lead the Nizam into a belief that there is so 
 intimate and cordial an understanding between the Resident and the 
 Minister as to be perfectly irresistible, and thus to keep the Nizam's 
 mind in perpetual bondage. The Minister, with his usual habit of 
 delay, states that he will inform me more fully on the subject when he 
 meets me at a party at one of his garden houses to which I am invited 
 on Wednesday next. If 1 find him at all serious, I shall try to keep 
 him to the point, and above all, press him to be perfectly open as to the 
 amount of public debt. 
 
 " I have invited Vencata Rao to pay me a visit at Hyderabad, and 
 have just received a letter from General Cubbon informing me that 
 Vencata Rao will leave Bangalore in a few days, on leave of absence for 
 six months. General Cubbon adds that this will be ostensibly a visit 
 of friendship to me, not of duty or business, and that all the arrange- 
 ments for his journey, and the" care of his family during his absence, 
 have been made with a view to conceal his real object, and to preclude 
 the suspicion that he is to be employed at Hyderabad. 
 
 " Although his visit to me is to be regarded as a private one, I would 
 request your Lordship's permission to introduce him to the Minister, 
 and to allow of his entering on unofficial communications as to the 
 financial condition of the State, provided this can be done, as I believe 
 it can, without any objection on the Minister's part. If, indeed, the 
 Minister's perfect consent cannot be obtained, Vencata Rao's visit here 
 will hardly be attended with much advantage, for Chundoo Lall has fehe 
 ability and power to shroud himself and his concerns, when he pleases, 
 in a veil of mystery, which neither Vencata Rao, nor any other person, 
 could ever penetrate without the Minister's permission. His intro- 
 duction to the Minister, however, as I hope to arrange it, will, I have 
 no doubt, soon enable him to throw much light on financial affairs, and 
 pave the way, without violence or friction, for his future employment 
 in the service of the Nizam, in whatever capacity may seem hereafter 
 most advisable. 
 
 " I am happy to say that we remain perfectly quiet in every part of 
 the Nizam's country, and that I hear of no tendency to commotion or 
 insurrection of any kind. With your Lordship's sanction, and under 
 your guidance, I have little doubt that much might be done to ame-
 
 NEITHER CASH NOR CREDIT. 177 
 
 Horate the condition of this country, but we shall look in vain for 
 decided measures of improvement if we forego the aid of European 
 energy, and trust to an exclusively Native administration." 
 
 This was Lord Ellenborough's reply : — 
 
 "Agra, April 11th, 1843. 
 
 " General, — I have just received your letter of the 1st with its 
 enclosures. 
 
 " I see no objection to your making Veucata Rao acquainted with the 
 Minister. I shall be very glad if he should be enabled, through the 
 Minister, to obtain any real insight into the financial administration of 
 the Nizam's territories. 
 
 " The smaller question relative to Shorapore is merged in the greater 
 question which is opened by the Minister's proposition. Upon that 
 proposition I can give no opinion until it assumes a definite shape, and 
 comes before me with the sanction of the Nizam's authority. 
 
 " You will abstain, of course, from intimating any opinion with 
 respect to it until it has been so submitted to me. 
 
 " In the meantime I should be happy to receive any information you 
 may not have already communicated, relative to the financial difficulties, 
 to the present amount of revenue, and to the administration of the 
 Nizam's dominions. # 
 
 " I remain, General, 
 
 " Your very faithful friend and servant, 
 
 " Ellenborough. 
 " I return Captain Taylor's letter to you." 
 
 The crisis was now close at hand, in which Rajah Chundoo Lall 
 was at last brought to feel, by the utter impossibility of any longer 
 borrowing money, even on the most ruinous terms, to meet current 
 expenditure, that he had come to the end of his tether. Unless 
 he could extend the range of his financial expedients, and gain 
 time, by obtaining material assistance from the Honourable Com- 
 pany, he knew that the clamour of unpaid and half-starving 
 servants of the State, mostly with arms in their hands, around his 
 palace and throughout the city, would soon assume the aspect of 
 a riot, if not of a revolt. The arrears due to the Contingent, more- 
 over, were growing beyond the extreme point of endurance, and 
 would soon compel some action on the part of the Resident. 
 Relying still on his old credit, on the favour with which he had 
 long been regarded as a friend of the English, and on the intimate 
 connections he had somehow established and always kept up in 
 
 N
 
 178 PROPOSED LOAX 
 
 Calcutta, Chulicloo Lall seems, to have hoped that a hint of his 
 probable retirement would open the heart and the purse of the 
 Supreme Government, give him a new lease of office, and secure 
 the succession fco his son. But he neither understood the integrity 
 and strength of General Eraser's character, nor the Resident's 
 policy of looking to the improved administration and increased 
 prosperity of the Nizam's dominions as a greater gain to the Empire 
 than the subserviency of a Minister or the subjection of the Nizam 
 in matters of questionable equity. Chundoo Lall could not be got 
 to acknowledge, even in his hour of direst need, the full extent of 
 the State's indebtedness, and this was enough to confirm General 
 Fraser in his conviction that the Minister's removal was the first 
 step to reform. He was not likely, therefore, to let slip any 
 opportunity of encouraging the Nizam to take that important 
 step. 
 
 On the 21st of April 1843, the General writes to Lord Ellen- 
 borough : — 
 
 " It is difficult even to guess at the financial embarrassments of this 
 Government. One or two of the more respectable Soucars 1 here have 
 remarked that upon a rough estimate it would probably require two 
 crores of rupees to clear the Circar of its debts, if the task were under- 
 taken by us ; but that if left to the Minister he might, perhaps, by 
 compromises and other means, effect the same object for a crore. I am 
 disposed, however, to doubt this more cheerful view of the case, 
 especially if we include the arrears due to the mercenary troops all over 
 the country, which must be paid before they can be discharged, a 
 measure on which we ought, I think, to insist, for as long as any body, 
 however small, of these remain, it will serve as a nucleus and a 
 gathering point for their reassemblage, and for a revival of all that 
 is objectionable and perilous in their constitution and practices. 
 
 " In the Minister's memorandum sent up with my official despatch, 
 your Lordship will observe nine lakhs of rupees as being due to 'Arabs, 
 including Omar bin Awud'. This refers entirely to money borroioecl 
 from the Arab Jemadars, and has nothing to do with the arrears of pay, 
 which it will be necessary to liquidate as each body is discharged. 
 
 " In the last item of this document, wherein he alludes to ' arrears of 
 pay to the Bolarum troops', the Minister means to intimate his intention 
 of paying up the arrears due to the Contingent. These troops arc 
 generally four and sometimes five months in arrears ; and it will 
 
 1 Bankers.
 
 AND ASSIGNMENT. 179 
 
 certainly be desirable, if it can be conveniently done, to pay them, so as 
 to place them, in this respect, on a footing with the Company's troops. 
 I sometime ago reported to the Supreme Go/ eminent that I had pro- 
 posed this to the Minister, and that he had assented to my wishes ; but 
 the arrangement failed in consequence of his finding it impossible to 
 raise the requisite funds. 
 
 " For the last eight or ten days the Nizam has been very unwell with 
 fever, arising, I am told, from the irritation of a local disorder. He 
 sent to me two days ago for some quinine, with which I of course fur- 
 nished him immediately, with a memorandum of the way in which it 
 should be administered. It is said that he has an objection to 
 medicine in general, and that he is very impatient with the ignorant 
 native doctors in his service. 
 
 " No orders, I believe, have ever been given by the Supreme Govern- 
 ment as to the event of the Nizam's sudden or unexpected death ; but 
 I do not much regret the absence of instructions on this point. I 
 might better, perhaps, be guided on such an occasion by immediate 
 and local circumstances than by any previous directions, pending a 
 reference to the Supreme Government as to its assent in the important 
 matter of a succession to the Musnud. The Nizam has two sons, the 
 elder being about fifteen years of age. He is well spoken of, but I 
 have never seen him ; nor was it likely* that I should have done so, as 
 he remains almost entirely confined to the Harem." 
 
 After much vacillation on the part of the Minister, and many 
 changes in the terms of the proposal, in April 1843, the Governor- 
 General in Council had at last under formal consideration a 
 despatch from the Eesident, conveying an application from the 
 Minister for a loan of a crore of rupees, to clear off the debts of 
 the Hyderabad State, and offering an assignment of territory 
 yielding seventeen lakhs of rupees of annual revenue as security 
 for the payment of principal and interest. The Government of 
 India declared in reply that it could not advance money as a 
 purely financial transaction, but only with a political object. The 
 Government insisted very properly on full and detailed information 
 as to receipts, disbursements, and liabilities, and was inclined to 
 attribute the financial embarrassments of the Nizam chiefly to the 
 unnecessary expenditure of nearly a crore of rupees per annum on 
 the maintenance of useless irregular troops. The most serious 
 danger to be guarded against was that of the pay of the Contingent 
 under British officers falling into much greater arrears. Such an 
 event would almost compel our intervention, for the purpose of 
 
 n2 *
 
 180 I'AV OF CONTINGENT. 
 
 providing the necessary funds, " for the only means we have of 
 preserving peace in the Nizam's dominions are those we derive 
 from the presence of these troops". No reliance, it was added, can 
 be placed in troops not receiving their stipulated pay. The 
 Governor-General apprehended that the embarrassments of the 
 .Minister might lead to the non-payment of that portion of the 
 Nizam's Army commanded by British officers. Under such cir- 
 cumstances it might become necessary to adopt the course of 
 advancing money for the payment of some portion of the arrears due 
 to those troops. Such an advance the Resident was only to make 
 in a case of emergency, and ample security for its recovery was to 
 be taken by requiring the entire management of a district sufficient 
 to produce the interest and to repay the principal in five years, to 
 be made over to the British Government. 
 
 Some notion of the considerations which led the Governor- 
 General to hold aloof at this period from the reforming policy 
 urged upon him by General Fraser, may be gathered from the 
 following private letter, which arrived almost on the same day with 
 the despatch, of which a summary has just been given. 
 
 " Agra, May 2nd, 1843. 
 
 " General, — I received yesterday your letter of the 21st nit., and I 
 return the letter from Captain Taylor, which you enclosed. 
 
 " 1 have not yet seen Captain Taylor's official letter. I had very 
 much rather manage Shorapore in the name of Pid Naick than in our 
 own, if in some manner we must manage it, which I regret ; and if he 
 be so well disposed, and so ready to do what he is desired to do, I 
 cannot see why the matter should not be so arranged. 
 
 " The affairs of Shorapore bear from the trait given me much 
 annoyance. We are in a false position there. We should not act 
 towards that State on our own part, as we do on the part of the Nizam; 
 and our Government is impaired in character by acting thus in sub- 
 ordinate co-operation at Shorapore with a Government we are under- 
 stood to control. 
 
 " With respect to the more important question opened by the 
 communication from the Nizam's Minister, we are realty not l'eady 
 to act. 
 
 " I want to do only uiie thing at a time. We must first settle Seinde. 
 The Punjaub is tending to internal commotion. It is hardly possible 
 that affairs should remain there in their present state long. Our own 
 finances require a little fostering. What I want in the Deccan is time.
 
 VENCATA RAO'S HEATH. 181 
 
 We must prevent any outbreak there ; but that being done, I had 
 rather keep things as they are than attempt to improve them with 
 insufficient means to effect m_y purpose. 
 
 " I remain, General, 
 " Your very faithful friend and servant, 
 
 " Ellenboroqgh." 
 
 General Fraser's hopes of introducing reforms into the Nizam's 
 administration, beginning with revenue and finance, by means of a 
 few well-chosen Native officials of tried qualifications, were rudely 
 shaken by the illness and death of the able Brahmin, Vencata Eao, 
 who had formed the centre and mainstay of the plan. On the 
 10th of May 1843, the General writes to Lord Ellenborough : — 
 
 ''■"Vencata Rao, Assistant to the Commissioner in Mysore, arrived 
 here a few days ago, but in a suffering state from dropsy, a malady 
 which had begun to show itself even before he left Bangalore. He 
 became worse, and as he wished to be with his family in the event, 
 which seems inevitable, of its being necessary for him to undergo an 
 operation, he left Hyderabad yesterday evening on his return to Ban- 
 galore. It is his declared intention to* return here as soon as he gets 
 well ; but I am very doubtful of his recovery at his advanced age. I 
 let him understand in general my wishes as to his future employment 
 here, but did not lead him to expect any particular situation. He spoke 
 of the desire he had entertained for some time past to retne from public 
 life, but stated his willingness to assist me in so great a work as 
 improving the Nizam's administration, provided that I could assure 
 him I was not thinking of going home, for that nothing would induce 
 him to act under any English officer to whom he was a stranger. I 
 satisfied him that I had no thought of quitting India, and I believe lie 
 has gone away with the full detennination of returning as soon as he 
 possibly can, bringing his family with him." 
 
 On the 13th of July he writes to the Governor- General : — 
 " Vencata Rao died soon after his return to Bangalore, and this is 
 a cause of much regret to me. I had hoped to receive great 
 assistance from him here, and the two or three interviews I had 
 with him before he left Hyderabad, led me to believe that my 
 expectations would not have been disappointed. The British 
 Government has lost in him one of the ablest native servants that 
 it has ever been my lot to meet with during my career in India." 
 
 Vencata Rao's death made the relief of the Hyderabad State
 
 L82 CHUNDOD lall's 
 
 from the incurable stagnation of Chundoo Lall's rule more essential 
 and urgent than ever, and in the letter to the Governor-General of 
 the 13th of July 1843, which has just been quoted, the Resident, 
 very doubtful of its reception at Calcutta, mentions for the first 
 time tlir Minister's proposed resignation. 
 
 " The financial embarrassments of this State have reached that crisis 
 which must necessarily lead to some immediate result. The Contingent 
 are nearly six months in arrears, and my urgent demands upon the 
 Minister for the payment of at least two months have induced him to 
 apply to the Nizam for assistance on this account, as well as for the 
 loan of other large sums of money for the liquidation of those debts 
 which press upon him most strongly. In the event of the Nizam's 
 refusal the Minister has tendered his resignation. But the Nizam will 
 neither advance him the money nor accept his resignation. There 
 seems not to be a very cordial feeling between them at present, nor has 
 there been, by all accounts, for some time past, which is not surprising, 
 when there have been importunate demands for money on the one side, 
 and obstinate refusals and general dissatisfaction on the other. In 
 these personal matters I do not interfere, leaving the two parties to 
 pursue their mutual recriminations, foreseeing clearly that some decided 
 result must very soon be attained. 
 
 " The Minister yesterday sent his Vakeel to me for the purpose of 
 explaining the failure and the inutility of his applications to the Nizam 
 for assistance from his private treasure, concluding with two propositions 
 for my considei'ation. 
 
 " The first was that he should borrow the money more immediately 
 wanted for the Contingent from Soucars, who were prepared to advance 
 it upon my countersigning the bonds ; and the Minister added that the 
 amount so advanced should be repaid to the lenders in two or three 
 months at most. To this I at once objected, and informed him that I 
 could on no account bo a party to such a transaction. If I were to 
 countersign the bonds, I should be making the British Resident 
 responsible for the money, which could not be thought of for a moment 
 without ample territorial security, besides other conditions. 
 
 " The other proposition was then brought forward, which was that I 
 should write direct to the Nizam, to acquaint him of the impossibility 
 in which the .Minister was placed to comply with my demands, and to 
 request that His Highness would himself adopt such measures as were 
 necessary for the removal of these difficulties. 
 
 " I immediately assented to this, as it was, in fact, what I had 
 previously resolved upon doing, as a preliminary to the ultimate and 
 c.xlreme step of advancing the money for the Contingent myself upon
 
 RESIGNATION. 183 
 
 bills to be drawn on the Presidencies, and of demanding the surrender 
 into my own bands of a sufficient extent of territory to cover the repay- 
 ment of the money within a certain time. I added, moreover, that, to 
 avoid a recuiTence of the same difficulty, I should solicit from the Nizam 
 not only the means of extrication from our present embarrassments, but 
 the adoption of such measures as might exempt us from them in the 
 future. 
 
 " The Vakeel, at the end of his visit, communicated to me as a message 
 from the Minister that he understood the Nizam was about to send me 
 bis confidential Moonshee, Rusheed-ool-Moolk, for the purpose of com- 
 plaining that money was not forthcoming, either for the payment of the 
 Contingent under my orders, or for the maintenance of his own house- 
 hold ; aud he begged that I would not reveal to Rusheed-ool-Moolk this 
 forewarning of bis mission. I said that I should comply with his wishes 
 in this respect as far as possible. 
 
 "I this morning received a note on the part of the Nizam, stating 
 that he desired to send Rusheed-ool-Moolk to wait upon me on Saturday 
 next — the day after to-morrow — to which, of course, I immediately 
 assented. The Minister is so little candid and straightforward in his 
 usual proceedings, that I shall take no step in the business till I learn 
 the exact nature of the Nizam's message. After seeing Rusheed-ool- 
 Moolk, I shall give him such a reply as the tenor of his mission may 
 require, but I do not apprehend that its purport is in the least likely to 
 enable me to dispense with the communication, as above explained, 
 which I propose making to him. I shall, no doubt, have occasion to 
 write officially in the early part of next week, but I have thought it 
 right to give your Lordship without delay this slight sketch of what is 
 going on here at present." 
 
 The visit of Paisheed-ool-Moolk to the Resident on Saturday, 
 the 15th of July, took place as previously arranged, and the message 
 which he bore proved to be one of great importance. The con- 
 fidential Secretary of the Nizam, after recapitulating the pecuniary 
 embarrassments under which the army, the household, and the 
 several departments of the State were suffering, made a distinct 
 and plain request on behalf of His Highness, that the Resident 
 should communicate to the Minister the Nizam's desire that regular 
 payments should be at once resumed, or that Rajah Chundoo Lall 
 should resign his office. 
 
 The Resident replied that without having ascertained the 
 Governor-General's views he should not like to interfere in a 
 matter so important as the removal of the Minister. He also sug-
 
 184 kusiieed-ool-moolk's 
 
 i the expediency of making arrangements for a successor to 
 the Dewannee, in the event of its being abruptly vacated, and 
 expressed a hope that His Highness had already thought of some 
 competent person to succeed to that high office. He reminded 
 h'usheed-ool-Moolk that he had several times made that suggestion 
 before, merely with reference to Chundoo Lall's advanced age. 
 
 busheed-ool-Moolk replied, that on receiving the Minister's 
 uation the Nizam would for the present assume the executive 
 administration himself, and added that His Highness had nut yet 
 made up his mind as to the selection of a Dewan, but would con- 
 sult me about it. 
 
 After a long conversation with Eusheed-ool-Moolk as to the 
 finances, and the expenses of the household, in which His Highness 
 claimed to have been very economical, General Fraser became con- 
 vinced that the Nizam was afraid of adopting any measure, or 
 committing himself to any course, even to the examination of 
 accounts, as long as the Minister remained in office ; and that with 
 regard to the Minister's removal he was very averse to act without 
 having the direct support of the Resident, and desired General 
 Fraser to become a party to that step by sending a message 
 recommending it. 
 
 As General Fraser hesitated as to the propriety of his thus taking 
 the initiative in the removal of the Minister, the Nizam's con- 
 fidential agent observed that His Highness did not propose that the 
 order should be conveyed to Chundoo Lall as emanating from the 
 British Piesident, but that it should be sent from the Residency as 
 His Highnesses order. 
 
 Just before Paisheed-ool-Moolk rose, to take leave he told the 
 Resident that he believed it was the intention of the Minister to 
 (tinier Ids resignation voluntarily. It was, indeed, he added, 
 extremely probable that at that very moment the Nizam had 
 received it. General Fraser immediately asked why His Highness 
 could not accept the resignation, and why he should ask for the 
 Kesident's mediation? Rusheed-ool-Moolk simply replied, "He 
 wishes it to lie done through you." 
 
 Rusheed-ool-Moolk called on the Resident the next day, and 
 informed him that the Minister had tendered his resignation, which 
 the Nizam had refused to accept. He said once more, "He wishes 
 the order to resign to be sent through you." General Fraser again
 
 AGENCY. 185 
 
 explained that in a matter of so much importance it was necessary 
 to ask for instructions from the Governor-General, and that he 
 should do so at once. In the meantime he desired strongly to urge 
 upon His Highness that either a Dewan or a Commission of 
 Government should he appointed, to enter upon the executive 
 administration immediately on the acceptance of Chundoo Lall's 
 resignation. The Resident referred to the danger of tumult arising 
 from the numerous bodies of irregular troops in the city, to whom 
 large arrears of pay were due, and from whom some personal incon- 
 venience to His Highness might arise, in the event either of the 
 Minister's death or sudden withdrawal from office. 
 
 Rusheed-ool-Moolk replied that he did not apprehend any danger. 
 He called to the Resident's recollection the exact words which the 
 Nizam had used at a private interview a few months before, viz., 
 that whatever difficulties might arise would be surmounted with 
 the General's assistance, and that the Nizam would consult him as 
 to the selection of a Dewan. 
 
 General Fraser expressed a strong conviction that the Governor- 
 General should avail himself of this opportunity of getting rid of 
 Chundoo Lall, " that nothing should be either said or done to throw 
 any obstacle in the way of that resignation, which seemed to have 
 been spontaneously and simultaneously tendered by the Minister 
 and proposed by the Nizam." The Resident suggested that the 
 Government of India might express its assent to the Nizam's 
 acceptance of the Minister's resignation, on account of his advanced 
 age, and his wish to retire from public labour to the repose of 
 private life. " No offence", General Fraser added, " ought to lie 
 given to the feelings of the aged Minister, who has certainly proved 
 himself during his long career a warm and cordial friend of the 
 British Government. Every requisite provision should be made 
 for his future maintenance, in the propriety of which there is no 
 doubt that the Nizam would fully concur ;" and " a kind and com- 
 plimentary letter from the Right Honourable the Governor-General'' 
 might be sent to Rajah Chundoo Lall, " in acknowledgment of his 
 long and valuable services." 
 
 One of the most embarrassing points, General Fraser observed, 
 was the selection of a suitable Dewan. " The Minister", said 
 General Fraser, "has succeeded in maintaining in so low a state of 
 political thraldom and degradation the whole of the upper Moham-
 
 L86 RELIEF OFFERED 
 
 medan and Hindoo classes of Hyderabad, and in keeping them so 
 isolated from the Resident, that I am unable at this moment to 
 indicate the name of any person whom I consider entirely com- 
 petent for the high office of Dewan." "Everything in this respect 
 must be left for future inquiry and consideration, and for the 
 guidance which maybe derived from the opinions and judgment of 
 the Nizam himself." 
 
 A short extract from a private letter to Lord Ellenborough, dated 
 the 17th July 1843, will give an instance of the ill-kept promises 
 with which the Minister strove to put off the day of reckoning. 
 
 "The Minister, alarmed, I suppose, with what he hears to be going 
 on, and which has probably assumed a more decided aspect than he 
 anticipated, lias just sent me a note to say that he is prepared to pay 
 in hoondees and cash for the Army and Appah Dessaye's chout." 
 
 Lord Ellenborough sent the following private answer to the 
 Kesident's important letter of the 13th of July, announcing 
 Chundoo Lall's impending resignation. 
 
 " Barrackpore, July 31, 1843. 
 " General, — I have to thank' you for your letter of the loth instant, 
 which I only received to-day, as it was sent to Allahabad. I do not 
 know that I have anything to add to the official communication made 
 to you a few days ago, on the receipt of your despatches, except that I 
 should wish to receive as soon as possible a statement of your views as 
 to the best mode of administering the country, if it should be made over 
 to us. I really know not where to find the number of able adminis- 
 trators who would be required. Everything would depend upon 
 individual ability, zeal and tact. 
 
 " 1 very much regret the death of Vencata Rao. I heard of it on 
 the very day on which your last despatches arrived here. 
 " I have the honour to remain, General, 
 
 " Your very faithful friend and servant, 
 
 " Ellenborough." 
 
 There was not much here in the way of either instruction or 
 support, and the expectation expressed, as also in the public 
 despatch In which the Governor-General refers, that "the country 
 might be made over to as", was not warranted by anything that 
 General Eraser had at that period ever proposed or contemplated. 
 The official despatch announced, in the first place, that, "under all 
 the circumstances", with regard to "the financial embarrassments
 
 ON SEVERE TERMS. 187 
 
 of the Nizam's Government, and the state of Chundoo Lall's health, 
 the Governor-General in Council could not hesitate to acquiesce in 
 the retirement of that Minister from the conduct of His Highness's 
 
 affairs". The Resident was authorised to make a communication 
 to that effect to the Nizam ; strongly urging on him at the same 
 time the immediate nomination of an efficient Minister, and the 
 payment of all arrears to the Contingent and other troops from His 
 Highness's private treasury. 
 
 The Governor-General anticipated, however, that His Highness 
 would not "be induced to advance from his private treasury, if 
 indeed he should have the means of doing so, the sums required to 
 meet the present emergency", and that he would " feel it necessary 
 to ask aid of the British Government". The Governor-General in 
 Council was " not disposed to refuse the aid so asked", but it would 
 only be granted on terms giving " ample security for the repayment 
 of the sums to be advanced, and for the future good government of 
 His Highness's dominions." And then, with somewhat startling 
 stringency, the Governor-General in Council declared that "these 
 objects could not be obtained otherwise than by taking the whole 
 administration of the Nizam's dominions under British manage- 
 ment". As the sole alternative to lie offered, in the event of the 
 Nizam being unwilling or unable to produce funds for paying off 
 all arrears due to troops, and other pressing debts, a draft treaty 
 was enclosed, providing for the advance of one crore of rupees by 
 the British Government, and for the delegation " to the British 
 Eesident as Dewan, or to such other person as the British 
 Government may from time to time select, of the whole adminis- 
 tration of His Highness the Nizam's dominions, until such time as 
 the sums so advanced shall be repaid with compound interest at 
 five per cent, per annum, and until the British Government shall 
 be satisfied that His Highness, his heirs and successors, can conduct 
 the government of the said dominion in such manner as to avoid 
 the recurrence of embarrassments similar to those which now 
 prevail." 
 
 Under one article of this draft treaty the Governor-General in 
 Council agreed to make a "regular monthly payment for the 
 support of His Highness and his household; "but his Lordship", it 
 was explained to the Eesident in the despatch, " would not consider 
 himself justified in taking upon the British Government an
 
 188 HARD CONDITIONS 
 
 obligation at the present time so onerous, without securing the 
 prospective advantage of appropriating, to the general purposes of 
 the British Government, any surplus of revenue which may here- 
 after accrue from the improved management of His Highness's 
 dominions under our administration." 
 
 Under an additional draft article, therefore, it was stipulated 
 that," in consideration of the monthly payment" (amount left blank) 
 " for the support of His Highness and his household being under- 
 taken by the British Government, any surplus of revenue which 
 may arise shall be appropriated as the British Government may 
 direct." 
 
 General Fraser did not think it necessary or advisable to place 
 this alternative proposal, which would most assuredly never have 
 been accepted, before the Nizam. And it may as well be explained 
 here, that the Home Government by no means endorsed the 
 singular condition proposed for appropriating any surplus revenues 
 that might arise during our management of the Nizam's territories. 
 In a despatch dated the 3rd of April 1844, the Court of Directors 
 pass in review the transactions of the Government of India with 
 that of the Nizam during the previous year. They comment upon 
 the draft Treaty, which was to have been offered to the Nizam if 
 he applied for a loan, with particular reference to the stipulation it 
 contained for " the prospective advantage of appropriating, for the 
 general purposes of the British Government, any surplus of revenue 
 which may hereafter accrue from the improved management of His 
 Highness's dominions under our administration." 
 
 "We have already", the despatch said, "in our letter of the 30th 
 May 1843, stated to you that should a financial crisis hereafter 
 compel the Nizam or his Minister to apply for our assistance, the 
 good offices of the British Government must be afforded on the 
 express condition that it shall exercise complete control in admini- 
 stering the affairs of the country on the part of, and for the behoof 
 of His Highness, and if the administration of the territory should 
 in such case be undertaken by us, His Highness must clearly 
 understand that it will not be relinquished until our Government 
 shall be satisfied that the Nizam, or his successor, will be found 
 competent to form suitable arrangements for the efficient admini- 
 stration of the country. So far, therefore, you only followed out 
 the instinct ion. which we had laid down for your guidance.
 
 DISAPPROVED AT HOME. 1S9 
 
 " We cannot, however, approve of the conditional provision which 
 you were desirous of making for the appropriation of surplus 
 revenue to the general purposes of India. No surplus revenue 
 could, of course, exist while any debt remained unliquidated, and 
 the stipulation, therefore, could apply to no case but that of our 
 retaining the management after all our advances had been repaid 
 with compound interest. This, under the proposed Treaty, we 
 could only do on the ground of our not being satisfied that the 
 country could be properly governed by the Native authorities ; and 
 this ought not to be presumed beforehand, nor ought we to adopt a 
 provision which would wear the appearance of a preconceived 
 determination not to relinquish the management. 
 
 " You will therefore take care not to insert in any future Treaty 
 with the Nizam's Government the stipulation in question, nor any 
 other of a similar nature." 
 
 The Resident's hopes that a Minister would be appointed, and 
 that the private treasury would be opened, were still deferred. 
 Chundoo Lall was evidently still struggling to retain power, and 
 the unaccountable delays in accepting his resignation were dis- 
 covered to be caused by the secret intrigues of Eusheed-ool-Moolk, 
 who was a mere creature of the Minister, and sold to the support 
 of his views. It turned out that all Paisheed-ool-Moolk's impor- 
 tunate suggestions that a formal proposal for the Minister's retire- 
 ment should be sent from the Residency, and that the Nizam's 
 orders on the subject should be sent through the same channel, were 
 dictated by Chundoo Lall himself, in order to form the foundation 
 for a future claim on his part — perhaps when extreme financial 
 pressure had been relieved by the British loan which he hoped was 
 coming — that both the Nizam and himself had been acting under 
 compulsion, and that his resignation had been extorted by the 
 Resident's menacing demeanour. 
 
 When this exposure took place General Fraser promptly wrote 
 to Chundoo Lall, still at the head of affairs, refusing to hold any 
 further communication with Rusheed-ool-Moolk, and requesting 
 that either Sooraj-ool-Moolk or Iktidar Jung might be sent to confer 
 with him. The Nizam immediately acceded to the wish thus 
 expressed, and directed Sooraj-ool-Moolk to wait on the Resident. 
 This was on the 18th of August, and, after a conference of more than 
 an hour, this nobleman, destined, after many more delays, to be
 
 190 THE MINISTER 
 
 Minister of the Hyderabad State, left upon General Fraser the 
 impression that he was "a man of some capacity, and possessed of 
 sufficient intelligence and enlargement of mind to receive in a 
 discerning and independent spirit any future communications that 
 might he made to him". 
 
 The negotiations dragged on slowly for some weeks. The Nizam 
 could not be persuaded to instal a Minister with full powers. 
 Sooraj-ool-Moolk was aj>pointed His Highness's Vakeel, and Rajah 
 Ram Buksh, a nephew of Chundoo Lall, but on bad terms with his 
 uncle, was made Peshcar, or Financial Secretary. The Resident 
 was assured that although Sooraj-ool-Moolk was only made His 
 Highness's Vakeel or agent "as a temporary measure", he was fully 
 empowered to represent the Nizam's views, and to convey his 
 decisions. On the 3rd of September Sooraj-ool-Moolk stated that 
 the Nizam had treasure ready for the liquidation of the public debts, 
 and that he proposed to pay them off in succession as each demand 
 was inquired into, and its exact amount determined by a committee 
 of five financial experts. 
 
 Both Sooraj-ool-Moolk and General Fraser were agreed on one 
 essential point, that until Chundoo Lall's resignation was formally 
 accepted and recorded, the Nizam's mind would remain in a fluctuat- 
 ing condition with regard to every decisive measure that might be 
 proposed. Powerful intrigues were still at work, Sooraj-ool-Moolk 
 said, to maintain the Minister in office, or to secure the succession 
 to his son. 
 
 As no one else would act, and as Rajah Chundoo Lall, though 
 still nominally in office, had not only tendered his resignation, but 
 had practically resigned his functions into the hands of Sooraj-ool- 
 Moolk and Rajah Ram Buksh, General Fraser, with a view to putting 
 an end to this unintelligible and intolerable period of procrastina- 
 tion, wrote to Rajah Chundoo Lall on the 6th of September, telling 
 him with all possible- courtesy that from that date the British 
 Resident could no longer recognise him in the capacity of Minister. 
 In a private letter to Lord Ellenborough he thus describes the 
 situation that was produced: — 
 
 " Hyderabad, 7th September 1843. 
 "My Lord, — I had the honour to receive your letter of the 31st of 
 July, in which you desire to receive from me a statement of my views 
 as to the best mode of administering this country if it should be made
 
 STJPEESEDEU. 1'Jl 
 
 over to us. As I am disposed to think that it might be governed 1>\- 
 Native agency, under the decided and efficient control of the Resident, 
 or Dewan acting undei* the Resident's guidance, instead of haying 
 recourse to a regular and graduated train of British officers, as in 
 Mysore. My views are almost equally applicable to our assumption of 
 the country, had tlmt event taken place, and to what I think ought to 
 be the system of administration, in the other case of its remaining, as 
 it will now do, subject to the Nizam. It may be difficult to get able 
 Native subordinates, but they should be sought for ; and under a 
 vigilant management a capacity for service may be created which 
 perhaps does not now exist. I should think it desirable, upon grounds 
 of general policy, no less than those which more peculiarly affect the 
 Nizam's country, to endeavour to bring forward the Natives into such 
 employment as they are fit for, and especially to find something for 
 the Mussulmans to do besides hatching treason and plotting against 
 our Government. 
 
 " Matters are now progressing here as well as I could wish. I 
 yesterday morning pronounced the final discontinuance of my official 
 relations with Chundoo Lall, and the incubus is thus thrown off of an 
 incapable Minister, who has just had wit and cunning enough to serve 
 his own purposes by shackling his master, the Nizam, and the noblest 
 and highest, as well as the meanest, o£ the State, and a succession of 
 British Residents, and by his corrupt and selfish policy, and total want 
 of patriotism, to retain the country under his management in a state 
 of backwardness and constant deterioration, instead of giving it a 
 forward impulse towards that infinitely higher place which it might 
 take among the component parts of the Indian Empire. I think that 
 we have found a much abler man in Sooraj-ool-Moolk, and if he does 
 not possess the energy and executive strength which will be required, 
 the fault will be my own if I do not apply an immediate remedy to the 
 evil, or report the case as so hopeless as to demand the direct inter- 
 vention of the Government of India. 
 
 " The Nizam seems much pleased to see his country emancipated 
 from the chains of the Minister, for he is fully sensible of the mischief 
 occasioned by his maladministration, and would long ago have thrown 
 off the yoke had he not feared us, and the danger he might incur by 
 any endeavour to remove a man whom he supposed to be exclusively 
 a creature and proti'ije of ours. He first began to acquire a little 
 courage from the private interviews I had with him in the course of 
 last year. But the old feeling has been so strong with him, that 
 Sooraj-ool-Moolk, with whom I had another interview yesterday, 
 stated that during his last visit to me the Nizam was in an agony of 
 apprehension that the length of our conference implied some disposition
 
 192 A LARGE IMPUTATION. 
 
 on my part to bring back Chundoo Lall into power; and. that as soon 
 as he returned to his own house, after his interview with me, His 
 Highness sent him an emphatic message to inquire if 'all was well'. 
 
 " I cannot yet speak positively, but I think it likely, from what I 
 perceive, that the Nizam will confer the office of Dewan upon 
 Sooraj-ool-Moolk in the course of a short time. He has called for 
 various papers, and as he is dissatisfied with the imperfect revenue 
 memoranda furnished by the dufturdars, 1 I am myself preparing for 
 him a clear and comprehensive tabular statement of the present revenue 
 management and managers. I am assisted in this by Mr. Dighton, 
 who has much ability and experience, and whom I should be happy to 
 see more largely employed, and with a higher degree of executive 
 power, in the revenue department. He is in the Nizam's service, and 
 I conclude the Court of Directors would not deem it objectionable that 
 his services should be rendered available in whatever manner they 
 should be found most useful to His Highness's Government. 
 
 " The Nizam holds a Dui'bar to-day, in which he proposes to give 
 orders on the important matter of proceeding immediately to investigate 
 the pecuniary liabilities of the State. He very properly intends to 
 discharge, in the first place, the claims of such troublesome and ill- 
 disposed persons as he particrdarly desires to dissever at once from 
 their connection with the Cirtar, and of those who have jaedads, or 
 assignments on the territorial revenue, which he is anxious to resume, 
 so as to leave the talooks 2 free. Sooraj-ool-Moolk assures me that he 
 has certain information of the revenue of some of the talooks having 
 been forestalled for three years, or up to the Fusleeyear 1256 inclusive. 
 
 " In my public letter to the Supreme Government of the 4th instant, 
 I mentioned that secret reasons had been given to me for the Nizam's 
 wishing to appoint Rajah Ram Buksh to the office of Peshcar. One 
 of these reasons, which I did not wish to advert to more particularly 
 in a public letter — as it would have been certain of transpiring 
 through the channel of office writers — was that this person has assured 
 the Nizam that his unlimited access to the dufturs, on his being 
 nominated to that office, will enable him to prove against Bala Pershad, 
 the Minister's son, the undue acquisition of no less than seven crores 
 of rupees, 3 obtained by corruption and exaction, and which Rajah Ram 
 Buksh alleges to be now actually in the possession of Bala Pershad. 
 This maybe an exaggerated estimate, but Ram Buksh declares that he 
 can prove its accuracy. 
 
 "The Nizam continues to send me the most friendly and compli- 
 
 1 Record keepers. 2 Districts. 
 
 3 About seven millions sterling— hardly credible, and not .subsequently 
 confirmed.
 
 DU11HAR ETIQUETTE. 193 
 
 mentary messages, and I do not think he at all distrusts the sincerity 
 of my assurances that I have nothing else in view but the welfare and 
 improvement of his country. Your lordship may be surprised that I 
 do not more frc nently see him personally. There are two reasons 
 for this. With the best possible disposition on His Highness's part, a 
 visit to the Nizam is attended with much ceremony and inconvenience, 
 and the observances required from the Resident on these occasions, 
 which have been customary ever since our first connection with this 
 Durbar, are of a description that I do not think quite consistent with 
 his representative character in the now relative position of the 
 Supreme Government and the Native States of India. I have never 
 thought, however, of making these matters the subject of remonsti-ance, 
 or by any proposed deviation from ancient usage to frighten the 
 Nizam witli the idea that I wish to diminish his dignity, and thus 
 deter him from attending to affairs of much greater importance than 
 outward forms and etiquette. The Minister has always done all in his 
 power to keep the Nizam and the Resident apart, but I hope that 
 more frequent and familiar intercourse may be gradually introduced. 
 
 " It will occur to your Lordship that I am presenting you only with 
 crude and indefinite views. But it is difficult to avoid this appearance. 
 We are now in a transition state here, amid much of confusion and 
 uncertainty. Affairs will, by degrees, 1* hope, be reduced to order, 
 and I shall then be able to offer a more clear and better defined sketch 
 of our proceedings and prospects than I am as yet able to do. 
 
 "At the end of this month the Contingent will be six months in 
 arrears, but I am putting myself forward as one, among other claim- 
 ants, on His Highness's bounty, and have given in a memorandum of 
 my wishes to have between nineteen and twenty lakhs of rupees for 
 the Army, which will be due on the 30th instant, and about six lakhs 
 on account of the arrears of Appa Dessaye's chout, and the family of 
 Mohiput Ram, making a total of about twenty-six lakhs of rupees. 
 " I have the honour to be 
 " Your Lordship's most faithful and obedient servant, 
 
 " J. S. Fraser." 
 
 This was Lord Ellenborough's answer : — 
 
 " Barrackpore, September 19th, 1843. 
 " General, — I had the pleasure of receiving last night your letter of 
 the 7th, communicating the cessation of your official intercourse with 
 Chundoo Lall, and your general views upon Hyderabad affairs. 
 
 " I cannot but regret that Chundoo Lall was definitively put out of 
 office before all arrangements had been made for the appointment of a 
 successor of whom you approved, and for the payment of the more 
 

 
 194 HANKERING AFTER 
 
 pressing debts of the State, including the arrears due to the troops. 
 Chundoo Lall having gone with your consent, I fear the chief hold 
 upon the Nizam is gone too ; and that, relieved from the incubus, he 
 ■will trifle and delay, and do nothing in the way of reform. 
 
 "Your expectations that Sooraj-ool-Moolk will be made Chief Minister 
 seem to be just; but I should have been more satisfied had he been 
 actually appointed Minister at once. 
 
 " My opinion certainly is strongly in favour of most intimate com- 
 munication between the British Resident and the Nizam and his 
 Minister ; and I should gladly see all matters of importance decided 
 upon only with some previous concurrence. 
 
 " With respect to the Resident's interviews with the Nizam, I should 
 think that private interviews at the Minister's house might possibly be 
 substituted for public interviews, if there be, as you state, objectionable 
 formalities attending the latter, but this must depend upon localities, 
 and other matters of which I am ignorant, or the interviews might be 
 put upon the footing on which they are at Lucknow, which cannot be 
 one of gene. In these things it is very easy to make a change if the 
 Nizam be willing. If he be not, it is perhaps hardly worth while to 
 press him — and certainly not worth while to do so while we have 
 greater matters in hand. I shall be very glad to hear that you have 
 got the arrears for the troops, and some other debts paid. This will 
 be the true test of good intentions on the part of the Nizam. 
 " I have the honour to remain, 
 
 " Yours faithfully, 
 
 "Ellenrorough." 
 
 It will be observed that something very like dissatisfaction is 
 expressed by the Governor-General at the actual removal of 
 Chundoo Lall from office, as brought about by the Resident's 
 refusal to deal with him any longer. Permission had been given 
 at the last possible moment, and with evident reluctance, for the 
 acceptance of the old Minister's resignation, but General Fraser 
 had been unable to extract from the Government of India that 
 decided expression of its wishes on the subject, addressed directly 
 by the Governor-General to the Nizam, which he recommended as 
 the best means to move and encourage His Highness to dismiss 
 Rajah Chundoo Lall. The Resident had even furnished the drafts 
 of letters from the Governor-General to the Nizam and to the 
 Minister, but these wens not adopted in the council-chamber of 
 Calcutta. No letter was to be sent to the Nizam on the subject, 
 and no letter to Chundoo Lall until the fact of his actual retirement
 
 CIIUNDOO LALL. 195 
 
 was officially communicated. Everything was unfortunately done 
 and left undone to promote those doubts as to the real wishes of 
 our Government, which explain the course taken by the Nizam 
 after the Minister had tendered his resignation. 
 
 In a private letter to Lord Ellenborough, dated the 27th October 
 1843, the Kesident says: — "The mischievous and mercenary party 
 who surround His Highness tell him the most incredible falsehoods ; 
 and it is supposed here that much of his late hesitation in taking a 
 decided part may be attributed to the delay which occurred in 
 transmitting your Lordship's farewell note to the ex-Minister, 
 which they succeeded in making the Nizam believe implied a 
 reluctance on the part of the Supreme Government to accept of 
 Chundoo Lall's resignation, and a consequent possibility that he 
 might return to his former office." 
 
 Shortly after the Eesident had established regular official inter- 
 course with Sooraj-ool-Moolk, the Nizam declared his ability and 
 willingness to afford the necessary aid to the Government 
 from his private treasury. A crore of rupees was actually brought 
 for that avowed purpose from the Fort of Golconda, in addition to 
 to which eighty lakhs of rupees in gold were also said to be avail- 
 able in the Palace at Hyderabad, while Sooraj-ool-Moolk held out 
 hopes that orders would soon be given for the disbursement of 
 these funds in reduction of arrears and debts. But still the days 
 dragged on without any good result. 
 
 When General Fraser at last cut the Gordian knot by refusing 
 any longer to recognise Chundoo Lall as Dewan, a warm letter of 
 compliment and condolence was sent by the Governor-General to 
 the ex-Minister, which, if it had been sent in due season, and in 
 the measured terms suggested by the Eesident, would have been 
 efficacious, but which was now only calculated to strengthen the 
 veteran intriguer in his last endeavour to maintain his influence at 
 Court. He was unquestionably buoyed up by hints, and more 
 or less accurate information he received, as to an official party at 
 Calcutta which still believed in him as the best friend^of British 
 power at Hyderabad, and which connived at protracting the pro- 
 ceedings connected with his resignation until he could, at the least, 
 arrange for the succession of his son, Eajah Bala Pershad. 
 
 Certain it is that the ex-Minister responded to the Governor- 
 General's valedictory communication in a very remarkable manner. 
 
 o 2
 
 196 CHUNDOO lall's 
 
 On the 16th of November 184:', Lord Ellenborough received by 
 post from Rajah Chundoo Lall the following extraordinary letter. 
 The original was in Persian, but this is the official translation. 
 
 " From Maharajah Chundoo Lall Bahadoor to the Rt. Honble. the 
 Governor- General. 
 "Dated 9 Shawwal 1259 H., corresponding with 
 30th October 1843. 
 " After compliments, — I have been honoured by the receipt of your 
 Lordship's kind letter. Its contents have rejoiced me extremely, and 
 have afforded me much encouragement. I cannot adequately express 
 my feelings of gratitude for the kindness evinced towards me by your 
 Lordship. 
 
 " I beg to inform your Lordship that there are two circumstances 
 under which, on the general plea of bodily infirmity, I have considered 
 it expedient to resign the office of Dewan — first, on account of sevei'al 
 weighty matters which formerly happened, and in consequence of the 
 agreement in Sir Charles Metcalfe's time, making a yearly reduction of 
 thirty lakhs of rupees, whereby the State has been a loser to the amount 
 of crores of rupees, and because no further loans can be procured to 
 defray the current expenses of the Government. The second reason is 
 that General Fraser and Captain Malcolm have entered into a plot with 
 Sooraj-ool-Moolk for the purpose of ruining me. 
 
 " These gentlemen applied for a private audience with the Nizam, 
 and being admitted into the presence, accused and spoke disparagingly 
 of me, and recommended that Sooraj-ool-Moolk should be appointed 
 Dewan in my room. To this advice the Nizam was pleased to make 
 answer, ' Chundoo Lall has now for many years been conducting the 
 duties of Dewan. On what grounds should he be dismissed from his 
 post, or wdiy should Sooraj-ool-Moolk, a man who shows by his being 
 in debt some twenty-three lakhs of rupees that he is incapable of 
 managing his own private affairs, be considered able to disehai'ge the 
 duties of Dewan ? ' 
 
 " General Fraser and Captain Malcolm, on hearing these words, were 
 silenced. They are, however, bent on my ruin, and I have, therefore, 
 thought it better to tender my resignation. These gentleman have r 
 furthermore, recommended my expulsion from Hyderabad; and to this 
 recommendation the Nizam has been pleased to reply that ' now that 
 Chundoo Lall has voluntarily resigned, he remains in his own house ;. 
 and on what ground should he be turned out of the city ? ' 
 
 " How can I adequately return thanks to His Highness for the kind- 
 ness thus evinced in my behalf? 
 
 " Finally, General Fraser, acting under the instigation of Sooraj-ool-
 
 LAST STRUGGLE. 197 
 
 Moolk, will listen to no representations of mine, but endeavours to 
 incense the Nizam against me. 
 
 " (True translation) W. Edwards, 
 " Under Secretary of the Government of India." 
 
 This letter was dated the 30th of October, and was received at 
 Calcutta on the 16th of November. On the 5th of December 
 1 84.'), Rajah Chundoo Lall's original letter was sent back by the 
 Government of India to the Resident, with a request that it should 
 be "returned to Rajah Chundoo Lall, and that he should be 
 informed that no communication on the subject treated of in it 
 can be recognised or received by his Lordship, unless forwarded in 
 the usual and prescribed channel, through the Resident." 
 
 General Fraser, in a letter dated the 24th of October, had 
 pointed out to the Government of India the real nature of the 
 obstacles that had so long existed to the proposed arrangements 
 for a reformed administration at Hyderabad. Referring to the 
 difficulty he found in persuading the Nizam to appoint a Dewan, 
 " with a view to give immediate effect to arrangements for the 
 future better government of His Higlmess's dominions", he 
 said: — 
 
 "I am not aware that he is decidedly and unchangeably opposed to 
 this measure, but he seems to have been hitherto prevented from 
 adopting it by some fear that Chundoo Lall's influence, and the pro- 
 tection he has usually met with from the British Government, might 
 procure his restoration to office." 
 
 In this letter, and in a private letter to Lord Ellenborough, the 
 Resident pressed on the Governor-General's attention a subject 
 referred to hereafter (pp. 199 and 307), which may well have 
 given grounds for reflection and inquiry to the Governor-General 
 in Council at that period, but which I purposely omit canvassing 
 now for many reasons, of which some are identical with the 
 suggestions of the following note just received from an old friend 
 very conversant with the Hyderabad affairs of that period, and in 
 whose judgment I have great confidence. 
 
 " London, 28th November, 1884. 
 " My dear Hastings, — You ask me what effect the publication of 
 the letters of 1843, connected with the subject your father mentioned 
 
 *
 
 198 MYSTERIOUS. 
 
 to Lord Dalhousic when be visited Calcutta in 1848, and to which he 
 refers in the letter at page 307 of your book, the proof sheets of which 
 you have just shown me, might bave on public opinion here and in 
 India. It would undoubtedly have the effect, with all unprejudiced 
 persons, of strengthening the sympathy for the Nizam's unavoidable 
 indebtedness which must be raised by the whole tenor of your book. 
 I agree with you that it is unnecessary to add matter which is both 
 superfluous and not so absolutely conclusive as to be capable of appli- 
 cation to the actual delinquents. After all, paying for information is 
 not a practice confined to India ; the only special point in the Nizam's 
 complaint was the extraordinary magnitude and long continuance of 
 the transaction. The very fact of the Nizam mentioning it shows that 
 he must have long felt that his revenues were being recklessly squan- 
 dered, and to his detriment, but the influence acquired by Chundoo 
 Lall over his master was so considerable, and the Nizam had for so 
 many years succumbed, and been held in thraldom, that only in find- 
 ing the opportunity with a Resident friendly to him, and in whom he, 
 therefore, had confidence, did he reveal what General Fraser wrote to 
 Lord Ellenborough. He feared that the Minister might regain his 
 power, and determined to put |,he General on his guard. 
 
 " Affectionately yours." 
 
 That the Nizam had great confidence in my father, and became 
 warmly attached to him, there can be no doubt, and to the know- 
 ledge which General Eraser acquired in 1843 I attribute much of 
 his consideration for His Highness's difficulties. Herein I concur 
 in opinion with my friend, who is very well qualified for a judg- 
 ment on the subject ; and owing to my possession of similar 
 knowledge I have always felt that much consideration was due to 
 the Nizam, and have never hesitated to express myself warmly 
 when these affairs have been discussed. All the discredit for 
 misgovernment and extravagance in the Hyderabad State was not 
 due to Chundoo Lall alone. 
 
 If General Eraser's letters were not placed on record, this may 
 account for the want of due consideration in recent years with 
 regard to the finances of " our faithful ally, the Nizam", for whom 
 I confess I desire, on public grounds, to make an appeal, with 
 which object, I have drawn attention shortly to what occurred in 
 1843. My next work will show more fully what these public 
 grounds are. Although General Fraser wrote fully and ex- 
 plicitly regarding these matters, no answer was given, either
 
 REMITTANCES. 199 
 
 in public or private communications, to those passages in General 
 Eraser's correspondence. 
 
 With reference to this peculiar incident, an old friend, who at 
 that time held a high position on General Eraser's staff, writes to 
 me as follows, in a note dated in March 1881 : — " About the money 
 said to have been sent to Calcutta by Chundoo Lall, your father 
 wrote Lord Ellenborough privately, — no answer. If my memory 
 serves me right, it was the Nizam who drew your father's attention 
 to it " * * * * * * * 
 
 " I have no doubt the Berar districts will be restored when 
 the Nizam comes of age, as was done at a former accession, after 
 Metcalfe's time. Without doubt it was Chundoo Lall who destroyed 
 the .finances of the State, and Salar Jung who set them right again." 
 
 For want of the decided and open support of the Governor- 
 General, promptly and directly addressed to the Nizam, which 
 General Eraser had repeatedly requested, the secret influence of 
 Chundoo Lall still operated against measures of reform, and against 
 the nomination of his successor. So long as the office of Dewan 
 was left open, there was a chance of its falling to the ex-Minister's 
 son. And meanwhile, nothing came' from Calcutta but repeated 
 reflections that it would have been better not to have got rid of 
 such an able Minister as Chundoo Lall, until provision had been 
 made for filling up his place, and for paying the public debts, — 
 Chundoo Lall being in both cases the great obstacle, as the General 
 had often explained. He protested against these reflections, and 
 against the inaction of the Supreme Government, in a letter dated 
 the 18th November 1843. After declaring the incapacity of Kajah 
 Ram Buksh, his want of influence, and his avowed inability to act 
 as Minister with the title of Peshcar, the letter continues thus : — 
 
 " Chundoo Lall has certainly possessed hitherto that power over the 
 Nizam, which cunning and a grasping ambition, and the arts of 
 intimidation might easily obtain over a Prince long under restraint, but 
 to the possession of ability, in the correct or at least usual acceptation of 
 that term, I cannot concede to him the slightest claim. He has 
 possessed but the ability of maintaining himself in office for five-and- 
 thirty years by an apparently subservient acquiescence to the wishes of 
 the Resident at this Court, without ever really or seriously adopting one 
 single measure of reform for the improvement of the Nizam's country, 
 and by disbursing a great part of the revenues of the State among all 
 persons who would sell themselves to the support of his views, and the
 
 200 COMMANDING INFLUENCE 
 
 maintenance of that unlimited power he had contrived to acquire, but 
 which has been rarely, if ever, employed to the only purpose for which 
 it ought to have been possessed, that of ameliorating the condition of 
 the country and its inhabitants. 
 
 "In the 7th paragraph of your letter now under acknowledgment, 
 the regret of the Supreme Government is reiterated that the retirement 
 of Chundoo Lall was assented to before sufficient arrangements were 
 made for carrying on the future administration of the country. 
 
 " I have already had the honour of observing, and beg respectfully to 
 repeat in a few words, why I assented to Chundoo Lall's retirement. 
 His retirement was an essential point, the sine qua non to the adoption 
 of a single step towards the effecting of arrangements for the con- 
 tinuance of the government of the country. The Government had, in 
 fact, ceased its functions. It was bankrupt, and had stopped payment. 
 The Minister himself had acknowledged this, and his acknowledg- 
 ment is on record. But while he remained vested with the authority 
 and name of Dewan, and was supposed to be so strongly supported by 
 us, that his final I'emoval was an event rather to be wished for than 
 anticipated, no arguments could induce the Nizam either to appoint 
 another Dewan or a Peshcar, or to produce his private treasure. 
 
 "Under these circumstances I assented to his. retirement, and the 
 immediate consequences were the appointment of Sooraj-ool-Mooik as 
 Vakeel, of Ram Bukhsh as Peshcar, of the transmission of a large 
 amount of treasure from Golconda to the city, the issue of orders for 
 the settlement of the Soucar accounts, and a few other matters that 
 seemed to the Nizam most to require his attention. 
 
 " It is true that I expected he would appoint a Dewan. He subse- 
 quently informed me in a note, transmitted by me to the Supreme 
 Government, that he considered the Peshcar, Ram Bukhsh, as vested 
 with all the powers I required. But that note w r as, no doubt, written 
 at the secret instigation of the creatures of the ex-Minister, 
 for the purpose of preventing or deferring the ajipointment of Sooraj-ool- 
 Moolk as Dewan, which would for ever have excluded the chance 
 of Chundoo Lall's return to office, or of its devolving on his son, Bala 
 Per shad. 
 
 "It was here that I wished the voice of the Governor-General to be 
 heard, as I feel satisfied that it would at once have dispelled all 
 the mischievous fears or other influences which were pressing on the 
 Nizam, and would have led him to the policy we desired. 
 
 "The Supreme Government apprehend that the tone of language I 
 recommended, and the letter which I proposed to be written to the 
 Nizam, would have failed to produce their effect, unless we were 
 determined to support by arms the line of policy we were pursuing. 
 
 " From this view of the case, with every respect for the superior
 
 INVOKED IN VAIN. 201 
 
 judgment of the Government of India, I entirely dissent. The measures 
 proposed would, I am persuaded, have been amply sufficient; and 
 I believe this is the concurrent idea of every respectable person at 
 Hyderabad who, from his knowledge of local circumstances, is capable 
 of forming a correct opinion on the subject. 
 
 " This is a weak and subdued Government. Its character is that 
 of timidity and subserviency. Hesitation on our part might inspire the 
 Circar for a moment with the semblance of boldness, and with a desire 
 to escape control ; but I have not the slightest apprehension that any 
 protracted resistance would ever be offered to the expressed will and 
 resolution of the Government of India. 
 
 "The Governor- General in Council anticipates from the present 
 state of things at Hyderabad, increased mis-government, and all its 
 consequent evils. 
 
 "I fully concur in this opinion, and find it difficult to imagine 
 that the present system will exist for even a few months. 
 
 " The Nizam is rarely accessible even to those by whom he ought to 
 be seen every day. Sooraj-ool-Moolk possesses no inherent authority ; 
 and the helplessness of the Peshcar, Ram Bukhsh, I have sufficiently 
 described. I believe that nothing but fear of being immediately 
 coerced by our troops prevents disturbances in many parts of the 
 Nizam's dominions. 
 
 " In reference to this part of the subject, and to the employment of the 
 troops under my orders, I beg to transmit the copy of a note, and of its 
 enclosures, which I lately received from Sooraj-ool-Moolk, and of my 
 reply. This correspondence refers to a demand made upon me for the 
 services of the Contingent at two separate places, and I shall be glad to 
 be favoured with the instructions of the Supreme Government as to the 
 correctness or otherwise of the principle by which I propose to be 
 guided when called upon by the Nizam's Government for the services 
 of the troops. 
 
 " I shall bear in mind the instructions conveyed in the 16th paragraph 
 of your letter, " to insist, in terms not to be misunderstood, upon the 
 punctual payment of the Army." I shall also endeavour, as I presume 
 this will not be disapproved by the Government of India, to obtain 
 the liquidation of the four or five months' arrears, usually due to the 
 Contingent." 
 
 The authorities at Calcutta, the officials of the Secretariat, could 
 see nothing worthy their attention but the pay of the Contingent. 
 Lord Ellenborough saw the urgent need of large measures of reform 
 in the Hyderabad State, but, in spite of all General Eraser's 
 assurances, could not conceive the possibility of their being intro-
 
 202 ONE THING AT A TIME. 
 
 duced without some degree of military coercion. Such is the 
 purport of the next letter. 
 
 " Barrackpore, February 27th, 1844. 
 
 " General, — I am quite aware of the inconvenience which would 
 attend Captain Malcolm's removal from Hyderabad, and unless in an 
 extreme case, I should be very unwilling to desire him to join his 
 Regiment in Scinde. 
 
 " With respect to the point to which the latter portion of your letter 
 of the 15th instant relates, I can only draw your attention to the 
 present demand for troops in Scinde, and to the necessity which exists, 
 and must exist for some time, of vigilantly watching the Sutlej. I 
 will never, if I can help it, undertake two things at the same time ; 
 and I will never, if I can help it, undertake anything without having 
 at my disposal, in the event of force being required, so large an amount 
 of force as may preclude all ordinary risk of failure. 
 
 " I know very well that the present state of affairs at Hyderabad is 
 not what it ought to be. There is a great deal to do in the Nizam's 
 country, but I must now attend to more pressing demands upon me. 
 I shall settle mattei's at Hyderabad and everywhere else in time, but 
 I must have time and choose my own. 
 
 " I have the honour to remain, General, 
 
 " Yours very faithfully, 
 
 " Ellenborough." 
 
 The Resident writes once more, privately, to the Governor- 
 General, on the 15th February 1843, to the same effect as his 
 public letters about that time. 
 
 "Nothing particular has occurred here since I last addressed the 
 Supreme Government. A set of three or four vicious and corrupt 
 intriguers, instigated and advised by the ex-Minister, Chundoo Lall, 
 have got possession of the Nizam, and exercise over him a mischievous 
 influence. It is impossible to say how long matters may go on in this 
 way. In many respects they have been proceeding thus for thirty or 
 forty years, with irregularity and anomaly on every side, and com- 
 plaints from various parts of the country addressed to the Resident, 
 which he has no other means of noticing than by simply telling the 
 complainants that they must address themselves to the Nizam's Govern- 
 ment. This total want of arrangement and just administration may 
 still, perhaps, be protracted for a considerable time ; and, in fact, the 
 present state of things does not seem much worse, and perhaps really 
 is not so, than what we have been accustomed to for many years past. 
 It is for your Lordship to determine whether it is either just to the
 
 LORD ELLENBOROUGH REMOVED. 203 
 
 Nizam's subjects, or in conformity with the interests of India in 
 general, that this state of things should be allowed to continue. The 
 remedy for the evil, if it is to be corrected at all, rests with your Lord- 
 ship. I have already taken the liberty of expressing my opinions on 
 the subject to the Supreme Government, and I am now quietly await- 
 ing either the result of events at Hyderabad, or further orders from 
 Calcutta." 
 
 And here is an extract from what seems to be his last private 
 letter to Lord Ellenborough, dated the 7th of May 1844. 
 
 " We remain here in much the same state as when I last addressed 
 the Supreme Government. I am myself doing nothing, because without 
 a Dewan, or my own possession of inherent authority, I could do 
 nothing to any good purpose. My most important communications 
 now with the Circar are the usual periodical ones for the purpose of 
 obtaining the pay of the Army. 
 
 " The connection between the Nizam and the ex- Minister has, I 
 believe, nearly ceased, or at least is not so intimate as formerly. There 
 have been some wai'm scenes between them, and it is thought that the 
 Minister no longer hopes to retrieve his, lost power. Short of our own 
 assumption of the country, and the conduct of its administration by 
 British officers, I still perceive no other chance of improvement but 
 the appointment of a Minister who would act in real, not fictitious, 
 co-operation with the views of the British Government expressed by 
 their Resident here. I think, too, that this is the opinion which is enter- 
 tained by every respectable native at Hyderabad without exception. 
 General, or rather universal, opinion points to Sooraj-ool-Moolk as the 
 Dewan. I do not hear the name of any other person advocated, or 
 hinted at." 
 
 Lord Ellenborough's removal from the office of Governor-General 
 was announced to General Fraser in the following letter from the 
 Foreign Secretary, Mr. (afterwards Sir Frederick) Currie. 1 
 
 " Calcutta, June 19th, 1844. 
 "My dear Sir, — By to-day's Gazette you will see that the Court of 
 Directors have removed Lord Ellenborough from the office of Governor- 
 General of India. By Monday's post you will receive the copy of a 
 brief circular to Political officers in important positions, impressing 
 upon them that they are not to consider this measure as indicative of any 
 change in the policy of the Government, more especially as respects 
 
 1 Subsequently Resident at Lahore, Member of the Supreme Council, and 
 Member of the Secretary of State's Council.
 
 204 SIR HENRY HARDINGE. 
 
 its foreign relations ; and that they are not to allow such a notion to 
 be entertained by others. 
 
 " Sir Henry Hardinge is on his way out ; he will be here by the 
 middle of next month ; he comes out fully prepared to continue Lord 
 Ellenborough's policy, and to carry out his views. In the meantime, 
 all is to be carried on iu the spirit of the instructions that have been 
 hitherto issued. 
 
 " Lord Ellenborough was prepared for this — not so the world in 
 general ; it has made a great stir in Calcutta. 
 
 " Believe me, my dear Sir, 
 
 " Yours faithfully, 
 
 " F. Currie. 
 
 " P.S. — The guns ai'e at this moment firing Mr. Bird into his officiat- 
 ing appointment." 
 
 Mr. William Wilberforce Bird, the Senior Member of Council, 
 was Governor-General until the arrival of Sir Henry Hardinge. 
 
 About the same time — the letter is not dated — he had received 
 the following valedictory communication from his old friend, 
 Charles May Lushington, then* about to leave Madras for England, 
 having retired on a pension at the end of his five years' term as 
 Member of Council. 
 
 " My dear Fraser, — If you have any commissions get them ready, — 
 we are off in the True Briton on the 28th, — and if I do not execute 
 them to your satisfaction ' I am a soused gurnet,' be they what they 
 may. You are almost the only true, old and valued friend I leave in 
 India, where I have been so long as almost to have worn out three sets 
 of acquaintances. 
 
 " Believe me, ever yours most sincerely, 
 
 "C. M. LusniNGTOBT."
 
 2U5 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Finances of Hyderabad but little improved in 1845 — Minister not appointed 
 — Contingent more deeply in arrears— Sir Henry Hardinge's Letter of 
 Warning to the Nizam — Refractory Zemindars — Sooraj-ool-Moolk 
 
 granted full powers as Minister — His memorial Letter unanswered 
 
 The Resident's Remonstrances badly received at Calcutta — Letters to 
 two Directors — Visit of Commander-in-Chief — Lord Hardinge's de- 
 parture. 
 
 The hopes that had prevailed just before Lord Ellenborough's 
 departure of a great improvement in the finances of the Hyder- 
 abad State, were very imperfectly realised in the first year after 
 Lord Hardinge's arrival. The Nizam still showed strange reluc- 
 tance to appoint a Minister with full powers, a reluctance quite 
 unaccountable except as an unwonted feeling of relief from the 
 absolute domination of Chundoo Lall, and an unwillingness to 
 run the risk of falling into similar thraldom under a new Dewan. 
 His Highness may possibly not have wished any one of his servants 
 to acquire too soon the confidence and support of the British 
 Government, or to learn reliance on the Resident rather than on 
 the Sovereign. Having hitherto been debarred from taking any 
 real share in executive government, he may naturally have some- 
 what overrated his own capacity for personally directing the 
 course of administration. The error was very natural. In June 
 1845, the Resident writes : — " Rajah Ram Buksh, the Pesh- 
 car, has not been able to provide for the payment of the Con- 
 tingent, without allowing it to fall more than four months in 
 arrears, as despatches from me will have informed you, and his 
 pecuniary difficulties will inevitably increase, instead of diminish- 
 ing. 
 
 " It is true that the Nizam has disbursed, as he alleges, about a 
 crore and twenty lakhs of rupees from his personal treasury, in 
 payment of certain creditors of the State ; but whether the dis-
 
 206 LORD HAEDINGE 
 
 bursement of this large amount has been done in a judicious 
 manner or not I cannot at present say." 
 
 In April 1845, just eighteen months after his retirement, Rajah 
 Chundoo Lall died, but the appointment of his successor was still 
 delayed. 
 
 Further advances from the British treasury having become 
 necessary, to prevent the men of the Contingent from suffering 
 extreme distress, General Fraser was instructed that although the 
 Government of India had no wish " to treat the Nizam with any- 
 thin"' like rigour/' His Highness must be made aware that when 
 " a fair time for the repayment of advances" had elapsed, the 
 prescribed terms of obtaining territorial security would be enforced. 
 At the same time the Governor-General addressed the Nizam the 
 following letter. 
 
 "From the Governor- General of India to His Highness the 
 Nizam of Hyderabad. 
 
 ; ' Dated, Fort William, 11th April 1845. 
 
 " After compliments, — In addressing Your Highness as one of the 
 most steadfast Allies of the British Government, I should have been 
 most happy if my duty would have permitted this letter to have 
 contained solely those assurances of regard and friendship which 
 Your Highness's estimable personal qualities are so well calculated 
 to inspire. 
 
 " I should, however, not fulfil the obligations which the public 
 interests impose upon me, nor be a sincere adviser of Your Highness, 
 if on this occasion of addressing you I were to conceal the important 
 fact that the state of Your Highness's financial affairs is such as to 
 give rise in my mind to the most serious and anxious reflections. 
 
 " I cannot give Your Highness a stronger proof of my confidence and 
 solicitude than by frankly disclosing the grounds on which I have 
 arrived at this conclusion. 
 
 " For a considerable length of time Your Highness's financial diffi- 
 culties have increased to such a degree of disfrcss that the payment 
 of the troops has been frequently in arrears, and retrenchments in the 
 Military and other expenditure, admitted to be indispensable for the 
 relief of this financial pressure, cannot be made because there are no 
 means of paying off the very heavy arrears which are due. 
 
 " Your Highness's own dignity and happiness are so interwoven with 
 the welfare of your subjects ; and the British Govei'nment, exercising 
 the Paramount Power of the Indian Empire, is so deeply concerned in 
 the prosperity and contentment of the people at large ; that in the
 
 TO THE NIZAM. 207 
 
 event of this state of things leading to serious and vmhappy conse- 
 quences, the British Government will not consent to put down by 
 force of arms, troubles and opposition to Tour Highness's authority, 
 manifestly caused by the oppression under which the people sutler, in 
 consequence of the maladministration of Your Highness's dominions. 
 I have also to draw Your Highness's attention to one subject which 
 no longer admits of delay. 
 
 " I cannot permit that the troops of the Contingent, commanded by 
 British officers, shall at any time remain more than four months in 
 arrears of their pay. I have therefore directed the Resident, if any 
 future failure in paying these troops should occur, to advance, on 
 account of the British Government, the sums which may be necessary 
 for this purpose, and to explain clearly in writing to Your Highness 
 the terms required for the repayment. 
 
 " This aid may enable Your Highness to put a stop to the irregu- 
 larities which have occurred in the payment of the Contingent ; but 
 as regards the disorganised state of the finances generally, consequent 
 upon the maladministration of affairs, and the injurious effects pro- 
 duced upon the prosperity of Your Highness's subjects, I trust that 
 Your Highness will adopt the resolution of extricating yourself from 
 this state of distress by exercising the utmost prudence, vigour and 
 economy in the conduct of affairs. » 
 
 " I cannot give Your Highness a stronger proof of regard than by 
 frankly declaring the truth, and of giving to Your Highness timely 
 notice of the consequences which will follow if this friendly warning 
 be disregarded. 
 
 " In conclusion, etc., etc., " H. Hardinge." 
 
 During the rest of 1845, and the early months of the next year, 
 the attention of the Governor-General may well have been 
 absorbed in the Sikh war, memorable for the battles of Moodkee, 
 Ferozshah, and Sobraon, with the preparations preceding and the 
 negotiations that followed that arduous campaign, in which, it 
 may be remembered, Sir Henry Hardinge chivalrously assumed a 
 secondary position in the field under the Commander-in-Chief, Sir 
 Hugh Gough. 
 
 In June 1846, just a year after the Governor-General had given 
 his " friendly warning" as to the pay of the Contingent, the Nizam 
 was testifying to the great value he set upon that Force by apply- 
 ing for its services in order to coerce five refractory Zemindars, 
 who were accused of entertaining bands of Rohillas and of 
 plundering the country. The Resident was obliged on this occa-
 
 208 CHECK ON OPPRESSION. 
 
 sioD to remind Sooraj-ool-Moolk, still acting as Wakeel to the 
 Nizam, -without the full powers of Minister, that "the troops Sf 
 the Contingent being, as usual, four months in arrears, His High- 
 ness will of course be aware that they could not reasonably be 
 expected to move upon the service now in contemplation without 
 a month's pay in advance beyond their ordinary and current pay- 
 ment, which, in the event of the movement being at all a geneial 
 one, will amount to about three lakhs of rupees". 
 
 General Fraser also summoned each of the accused Zemindars — 
 of course in communication with Sooraj-ool-Moolk— to ap 
 and answer to the charge made against him. British passports 
 were furnished to them all by way of safeguard, and sanctuary 
 pri imised, during the inquiry, within the precincts of the Residency. 
 At the same time, the Resident distinctly apprized the Nizam that 
 he would have "nothing to do with the expulsion of the bands of 
 Rohillas", a matter with which the alleged misconduct of the 
 Zemindars was complicated, " until the whole of their claims had 
 been previously investigated and adjusted". 
 
 This was done, as in all similar cases, in accordance with the 
 established custom that the trOops of the Contingent should never 
 be moved against any rebel or defaulter on the requisition of the 
 Nizam's Government "until the reality of the offence had been 
 ascertained". This rule was adopted in harmony, and in the same 
 terms, with Article 17 of the Treaty of 1800, applicable to the 
 Subsidiary Force, and was evidently calculated to operate as a 
 most salutary check on arbitrary or oppressive administration. 
 The subsecpient proceedings led to the peaceable submission of all 
 the refractory chiefs except one, who was brought to obedience, 
 without actual bloodshed, by the appearance of a detachment of 
 troops in his neighbourhood. 
 
 In reporting the settlement of these troublesome affairs in 
 September 1846 to the Government of India, General Fraser 
 beco-ed "to renew the recommendation he had offered in the year 
 184o that the Supreme Government should urge the Nizam to the 
 immediate appointment of an able and efficient Dewan". 
 
 "I explained", continued the Resident, "at the time above 
 alluded to, that we had an undoubted right to do this, derived 
 from the promise of the Nizam himself that he would appoint a 
 Minister immediately on the removal of Chuncloo Lall from office,
 
 ARREARS OF THE CONTINGENT. 209 
 
 and without which promise I should not have assented to the pro- 
 posed measure of accepting his proffered resignation. 
 
 "My recommendations to this effect were as strongly urged as 
 was in my power, but they were not acceded to by the Supreme 
 Government, in consequence, I believe, principally of its attention 
 being then occupied by foreign wars, and other considerations 
 deemed more pressing than the affairs of Hyderabad. But peace 
 now prevailing generally in India, and the state of the Nizam's 
 country becoming worse every clay instead of better, I again beg 
 to bring to the notice of the Right Honourable the Governor- 
 General the expediency of our requiring from the Nizam the 
 appointment of a Minister able to govern the country, and to 
 rescue it from the impending bankruptcy and ruin with which it 
 is threatened. 
 
 " The time, too, has, I think, arrived when we should demand 
 from the Nizam security for the repayment of the thirty-eight 
 lakhs of rupees he is indebted to us, besides four months' arrears 
 of pay, a standing debt due to the Contingent, for the ultimate 
 payment of which by the Nizam we are responsible." 
 
 A direct exhortation came from. Calcutta, in response to the 
 Resident's frequent suggestions, in the form of a letter from the 
 Governor-General to the Nizam, dated the 7th of September 1846, 
 strongly urging the immediate appointment of a Minister, and 
 concluding with the following sentence : — 
 
 " The large debt due by your Highness to the British Govern- 
 ment on account of advances made for the payment of your High- 
 ness's Army is a serious matter, and I have given the Resident 
 instructions as to the communication I desire should be made 
 to your Highness on this important subject." 
 
 Even at this period, although General Fraser had never given 
 the least hint that he felt himself deficient in material strength on 
 the spot, the same unhappy impression seemed to prevail at 
 Calcutta, that serious pressure could not effectively be brought 
 to bear upon the Nizam, nor large measures of reform under- 
 taken, without the support of actual menace or military demon- 
 stration. The Resident was told that "military operations on a 
 large scale during the ensuing cold season in the Deccan would 
 be very inconvenient. A portion of the Madras Army has been 
 •detached to the Sausor and Nerbudda territories, and cannot at
 
 210 DEW AN 
 
 present be spared. A great part of the Bombay Army is in 
 Scincle ; and the Bengal Army, with a large British garrison 
 at Lahore, and with its disposable force concentrated on the 
 North-West frontier, is not in a condition without inconvenience 
 to detach a force to the Nizam's frontier." 
 
 Fortified by the Governor-General's letter to the Nizam, the 
 Eesident now took up the matter of reformed administration with 
 vigour, and as the result of several personal interviews with His 
 Highness, full powers were at last conferred on the Nawab Sooraj- 
 ool-Moolk on the 2nd of November 1846. 
 
 On the 9th of October the Eesident had addressed a long and 
 well-reasoned letter in Persian to Sooraj-ool-Moolk, intended for the 
 Nizam's perusal, a few extracts from which will give an idea of 
 the peculiar arguments that had to be met before the appointment 
 of a Dewan was finally settled. It was urged in the Durbar 
 that Bajah Chundoo Lall had never actually been installed as 
 Dewan, he having been originally appointed Peshcar, and deputy 
 to Mooneer-ool-Moolk, the titular Dewan, who, by special stipula- 
 tion, took no active part in affairs, and that even on the death of 
 that nobleman no change was made in Chundoo Lall's title. The 
 Resident said in reply : — 
 
 " The deceased Minister, Maharaja Chundoo Lall, may not have had 
 the official designation of Dewan, but he had the full and unlimited 
 powers of a Dewan, and exercised all the functions of that office. He 
 was always designated by the British Government as " the Minister", 
 a word which in the English language is synonymous with Dewan, and 
 his capacity and firmness of purpose were sufficient to render unneces- 
 sary any higher appellation than that of Peshcar in his relations to the 
 Nizam's Government and His Highness's subjects. 
 
 " The disturbances of Lahore and Gwalior cannot be ascribed to the 
 fact of there having been Dewans attached to those States, though they, 
 perhaps, may be partially due to the Dewans being incapable and 
 unsuitable for the time. 
 
 " His Highness, it is true, has exercised executive rule over this 
 country for three years, and has disbursed two crores of rupees from 
 his private treasury ; but His Highness must pardon me for saying that, 
 with the kindest and most benevolent intentions, he has not succeeded 
 in putting a stop to the sources of disorder and dissension in every part 
 of His Highness's dominions. With respect to the employment of the 
 two crores of rupees, I almost fear to make a remark, but I have never
 
 APPOINTED AT LAST. 211 
 
 yet learned in what manner that great sum has been appropriated, or 
 whai advantage to the State has arisen from its disbursement. 
 
 " No one is more desirous than myself to do what may be agreeable 
 to His Highness, but I should be acting as his bitterest enemy rather 
 than his warmest friend, if I led him to anticipate success from any 
 other arrangement whatever than the immediate appointment of an able, 
 faithful and efficient Dewan, in conformity with the Governor-General'c 
 wish. 
 
 " The accumulation of debt, and the existence of disorder generally 
 throughout the country, which have prevailed during forty years, may 
 possibly be attributed, as His Highness observes, to Maharaja Chundoo 
 Lall ; but if so, it was to the existence of errors and faults on his part, 
 not to the simple fact of his being possessed of the powers of Dewan. 
 
 " The appointment of a Dewan is the preliminary step which must 
 precede any other or more general arrangement for the future better 
 regulation of the affairs of the State." 
 
 At an interview which took place on the 2nd of November 1846, 
 those present being, besides the Nizam himself, his confidential 
 secretary, Eusheed-ool-Moolk, Shums-ool-Oomra (a nobleman of 
 the highest rank, closely allied with the reigning family), Rajah 
 Ram Bnksh the Peshcar, and Sooraj-ool-Moolk, the immediate 
 question being the appointment of the last-mentioned to the office 
 of Dewan, General Fraser, observing that the Nizam still hesitated, 
 did all that was in his power to dispel certain misgivings which he 
 knew had prevented the decisive step being taken. 
 
 " As I had been informed that evil advisers had laboured to poison 
 His Highness's mind regarding Sooraj-ool-Moolk, and to induce him to 
 imagine that my object in proposing his appointment — if eventually I 
 should do so at all — was to give him an opportunity of ultimately sur- 
 rendering the country to the British Government, I took occasion to 
 observe to His Highness that he must be aware that the insinuation was- 
 utterly false and groundless ; and that in the event of Sooraj-ool-Moolk 
 being invested with the office of Dewan, if ever he forgot that his first 
 duty was to his Sovereign, and that the primary object of his future life 
 was to be that of maintaining intact the honour and independence of 
 his country, I should myself be the first to denounce and abandon 
 him." 
 
 The decisive effect in inducing the Nizam to nominate a Dewan 
 produced by Lord Hardinge's letter to His Highness, proved how 
 sound was the Resident's unavailing requisition, repeatedly made 
 to Lord Ellenborough, for the transmission of a letter of that pur- 
 
 P2
 
 212 REMOVAL OF 
 
 port, and how just was the Resident's complaint, that three years 
 had been lost by the delay. " The Nizam has acquainted Sooraj- 
 ool-Moolk in private", wrote General Fraser in November 1846, 
 " that with regard to the appointment of a Dewan he was waiting 
 only until I should myself bring forward the subject, and propose 
 the name of a person whom I considered capable of fulfilling the 
 duties of the office." 
 
 " This increases the very deep regret I cannot but entertain, that the 
 Supreme Government declined the recommendation which I took the 
 liberty of offering three years ago, and which, for the numerous reasons 
 explained by me, I considered so extremely desirable. 
 
 " One of the most prominent of these reasons was, that the influence 
 of Rajah Chundoo Lall was then supposed to be still supreme in the 
 palace — an influence which you remark has been removed by his death. 
 His influence at that time was of the most mischievous nature, being 
 directed not to the good of the country, but solely to the possible fulfil- 
 ment of his own hopes of recovering his lost office. It w T as with this 
 object in view that he did everything in his power to blacken the 
 character of Sooraj-ool-Moolk in the estimation of the Nizam, and to 
 throw obstacles in the way of his nomination. 
 
 " The removal of this dangerous influence was my particular object 
 when I recommended to Lord Ellenborough, in both my official and 
 demi-official communications, to insist promptly and decidedly upon the 
 appointment of an efficient Dewan in succession to Chundoo Lall. 
 
 " I do not presume to place my judgment in opposition to that of the 
 Supreme Government, but I must acknowledge that I never understood 
 the policy then adopted, of which the result has certainly been an increase 
 of the debts of the State, and the loss of three years, which might have 
 been devoted to the improvement of the country." 
 
 In the same letter, General Fraser brings up again the question 
 of measures to be taken for the gradual reduction of the number of 
 foreign Arabs employed in the Nizam's military service, "his views 
 on which point", he observed, " were entirely at variance with those 
 taken by the Supreme Government." 
 
 " I allude to the removal of the Arabs from this country, not to their 
 forcible expulsion, a measure which it is not in my recollection that I 
 ever contemplated. Force could never have been, nor will be, neces- 
 sary, as the commands of the Nizam's Government, and the payment of 
 their just demands, will be quite sufficient to induce the Arabs to 
 withdraw quietly. 
 
 " The expression that has been used of Arab ' colonies ' was never
 
 ARAB MERCENARIES. 213 
 
 less applicable than to the foreign Arabs in the Nizam's country, and 
 it is only this class whose removal I ever thought desirable or intended 
 to propose. So far from colonising, the great mass of these men are in 
 constant movement backwards and forwards between India and Arabia. 
 Their Jemadars and Chieftains usually remain here, and by means of 
 the common soldiery, their devoted adherents, whose attachment and 
 unbounded obedience are secured by their high pay, their privileges, 
 and an almost unbounded license of conduct, they have gradually 
 assumed a mastery in many quarters of the City and districts of the 
 land. 
 
 " I consider the removal of all the foreign mercenaries now in this 
 country, and especially the Arabs, an indispensable step in the restora- 
 tion of order ; and as the present Dewan entertains, I believe, precisely 
 the same opinion on this subject, I beg to be permitted to express 
 a hope that the Governor"- General will not oppose the gradual execution 
 of the measure. 
 
 " I may safely take upon myself the responsibility, assuring his Lord- 
 ship that no military operations will be necessary with this view. The 
 measure will be carried out gradually, in such a way as to render 
 it perfectly safe, and with every due regard to the just demands of the 
 Arabs, and the satisfaction of all their reasonable claims." 
 
 It is eminently worthy of notice that in complete harmony 
 with the character of the negotiations carried on by Eusheed-ool- 
 Moolk with reference to the retirement of Chimdoo Lall, 1 before 
 the appointment of Sooraj-ool-Moolk was settled, there was a con- 
 stant endeavour on the part of the Hyderabad Durbar to make 
 the nomination of that nobleman proceed from the Residency, or 
 at least to extract from General Fraser a distinct avowal that 
 Sooraj-ool-Moolk was the person whom the British Government 
 would prefer, and in whom it placed the highest confidence. His 
 Highness the Nizam, in a letter to Lord Hardinge dated the 12th 
 November 1846, thus describes his grant of the office of Dewan to 
 Sooraj-ool-Moolk during the interview with General Fraser on the 
 2nd of that month. 2 
 
 " I said to that undoubted well-wisher of the nobles of this Court, 
 Major-General James Stuart Fraser Bahadoor, ' Whom do you consider 
 qualified for the appointment of Dewan ? ' This undoubted well-wisher 
 spoke highly of the capacity of that exalted in dignity and rank, that 
 receptacle of courage and excellence, that faithful and wise servant, 
 Sooraj-ool-Moolk Bahadoor, as adapting him for that office. I, there- 
 
 1 Ante, p. 189. 2 Ante, p. 210.
 
 214 SALARY OF THE DEWAN. 
 
 fore, having assented to this, and considering it proper, have elevated 
 the aforesaid Bahadoor to the dignity of Madar-ool-Muham, 1 and have 
 removed the Rajah Bam Buksh Bahadoor, who was in office. Of a 
 certainty, the aforesaid Bahadoor, taking into consideration the extent 
 of my kindness, will always remain faithful, obedient, and submissive 
 to me, and will cause the friendship between the two Governments to 
 increase, and strive by every means in his power to promote the welfare 
 and interests of this Government and the peace and prosperity of its 
 subjects." 
 
 On several occasions previous to the installation of Sooraj-ool- 
 Moolk, General Fraser had observed, in the course of conversation 
 with the Nizam, that the allowance hitherto given to the Dewan 
 or Chief Minister, of one anna in the rupee, or one-sixteenth of the 
 gross revenue collected, was an excessive and unreasonable remu- 
 neration, and such as the finances of the country could not afford. 
 Although His Highness at the time made no observation except 
 that such was the ancient custom, the Eesident's advice was 
 effectual, for, on the appointment of Sooraj-ool-Moolk, the Nizam 
 fixed his salary at 25,000 rupees per mensem, and notified to the 
 General that this reduction had been made. This very large 
 salary, which, as reduced, was rather larger than that of the 
 Viceroy of India, was not, as General Fraser explained, so inordi- 
 nate as it might appear, since it was required to cover many 
 charges and expenses for the maintenance of the Minister's dignity 
 and authority that might well be considered indispensable and of 
 public importance. 
 
 The Government of India did not fail to take notice of the 
 Nizam's apparent wish to record a sort of imputation that the new 
 Dewan, Sooraj-ool-Moolk, was our nominee, and that the late 
 arrangement was due to our dictation. " In His Higlmess's khu- 
 reeta", observes the Governor-General, " the suggestions of the 
 Resident with regard to Shums-ool-Oomra and Sooraj-ool-Moolk 
 are somewhat prominently stated." Lord Hardinge's reply was, 
 therefore, advisedly so worded as to fix the transaction on His 
 Highness, adopted by the advice of the British Government. 
 Undoubtedly, if the late arrangement had been considered as 
 forced upon the Nizam by British interference, the difficulties of 
 Sooraj-ool-Moolk would have been much increased ; and in the 
 
 1 Dewan or Minister.
 
 LORD IIARDINGE'S LETTER. 215 
 
 event of the failure of his administration, the Nizam would have 
 been able to attribute some part of his embarrassments to our 
 agency. 
 
 Chiefly in consequence, no doubt, of the engrossing urgency of 
 Punjaub affairs, before and after the Sutlej campaign, the Resident 
 received few private letters from the Governor-General, and such 
 attention as was given to Hyderabad affairs at headquarters 
 appears, from internal evidence afforded by the official documents, 
 to have been given more by the Members of Council and Secre- 
 taries than by Lord Hardinge himself. Here is one letter of this 
 period from the Governor-General : — 
 
 " Simla, August 23rd, 1847. 
 " My dear Sir, — I have received your letter of the 22nd July, relating 
 to Captain Newbold. If, as I hope, I can do anything this autumn for 
 Captain Newbold, the nephew of a most distinguished officer of the 
 Bombay Army, I shall have much pleasure in leaving the selection of 
 his successor to you, but in these days of reduction I am anxious to 
 avoid making any augmentation involving expense. Captain Newbold 
 seems to be an officer of merit, and of great personal energy. I return 
 his letter. 
 
 " I move from Simla the end of October, so as to be at Cawnpore 
 the first week in November, and thence by Lucknow to Calcutta. 
 
 " On this frontier everything is perfectly quiet. The Maha-Ranee is 
 behaving ill at Lahore in every respect : and as the Boy' 2 is now past 
 eight years of age, I must separate him from the evil example and 
 tuition of such a mother. 
 
 " I am, my dear General, 
 
 " Tours very faithfully, 
 
 " Hardinge." 
 
 The period immediately following the installation of Sooraj-ool- 
 Moolk as Minister, after much persuasion and pressure from the 
 Eesident, was, of course, a period in which the clear and manifest 
 approbation of the Supreme Government of India to the earliest 
 measures of reform and economy attempted by the new Adminis- 
 tration would have been invaluable, and was, indeed, almost indis- 
 pensable to give it a fair chance of success. Some expression of 
 marked approval and sympathy, some words of hearty encourage- 
 ment, and some promise of support, in a form that could be 
 appropriately communicated to the Durbar, was earnestly solicited 
 
 1 The Maharajah Dhuleep Singh.
 
 216 SCRUPLES OF 
 
 by the Resident, and anxiously expected both by him and the 
 Dewan. Only by thus making it known in the circles where 
 intrigue and rivalry prevailed, that the new Minister would be at 
 least as warmly sustained by the Supreme Government as Chundoo 
 Lall had been, could the opposing forces begotten by forty years 
 of corruption be kept within bounds, and prevented from thwarting 
 every beneficial innovation. But partly by the settled practice of 
 the Calcutta authorities, partly by an accident, negligently and 
 tardily treated at headquarters, no such message of goodwill and 
 approval came in good time to help the Resident and the Minister 
 in their earliest and most critical proceedings. 
 
 The Nawab Sooraj-ool-Moolk had been appointed Minister on 
 the 7th of November 184-G, and in conformity with precedent had 
 addressed a khureeta, or letter of ceremony, to the Governor- 
 General, announcing his appointment. To this no reply was 
 vouchsafed, and no explanation of the apparent breach of etiquette 
 was given. This omission, as General Fraser urged in a letter 
 dated 11th July 1847, soon became " publicly known, and was 
 most detrimental to the Minister"; for, as the Resident went on to 
 explain, " this Durbar narrowly watches for signs of approval or 
 disapproval by the Government of India, and has drawn an un- 
 favourable augury from the withholding of the usual compliments 
 on Sooraj-ool-Moolk's installation." " Moreover", added the Resi- 
 dent, — 
 
 " Any obvious want of support and countenance on the part of the 
 British Government is likely to be more especially injurious to him in 
 his financial transactions with Soucars ; as the least apparent instability 
 in the office he holds, and any apprehension, either of his removal, or 
 of his being forced by circumstances to resign, would naturally render 
 those persons cautious of engaging in financial opei-ations under a 
 Government like this, where it by no means follows that each Adminis- 
 tration takes upon itself the responsibility of the conduct and acts of 
 that which has preceded it." 
 
 In August 1847, just eight months after the date of Sooraj-ool- 
 Moolk's khureeta, came the explanation, in a despatch dated the 
 4th of that month, of the delay in acknowledging and answering 
 that complimentary address. The reasons given may be considered 
 as perfectly sound and sufficient, and if they had been promptly 
 and privately communicated to the Resident, the style and terms
 
 ETIQUETTE. 217 
 
 of the Minister's epistle, to which exception was taken, could 
 easily have been modified, the original withdrawn, and a corrected 
 form substituted. But the substantial mischief was done by delay, 
 and the long delay prevented the formal rectification. This is 
 what the Government wrote on the subject: — 
 
 " The reasons for withholding this compliment were not personal 
 to the Dewan, although it was considered that the style of address 
 to the Governor-General, of whom he declares himself ' the friend 
 and well-wisher', was not quite befitting the station occupied by 
 the writer. The circumstances of India have greatly altered since 
 his predecessor, Meer Allum, received the address forty years ago, 
 which is now cited as a precedent ; and the relative position of the 
 Governor-General of India and the Minister of Hyderabad renders 
 it no longer advisable that the representative of the British 
 Government should be addressed in terms approaching equality by 
 the Minister of a protected and subsidised State." 
 
 With singular inaccuracy, the Hyderabad State is here said to 
 be " subsidised", when, in fact, it had never received any subsidy, 
 though it did for many years receive, tribute from the East India 
 Company, but had always paid for a Subsidiary Force, so that our 
 Government was the " subsidised State". But with this exception 
 the political argument of the despatch is quite reasonable, and had 
 already been admitted by the Hyderabad State, and acted upon in 
 1829 at the accession of the Nizam Nasir-ood-Dowla, who was 
 still on the throne in 1846. Up to his installation, in consequence 
 of the independent sovereignty of the Nizam and the tributary 
 relations of the East India Company, dating from their earliest 
 connection, the Governor-General had styled himself "nii/dz7nund", 
 or " petitioner", in his correspondence, while the ruler of Hyderabad 
 adopted the term " ma ba Doivlut", or "our royalty". 1 These terms 
 were very properly changed at this convenient opportunity into 
 terms of perfect equality, and there can be no doubt that at the 
 same time a more appropriate style of correspondence for the 
 Dewan ought to have been settled. Owing to the fact, however, 
 that Rajah Chundoo Lall, though vested with full powers, had 
 
 1 During the reign of Secunder Jah, it was proposed to give the style of 
 " Royal Highness" to the Nizam, and considering that this is allowed to a 
 Grand Duke in Europe, it would not be an unreasonable distinction for the 
 Sovereign ruler of ten millions of subjects.
 
 218 FORCE NO REMEDY. 
 
 never received the patent of Dewan, and had, therefore, never 
 assumed any higher dignity than that of Peshcar, this was over- 
 looked. The rectification could easily have been made, and the 
 matter placed on a right footing, if a demi-official communication 
 had been made to the Resident when the objection first arose ; 
 but the mistake, with mischievous consequences, was made of 
 neither offering nor demanding any explanation, and leaving the 
 Minister's letter for more than half a year unnoticed. 
 
 General Eraser's painful experience throughout his long occu- 
 pancy of the post of Resident was, as in this instance, that, except 
 where the pay and permanence of the Contingent were involved, 
 the Government of India could not be roused to take any interest 
 in Hyderabad affairs, or to give any serious aid, even by its counsels, 
 to the internal reform of that important State. 
 
 The Government of India apparently disbelieved in its own 
 moral influence, hankered after material force, and, in spite of 
 General Fraser's assurances that force was not the remedy re- 
 quired, avowedly waited for leisure and opportunity to intimidate 
 or to coerce. " The Punjauh. is in commotion," — " we are really 
 not ready to act," — " one thing at a time," — such, as will have 
 been seen, was the staple of the objections made to the Resident's 
 proposals for opportune admonition, or for prompt support and 
 encouragement, in the form of letters from the Governor- General 
 to the Nizam, or to his newly-appointed Minister. But not only 
 was there this hesitation to resort to distinct and specific acts of 
 persuasion and advice at the proper moment, so that several ines- 
 timable opportunities were thrown away, — not only were the pay 
 of the Contingent, and any method for securing it, the only points 
 on which a lively interest was manifested at Calcutta, — but the 
 means, both administrative and personal, for the improvement of 
 the Hyderabad State and country, devised and sought out by 
 General Eraser, were usually neglected until it was too late, or 
 were absolutely rejected. 
 
 For example, although the Nizam, his Minister, and his con- 
 fidential advisers, had (lie greatest aversion to anything like the 
 actual supersession of His Highness's rule by European adminis- 
 tration, even in the mitigated form of Assistants or Superin- 
 tendents, responsible only to the Resident, as established for some 
 years by Sir Charles Metcalfe, they had no rooted prejudice
 
 ME. HENRY DIGHTON. 219 
 
 against the employment of English gentlemen in positions of 
 authority and trust, so long as they were distinctly servants of the 
 Hyderabad State, and only informally connected with the Resi- 
 dency. The special qualifications of English engineers and experts 
 in various departments had always been recognised under the 
 Nizam's Government, as in the present day ; and in such matters 
 the advice of a Resident who, like General Eraser, had made him- 
 self personally popular, and had gained the confidence of the 
 Durbar, was, within the limits just mentioned, almost conclusive. 
 From the time that General Eraser had taken charge of the 
 Residency in 1838, he had always derived much information as to 
 Hyderabad affairs, the mode of administration, and the condition 
 of the people, from Mr. Henry Dighton, a gentleman who had 
 been engaged in banking and mercantile pursuits in the Nizam's 
 dominions for more than twenty years, was a proficient in the 
 Persian and Hindustani languages, and enjoyed the respect and 
 esteem of all classes, both English and Native. Mr. Dighton, the 
 son of a General Officer in the Bengal Army, well bred and well 
 connected, had always been well received at the Residency. He 
 had come originally to Hyderabad as an assistant in the house of 
 Palmer and Co., but left them before their controversy with Sir 
 Charles Metcalfe began, and set up in business on his own account. 
 He had frequently been employed by the Nizam's Government in 
 special offices and contracts, and was thoroughly acquainted with 
 the revenue system and the various tenures of land. In his des- 
 patches and private letters to headquarters, General Fraser had 
 frequently mentioned his confidence in Mr. Dighton, and his obli- 
 gations to that gentleman for timely and useful intelligence. In 
 the projected reorganisation of the revenue, police, and judicial 
 system, the General was extremely desirous, with the full concur- 
 rence of Sooraj-ool-Moolk and the Nizam, that the Hyderabad 
 State should have the great advantages of Mr. Dighton's services. 
 Under Article VI of the Treaty of 1798, " no Europeans what- 
 ever" were to "be admitted into the service of the State, or per- 
 mitted to remain within its territories, without the knowledge and 
 consent of the Company's Government." By virtue of this Article, 
 the Government of India was empowered to forbid the employ- 
 ment of Mr. Dighton as Zillahdar, or Commissioner of one of the 
 Nizam's provinces, and the appointment was forbidden. The
 
 220 MR DIGHTON 
 
 Resident had hoped that, with his advice and support, and under 
 Mr. Dighton's management, this one province might become a 
 model for the reform of the whole country. By the refusal to 
 sanction this experiment, the whole scheme of reform was un- 
 hinged, and the influence and authority both of the Minister and 
 tlic I iVsident were grievously shaken, from, their obvious inability 
 to command the support of the Government of India. 
 
 Of course, the reasons given for this refusal in despatches from 
 Calcutta were plausible enough, and in conformity with precedent, 
 but their insufficiency must surely be clear in presence of the fact 
 that the Sovereign, the Minister, and the British Resident were all 
 of one accord as to the expediency of employing Mr. Dighton. It 
 may here be mentioned that eventually Mr. Dighton was employed, 
 with the sanction of the next Governor-General, Lord Dalhousie. 
 When the ostentatious, undeviating, and indiscriminate support of 
 Chundoo Lall for more than thirty years is considered, the fol- 
 lowing plea for not openly supporting Sooraj-ool-Moolk can hardly 
 appear sound or consistent. 
 
 " The Governor- General will .at all times be ready to give his cordial 
 support to an upright Minister, but you are aware that it is not politic 
 to make too public a display of partiality or protection towards the 
 Minister of a Native Prince. The Nawab Sooraj-ool-Moolk has him- 
 self declared to you that the artifice used by bis opponent to dissuade 
 the Nizam from appointing him to be the Dewan, was by insinuating 
 that he had no other object in view than to introduce English institu- 
 tions into the country ; and his Lordship desires that you will bear in 
 mind the principle already laid down by my predecessor, and that you 
 will be cautious not to alarm the suspicions of the Nizam by your 
 appearing to be the author, and his Minister the instrument, of great 
 innovations in His Highness's territories, and more especially as the 
 Dewan owes his appointment to your recommendation." 
 
 Here is, in fact, a prohibition against the use of British influence 
 for the promotion of reforms. Sooraj-ool-Moolk's "opponent" was 
 dead ; his "artifices" had been exposed ; the Nizam's "suspicions", 
 far from being "alarmed", were set at rest. All this was the laborious 
 result of General Fraser's patience, tact, and judgment, and he was 
 forbidden to turn it to account for the benefit of the Hyderabad 
 State and of a people numbering more than ten millions. 
 
 " The same observation applies with equal force to your advocacy of 
 Mr. Dighton's merits, your urging his appointment to be the Zillahdar
 
 PROSCRIBED. 221 
 
 of a large district, and your recommending the Governor-General to 
 reconsider the orders he has given respecting Mr. Dighton's exclusion 
 from employment. His Lordship has no reason whatever to doubt 
 thai Mr. Dighton is all that you represent him to be, and a gentleman 
 whom, under ordinary circumstances, it would be expedient to invest 
 with large authority in the Nizam's territories ; but there exists on the 
 records of Government a distinct order against his employment, not 
 directed personally against him, but applicable to any other British 
 subject similarly situated ; and even if this order did not exist, his 
 intimacy at the Residency would be an obvious objection, a sufficient 
 bar to his employment in a situation under the Dewan, and still more 
 so in the highly responsible situation which it was proposed to confer 
 upon Mr. Dighton. 
 
 " These allegations of intimacy, which his Lordship hesitated to 
 receive as perfectly true, have now been confirmed by your own ad- 
 mission, and by your earnest appeal on behalf of Mr. Dighton." 
 
 How General Eraser could be justified in recommending for a 
 responsible and important situation any person beyond the official 
 circle with whom he was not intimately acquainted, is not by any 
 means clear. Mr. Dighton's intimacy at the Resident's house 
 meant that he was a gentleman by birth, manners, and education, 
 and that his character was unimpeachable. 
 
 The despatch concluded with the following complimentary 
 remarks, which, including as they did a reiterated rejection of all 
 interference with the Nizam's administration except in what was 
 evidently suggested would be some extreme crisis demanding 
 military coercion, can hardly have been satisfactory to the Resi- 
 dent. 
 
 '• The Governor-General desires that you will adhere to the instruc- 
 tions in which you are informed that if the interference of the British 
 Government shall be imperatively required, you will receive your 
 instructions from the Government. His Lordship is confident that in 
 carrying into effect a line of policy which confessedly has its difficulties, 
 from the peculiar nature of our Treaties with the Nizam, that its 
 execution cannot be entrusted to abler hands than yours, his Lordship 
 having had the satisfaction on various occasions of expi-essing his 
 approbation of your conduct under circumstances which called for the 
 exercise of much discretion." 
 
 Although General Fraser deprecated the notion of military force 
 being required for the introduction of improvements in the Nizam's
 
 222 THE LINE 
 
 administration, he was not slow to give the aid of the troops at his 
 disposal for the preservation of good order, or for its restoration 
 when it was disturbed. Singularly enough, his proceedings met 
 with a somewhat cold reception by the Government of India on 
 the solitary occasion during his long tenure of office when he gave 
 the aid of the Subsidiary Force, in conformity with the provisions 
 of the Treaty, to maintain the Minister's authority when threatened 
 by a mutiny in the City of Hyderabad. 
 
 On the 4th January 1847, Sooraj-ool-Moolk writes to the Resi- 
 dent explaining that he is about to discharge more than 6,000 of 
 the irregular troops, after paying up their arrears. " The monthly 
 pay of the Bolarum troops" (the Contingent), he observes, "is on 
 an average 335,000 rupees." " Whatever reductions I have made, 
 or purpose making, have reference to the understanding that the 
 troops of the Contingent are now protecting the territories of this 
 Government, and will continue to do so. From an inspection of a 
 map of this country, it appears that the cantonments of the troops 
 in question in Berar are well situated, but towards the East there 
 are none. It, therefore, appears necessary that a cantonment of 
 Cavalry and Infantry should e be established in the Wurrungul 
 province, in some vicinity which may be selected by you." In 
 reporting this matter to Government, the General says : — 
 
 " It will be observed that I have consented to station a regiment 
 of Infantry and a squadron of Cavalry at Wurrungul. The Nizam 
 pays forty lakhs of rupees per annum on account of the Con- 
 tingent, and he may not unreasonably expect, especially under the 
 circumstances of the great reductions now made in the number of 
 his own irregular troops, that the services of the Contingent should 
 be rendered available for the maintenance of tranquillity through- 
 out the whole of his dominions." 
 
 In May 1847, there were nearly 10,000 half-disciplined troops 
 in the City of Hyderabad, called the " Bar" or " Line", and the 
 Minister had made all his arrangements for the discharge of 6,000 
 of these men. On the 1st of May, the Minister informed the 
 Resident that the men to be discharged refused to take their pay, 
 or to give up their arms, and that they had been joined by all the 
 rest of the " Line", who had placed their own Commandants 
 under arrest, and insisted on all being equally paid up their arrears 
 of pay, when, they said, all, if required, would take their discharge.
 
 MUTINY. 223 
 
 On the 3rd of May, the mutiny being still unabated, and the 
 Minister's own life having been threatened, he applied for military 
 assistance. The Eesident at] once ordered a force, consisting of 
 four companies of H.M. 84th Foot, two regiments of Madras 
 Native Infantry, and a detachment of Madras Artillery with four 
 nine-pounder guns, first to a spot called the Foundry, about a mile 
 and a half from the City walls, and after an ineffectual endeavour 
 to bring the " Line- wallahs" to reason through messages to their 
 Commandants, who were held by them in durance, the General 
 took possession of the Delhi gate of the City, " an excellent situa- 
 tion", he reported, " in a military point of view, for I might have 
 held it not only against the mutinous battalions of the Line, but, 
 if necessary, against the whole City of Hyderabad." 
 
 The General was prepared, after two days of inconclusive nego- 
 tiations, to march upon the mutinous troops in their central strong- 
 hold, and took care to have them apprised of his determination. 
 This led to their submission and return to obedience on the 7th of 
 May ; the measures of reduction were carried out ; and the troops 
 of the Subsidiary Force withdrawn to the cantonment of Secunder- 
 abad on Saturday, the 8th of May 1847. 
 
 After a long correspondence, in which the Government of India 
 maintained for some time its doubts as to the necessity for the 
 brief occupation of one of the City gates by the Subsidiary troops, 
 a final approval was at last given to the Resident's proceedings. 
 
 Tired out at last, and I may say provoked, by the apathy and 
 obstruction with which all his efforts for the good of the Nizam's 
 dominions were received at the official capital of India, very 
 strong and indignant language was used by General Fraser in 
 some of his official communications. In the course of a despatch 
 dated the 11th of July 1847, and extending to no less than 136 
 paragraphs, he observes that the Government " seems to anticipate 
 failure and disappointment". 
 
 " This failure", he says, " is all but a moral certainty, if Sooraj- 
 ool-Moolk meets on one side with nothing but the vacillation of 
 his own Sovereign" — a vacillation caused, of course, by his doubts 
 as to the Resident's influence at Calcutta, — " and on the other 
 with the disapproving judgment and feeble or reluctant support 
 of the Government of India." In another letter, dated the 18th 
 of August, he complains that he is "placed in a position in which
 
 224 LETTERS TO DIRECTORS. 
 
 lie must fail in working out any object of real utility, either to 
 his own Government or to that to which he is accredited." 
 
 Naturally, the authorities at headquarters could not allow 
 remonstrances of this character, however unanswerable, to pass 
 unrebuked. The Resident was told that he must attend "to the 
 orders he had already received". General Fraser, just at this 
 period, explained his perplexities, and his very natural doubts as 
 to the real intentions of the Government of India, in letters to two 
 friends in the Court of Directors, Sir James Law Lushington, the 
 Chairman, and Major Oliphant. To the former he wrote a very 1< mg 
 letter, dated the 25th of October 1847, from which I shall give 
 some extracts. 
 
 " Improvement in Hyderabad has not progressed. I lament that 
 such should be the case, as there is no inherent necessity that it should 
 be so. A little decision on the part of the Supreme Government, and 
 its assent to the measures I have recommended, would have been 
 sufficient. It is to this subject I wish to attract your attention, and to 
 obtain, if possible, the assent of the Court to some policy of their own 
 devising, if not of mine, which may correct the evils of this Govern- 
 ment, in the shame of which I may perhaps be made to participate, 
 though I do not deserve it. I wish to induce the Court either to act 
 with some vigour in this matter, or to acknowledge that they do not 
 care to save the Nizam, and that he must be considered as bearing the 
 exclusive responsibility of the ruin to which the Hyderabad State is 
 hastening. The proceedings of the Resident here, to that extent only 
 which has hitherto been sanctioned, cannot be of any use. A higher 
 tone must be adopted to be of service. A continuance of its present 
 course by the Supreme Government will involve this country in the 
 fate of Mysore. 
 
 "We are bound under the obligation of Treaties to maintain the 
 independence of this and of several other Native States ; and until the 
 Treaties are infringed by the Princes themselves, or the safety of our 
 own provinces is in danger, we are bound to uphold them. All I wish 
 is that this should be done effectually, — and in such a manner as to be 
 at once consistent with the prosperity of the Native State, and with 
 the general advancement of the Indian Empire in the path of good 
 order and reform. It is not possible that so large a portion of India as 
 the Nizam's country should be in a bad way, without the adjacent dis- 
 tricts being injuriously affected. We can adhere to our Treaties in 
 perfect good faith, and yet insist at the same time that the sustained 
 independence of Hyderabad shall not impede the equally sacred obliga- 
 tion under which we ai'e placed, not to allow our military protection of
 
 DELIBERATE INACTIOX. 225 
 
 the Nizam to involve as a necessary consequence the misery and help- 
 lessness of his people. We must not allow a barrier to be raised 
 against the advancement of India in general in the ill-regulated con- 
 dition of this particular State. In the measures I have continuously 
 proposed, the ulterior object has not only been a better administration 
 for Hyderabad, but beneficial results for our own territory. Unhappily, 
 in ;il most all instances, I have been prohibited not only from active 
 interposition, but from interposition at all. I need not enter into par- 
 ticulars. The evils of the Hyderabad Government, and the state of 
 disorder generally prevailing through the country, must have been 
 sufficiently well known to the Court of Directors when I was first sent 
 here by Lord Auckland. These evils remain as they were to this day. 
 Can it be the intention of the Court of Directors that they should 
 remain so until some crisis arrives which may afford a pretext for placing 
 the Nizam's country under a Commission, with our ti'ain of English 
 Judges and Collectors ? I cannot believe this to be the intention of 
 the Court, and if not, surely means ought to be adopted which may 
 avert these consequences. Correction becomes more difficult by every 
 day that we remain inactive. The Government of India has in general 
 expressed its concurrence in my views and wishes regarding the 
 Nizam's affairs, but not in the measures which I have recommended as 
 alone likely to accomplish those views. • If my suggestions are deemed 
 objectionable, let others be brought forward. Let me be favoured with 
 commands, which I promise to execute, but let not the only commands 
 be — to do nothing. This deliberate inaction appears to me to be as 
 dishonourable to us as it is injurious to the Nizam. 
 
 " I know not whether I am altogether right in addressing you a 
 private letter on this subject, considering your official position, and 
 perhaps I ought not to expect any reply to it. If you send me no 
 answer, I shall attribute your silence to no other cause than official 
 propriety. But if it be possible for you to let me know, or even to give 
 me a hint, however faint, of what really are the intentions of the Court 
 of Directors with regard to this important State, I shall be infinitely 
 obliged. I know that much useful work ought to be done, and can be 
 done here ; and I know that its accomplishment would be attended by 
 no extraordinary difficulties, were I not forcibly restrained and obliged, 
 by distinct orders, to remain in a state of unprofitable inactivity. 
 
 " On the 18th of August last I addressed a letter to the Supreme 
 (■overnment, recommending a certain communication to be made to the 
 Nizam ; and a few days ago I received a reply which contains the fol- 
 lowing words : — ' It is not necessary for the Governor-Grneral to pass in 
 review the reasons which of late years have influenced the Court of 
 Directors and the Government of India to decline the adoption of your 
 recommendations, nor at the present moment to enter into lengthy dis- 
 
 Q
 
 226 N" DECIDED WARNING. 
 
 cussions of the policy to which, probably at no distant period, it may be 
 advisable to resort. His Lordship will merely observe that the financial 
 embarrassments of the Nizam may. in spite of the warnings given 
 to His Highness, and the liberal aid afforded, bring about a crisis which 
 may render our interposition necessary ; in which event you will 
 receive your instructions from the Government on what, in his Lord- 
 ship's opinion, would be a much more important consideration than 
 maintaining the independence of the Nizam, if the oppression of the 
 people should, by increasing acts of tyranny, become so intolerable as 
 to expose the British Government to the just reproach of not fulfilling 
 its obligations to the subjects of His Highness which they have a 
 right to expect from the Paramount Power.' " 
 
 And here it is absolutely necessary for me to remark that 
 neither had the Resident reported "increasing acts of tyranny" or 
 " intolerable oppression", nor were there any signs or symptoms 
 whatever of " the people", " the subjects of His Highness", ex- 
 pecting .or invoking the intervention of "the Paramount Power". 
 Strangely enough, this is virtually admitted in the very next 
 sentence. 
 
 " ' It does not appear, however, from your recent communications 
 that the misgovernment of His Highness's dominions has as yet been 
 productive of such extortion and cruelty as to render the immediate 
 interference of the Government necessary. At this peculiar moment, 
 therefore, when the head of the Government will not remain in India a 
 sufficient time to superintend the introduction of any new line of policy 
 which circumstances might render it advisable for the Government to 
 adopt, there appears to be no urgent necessity for any modification of 
 the instructions which you have already received, and to which you are 
 desired to conform.' 
 
 "I quote this paragraph," continues General Fraser, "in order 
 specially to notice the expression ' in spite of the warnings given to 
 His Highness'. Now, I assert that sufficiently decided warnings 
 never have been given to the Nizam, and it was to supply this want 
 that I recommended to the Supreme Government the communication 
 to His Highness, of which a draft was sent with my despatch of the 
 18th of August above mentioned." 
 
 To Major Oliphant he wrote as follows : — 
 
 "Hyderabad, 7th October 1847. 
 " Mt eJeae Major Oliphant, — The favourable disposition towards me, 
 which I have reason to believe you have sometimes done me the favour
 
 LETTER TO OLIPIIANT. 227 
 
 to express, and the concern you naturally take in the affairs of Hydera- 
 bad, prompt me to write a few lines to thank you for the former, and 
 to state my regret that the latter are not such as I should wish them to 
 be, or such as for some time after my arrival here I fully expected they 
 would be, very long before the expiration of the nine years during 
 which I have been unprofitably contending against the corruption of 
 this Durbar and the opposition of my own Government. I must not 
 presume to censure the Government, but its policy has always been at 
 direct variance with what I have recommended, and still continues to 
 be so. I should rather say its management and course of procedure, for 
 its policy and its views are professedly the same as my own, viz., the 
 maintenance of His Highness's independence, and the reform of His 
 Highness's administration. 
 
 " It would be in vain for me to enter here into the particulars of my 
 fruitless recommendations, as my public correspondence on these mat- 
 ters occupies many volumes. I must be satisfied with saying that I 
 have been pressing upon my own Government the adoption of a more 
 firm and decided tone with the Nizam, so as to save the State from 
 utter downfall and ruin by measures for the amelioration of his Govern- 
 ment, and to bi'ing about, as a matter of course, a superior degree of 
 happiness and prosperity for the people of the country. But my 
 Government has always insisted upon stopping short of the determined 
 language in which I wished the Nizam should be addressed. Different 
 reasons for this have been given by different persons at different times. 
 At first, from motives of humanity and old connections, they desired to 
 wait until that impracticable old man, Chundoo Lall, should quit this 
 mortal scene. On Chundoo Lall's resignation, the next Governor- 
 General, Lord Ellenborough, though he approved generally of my in- 
 tentions, was too much occupied with his own enterprises in the 
 North-West, Scinde and Gwalior, to attend to the affairs of Hyderabad, 
 and acquainted me with his desire to wait for a more convenient time. 
 This principle of action, or rather of inaction, he carried to so great an 
 extent as even to prohibit my demanding the discontinuance of the 
 horrible rite of Suttee, which I could have carried into effect at least 
 three years before this was actually done, had I been permitted to 
 do so. 
 
 " In the same way the expulsion of the Arabs and other foreign mer- 
 cenaries, whose presence here has been so injurious for a long series of 
 years, might have been accomplished, if I could have inspired the 
 Government of India with the requisite determination and energy on 
 this subject. 
 
 " Everything else that I had planned might in a similar manner have 
 been done, and the Hyderabad country might at this moment have 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 INCONSISTENT INSTRUCTIONS. 
 
 been progressing pari passd with Mysore, or any other well-regulated 
 State, and long ere this a general system of reformed administration 
 might have been established. But the Governor-General, as I have 
 said above, was otherwise occupied, and I could not prevail on him to 
 act, or to attend to Hyderabad affairs. He thought that force alone 
 was requisite, and told me that his troops were engaged elsewhere. 
 It was in vain that I assured him they would not be wanted. No 
 military force would ever have been required ; but even if it had been, 
 I had in the Contingent and the Subsidiary Force more than enough to 
 overcome any resistance that could possibly have been offered any- 
 where. I repeat, however, that such a contingency was not for one 
 instant to be apprehended. 
 
 " The present Governor-General, deterred, perhaps, by the fear of 
 counteraction at home, or by some other motives I cannot fathom, 
 pauses and hesitates when we ought to be moving on. He permitted 
 me, after I had been urging the point for three years, to insist upon 
 the appointment of a Minister. But the advantage of the appointment 
 of a Dewan has been nullified by the same hesitating and undecided 
 spirit of which I have already complained. He is not supported by 
 the Supreme Government, but quite the reverse ; and with every 
 corrupt agency in active operation at Hyderabad to put him down, 
 besides the unfavourable disposition of the Supreme Government to 
 contend against, it is utterly impossible he should succeed. The deter- 
 mination of the Governor-General to allow the Nizam to have his own 
 way, leaving him to glide down the slope that leads to destruction, I 
 will not venture to dilate upon, because I could hardly avoid being 
 disrespectful to the Government I serve ; but I may at least be per- 
 mitted to say that I know not how to reconcile the instructions of 
 Government with its declared wish to maintain the independence of 
 the Hyderabad State. While professing to uphold Treaties that sub- 
 sist between us and the Nizam, resolutions are adopted by the Bengal 
 Government which must necessarily produce a disruption of our pre- 
 sent relations with the Nizam, and the downfall of his independence. 
 
 " I hope that the Court of Directors will do me the justice to form a 
 judgment of my proceedings here from my own despatches, and not 
 from the malignant representations that I know are sent from here to 
 the India House, or which find their way into the newspapers. 
 
 " I am quite ashamed of inflicting so long a letter upon you, though 
 I have abstained from going into details or explaining particular points. 
 All my counsels have had but one object and one tendency, the main- 
 tenance of Hyderabad as an independent State, with ameliorated forms 
 and rules of administration. If I might be permitted to adduce one 
 case that has affected me most painfully, it would be the recent pro-
 
 SIR GEORGE BERKELEY'S VISIT. 229 
 
 hibition of the Supreme Government to the official employment of 
 Mr. Dighton. 
 
 " Under all the circumstances and special causes that led me to 
 consider his employment desirable, and the particular conjuncture 
 of events which induced to advocate his employment and to ask for 
 the sanction of Government, the refusal of Government is a matter 
 that I cannot sufficiently regret. The case is, I believe, under reference 
 to the Court of Directors. It may seem to that authority but a small 
 matter in itself, and the Court may decide on adhering to the rule 
 determined by Lord William Bentinck many years ago regarding the 
 non-employment of any other than the Company's covenanted and 
 commissioned servants. I can only say that if the case is thus dis- 
 posed of, the chances are much increased that we shall soon be under 
 the necessity of having recourse to Lord William's alternative, and be 
 obliged to call for the services not of one but of twenty covenanted 
 servants, or in other words, to take the whole country under British 
 administration. I have wished to avoid this, because I consider it to 
 be in opposition to existing Treaties, and that no case has yet occurred 
 to justify their abrogation. The Government of India have professed 
 to entertain the same views, but its practice will lead, I fear, to a 
 directly opposite result. I have endeavoured to do my duty, and if the 
 hopes I entertained when I first came to Hyderabad are baffled, I shall 
 have the consolation of reflecting that the fault has not been mine, 
 and that I have failed from the pressure of a superior authority which 
 it was impossible for me to resist. 
 
 " I remain, my dear Major Oliphant, 
 
 " Yours very sincerely, 
 
 " J. S. Fraser." 
 
 There was some little excitement and interest at the Nizam's 
 Court in the month of October 1847, on the occasion of a visit, in 
 the course of a tour of inspection which embraced the canton- 
 ment of Secunderabad, from the Commander-in-Chief of the 
 Madras Army, Sir George Berkeley. Many years had elapsed 
 since any Commander-in-Chief had attended one of the Nizam's 
 Durbars, and there were great searchings of heart as to the forms 
 to be observed, the ceremonial presents to be made, and on our 
 side, as will be seen from the following letter, as to the disposal 
 of those presents by the dignitary to whom they were to be 
 offered.
 
 230 NO PRESENTS TO BE KEPT. 
 
 " Umritsur, November 23rd, 1847. 
 
 "My dear General, — I am afraid that you have been waiting a 
 reply to your letter of the 7th ultimo, and that the occasion has 
 already passed, on the subject of which you wrote to me. I have only 
 just returned to Camp after a tour in the Hills, and found your letter 
 waiting my arrival. 
 
 " The Governor-General says there is no objection to the course 
 usual up here being followed upon the occasion of Sir George Ber- 
 keley's visit to the Nizam, which means that everything that is pre- 
 sented to him must be carried to the credit of Government, and nothing 
 whatever retained by the Commander-in-Chief, unless he chooses to 
 purchase it. 
 
 " The Governor-General presumes that a visit of ceremony only is 
 contemplated, not one of business, as that he could not sanction. 
 " Believe me, yours very sincerely, 
 
 " H. M. Elliot." 
 
 And so, amid the consideration of solemn trifles of this descrip- 
 tion, the rule of Lord Hardinge terminated, and in January 1848, 
 his brilliant successor, the Earl of Dalhousie, entered on his memor- 
 able term of office.
 
 23] 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Arrival of Lord Dalhousie — Illness of the General's Daughter— Six Months 
 Leave to Sea and the Straits — Letter to the Governor-General's Military 
 Secretary and his Answer — General Fraser's Marriage in 1826 — Growth 
 of his Family — Letters to the Rajah of Mysore and Travancore — 
 Routine of Work and Daily Life at the Residency — Interview of Mr. 
 Dighton with Lord Dalhousie, and Letter to General Fraser — Colonel 
 Low at the Residency — Letter from Sir James Law Lushington — Reply 
 of Colonel Low — Return of General Fraser — Letter of Colonel Low 
 from Calcutta— Financial Difficulties insurmountable— Opposition to 
 Sooraj-ool-Moolk — Conflicting Views as to the Contingent. 
 
 With Lord Dalhousie's arrival there almost necessarily followed a 
 brief period of uneventful suspense, while the new Governor- 
 General may be supposed to have been making himself master of 
 the situation, and of all personal details and pending debates in 
 the various regions and principal departments of the vast Imperial 
 administration over which he was called to preside. Moreover, 
 within two months of Lord Dalhousie's installation, General Fraser 
 was obliged, for the first and only time in fifty years, to apply for 
 leave " on urgent private affairs." Chiefly on account of his 
 daughter's health, who required change of air after a serious illness, 
 he obtained six months' leave to " sea and the Straits", and left 
 Hyderabad on the 3rd of March 1848, to embark from Madras; 
 Colonel John Low being appointed to officiate as Eesident during 
 his absence. On the day of his departure the General wrote the 
 following letter to Lord Dalhousie's Military Secretary, Colonel 
 Armine Mountain. 
 
 " Hyderabad, 3rd March 1848. 
 
 " My dear Sir, — It has not been usual for the Resident here to send 
 up to the Governor- General the review and inspection returns of the 
 Contingent, though I did so once or twice in Lord Hardingc's time 
 with respect to the cavalry brigade. 
 
 " But as Lord Dalhousie may be desirous of knowing the present
 
 - ' 
 
 ad rluit those arc the Erst reports 
 1 hav Brig dier Beatson, I do myself the pleasure ot" 
 
 sending theru to you in order that you way take any favourable oppor- 
 tunity - irting them to Lord Dalhousie. 
 
 " It is gratifying to me to have this opportunity of recalling nr 5 
 
 :;■:•. as t had the pleasure of being introduced to your 
 acquaintance at Bangalore previously to the expedition into I 
 and if I may be allowed to hope the favour of a few lines from you 
 during my residence at the Straits. 1 would request you to be SO g 
 
 m at the same time whether Lord Dalhousie will have 
 jeetion to my returning to Hyderabad by way of Calcutta, with 
 a view to my paying my respects in person to his Lordship. I leave 
 Hyderabad with my daughter this evening, and much regret that any- 
 thing should oblige me to absent myself even for a day. under the actual 
 circumstances of the Government. But the ease is an imperative one. 
 and it has been impossible for me to act otherwise. I have applied for 
 six months' leave of absence, but I intend to shorten the period as much 
 as I can. and to return to Hyderabad as soon as the termination of the 
 hot, dry weather at this place, and the commencement of the rains, will 
 admit of my doing so without injury to my child's health, it being sup- 
 posed by her medical attendants that she is suffering from an affection 
 of the lungs, or at least is threatened with it. 
 
 " I remain, my dear Sir, yours very truly, 
 
 "J. S. r'CASl£R. 
 
 •" Colonel Mountain, C.B., etc.. 
 
 The answer came after some little delay. 
 
 •' Government House, Calcutta, March 24th, ISiS. 
 
 "My dear SlB, — I had the pleasure to receive your packet of the 
 3rd instant, and I should have replied to your letter immediately, but 
 that I took i: for granted that considerable time would elapse before 
 you would reach the Straits ; and until I got your Military Secretary's 
 note, I was uncertain whether to direct to Penang or Singapore, 
 
 " - In respect to the packet of reports, I mentioned to his Lordship 
 that you had sent them, and will lay them before him at his earliest 
 leisure. In the meanwhile, let me say for myself that I am very glad 
 to have the opportunity of looking them over. 
 
 " The Governor-General has been what the people call at hoim 
 thronged" ever since Lord Hardinge's departure, that it is difficult to 
 find the time for all he has to do. 
 
 "I well recollect, my dear Sir. having had the pleasure of making 
 your acquaintance at Bangalore in 1834, and recollect also the regard 
 which my then Chief, poor Lord William, entertained for you. 
 
 " The Governor-General desires me to say that he regrets the cause
 
 FAMILY 
 
 *bad, and will be happ; <mld 
 
 - i iency, a . po&e, 
 
 •vili writ', al has k 
 
 g 
 
 benefited ■ . remain, 
 
 ■' My dea 
 
 mm H ! 
 
 ; 
 Thitf brief inte: 
 
 ge affords a eonv. 
 
 tion of his marr: _ increase of his family, and 
 
 description of his daily life and regular occupations in the B 
 
 Lieut.-Colonel Fraser, then E: 
 
 uarried at Cuddalore A Jul}' L82I 
 
 Jane, daughter of Captain - Agent 
 
 of India, and a grand-niece of ' 
 who, in command of the Hyderabad S 
 
 Nizam's troops, co-operated with the elles- 
 
 ley in 1803, in the campaign o: A 
 
 heard my mother mention the . 5 been t aken, 
 
 while a girl at school, under the care Jilack of Kensing- 
 
 ton, to see the Duke of Wellington, who used to pet and fondle 
 her as the relative of his old companion in arL. 
 
 •iral Fraser's married life in India v. rsified by the 
 
 inevitable joys and sorrows of a large family, as well as by the 
 special incidents of an Anglo-Indian household. — the 
 little children " home" in charge of their mother, their long sojourn 
 in the old country and eventual return of my mother to H 
 abad, the arrival of grown-up sons and daughters from England, 
 their settlement and advancement in the world. There are some 
 apposite allusions to matters of this description in the following 
 two letters to the Eajah of Mysore, placed somewhat in advance of 
 the date at which our narrative has arrived. 
 
 - H; 
 H; rHBEas, — The receipt of your letter of the 25th of M 
 peculiarly gratifying to me, and I beg to assure you in all 
 that so far from the duties of my present office having obliterated you 
 from my memory, they have produced quite an opposite eSect, and have
 
 234 LETTERS TO THE RAJAHS 
 
 rendered more vivid the recollection of your kindness, and the cordial 
 and friendly feeling with which Your Highness honoured me. 
 
 " You have now written to me on # very happy and pleasing occa- 
 sion, and I beg to unite with all my family in our sincere congratula- 
 tions on the nuptials of your two grand- children. May these marriages 
 be productive of every future happiness to the parties immediately 
 concerned, and prove a source of continual satisfaction of Your 
 Highness. 
 
 " My wife and the only grown-up daughter who is now with me, 
 Mrs. Bell, whom Your Highness once designated as ' the little Moofsid\ l 
 unite with me in offering our most respectful regards to yourself and 
 all your family, and our hearty wishes for your welfare and prosperity. 
 My eldest daughter, whom you may remember by the name of Harriet, 
 is married, and at present residing at Madras with her husband. 1 have 
 recently lost the youngest; she was with me at Mysore, and whom 
 Your Highness may perhaps recollect to have seen, when you used 
 kindly to call my children into your Palace, from their usual walk on 
 the ramparts of Mysore. Her name was Agnes. She had returned 
 to England to complete her education, and left that country in the 
 highest health, and full of bright anticipations of future happiness. 
 But it pleased God to remove her to a better world. She was attacked 
 on her passage out by that fatal malady called consumption, and 
 arrived in India only to die in her parents' arms. I do not apologise 
 for referring to these personal and family matters, for I am fully con- 
 vinced that you will take an interest in them. 
 
 " Mrs. Fraser and my daughter request that the Ranees and your 
 daughter Pootthoyee will accept their cordial regards, and I beg that 
 you will believe me always to be, with great respect, 
 
 " Your Highness's sincere and faithful servant, 
 
 "J. S. Fraser. 
 " His Highness the Maharajah of Mysore, 
 etc. etc. etc. etc." 
 
 " Hyderabad, 27th March 1851. 
 " Highness, — I have had the pleasure to receive your letter under 
 date the loth instant, communicating the happy tidings of the birth of 
 a daughter to your eldest grandson, on the morning of the 13th 
 instant. Permit me to offer you my sincerest congratulations on this 
 event, and to express the gratification I experienced in your having so 
 kindly thought of giving me early intimation of it. I need scarcely, 
 I trust, repeat on this occasion the assurance of my always taking a 
 
 1 Rebel.
 
 OF MYSORE AND TRAVANCORE. 235 
 
 warm and sincere part in Your Highness's happiness and welfare, and 
 in all that concerns the interests of your family. 
 
 " I have now to inform Your Highness of a similar occurrence in 
 my own family, Mrs. Fraser having presented me with a little daughter 
 on the 28th ultimo. 
 
 " My daughter Maria (the Moofsid) is now residing with me, the 
 Governor-General having kindly given her husband an appointment 
 in the Nizam's Cavalry. My eldest son, Hastings, to whom, in com- 
 mon with all the other children, Your Highness was always so kind 
 when we were at Mysore, is now a tall, stout young man, and has just 
 arrived with his Regiment from Jubbulpore ; and my second son, 
 Charles, whom Your Highness may also, perhaps, recollect, is on his 
 way to India as a Cavalry Cadet. He was offered a writership, or 
 appointment in the Company's Civil Service, but could not be per- 
 suaded to study for it as the Regulations required, and preferred the 
 clattering of a sword to the scratching of a pen. 
 
 " We remain at Hyderabad in much the same state as when I last 
 wrote to Your Highness. I am heartily wearied of the office I hold 
 here, and should quit it with great pleasure if I only had to consult 
 my own inclinations in the matter. 
 
 " Mrs. Fraser and my children unite with me in cordial and respect- 
 ful regards to Your Highness and your family, and I remain, 
 
 "Your Highness's very sincere and faithful 
 
 friend and servant, "J. S. Fraser. 
 
 " To His Highness the Maharajah of Mysore, 
 etc. etc. etc. etc." 
 
 A letter to the Eajah of Travancore may very well be brought 
 in here, though also a little in advance of its proper place. 
 
 "Hyderabad, 10th October 1850. 
 
 "Highness, — Though I have allowed a longer time to elapse than I 
 ought to have done in replying to your amiable letter of the 9th of 
 July last, owing to a great pressure of public business, I beg you to be 
 assured that I was not insensible to the value of that communi- 
 cation, and that I was deeply gratified to find that I still live in Your 
 Highness's recollection. I entertain a lively remembrance of the 
 agreeable days I passed in Travancore, feelings sadly contrasted with 
 those which a residence in the Deccan has inspired. 
 
 " It was a source of great grief to me to receive intelligence of the 
 death of your most excellent brother, whom I both respected and loved. 
 You are a worthy successor to his rank and dignity, and you will, I am 
 sure, succeed to the esteem in which he was held. You and your
 
 236 SIB T. MADHAVA RAO. 
 
 brother have strikingly exemplified the advantages of an E nglish 
 education, — advantages which are, unfortunately, not enjoyed by the 
 Sovereign and nobles of this country ; and, in consequence, though my 
 office here may be considered higher and more important than that I 
 held in Travancore, my life is far less agreeably spent, and I often sigh 
 over the recollection of the time when 1 was Resident at your brother's 
 Court. I often thiiik, too, of my poor friend Soobaram and his family, 
 and that warm friend to whom I was so affectionately attached, 
 
 Caldecott both gone. 
 
 " It affords me pleasure to learn that you have obtained so excellent 
 a tutor for the two junior members of your family." 
 
 I must interrupt the letter hereto explain that the tutor of these 
 two young Princes, who successively sat on the throne, — the 
 reigning Maharajah, Rama Vurma, being the younger of them, — is 
 now Sir T. Madhava Rao, K.C.S.I., who subsequently became 
 Dewan of Travancore, was afterwards Minister for some years to 
 the Maharajah Holkar of Indore, and more recently Minister of 
 the Baroda State during the minority of the Maharajah Gaekwar. 
 It Mill be seen also by the following sentence that Sir Madhava 
 Rao is nearly related to another Brahmin gentleman frequently 
 mentioned in a previous part of this book. 
 
 " His father, Runga Rao, was a truly good and honest man ; and 
 with regard to the head of the family, poor Vencata Rao, I shall 
 never cease to respect his memory. He came, upon my invitation, to 
 Hyderabad, and I fear that his death may in some measure have 
 been occasioned by the fatigues of that journey. 
 
 " I am very happy to find that you are on such friendly terms with 
 your Resident, General Cullen. I am sure that on all occasions ot 
 difficulty you will find a safe and trustworthy guide in his friendly 
 counsels. Mrs. Fraser was highly sensible of the kind message you 
 were so good as to convey to her, and desires me to present in return 
 her very respectful compliments. I often speak to her of Travancore, 
 its beautiful scenery, and the invariable kindness I experienced from 
 yourself and family ; and the conversation generally ends with her 
 saying, ' Well, let us go and take up our final abode there.' As far as 
 I am concerned, nothing would make me happier, but I fear that I am 
 tied down by public duty for some time longer to this less agreeable 
 place. 
 
 " I shall be infinitely gratified if Your Highness will continue to 
 favour me with a few lines now and then to assure me of your health
 
 THE RESIDENT'S WORK. 231 
 
 and welfare, and I beg that Your Highness will believe me always to 
 be, truly and sincerely, 
 
 " Your faithful friend and servant, 
 
 "J. 8. Fbaser. 
 " To His Highness the Maharajah of Travancore, 
 etc., etc., etc., etc." 
 
 It must not be supposed from General Fraser's frequent com- 
 plaints of everything standing still in Hyderabad, and of nothing 
 
 being done, in consequence of the indifference and inaction of our 
 Government, that the Resident found the time hang heavily on his 
 hands for want of something to do. The ordinary routine business 
 of the Residency was quite enough to make up more than a good 
 day's work for anyone. In the first place, the Resident was vir- 
 tually the Commandant of the Contingent, or Nizam's Army, — 
 about 9,000 men, with ninety English officers, — and while all 
 questions of its movements and active employment had to be 
 settled by him, in communication with the Nizam and his Minister, 
 all matters of expenditure, discipline, and internal economy were 
 decided personally by the Resident^, except in the matter of first 
 appointments, without the intervention of any Department or 
 Secretary. The Nizam's Army, in those days, was assumed to be 
 entirely the Nizam's concern. The Nizam paid for all, or, it was 
 well understood, would be made eventually to pay, even when our 
 advances for the Contingent had risen to a very heavy amount. 
 There was no effectual check of previous estimate or subsequent 
 audit at Calcutta. The Resident was Auditor for the Nizam. 
 Even in matters of patronage and promotion, the Resident's ini- 
 tiative and influence, though not openly recognisable, went very 
 far, and entailed an enormous amount of private correspondence 
 with the Governor-General and his personal Staff, with the 
 Governor of Madras, and with all the parties interested or affected. 
 Then, besides the constant negotiations and transactions with 
 the Minister on ordinary and current affairs, fiscal and judicial, 
 relating to criminal offences, the escape and pursuit of offenders, 
 disputes as to custom and transit duties, and frauds on the revenue, 
 on both sides of long and interlaced frontiers, all of which had to 
 be settled in some way, there were — as will be readily understood 
 from what has passed — constant conferences and correspondence 
 as to financial disorder and faulty administration, suggestions and
 
 238 SOORAJ-OOL-MOi ilk's 
 
 plans of reform to be explained and discussed. Nor must it be sup- 
 posed that the long-continued exhortations and instructions of Gene- 
 ral Eraser were completely fruitless, or that the intermittent efforts 
 of Sooraj-ool-Moolk's two spells of office — though "feebly and re- 
 luctantly supported", as the Resident complained, at Court and at 
 Calcutta — were entirely barren of good results. So much was 
 actually done, the foundation of so much was laid, and the outline of 
 so much more sketched out, in combination, by General Fraser and 
 Sooraj-ool-Moolk, that it may fairly be said that the measures of 
 administrative reform carried out by Sir Salar Jung, in quieter 
 times, were constructed on their lines and under their directions. 
 
 The times were quieter under Sir Salar Jung because General 
 Eraser, during the Ministry of Sooraj-ool-Moolk, had, by a firm, 
 skilful, and judicious use of the Contingent Force, established good 
 order throughout the country, broken up bands of plunderers, and 
 destroyed the strongholds that harboured them, and reduced to 
 obedience, by even-handed coercion and concession, chieftains and 
 tribes that had been from time immemorial quite unmanageable. 
 
 Although General Fraser' s proposal for sending the hordes of 
 foreign mercenaries out of the Nizam's dominions was deferred as 
 a whole, and very partially enforced, — chiefly owing to the belief of 
 the Supreme Government that a great military occupation was re- 
 quired, — the abuses and excesses of Arab power and influence 
 were so curbed and subdued by the measures he adopted, in con- 
 cert with Sooraj-ool-Moolk, that the Arabs became by degrees 
 quite endurable as denizens, until at last their good qualities quite 
 gained the ascendant. The chief characteristics of the Arab sol- 
 diery were thrift and faithfulness to their " salt", — implying not 
 only allegiance to the chieftains of their own blood, but to the 
 Power or the person who engaged them, and supplied their pay, 
 by time or job, — whether it were the Minister who enlisted them 
 by the thousand, the Talookdar who entertained a hundred, or the 
 Hindoo banker who took half-a-dozen into pay for the protection 
 of his cash-chest. Their great fault was that they acknowledged 
 iKi law but their own, as administered by their own leaders. Sober, 
 steady men, for the most part, and earning good pay, they lent 
 their savings, at what we should call usurious interest, to borrowers 
 of every rank and class, through the medium of their Jemadars or 
 superior officers, who undertook to collect and administer the
 
 EARLY REFORMS. 239 
 
 fund, and to give each man his due. Their process was a summary- 
 one. If the defaulter, whether for principal and interest, or arrears 
 of pay, was evidently acting in bad faith, and it was likely that 
 anything could be got out of him, an armed execution was put in. 
 A landed estate or a district was occupied in force, and the Jema- 
 dar in possession collected the rent or the revenue for the benefit 
 of his band. If the debtor was a private person, the mode of re- 
 covering the money was by distraint or imprisonment. When 
 Sooraj-ool-Moolk assumed executive authority in 1846, there were, 
 as he reported to General Fraser, upwards of 300 persons confined 
 in the Arab jails within the City of Hyderabad. Chundoo Lall 
 had hardly proposed, except in a few extreme cases, to interfere 
 with the lawless jurisdiction claimed and exercised by the Arab 
 Jemadars. While General Fraser was Eesident the Arab practice 
 of seizing districts and occupying forts for the purpose of realising 
 what they declared to be due to them, was put down sternly and 
 signally by the well-directed action of the Contingent. Immediately 
 on Sooraj-ool-Moolk coming into office, all the prisoners held by 
 the Arabs were set at liberty, and the Arab jails closed. This was 
 the first great step towards the abolition of the privileges, im- 
 munities, and exemptions claimed by these tribes and their leaders. 
 As the Arabs were gradually made amenable to the law, the main 
 objects aimed at in their proposed removal were sufficiently at- 
 tained ; and it may be mentioned here that in the crisis of 1857 
 Sir Salar Jung found the most effective and trustworthy force at 
 his disposal to be the Arabs in his pay, and it was mainly by their 
 agency that he restrained and suppressed the mutinous and fan- 
 atical elements in the Nizam's territories. 
 
 In a communication dated the 29th of May 1847, the Eesident 
 had also forwarded to the Government of India copies of letters 
 and orders by the Minister, Sooraj-ool-Moolk, explaining the 
 administrative and judicial reforms already instituted and in 
 progress. Instead of districts being any longer handed over to 
 farmers of the revenue called Talookdars, who paid a large nuz- 
 zurana to the Prince or the Minister, and, residing themselves, in 
 many instances, in the City of Hyderabad, employed deputies to 
 screw as much as possible out of the ryots, each district was placed 
 under a salaried Zillahdar, who had to remain at his post and to
 
 240 CAPTAIN l;. A. DOE1A. 
 
 ace mut for his collections and expenditure. In every district, 
 also, judges and magistrates were appointed. 
 
 Many other minor operations and administrative improvements 
 were set on foot by the Resident, and carried out under his direc- 
 tion, with the consent and at the cost of the Nizam's Government, 
 which were of great public utility, though they entailed little 
 expense, and made no great show at the time. Such were statis- 
 tical inquiries and returns, relating to agriculture, commerce, and 
 the condition of the people, and topographical surveys, chiefly con- 
 ducted by officers of the Contingent. In June 1847, General Fraser 
 asked the sanction of the Governor-General to his recommenda- 
 tion to the Nizam's Government of Captain Doria, " an extremely 
 active and intelligent officer of the Contingent, who has been long- 
 engaged, under the Commissioner of Mysore, and also in Malabar, 
 in the construction of roads", with a view to Ids being employed 
 in " the same very important duty in these territories". For this 
 work, the General added, Captain Doria was " perfectly well fitted, 
 not only by the circumstances of his previous experience, but also 
 from his having already acquired a considerable knowledge of the 
 Nizam's country in consequence of having frequently traversed it 
 in almost all those directions where roads will now be required." 
 
 Captain (now Lieutenant-General) Richard Andrew Doria, of 
 the Madras Army, was occupied for several years in making and 
 maintaining roads in the Nizam's dominions ; and in his frequent 
 movements across country was always a welcome guest at the 
 Residency. The information he was constantly able to give, as to 
 what was going on in districts not often visited by Europeans, was 
 often of great use. He became, as it were, an additional member 
 of the Resident's Stall', and was always very much in the General's 
 confidence. Eventually he commanded one of the Cavalry Regi- 
 ments of the Contingent. 
 
 In reviewing my father's public and private correspondence, 
 itw T ould really seem as if he allowed nothing to escape his observa- 
 tion; and he certainly lost no opportunity of commending the 
 merits and advancing the interests of even the youngest officers 
 under his authority, for example, in a letter dated the 29th of 
 December 1847, to the Military Secretary to Government, the 
 Resident begs "to bring to the notice of the Right Honourable 
 the Governor-General, the accompanying report upon a peculiar
 
 GENERAL W. OLPHERTS, C.B., V.C. 241 
 
 description of double cylinder metallic fuse suggested'by a very- 
 able and zealous officer, Lieutenant Olpherts, of the Bengal Horse 
 Artillery, at present attached to the Nizam's Army." 
 
 " I hope," he concludes, "it will be considered to need no apology 
 that I have brought this excellent invention to the notice of the 
 Governor-General, and' that I take the liberty of recommending 
 Lieutenant Olpherts to his Lordship, as an officer who is remark- 
 able for zeal in his profession, and who will doubtless continue to 
 deserve those high encomiums which he has already had the 
 honour of receiving from some of the most distinguished officers 
 of the Bengal Army." 
 
 General Fraser's forecast has been singularly verified in this 
 instance, for the Lieutenant William Olpherts of 1847 was the 
 Major Olpherts to whom General Sir James Outram wrote, under 
 date 28th March 1858, when " the old 1st Division was about 
 to be broken up", to express " the admiration with which I regard 
 both you and your noble fellows, and the regard which I enter- 
 tain towards you personally." " I shall ever remember with 
 pride, pleasure and gratitude to yourself, the six months we 
 have been companions in arms, and especially the three months 
 we stood together in the plain of Alambagh. ' Bravery' is a 
 poor and insufficient epithet to apply to a valour such as yours, 
 and ' zeal' and ' energy' are terms of too common application to 
 convey my sense of your entire and successful devotion to the 
 Service." 
 
 For the gallantry, " ingenuity and resource" — in the words of 
 Lord Napier of Magdala — with which he captured two guns from 
 a party of the enemy strongly posted, in the advance on Lucknow 
 under Sir Henry Havelock, Major Olpherts received the Victoria 
 Cross, and the Companionship of the Bath for his services in the 
 campaign. He is now a General. 
 
 Among the private letters of which copies were kept, I find, in 
 addition to those addressed to the Rajahs of Mysore and Travan- 
 core, and Princes of the latter family, letters almost every month 
 to Native gentlemen at Bombay, Madras, Bangalore, Mysore, 
 Trevandrum, the capital of Travancore, and Mercara, the chief 
 town of Coorg. He seems never to have forgotten an old friend 
 or a deserving subordinate. There are many letters on astrono- 
 mical and mathematical subjects to the Government astronomers 
 
 R
 
 242 SIR GEORGE RUSSELL CLERK. 
 
 at Madras* and Bombay ; on philological and bibliographical points 
 of Oriental literature to Mr. Fitzedward Hall of the Royal Asiatic 
 Society at Calcutta ; on scientific and economical subjects to Dr. 
 Edward Balfour of the Madras Army, now retired as a Surgeon- 
 General ; letters conveying information on the statistics and geo- 
 logy of the Deccan to Colonel Sykes, M.P., Director of the East 
 India Company ; on historical matters to Sir Henry M. Elliot ; 
 letters to and from Captain Waugh of the Bengal Engineers 
 (afterwards General Sir Andrew Scott Waugh), then engaged in 
 the great Trigonometrical Survey of India, on measuring arcs of 
 the meridian, and other scientific problems. In one letter from 
 Captain "Waugh, dated " Mussooree, August 10th, 1842", he men- 
 tions a very eminent man, still happily among us, a patriarch of 
 Indian statesmanship, Sir George Eussell Clerk, 1 who since those 
 days has held numerous offices of the highest importance, — among 
 others, those of Joint Secretary of the Board of Control, Governor 
 of Bombay, and Member of the Indian Council, — and has always 
 consistently upheld the faith of Treaties and the fair treatment of 
 our protected Allies as the true safeguards of our Indian Empire. 
 Captain A. S. Waugh writes : — 
 
 " I had the pleasure a few days ago of meeting Mr. Clerk, the 
 Governor- General's Agent on the North- West Frontier. He informed 
 me that he considered General Pollock's Force the finest equipped one 
 that ever left our frontier. Such an opinion appears inconsistent with 
 the long halt at Jellalabad, a most unfortunate measure from military 
 as well as from political considerations ; but we, who are at present in 
 the dark, can form no fair criticism on passing events. I am sure you 
 would greatly admire Mr. Clerk. He is deservedly celebrated for his 
 peculiarly graceful deportment and engaging manners. There seems 
 to be no difference of opinion anywhere as to the brilliancy of his 
 talents, but the clearness of his judgment is the quality for which he is 
 most distinguished. Underneath the garb of a Civilian he harbours the 
 brave spirit of a soldier, and it is a sad pity he does not wear our cloth." 
 
 My father was, to say the least, quite as fortunate as most 
 officers holding high positions in India generally are, more for- 
 tunate than many, in having been able from time to time to 
 receive some of the junior members of his family, occasionally 
 several of us at once, under his own roof at Hyderabad. I have a 
 
 1 Father of the former and recent Guardians of H.H. the Nizam, Colonel 
 John Clerk and Captain Claude Clerk, C.S.I.
 
 DAILY LIFE. 243 
 
 full recollection, therefore, myself of his daily life and habits, and 
 subsequent experience has enabled me more fully to appreciate 
 the onerous nature of his official duties. He was an early riser, 
 and betook himself at the first moment that was possible to his 
 study, devoting himself to his favourite pursuits of literature and 
 science till the hour of family prayers, which he always read him- 
 self to the whole household. 
 
 I may here also mention that it was the General's regular 
 custom, when there was no clergyman, to officiate in the little 
 church at Clmdderghaut, to take the service himself in the large 
 saloon at the Eesidency on Sundays, when all members of the 
 Staff, minor officials, clerks, and Native Christians were welcome 
 to attend. 
 
 After morning prayers he proceeded with the members of his 
 family through the long corridor to what was called the breakfast- 
 room, where were assembled all the messengers from the Minister, 
 and other noblemen who were entitled to the entrde, bringing their 
 complimentary offerings of fruit and flowers — called ddlees — and 
 wishing the General and his family "«good morning" on the part of 
 their masters : a very graceful mode of greeting, against which 
 objections that appear to me very absurd have lately been raised. In 
 the adjoining grand saloon of the Eesidency was laid an ample break- 
 fast for all comers ; as, in order to save time, General Fraser pro- 
 fessed only to receive visitors at that time every day, being ready 
 afterwards to give a private audience to anyone who really had 
 business to discuss. By the time that breakfast was comfortably 
 over, with a few minutes for cheerful conversation, the gong 
 sounded the hour for business to commence, and the Eesident, 
 leaving his guests with the ladies, proceeded to his Office, where 
 he passed three or four hours with his Staff, hearing and reading 
 letters and reports, and dictating replies and orders. So clear was 
 General Fraser's head that I have frequently heard him dictating 
 two or three letters on different subjects to as many clerks. Having 
 got through the morning reports and ordinary correspondence, the 
 General retired once more to his own study, where he continued 
 official labours requiring more thought and consideration, such as 
 despatches and private letters for Calcutta. At this time a confi- 
 dential clerk was always in attendance, and likewise a Persian 
 Moonshee. At this work he generally continued until the time 
 
 K*2
 
 2-14 DIGHTON AT CALCUTTA. 
 
 arrived for the evening drive or ride, in which he was accompanied 
 by Mrs. Fraser or his daughter, and always escorted by two 
 troopers. 
 
 After the drive came dinner, which almost always included a 
 tolerably large party, the Staff always joining it when they i'elt 
 inclined, and generally a few officers and their wives from the 
 cantonment of Secunderabad. There were also many large dinner 
 parties and evening entertainments, at which the Ministers and 
 nobles from the City frequently made their appearance. Except 
 on great occasions, the General usually retired at about hall-past 
 ten o'clock. 
 
 During the General's visit to Singapore he received the following 
 letter from Mr. Dighton, who, having gone to Calcutta on busi- 
 ness, had asked for an interview with Lord Dalhousie, with the 
 express object of appealing against the order of the Government 
 of India winch forbade his public employment in the service of 
 the Nizam. 
 
 " My dear General, — I have had a most satisfactory interview with 
 Lord Dalhousie, and as a clipper leaves this to- morrow for Singapore, 
 I sit down to give you the particulars of it. He commenced with my 
 own affairs, but I shall conclude with them, as the other subjects of our 
 conversation were far more interesting. The despatch from the Court 
 has arrived, and Lord Dalhousie regretted that he understood he 
 could not have the pleasure of seeing you before August. Two or 
 three days previous to my visit I had received a letter from the Khan 
 Sahib, in which he mentioned, on Mrs. Fraser's authority, that you 
 would be here about the 10th July. I mentioned this date to his 
 Lordship as that on which you would probably arrive. He was glad 
 to hear it, as he did not wish to finally adjust Hyderabad affairs before 
 seeing you, adding, at the same time, that he spoke himself as a public 
 man, and that he should, if similarly situated with yourself, feel greatly 
 disappointed that measures to be carried out by you were commenced 
 on by another, and, therefore, nothing would be finally arranged about 
 Hyderabad till he had seen you. I think you will find that your policy 
 is now that of the Court and of Lord Dalhousie. He put many ques- 
 tions to me regarding Hyderabad, saying that he had heard such con- 
 flicting accounts of its mismanagement, and that he knew not which to 
 rely on. I told him that the country was splendid, the State in debt 
 not two years' revenue, and that six years of proper management 
 would make it the finest country in India. He then spoke of Sooraj- 
 ool-Moolk, and of the Nizam wishing to join Earn Buksh with him,
 
 WITH LORD DALHOUSIE. 245 
 
 which he did riot seem to fancy at all. Sooraj-ool-Moolk, he remarked, 
 seemed honestly to contemplate reforms. Here I remarked that, with 
 regard to his honesty, I believed that he had not provided for any one of 
 his adherents from the coffers of the State — a proof that he had some 
 regard for economy of the revenues ; and with regard to the remaining 
 reforms promised by him, I believed that most of them would have 
 been completed had he met with support from the British Government. 
 He (Sooraj-ool-Moolk) candidly admitted that without it he could not 
 overcome the foolish prejudices instilled by a factious set of vagabonds 
 into his Master's mind — that faction consisting of individuals who 
 lived on ill-gotten gains which would cease could he open the Nizam's 
 eyes to their real characters. Lord Dalhousie remarked that nothing 
 would give him greater satisfaction than to see the Nizam's country in 
 a thriving state, that he did not want to possess it, but that it must be 
 properly ruled. 
 
 " On the point of independence given to Native States by Treaties, 
 his lordship remarked that those Treaties were chiefly made by Lord 
 Wellesley, than whom no one could have been more dictatorial to the 
 different Sovereigns, whether as to the appointment of their Ministers 
 or to the conduct and management even of members of their families. 
 I then remarked that it had surprised me that when the Nizam had 
 Ministers who did not go willingly int® the measures recommended by 
 the Resident, no interference could be greater than that exercised then 
 by the British Government ; and now, with a Minister really anxious to 
 work with the Resident, he, the Minister, to use a vulgar expi*ession, 
 was dropped like a hot potato. He holds the system of nuzzuranas in 
 utter abhorrence. Lord Dalhousie asked many questions regarding the 
 different troops with the Nizam, the growth of cotton, produce of opium, 
 — all of which I answered as concisely as possible. I must now tell 
 you about myself. Lord Dalhousie told me that he regretted the Court 
 of Directors had confirmed Lord Hardinge's arrangements with regard 
 to me; that it was on public grounds, and not from any personal 
 objection to me ; and that, as I might like to have the Court's opinion 
 on this matter, he would give a copy of the paragraph to the Resident. 
 I pointed out, what he had already observed, Lord Hardinge's strange 
 contradiction of himself. I added that I considered myself harshly 
 treated, and that I firmly believed I had been so treated on the strength 
 of private correspondence. I remarked that the son and the nephew 
 of Win. Palmer had been permitted to be employed by the Nizam's 
 Government ; that there were various other ways in which I was cer- 
 tain the Nizam's Government would wish to employ me ; and whenever 
 it might so express itself to me, I should report the nature of the 
 demand to the Resident, with a request that it might be forwarded to 
 his Lordship. He replied that he should be happy to receive it and
 
 246 GENERAL SIR JOHN LOW. 
 
 give it his best attention. This was at the beginning of our moola^at, 1 
 which lasted an hoar ; and on going away he thanked me for all the 
 information I had given him. I am sure you will like the Lord Sahib 
 very much. He keeps his secretaries at their work, and does his own 
 himself, which I do not think they greatly admire. I omitted to men- 
 tion in its proper place that, when describing the subject of opium, I 
 remarked that the Nizam's Government felt aggrieved that its opium — 
 I supposed in consequence of its being a monopoly of the Company — was 
 not allowed to be exported on the five per cent, duty being paid. He 
 remarked that by Treaty it was clearly liable to no other tax. I replied 
 that the Nizam's Government thought so too, and had in consequence 
 made the demand during Lord Hardinge's administration ; but, as it 
 had not been granted, some hitch in the matter must have taken place. 
 I hope you have received my last letter — the date I do not recollect — 
 but it was written after my arrival here. It is possible you may have 
 left Singapore before this reaches you, and I have, therefore, left a copy 
 with Jardine, Skinner, and Co., to be given to you on your arrival. I 
 return to Madras in the Bentinck on Saturday morning, the 3rd. If 
 you write to me, pray address your letters to the care of Binny and 
 Co., Madras. I shall probably remain there for a month, for the benefit 
 of sea air, and then travel quietly to Hyderabad. Your movements 
 may be quicker, and you may bb there before me. I cannot tell you 
 how truly rejoiced I am at our having overcome Lord Hardinge. 
 
 I trust your daughter is quite well again. Pray give her my kindest 
 regards, and 
 
 " Believe me, my dear General, 
 
 " Most sincerely and faithfully yours, 
 
 " H. Dighton. 
 " Calcutta, 30th May 1848. 
 
 " P.S. — In my letter by the clipper yesterday I omitted to tell you 
 that Lord Dalhousie made inquiries as to the characters of the Nizam 
 and Sooraj-ool-Moolk. I gave my opinions freely, which you well know, 
 so I will not go into a repetition of them. He was quite aware of the 
 high rank of the family of the latter. 
 
 "31st May 1848. " H. D." 
 
 During General Fraser's absence on leave his place was occu- 
 pied, as already mentioned, by Colonel Low, afterwards General Sir 
 John Low, G.C.S.I., K.C.B. Colonel Low had been one of Sir John 
 Malcolm's Assistants during the whole period of the disintegration 
 and downfall of the Mahratta Confederation. Soon after the 
 battle of Mahidpore, in 1818, Lieutenant Low, with instructions 
 
 1 Interview.
 
 SIR JAMES LUSHINGTON'S LETTER. 247 
 
 from Sir John Malcolm, persuaded Bajee Eao, the last of the 
 Peishwas, to surrender. He was llesident at Lucknow in 1837, 
 and negotiated the Treaty of that year, which he saw repudiated by 
 Lord Dalhousie in the process of annexing that friendly and faith- 
 ful State. He found much that was quite new to him at Hyder- 
 abad, and much that seems to have at once made a very painful 
 impression on him. The bent of his reflections during his first 
 visit of a few months at Hyderabad was evidently much influenced 
 by an important letter which he received from one of the East 
 India Directors, General Sir James Law Lushington, a copy of 
 which he left at the Eesidency for General Fraser's information. 
 The letter is dated " London, 24th April 1848." 
 
 " I think you will perceive, from the tenor of the Court's late des. 
 patches, that we are anxious, if possible, to set matters right by friendly 
 interference rather than by assumption of power, and to sustain the 
 Nizam in the sovereignty, in preference to making him entirely sub- 
 servient. The great difficulty is the state of the finances ; and some- 
 thing must be done to afford relief, or the severe pressure must end in 
 ultimate ruin. I have for some time been of opinion that we have our- 
 selves been the cause in a great measure of this difficulty ; and have 
 made exactions from the Nizam we were not entitled to do by any 
 Treaty. By the 12th Article of the Treaty of Hyderabad, of the 12th 
 of October 1800, the Nizam bound himself to furnish, in time of ivar, 
 6,000 Infantry and 9,000 Horse, which went under the name of a 
 Contingent Force. This Force was furnished on the requisition of the 
 Resident in 1803, and appears, in the campaign against the Mahratta 
 confederates, to have acquitted itself very well, and to have clone good 
 service. 1 The Force furnished in the following year was so inferior, 
 both in number and efficiency, that a proposition was made by the 
 Resident for the formation of a regular body of Horse in the Nizam's 
 service, under the command of British officers. In 1807, a plan of 
 reform was sanctioned and carried out, and further reforms were 
 ordered in 1812, 1813, and 1816; and by a return in April 1846 the 
 Contingent Force then amounted to — 
 
 Cavalry 2,592 
 
 Infantry ... ... ... ... 6,835 
 
 European officers ... ... ... 95 
 
 entailing a charge upon the Nizam's Government of forty- two lakhs of 
 Hyderabad rupees per annum ! This demand swallows up nearly one- 
 third of the revenue of the country ; and the consequence has been that 
 
 1 Appendix B, " The Nizam's Military Co-operation."
 
 248 COLONEL LOW'S LETTER 
 
 the Nizam is now in debt to the British Government for sums advanced 
 for the payment of the Contingent Force. 
 
 " Considering all these circumstances, I certainly am of opinion that 
 the disbandment of the Contingent is a measure the propriety of which 
 is worthy of the most serious consideration ; for it cannot be denied 
 that neither its continued maintenance, nor the original organisation, 
 is provided for by any existing treaty." 
 
 Colonel Low left also, for General Eraser's information, the 
 following long extract from his reply to the above letter : — 
 
 "Hyderabad, the 24th of June 1848. 
 
 "You have my sincere thanks for your very kind and most interesting 
 letter of the 24th of April. If I had access to some of my old demi-official 
 letters (now in Calcutta with baggage that I had sent out via the Cape) I 
 could show you by a copy of one written to Mr. Colvin, Lord Auckland's 
 Private Secretary in 1838, how entirely my opinion coincides with 
 your own respecting the cruelty, as I may well call it, that we have 
 been guilty of towards the Nizam's Government in keeping up for so 
 many years the continued drain upon the revenues of this country of 
 no less than forty lakhs of rupees per annum for the pay of the Con- 
 tingent, — in other words, for purposes of our own, not of the Nizam ! 
 Ever since 1819 there has been profound peace in the Deccan, and 
 therefore, as it is only during 'war between the contracting parties and 
 any other power' that we can claim to be 'joined by 6,000 Infantry 
 and 9,000 Horse of His Highness's own troops', we have had no 
 right by Treaty to demand a single rupee for a Contingent during the 
 whole of that period, upwards of twenty-eight years. In the course of 
 that time, however, we have actually drawn from the Nizam's treasury 
 (not reckoning forty-two lakhs now due to us for advances to the Con- 
 tingent) the enormous sum of eleven crores and twenty lalchs of Hyder- 
 abad rupees, of which a large portion has gone permanently out of the 
 Nizam's territories for ever, through the remittances and savings of 
 the officers and sepoys, two-thirds of whom are from Oudc, Rohilcund, 
 and other parts of Hindostan, who annually take away their savings 
 in hard cash to their distant homes, — so that this huge drain not only 
 exhausts the Nizam's treasury, but tends to impoverish his people by 
 diminishing the amount of specie in his dominions. 
 
 "I am aware that there are some plausible arguments for making 
 the Nizam keep up an efficient Contingent at all times, especially as 
 portions of it are occasionally used for His Highness's own purposes; 
 but I don't think that any sensible man who knows this part of India — 
 even among those who honestly think that the arguments alluded to 
 are sound — can deny the fact, which I remember to have pointed out
 
 TO SIR JAMES LUSI1INGTON. 249 
 
 to Mr. Colvin in 1838, that since the year 1819 a Contingent of half the 
 strength, costing twenty lakhs of rupees a year, would do precisely 
 the same service to the Nizam's Government as the present Force does, 
 which costs forty lakhs. Large bodies of the Contingent have never 
 been used for a great many years ; and, moreover, the Nizam is en- 
 titled by Treaty to the use of the Company's troops of the Subsidiary 
 Force for any service such as the Contingent has been or could be em- 
 ployed upon. Now let us look at what would have been the effect if 
 since 1819 a twenty-lakh Force had been kept up. The difference to 
 the Nizam's Government would have been simply this — we should 
 up to this date have drawn fully five crores of rupees less from the 
 Nizam's treasury than we have drawn. That would have been the 
 difference to His Highness. Well — what difference would it have 
 made to the East India Company ? In my opinion, the only true 
 answer to this is that it would have made no difference whatsoever, 
 because we have never since 1819 employed the Contingent out of the 
 Nizam's territory, except now and then small parties of Horse, which 
 could as easily have been spared from a twenty-lakh as from a forty- 
 lakh Force. In short, it is a melancholy fact that the only people who 
 have gained by what I now — with reference to what I have said above — 
 call the unnecessary half of the Nizam's Contingent, are the officers 
 and men who have composed that half*; and no doubt those Governors- 
 General, and Residents also, who have had the nomination of officers, 
 have derived some gratification from the exercise of that patronage ; 
 but the gain and gratification of these individuals have, since the year 
 1819, cost the Nizam's Government the huge sum of five crores of 
 rupees ! 
 
 " What more need be said as to the main cause of this Native 
 Government being, as it is now, almost at a standstill in consequeuce 
 of its heavy debts and empty treasury ? And yet the whole amount 
 of its debts, of all sorts and all descriptions, does not reach quite three 
 crores and fifty lakhs of rupees. But, then, it has no credit, and so the 
 revenue is always taken before it is really and justly due; it has not 
 the means of paying up arrears to any large body of troops, even when 
 it may wish to do so. 
 
 " But I must not let you suppose that I think there would have 
 been no debt if there had been no Contingent. I am far from thinking 
 this. It is a loose, irregular, and ill-managed Government ; and I have 
 no doubt it would have been in debt even if we had disbanded at least 
 half of the Contingent, as we ought to have done, in my opinion, more 
 than twenty years ago. But it would not have been nearly so much in 
 debt as it is now to its own subjects, and it would not have been in 
 debt to us at all — whereas it now owes us forty-two lakhs of rupees, 
 and the debt is now increasing almost every month, besides the interest
 
 250 A REDUCED CONTINGENT. 
 
 running on, from the utter inability of the Dewan to procure so much 
 ready money for us in addition to the other calls upon his resources. 
 
 " A small Contingent would be very little, if at all, prejudicial to 
 the Nizam's interests, because we do allow parties of the Contingent to 
 be employed to put down marauders in a way that we would not allow 
 the Company's Subsidiary Force to be employed ; and, therefore, the 
 existence of a small Contingent enables the Native Government to 
 manage with a somewhat smaller body of its own troops than if there 
 were no Contingent at all. But such arguments are no longer sound 
 when applied to a large body of Infantry and Artilleiw such as would 
 be required to take a fort, or even to coerce a powerful Talookdar in 
 rebellion ; because in every such case, where we would employ the 
 Contingent, the Nizam would be entitled by Treaty to the services of 
 the Company's own troops ; and we don't allow a single man of the 
 Contingent to be employed excepting upon the same condition on which 
 our own troops can be called out in these dominions — namely, that the 
 Resident shall be the umpire or judge between the Nizam and his sub- 
 jects as to the cause of the quarrel. Under all these circumstances, I 
 know my assertion to be a correct one, that a Contingent costing 
 twenty lakhs of rupees per annum would be to the full as useful to the 
 Nizam as the present one costing forty lakhs. My plan would be to 
 annul that part of the Treaty requiring the Nizam to join us in time of 
 war with 6,000 Infantry and 9,000 Cavalry, and instead of it to bind 
 him to keep up at all times a Force that would cost twenty lakhs per 
 annum ; and if I could get a cession of territory for the payment of the 
 Contingent, I should think that so great an advantage that I would be 
 quite satisfied with lands that yielded seventeen or eighteen lakhs only, 
 making the Contingent of a corresponding strength. This would put 
 an end to the continual pressure upon the Durbar for money — ' Give, 
 give, and give more,' is the word perpetually in the Resident's mouth 
 here, and it tends much to destroy his influence in all other matters. 
 
 " But you talk of ' disbanding'. Now, much as I detest this drain 
 upon the Nizam, I would never advise the sudden breaking up and 
 dispersing of the Contingent. I would not do so for the sake of His 
 Highness, or rather for the sake of his people ; for although we are 
 very chary in affording the use of the Contingent, as I explained above, 
 yet the Talookdars think that if they were to be guilty of rebellion, 
 they would assuredly be punished by those very troops, known, as they 
 are, to be ready for service at all times, and posted in five or six 
 different parts of these territories. Their presence, therefore, operates 
 as a check against insurrection. Take away that check suddenly, and 
 you have immediately some powerful Talookdars withholding revenue, 
 others openly setting the Government at defiance, while others again 
 would, in all probability, be fighting with each other, to the great
 
 PLAN OF HEDUCTION. 251 
 
 injury both of the Nizam and his subjects. According to my notions, 
 this Contingent has been so long established, that its reduction ought 
 to be gradual — that it ought to be brought down gradually to whatever 
 strength may be decided upon for its permanent establishment, and I 
 think that a plan might be devised for the required reduction in a very 
 few years, perhaps not more than three. I shall endeavour by the next 
 mail to give you my ideas as to the way by which the reduction might 
 be managed without seriously injuring the interests of any present 
 incumbents, and without causing mischief to the Nizam's Government. 
 I have not sufficient time to do this by the present mail, for this is the 
 latest safe day, and I have also inflicted, I am sure, enough of my bad 
 handwriting upon you for one packet." 
 
 And here is Colonel Low's second letter on the same subject, 
 dated " Hyderabad, July 14th, 1848". 
 
 " My dear Lushington, — I mentioned to you on the 24th ultimo that 
 1 thought the Contingent Force might be reduced in the course of 
 about three years to half its present cost, without materially affecting 
 the interests of any present incumbents, but from all the information 
 that I have gained since that time, I have reason to fear that I was 
 mistaken in that notion. 
 
 " 2. One of the chief modes by which I then thought that a large 
 reduction could be speedily effected was the transferring Hindostanee 
 men of the Nizam's Cavalry to our Bengal corps, instead of filling up 
 our vacancies by raw recruits. The horsemen so transferred would 
 receive less pay than they do here, but, on the other hand, they would 
 become entitled to pensions, so that, perhaps, in the long run they 
 would not be worse off. The five Regiments of Nizam's Cavalry cost 
 His Highness nearly half the whole expense of the Contingent, and I 
 thought, and still think, the Cavalry service required could be as well 
 performed by about half the present number of men. There would 
 have been a saving of about nine lakhs of rupees per annum by trans- 
 ferring half the troopers in the manner above indicated. Some of the 
 men to whom the offer might have been made might have preferred 
 being discharged, but that would have relieved the Nizam equally. 
 
 " 3. But I now find there are many practical difficulties in the way, 
 of which I was not aware. I find that the Bengal Irregular Cavalry 
 has been lately, and is now being, reduced very much in numbers, and 
 that a great number of young men, not entitled to pensions, who have 
 been discharged with a few months' pay, are now waiting as hangers-on 
 to their relatives in each corps, looking out for vacancies, and hoping 
 to take service again ; so that there would be a very strong opposition 
 made, very naturally and rightly, by the European officers of the 
 Bengal Regiments, to admit the Nizam's troopers into their ranks.
 
 252 DETAILS OF REDUCTION. 
 
 "4. I think that opposition would be successful with the Governor- 
 General. Thus a great part of my scheme, which last month seemed 
 quite feasible, now seems to me to be good for nothing. 
 
 "5. With regard to the Nizam's Infantry, I still think that a con- 
 siderable reduction of expense might be made by transfer. At least 150 
 men from each of the eight Regiments of Infantry might easily be dis- 
 pensed with — that is to say, we might reduce 1,200 men, and give them 
 the option of being drafted into the Bengal Regular Army. Almost all 
 the Nizam's Infantry are Hindostanees. They are admirably drilled 
 and disciplined ; and, I think, most commanding officers of Bengal corps 
 would rather have them than raw recruits. Those corps have not many 
 young men waiting about for vacancies, and have to send to a distance 
 for recruits. 
 
 " 0. Prospectively, all sorts of reductions would, of course, be quite 
 easy. For instance, why not immediately stop all recruiting until the 
 Cavalry regiments are down to 300 sabres, and the Infantry regiments 
 to 460, rank and file, keeping up the regular number of Native com- 
 missioned and non-commissioned officers, but having oidy an English 
 Captain Commandant, a Second-in- Command, an Adjutant, and an 
 Assistant Surgeon to each corps, Cavalry and Infantry, the number 
 allotted in other Contingents ? 
 
 " 7. There are, also, various expenses in this Contingent which might 
 well be abolished, such as Mess allowances, cost of building Mess rooms, 
 the allowance to Senior Surgeons, Medical storekeepers, etc. 
 
 " 8. Then the number of Brigadiers and Staff in the Contingent is 
 quite preposterous. For 10,000 men we have five Brigadiers, five 
 Brigade Majors, and several Paymasters. 
 
 " 9. In my opinion two Brigadiers for the whole will be quite enough : 
 one for the Cavalry branch, and the other to command the Artillery and 
 Infantry. 
 
 " 10. There should be only one Paymaster for the whole Contingent. 
 
 " 11. These reductions might be made as the present incumbents 
 retire, or arc removed by death or promotion. 
 
 " 12. The whole of the local officers might be pensioned on liberal 
 terms ; but I would give the poor fellows at least twelve months' warn- 
 ing, for they all seem hitherto to have calculated on remaining in the 
 Nizam's service as long as they pleased, and many of them have families 
 to maintain, and are, I regret to hear, in pecuniary difficulties. 
 
 " 13. If all the local officers were pensioned there would just remain 
 about the proper number of officers, three to each corps, on the reduced 
 strength; and there would be a decided gain in discipline and cordiality 
 of spirit in having all the officers from the Company's Army exclusively, 
 instead of their being mixed up with local officers. 
 
 " 14. Such arrangements, allowing the local officers pensions on the
 
 "fraser's counsel." 253 
 
 same scale as given to Company's officers, would ultimately prove a 
 saving of at least twelve lakhs per annum. 
 
 '' 15. The reduction of numerical strength would also cause a pro- 
 portional saving in clothing, military and medical stores, etc. 
 
 " 16. Before closing this letter, let me repeat what I mentioned to 
 you in my letter of last month, that in. my opinion there ought to be no 
 large sudden reduction, because, however unfair I consider this heavy 
 drain of forty lakhs per annum to be upon the Nizam's revenues, yet 
 these troops are of long standing in the country. 
 
 " 17. The bad part of the population stands in awe of them, and, for 
 the sake of His Highness's interests, I would deprecate a sudden and 
 extensive disbandment, believing, as I do, that it would be the indirect 
 cause of turbulence and confusion in many parts of these territories. 
 
 " 18. There are other reasons also, if you have made up your minds 
 in the Court to order an extensive reduction, why you should not 
 specify any particular time within which that reduction shall be made 
 one of which is this, that it is impossible at present to say what our 
 position in the Hyderabad country may be a couple of years hence. 
 
 " 19. For the sake of our own good name among the Native States 
 of India, I sincerely hope that Hyderabad may be kept up as a Native 
 Government, and it is undoubtedly possible that it may be so kept up, 
 if the Nizam and his Minister will act according to Fraser^s counsel in the 
 principal arrangements of the Administration; and in that event it is 
 particularly advisable to lessen as much as possible the present enor- 
 mous drain of forty lakhs annually for this Contingent, which the Native 
 Government cannot make use of without the consent of the Resident 
 who, when he gives that consent, is obliged also to interfere in some 
 matter of internal administration. That circumstance alone naturally 
 makes the Native Government extremely averse to disbanding many 
 of its own troops, because the latter can be employed in any way the 
 Circar chooses, without consulting a foreign Power. 
 
 " 20. But if the Nizam and his Minister should not (as is but too 
 probable) attend to the counsels of the Resident, and should not act 
 with common sense in their management of affairs, the wheels of the 
 Government may come almost to a standstill at the capital, and such 
 confusion may arise in other parts of the country as may induce the 
 Government of India to place the whole of the Nizam's dominions under 
 the management of European officers for a series of years, upon a plan 
 similar to that which is now in force under Cubbon in the Mysore 
 country ; and, if so, a Contingent Force, commanded by European officers, 
 of the extent of the present one, would not be in. the 'least too large, 
 because in the case supposed we should, of course, discharge the whole 
 of the foreign mercenaries in this country, and also a very large portion 
 of the Nizam's own troops, an undisciplined rabble, worse than useless
 
 254 low's counsel. 
 
 to us, if we were in charge of the Administration. Indeed, considering 
 the great extent of the Hyderabad country, it is possible that in such 
 an event as that to which I have alluded, that we should require a 
 larger Contingent than that which we have now. I repeat, therefore, 
 that any large reduction should be gradual, and that a large discre- 
 tionary power should be left to the Government of India regarding all 
 details. If Hyderabad can be kept up as a Native State, I am decidedly 
 of opinion that the cost of the Contingent should be reduced to an 
 annual sum not exceeding the half of its present cost ; but even if I 
 felt quite sure that this Government were to remain constituted as it 
 is now, I should advocate a gradual, in preference to a sudden, reduc- 
 tion. 
 
 " 21. Fraser will be here in eight or ten days. I mean to have a 
 copy of this letter made for him, in order to give him an opportunity 
 of suggesting to you anything that he may think erroneous in my 
 notions, or wanting in my explanation of the subject. He knows this 
 Government and country better than I do, and from every point of 
 view it is right that he should see what I have written on the subject 
 of the Contingent, so that he may write to you on the subject, if he 
 sees any occasion for it. 
 
 " 22. I think I had better not advert to any other matters, either 
 public or private, in this already^too long letter. So adieu, and believe 
 me, my dear Lushington, to be always 
 
 " Yours very sincerely, 
 
 " J. Low. 
 "To Lieut.-Gen. Sir J. L. Lushington, G.C.B. 
 
 "P.S. — In reading over what I have written, I observe that in the 
 19th paragraph I have said that I hope this Government may be kept 
 up as a Native one ' for the sake of our good name among the Native 
 States of India', so I had better give you some explanation of what I 
 mean by that expression. I feel quite confident that Lord Dalhousie 
 will never assume the direct management of the Hyderabad country if 
 his Lordship does not honestly think the measure to be absolutely 
 necessary, but our Native allies — indeed, Natives generally — at a dis- 
 tance will never believe that there was any such necessity. They judge 
 only by events, and they have no means of knowing all the various and 
 minute causes which produce those events. They know that there has 
 been profound peace in this part of India for at least eight-and-twenty 
 years. They know that this reigning family have been quite subser- 
 vient to us for several generations ; and if they shall ever hear of our 
 reducing the Nizam and his Minister and nobles to ciphers, and of our 
 managing the whole country and collecting its revenues by instruments 
 of our own selection, made responsible exclusively to English officers, 
 our allies will most assuredly ascribe the whole proceeding to our
 
 REPEATED OFFICIALLY. 255 
 
 ambition .and our supposed innate aversion to all Native Sovereigns in 
 India. And hence there will be no trifling increase to the suspicion, 
 and fear and dislike of us that now exist in the minds of a great many- 
 Chiefs in other Native States, while the Nizam, and almost all the 
 families of high rank in his country, and most of the military classes 
 among his subjects, will, of course, most cordially detest us. Even 
 some of those classes who will really and truly be relieved from 
 oppression by our assumption of the Government will, after a short 
 time, feel no sort of gratitude to us for that relief. They will forget 
 their former miseries, and remember only the vexations they will be 
 subject to under our rule ; for the Natives of this country are, after all, 
 not different in one respect from the inhabitants of all parts of the 
 known world, in that they like their own ways better than those of 
 foreigners. 
 
 "J. Low." 
 
 The same opinions that had been expressed, and the same advice 
 that had been given in his letter to Sir James Law Lushington, 
 had also been officially given by Colonel Low in a letter to the 
 Government of India, dated 20th July 1848, in these words : — 
 
 " It is still more grievous to reflect that a considerable portion of 
 these pressing pecuniary difficulties of the Nizam's Government has 
 been indirectly brought upon it by our own annual demand upon his 
 revenues, for forty lakhs of rupees per annum for the pay of the Con- 
 tingent Force. 
 
 " It is really painful to me to mention all these facts and circum- 
 stances connected with the Nizam's Contingent ; but I have observed 
 since I arrived here the pecuniary embarrassments of the Government 
 to be so extensive that I have considered it an imperative duty to state 
 my opinion candidly for submission to the Governor- General in Council ; 
 and upon the same principle I now close the report by expressing my 
 opinion that immediate steps ought to be taken for reducing the 
 expenses of the Contingent to a sum not exceeding twenty lakhs of 
 Hyderabad rupees per annum at the utmost ; because, whatever may 
 have been the case formerly, it appears to me quite manifest that the 
 Hyderabad Government cannot now afford to make the large ready 
 money payments that are required by us for the maintenance of that 
 Force. I am convinced that, if that constant drain were kept up for 
 three years longer, it would cause a very serious increase to the con- 
 fusion and distress of this capital, and that it would probably bring the 
 whole machinery of the Administration to a standstill." 1 
 
 1 Papers relating to the Nizam (234 of 1859), p. 8.
 
 256 LOW AT CALCUTTA. 
 
 I need add nothing, I am sure, by way of comment, to empha- 
 sise the importance of these letters. They unquestionably pro- 
 duced a marked effect at the time, though not, perhaps, exactly 
 what was intended or expected by the writers themselves, and they 
 must be left to tell their own story now. To make the series 
 complete, a letter written by Colonel Low from Calcutta, General 
 Fraser having resumed charge of the Residency od the 22nd of 
 July, must here be added. 
 
 " Calcutta, September 13, 1848 (too late for 
 this evening's dawk). 
 
 " My dear Fraser, — Your long and acceptable letter of the 20th ult. 
 only reached me yesterday afternoon, consequent on its having first 
 travelled to Madras, where it probably arrived but a few hours after 
 we had left it. 
 
 "As the official letter from Government, which I now enclose, is 
 addressed to me in my capacity of Officiating Resident at Hyderabad, 
 as the tenor of it relates only to affairs of that Residency, and lastly, 
 as it is (if I recollect rightly) the only letter that was addressed to me 
 which conveys approval of my proceedings while I was at Hyderabad, 
 I would rather it should remain on the records of the Residency (to 
 which it really belongs) than that it should continue in my possession, 
 so pray oblige me by making it over to the official custody of Mr. 
 Charles. 
 
 " I have only seen the Governor- General twice during the week that 
 I have been here. The first time, I had a long conversation with him 
 (very little of it about Hyderabad affairs), and the second time, being 
 at dinner, I had no private conversation with him at all. At the first 
 meeting I learnt to my regret that he had not yet sent any instructions 
 to you. He showed me, and I read through, the Court's despatch, 
 directing him to give ' decided support ' to. Sooraj-ool-Moolk. 
 
 " I am still in the dark about myself. Lord Dalhousie told me that 
 he had full confidence in my qualifications for the charge of Rajpootana, 
 which, he said, he considered of very great importance, but added that 
 Lieut. -Colonel Sleeman had applied for it, and by appointing Colonel 
 Slceman to it, other changes and modifications in the civil and political 
 duties of that part of India could be effected, which some men, for 
 whose opinions His Lordship has great respect, believed would be of 
 advantage to the State ; and that until he should have fully considered 
 the plans that had been submitted to him as to those modifications, he 
 would not decide, — but under any circumstances, he hinted that I 
 should not be long without being again in harness. I replied that the 
 public interests and conveniences were the first objects for him to attend
 
 DELAYED INSTRUCTIONS. 257 
 
 to, and that I am perfectly willing- to wait till a convenient opportunity 
 shall offer for posting me ; and thus our confab ended. I have little 
 doubt, or rather, I should say that I have no doubt, that I shall 
 get either Rajpootana, Lucknow, or Nagpore. I would choose amoti.c; 
 those three, in the order in which I have now written them, but I shall 
 be thankful to be fixed in any of the three positions. My experience 
 in Europe of the last five years has done me good in this respect — that 
 I know the value of all such situations much better than I formerly 
 did, and appreciate, far more highly and justly than I used to do, my 
 own good fortune in holding a situation of such respectability and so 
 handsomely remunerative. When one thinks of the continued pecu- 
 niary difficulties and struggles of thousands of men at home of first- 
 rate education and talents, one learns to feel how fortunate we are who 
 hold high offices in John Company's service. 
 
 " I have only to add that I gave Lord Dalhousie as broad a hint as 
 I could that he ought not to delay any longer furnishing you with his 
 decision on the Nizam's appeal, whatever that decision might be ; he 
 said that he hoped to get the despatch off* to you next week. What 
 that decision is likely to be I really don't know — he did not tell me — 
 and I made a point of not asking him. He is to start for Umballa 
 about 12th proximo ; and my impression is that he will place the admi- 
 nistration of the Punjaub during the ntinority of the Rajah much more 
 under the direct management of Europeans than it has been; not from 
 any notion that the mass of the population will be more happy under 
 us than they are under Native Chiefs, but because in that country he 
 considers such a change necessary for our own safety. It seems that 
 the Native Commandants of the various Sikh corps have distinctly 
 informed Mr. Frederick Currie that their men were not to be trusted 
 in being sent against Moolraj — that they (the men) would be more 
 likely to join Moolraj than to oppose him ! 
 
 " Don't be surprised if you don't even now get your instructions for 
 a fortnight. Lord Dalhousie is still not quite well ; he is overwhelmed 
 with arrears of business in all Departments, I am told ; and I hear that 
 he has Lord William Bentinck's foible of doing too much in the way of 
 drafting letters with his own hand. I make a point of not going near 
 the Government House people for fear they should fancy I was trying 
 to pump them about my own destiny. Even if I thought they 
 knew His Lordship's intentions, T should not ask them any ques- 
 tions ; but they don't know my determination to ask no questions, and 
 might suspect me of seeking a convenient opportunity of picking up 
 information from them. Moreover, I strongly suspect that none of 
 them know his intentions positively on any question of patronage in 
 high offices, not, at least, until his selections are ready, cut and dry, for 
 submission to his colleagues in Council ; and then, I am told, he likes to 
 
 S
 
 258 CONTINGENT " UNFAIRLY LARGE". 
 
 communicate such nominations himself to the parties most concerned 
 and hence, I imagine, the first ' pucka' information (as the Bengalees 
 say) that I shall procure about my fate will be by a note from His 
 Lordship. 
 
 " Mrs. Low joins me in kindest regards to Mrs. Fraser and the young 
 ladies, and Mrs. Low will write to Mrs. Fraser when our fate shall be 
 decided. 
 
 " Believe me to be, 
 
 " Yours very sincerely, 
 
 "J. Low. 
 
 " P.S. — On reading over this very long screed (the latter part of it 
 written at night, and very fast), I see that I have omitted one thing 
 that Lord Dalhousie said about Hyderabad affairs. He mentioned it 
 himself, without anything from me that led to it. He said he thought 
 we are entitled, by a fair construction of the Treaty, to a Contingent, 
 but that he agreed with me in thinking it unfairly large and too expen- 
 sive in its arrangements ; and he again (as he did to you, I think you 
 told me) had a slap at the ' five Brigadiers'. I merely said that it had, 
 for many reasons, been very vexatious to me to write as I did about that 
 Contingent, when he interrupted me by saying every public man should 
 give his opinions honestly, whatever they are ; and, he added, ' besides, 
 I feel sure we shall have opinions very different from yours before us 
 on that subject, so that we shall have full opportunity of judging cor- 
 rectly at last,' or words to that exact purport. And now you have a 
 full report of my conference with the Governor- General, which, for 
 once in a way, will not, I trust, be unacceptable to you. 
 
 " J. Low. 
 
 " N.B. — Of course I trust to your avoiding all allusion in your cor- 
 respondence with Lord Dalhousie to anything in this letter. He did 
 not say to me, ' I am speaking to you confidentially' ; but still he 
 would be vexed if he thought that his conversation was reported to 
 anyone. I have done so to you, because it may possibly be useful to 
 you to know what he said to me. 
 
 "J. Low." 
 
 On resuming his duties at the Hyderabad Besidency, General 
 Fraser at once found himself confronted with a most vexatious 
 difficulty. Some indications had been remarked while Colonel 
 Low was officiating as Resident, but they became gradually more 
 frequent and marked throughout the third quarter of 1848, until 
 in September His Highness distinctly stated his desire and inten- 
 tion of dismissing the Dewan. 
 
 The original and fundamental difficulty of Hyderabad adminis-
 
 CltOSS PURPOSES. 259 
 
 tr c atioii was, in fact, beyond Sooraj-ool-Moolk's unaided strength. 
 The annual expenditure exceeded the receipts, and there were no 
 resources from which arrears of pay due to troops, or debts at 
 heavy interest, could be paid off. The Government counselled 
 economy and reduction of establishments, but would neither afford 
 relief by a loan on easy terms, nor set an example by reducing 
 the Contingent. The excessive costliness of the Contingent was 
 admitted on all hands, yet the irreducible burden was perpetually 
 augmented by those monthly advances at interest which bore 
 testimony to the value our Government set on its maintenance. 
 In this question of reducing establishments our Government, 
 represented by the civil and military officials most nearly con- 
 cerned, and the Government of the Nizam, were pulled in opposite 
 directions by identical motives. We wanted to keep up the 
 Contingent because it was a valuable source of patronage and 
 local influence, while its disbandment or reduction would deprive 
 the Indian Army of many prizes, and harass the Government 
 with a host of grievances. The Nizam, in the same way, objected 
 to any large reduction in his " Line" 4 and the other corps on his 
 own list, because they were at his command, whereas he had to 
 solicit the Besident, with full explanations, for the use of the 
 Contingent ; and also because, if any considerable number of 
 troops were discharged, he would be exposed to the clamorous 
 demands of a great number of persons having hereditary and 
 personal claims on his consideration, and for whom he had hitherto 
 provided by appointments in his Army. A body of troops under the 
 immediate patronage and control of the Prince forms, as may be 
 easily conceived, an essential portion of the administrative and 
 social system of a State like Hyderabad. Besides purposes of 
 royal pomp and ceremonial, there have always been many minor 
 military and police requirements, demanding immediate action, 
 for which the routine of the Contingent and the rules of the 
 Besidency were far too deliberate. Sir Henry Willock, one of 
 the Court of Directors, in a Minute, dated 19th November 1851, 
 fully acknowledged that by the gradual transformation of the 
 Nizam's best Irregular Troops into the well-disciplined Contingent, 
 "completely under our control", the Prince was "deprived of the 
 services of those who had been his personal guards, and who 
 constituted the force relied upon by the collectors of revenue and 
 
 s 2
 
 260 the "court" ox the 
 
 officers of police, to maintain peace and order in the country", 
 and was thus "necessitated to organise another and very objec- 
 tionable force, composed of Pathans, Rohillas, and Arabs, to enable 
 him to carry on the administration, and support his own autho- 
 rity." 1 The same views were supported at the same period in the 
 Court of Directors hy Colonel Sykes, Major Moore, and General 
 Caulfield, the latter summing up the case in the following words: — 
 
 "We impose an unnecessary expense of 42 lakhs of rupees 
 annually upon the Nizam in maintaining a Contingent organised, 
 disciplined, and officered by us, to perform those duties which by 
 Treaty devolve upon the Subsidiary Force, and we have withheld 
 its services from the Nizam on grounds that cannot be defended, 
 thereby rendering it necessary for His Highness to maintain at a 
 heavy charge a large and inefficient force, with a view to avoid 
 vexatious interference, and to afford employment to those of his 
 adherents who have no other means of living." 2 
 
 Lord Dalhousie said to Colonel Low, with regard to the oppres- 
 sive nature of the expenses caused by the Contingent, " I feel sure 
 we shall have opinions very different from yours before us on the 
 subject"; 3 and so there were, likewise, very different opinions on 
 the subject in the Court of Directors. The majority of the Court 
 supported the ordinary official views that found favour at Calcutta, 
 and that had regard solely — and, as I believe, very superficially — 
 1 1 » what seemed to be our own gain and advantage. Some of the 
 Directors, including several of the most able among them, unques- 
 tionably well disposed towards the Nizam, — Major Oliphant, 
 Messrs. Cotton, Dent, Whiteman, H. T. Prinsep, and Eobert Camp- 
 bell, — expressed views very similar to those consistently held by 
 General Eraser, to the effect that the Contingent was in itself, 
 though open to retrenchment, a reformed and model establish- 
 ment, and that "with equally benefieial results, similar agency 
 might be employed, in concert with the Nizam's Minister, for the 
 reform of the civil administration of the country"; when, as 
 " disorder and misrule ceased", " the necessity of keeping up so 
 large an army would no longer exist", and " turbulent bodies of 
 retainers would be gradually discharged". "The services of the 
 Hyderabad Subsidiary Force would, according to Treaty, be avail- 
 
 1 Papers Relating to the Nizam (234 of 1859), p. 7. 
 
 - Ibid., p. 21. 3 Ante, p. 258.
 
 CONTINGENT. 261 
 
 able should any emergency arise." 1 General Fraser never deviated 
 from the opinion that reduction ought to commence with the 
 inefficient and turbulent Irregulars, against whom on so many 
 occasions the Contingent had beeD obliged to take the field, and 
 that their disarmament would he one of the measures that would 
 facilitate a diminution in the heavy charges of the Contingent 
 itself. In a Memorandum, dated 25th September 1849, there are 
 full details of account and muster-rolls relating to the Line and 
 other troops, which it is needless to reproduce here, but the follow- 
 ing extracts will give the general purport, and will fairly represent 
 in this respect the Resident's opinion. 
 
 " The Contingent is the only effective body of troops belonging to the 
 Nizam's Government, and even that cannot be paid with regularity, 
 except with the assistance of the British Government. It has been 
 argued that these troops are too heavy a drain on the Nizam's resources, 
 and that the expense ought to be reduced. Such a measure would be 
 highly impolitic. These troops are equally effective as the Honourable 
 Company's, and are kept at a cheaper rate. A reduction of expense, 
 therefore, must mean a reduction of numbers, and that would very 
 seriously affect the efficiency of the remainder. The Nizam could not 
 do without them, and in the proportion they might be reduced, I will 
 venture to assert that he would be obliged to entertain double or treble 
 their numbers, increasing the charge, and diminishing the efficiency. 
 These troops are the only troops of any real service to the Nizam in 
 keeping his country quiet, and they actually cost him much less than 
 would the Contingent he has stipulated by Treaty to keep up. The 
 Irregular troops, in nominal numbers, amount to about 35,000, inde- 
 pendent of the Pagah, under Shums-ool-Oomra, Five or six thousand 
 of these are Horse, and the remainder Infantry and Artillery. Both 
 Horse and Foot are entertained under Jemadars, who command parties 
 varying m numbers, according to the Nuzzuranas they may have given 
 for employment. I do not believe there is a single party under any 
 Jemadar that is kept up in number as contracted for, or paid by the 
 Jemadar, at the rate at which it is entered and charged in the Govern- 
 ment books. With the exception of the Arabs and Pathans, these men 
 are, for any military purposes, perfectly useless. Yet their annual cost 
 is upwards of seventy-three lakhs of rupees, or nearly double the cost 
 of the Contingent. 
 
 " The Pathans I suppose to be about 4,000 in number. The Arabs 
 muster about 6,000, about onedialf of whom may be genuine Arabs ; the 
 other half are men of the country, shaved like Arabs, and taught to sing 
 
 1 Papers Relating to the Nizam (234 of 1850), p. 20.
 
 262 LOAN OXCE MORE SUGGESTED. 
 
 their cry. The remainder are, as I have already observed, nothing but 
 rabble. 
 
 " Sooraj-ool-Moolk turned his early attention to reduce this useless 
 expense, and incurred much odium on the occasion. He discharged 
 .■lb tut 10,000 of them ; or, I should rather say, reduced the charge by the 
 pay of 10,000 men, for probably not more than one-half that number of 
 living men were discharged. If this measure of reduction had really 
 been carried out it would have saved the State ten lakhs of rupees 
 annually. 
 
 " Sooraj-ool-Moolk had matured his plans for reducing this worthless 
 expenditure by twenty-five lakhs of rupees more, when the discussions 
 commenced which led to his removal, and consequently paralysed all 
 his efforts during the few months he afterwards remained in office." 
 
 With views very much in accordance with these, and still with 
 a hope that financial relief might be afforded in the form of a loan 
 to assist in the discharge of useless troops, General Fraser, imme- 
 diately on his return to the Residency, addressed the following 
 letter to the Governor-General. 
 
 " Hyderabad, 24th July 1848. 
 
 " My Lord, — I arrived at Hyderabad the day before yesterday, the 
 22nd, and have lost no time in causing a copy of the correspondence to 
 be prepared, which refers, more or less directly, to the loan of a croi'e 
 of rupees which, under certain circumstances, we should have made to the 
 Nizam's Government in the year 1843. Your Lordship will observe 
 that Lord Ellenborough would not have acceded to any application from 
 the Nizam's Government to this effect, unless the whole administration 
 of the Nizam's dominions had been transferred to British management, 
 and that, in this case, the amount advanced by us was to have been 
 repaid, with compound interest, at 5 per cent, per annum. 1 These 
 papers will, perhaps, be worthy of your Lordship's perusal, for it may 
 be doubted whether the Nizam's Government will be able to maintain 
 itself, unless we either aid it with a loan, direct or guaranteed, or that 
 it adopts such a vigorous system of administration, and especially reduc- 
 tion of unnecessary expenditure, as I fear we can scarcely look for from 
 Native rule, under whatever shape it may present itself. 
 
 " I find that my friend Colonel Low has written a good deal about a 
 partial reduction of the Contingent, but I would fain hope that nothing 
 will be decided on this subject without the consideration which it 
 demands. It is easy to recommend a reduction to the amount of twenty 
 lakhs of rupees per annum, but it would be just as easy to bring it down 
 at once to five lakhs; or, if that strict justice is done to the Nizam for 
 
 1 Ante, pp. 179, L80, 187, 189.
 
 MEADOWS TAYLOR 2G3 
 
 which some persons contend, to abolish the Contingent altogether. We 
 must recollect that the disbandment of the greatest part of the mer- 
 cenary and other Irregular troops, who are under the exclusive control 
 of the Nizam's Government, can be effected only on condition of my 
 undertaking to secure the internal tranquillity of the country by 
 such a distribution of the present actual Contingent as I may think 
 proper. 
 
 " I beg to be allowed this opportunity of presenting my respectful 
 compliments, as well as those of my daughter, to Lady Dalhousie, and 
 remain, my Lord, 
 
 " Your very faithful and obedient servant, 
 
 "J. S. Fraser." 
 
 In August there was a slight appearance of an improved under- 
 standing between His Highness and the Minister, to which the 
 General refers in the latter part of the following letter to Lord 
 Dalhousie. 
 
 "Hyderabad, 30th August 1848. 
 
 " My Lord, — I heg to transmit for your perusal a private letter, with 
 the enclosure to which it gave cover, from Captain Meadows Taylor, 
 the officer in charge of Shorapore, as rhey refer to a matter which I do 
 not propose to make the subject of an official communication to the 
 Government of India, unless Captain Taylor insists upon it, or that 
 your Lordship thinks I ought to do so. Captain Taylor wishes to have 
 a military force stationed in Shorapore for the purpose of overawing his 
 Bedur population ; but I think I have already sufficiently guarded 
 against any danger from these men by the regiment of Cavalry at Gool- 
 burga, with its detachments at Ufzulpoor and Ferozabad, besides the 
 regiment of Infantry at Lingasoogoor with a detachment of Artillery, 
 and two companies of Infantry permanently stationed at Muktul, while, 
 in case of any outbreak in Shorapore, every necessary reinforcement 
 might be rapidly sent from Bolarum or Secunderabad. I do not feel 
 at all disposed to have a military force permanently placed within the 
 district of Shorapore. Independently of the immense inconvenience of 
 our sparing troops for that purpose, I wish Captain Taylor to accustom 
 his Bedurs to be kept quiet by moral influence rather than by military 
 coercion. He is, by his disposition and qualifications, better suited than 
 any other man I know to effect this object, and think that his present 
 suggestion arises in a great measure from a needless distrust of his own 
 powers of control. 
 
 " I fear the reports I am sending up regarding the state of affairs at 
 Hyderabad will not tend to simplify or facilitate the drafting of those 
 instructions with which I am to be furnished. The turn which things
 
 264 dewan's dismissal 
 
 have taken lately removes much of the ground for a severe lecture to 
 the Durbar, that might otherwise have been advisable. Your Lordship 
 will, however, perceive that I hesitate to anticipate any extraordinary 
 advantage from the reconciliation between His Highness and the 
 Minister. It will either not be a lasting one, or if it be, it must, to do 
 much good, generate a greater degree of energy than has ever yet been 
 exhibited. In all these difficulties I am glad, notwithstanding, to be able 
 to inform your Lordship, though it is but a very negative species of 
 consolation, that we are quiet throughout the whole of the Nizam's 
 country, and that no disturbance is on foot, or anticipated anyw r here, 
 so far as I am aware. 
 
 " It was a matter of deep concern to me to learn from Mr. Courtenay 
 that your Lordship was suffering from indisposition. A change from 
 the hot, damp climate of Calcutta to the cooler one of the North- West, 
 with a temporary relief from the burdensome details of the Bengal 
 Government, would afford, I think, the best assurance of renovated 
 health and strength. I hope your Lordship wdl be induced to try the 
 efficacy of this remedy, for sickness is not to be trifled with in India." 
 
 In a private interview with the Eesident, in September 184S, the 
 Nizam requested that the Governor-General might be informed of 
 his wish to remove Sooraj-ool-Moolk from office, and to replace 
 him by the Peshcar, Rajah Earn Buksh, who had offered a nnz- 
 zurana of fifty lakhs of rupees on his appointment, which the 
 Nizam proposed to accept as a voluntary contribution for public 
 purposes. 
 
 On receiving this communication from the Nizam, the Governor- 
 General desired the Eesident, in a letter dated the 7th October 
 1848, to inform His Highness that he had received it " with sur- 
 prise and regret, since his Lordship bears in mind that Sooraj-ool- 
 Moolk was appointed Dewan by His Highness readily, and with 
 apparent satisfaction, when his name was suggested by the British 
 Eesident, whose advice was solicited by His Highness; and since 
 that time the Governor-General has had no reason to suppose that 
 the Dewan had shown himself unworthy of the distinguished 
 position in which His Highness had placed him. His integrity 
 is called in question by no man. He attends to the duties of his 
 high office. He has shown every desire to labour for the accom- 
 plishment of those great measures of improvement which have 
 been so frequently urged upon His Highness as indispensably 
 necessary in order to set his Kingdom free from ,the serious 
 financial embarrassments under which it labours."
 
 DISAPPROVED. 265 
 
 " If the affairs of the Circar are in a condition unsatisfactory 
 to His Highness, if the finances of the country are exhausted 
 and the credit of the Government gone, these difficulties must 
 not Le attributed to the Dewan, but to the obstructions which 
 have prevented his reducing that expenditure on public establish- 
 ments which is daily dragging the country down towards poverty 
 and disorder. 
 
 " The Governor-General is unable to perceive any grounds for 
 the displeasure which His Highness has manifested towards the 
 Dewan, nor any good reason for the wish expressed by His 
 Highness to dismiss him. His Lordship does not know by whom 
 Sooraj-ool-Moolk could be advantageously succeeded in his 
 office. 
 
 " The incompetency of Eajah Earn Buksh has already been 
 proved in past years. And if any further proof were recpiired of his 
 ineligibility for that post, it would be found in the offer of a nuz- 
 zurana of fifty lakhs of rupees on his appointment, which His 
 Highness states the Eajah has made. When the Eajah proposes 
 to make his entrance into office by the pursuance of a mischievous 
 custom which leads directly to practices of oppression and corrup- 
 tion, the Governor-General can never view with approbation the 
 selection of such a person to be the first Minister of the Euler of 
 the Kingdom of Hyderabad. 
 
 " The Governor-General does not desire to dictate to His 
 Highness the person whom he shall employ in his service as 
 Dewan. His Highness the Nizam is an independent Sovereign. 
 The British Government desire that he should continue to be so, 
 and will rejoice to see his country made happy and his people 
 prosperous. But the Governor-General is desirous of impressing 
 upon the mind of His Highness the grave importance of the cir- 
 cumstances in which he is acting, and the fatal consequences to 
 His Highness's dignity and realm which may be the result of his 
 acting unwisely at so critical a time. 
 
 " The State of Hyderabad is oppressed with heavy debt. The 
 advances made by the British Government for the payment of 
 troops are largely increased. 
 
 " The Governor-General desires clearly and distinctly to warn 
 His Highness, that within a short space of time his treasury will 
 be bankrupt, and his whole Kingdom in disorder and confusion.
 
 266 NO LOAN, 
 
 " The Governor-General warns His Highness that if he pursues 
 the course he is now following, his country will soon cease to be 
 either prosperous or peaceful. In such event, the British Govern- 
 ment, having regard to the tranquillity of its own territories, and 
 to the interests of its own subjects, could not permit the existence, 
 in a neighbouring State, of turbulence and disorder, when these 
 have became injurious to its own interests and safety. 
 
 " In such a state of things the British Government would pro- 
 bably feel itself compelled to exercise a peremptory interference 
 in the internal administration of His Higlmess's dominions, in 
 order to avert from its people the inconvenience and the injury 
 which the disordered condition of the neighbouring State must 
 needs inflict upon them. The Governor-General sincerely trusts 
 that His Highness will give heed to these friendly words, and 
 that regard for the honour and interests of his own realm will 
 induce him so to act as to avert the adoption of such measures 
 by the British Government as must tend to lower His Higlmess's 
 dignity and to reduce his power." 
 
 Unfortunately, this letter, though certainly not deficient in 
 strength, was more irritating than persuasive, and its mingled 
 warnings and assurances were balanced against each other in a 
 manner decidedly undiplomatic and inconclusive. The Nizam 
 was reminded that his Kingdom was " oppressed with heavy 
 debts"; and more especially that " the advances made by the 
 British Government" for the Contingent had been very largely 
 increased ; but not a hint was given, not a hope was held out, 
 either that the expenses of the Contingent would be diminished, 
 or that relief would be afforded to the overburdened credit of the 
 Nizam by that loan from the British Government of a crore of 
 rupees, at moderate interest, which for more than five years had 
 been held out by the Resident and the Minister, from time to time, 
 as the means of re-establishing a financial equilibrium. 
 
 None of the expectations raised by Sooraj-ool-Moolk were 
 realised, and no inducement to his retention as Minister was 
 offered by the Resident or by the Government of India. Thus, in 
 immediate connection with the heavy disappointment as to a loan, 
 came a practical disparagement of the reforming and economical 
 agency by which that loan was to have been arranged. " The 
 Governor-General does not desire to dictate to His Highness the
 
 NO MINISTER. 2G7 
 
 person whom he shall employ in his service as Dewan. His High- 
 ness the Nizam is an independent Sovereign." 
 
 Nothing could be more sound or more just than this acknow- 
 ledgment, but at the exact moment of its transmission it was 
 rather too significant and too suggestive. The dismissal of Sooraj- 
 ool-Moolk was, it is true, deprecated, the qualifications of Earn 
 Buksh were cried down, and the system of nuzzuranas on entry 
 to office was very properly deprecated. But it was, confessedly, 
 an urgent question of ways and means. The Governor-General 
 warned the Nizam " clearly and distinctly" that " within a short 
 space of time his treasury" would " be bankrupt". This impending- 
 catastrophe was evident enough. It was equally evident that 
 Sooraj-ool-Moolk could not avert it with a loan from the British 
 Government. In default of this tantalising loan, why not accept 
 the nuzzurana proffered by Eajah Bam Buksh ? The retention 
 for a few years longer, until the finances were set right again, of 
 the royal prerogative of receiving nuzzuranas^ was better than 
 bankruptcy, disorder, and sequestration by the British Govern- 
 ment, which proposed no relief or remedy. Such may well be 
 believed to have been, as rumour conveyed, the simple train of 
 argument by which the Nizam and his confidential advisers justi- 
 fied themselves in persisting in the dismissal of Sooraj-ool-Moolk, 
 and in the restoration of Earn Buksh as Peshcar. 
 
 At length Lord Dalhousie's answer came to the two letters from 
 General Fraser that have just been given, and in it the Governor- 
 General also notices the recent official correspondence on Hyder- 
 abad affairs. 
 
 " On board the Sonanwolcee, 1 
 
 " October 17th, 1848. 
 
 " My dear General Fraser, — During the first two months after we 
 parted, I had, unfortunately, too good an excuse for silence in the affairs 
 of Hyderabad in the state of my health, which unfitted me entirely for 
 the transaction of any business which was not indispensable at the 
 moment. For the last six weeks I have had only the excuse — which 
 you will probably not hold to be a valid one — of having more important 
 business in another quarter pressing on me, and occupying very much 
 of my attention and time. 
 
 1 The Sonamookee (Anglici, "Golden-faced"), a highly ornamented State 
 galley for the Governor-General's use on the Ganges, the use of which is 
 now quite superseded by steamers and railways.
 
 268 LORD DALHOUSIE'S 
 
 "Before I left Calcutta, a week ago, 1 signed a despatch to you ou 
 the affairs of His Highness. 
 
 "I am aware that, with the very decided opinions which you enter- 
 tain of the hopelessness of any measure for the redemption of the 
 State of Hyderabad, and its restoration to solvency, still more to pros- 
 perity, excepting the assumption of the administration directly by 
 ourselves, — opinions which, I perceive, have been confirmed and 
 strengthened by what you have observed since your return, — the 
 instructions which you will now receive will not be satisfactory to you. 
 They do not authorise any assumption of authority by any British 
 officer, and do no more than warn H.H. once more of the certainty 
 of his kingdom being brought to that position, unless his present course 
 be altercel and amended. These warnings, you will say, have been 
 given for forty years, and will no more be attended to now than they 
 have been in any of the forty years before. I think, however, that the 
 intimation of what must come is conveyed in language somewhat less 
 courtly, and somewhat more precise and plain-spoken, than heretofore, 
 and I am not without hope that it may have its effect. 
 
 " One thing, at all events, is certain, that to attempt to sustain 
 Sooraj-ool-Moolk as Dewan, after the repeated manifestations of deep- 
 seated antipathy on the part of H.H., and of that entire discrepancy 
 of sentiment which you recognise as existing between them, would be 
 only labour lost and folly. 
 
 " We have strongly represented the Dewan's claims and fitness, 
 expressed the satisfaction of this Government with the services he 
 renders his Master, and counselled his continuance in office. It is vain 
 to go further than this by seeking to make the Nizam retain him, 
 either by compulsion, or by such an exercise of our influence as, in the 
 relative positions of the two States, would virtually be compulsion. 
 No good could come of it, and we should furnish the Nizam with 
 a plea in his own favour, and with a grievance against us. 
 
 " If, then, H.H. chooses to take advantage of the power which we 
 recognise him to hold, and, disregarding our counsel, should take some 
 other incapable person to be his Minister, he must bear his fate when it 
 comes. But whatever may happen, or may not happen, the Government 
 of India can undertake no great political reforms, can neither organise 
 nor instruct a great political revolution in the Kingdom ui' Hyderabad, 
 until the war with the Punjaub is concluded, and the affairs of that 
 part of the country are settled. If the Nizam chooses to precipitate 
 his crisis in the meantime, he must go to the dogs his own way, for 
 the Government of India has no time just now to take care of him — 
 unless, indeed, he lias a mind to have a war too, in which case, no 
 doubt, we should he able to attend to him. My own opinion as to the 
 affairs of that kingdom remains as it was when I had the pleasure of
 
 LETTER. 269 
 
 conferring with you. Full examination of past representations, and of 
 despatches up to the present time, compels me to feel that the state of 
 the country from any supposed oppression or misrule is not such as to 
 ■warrant an interference of the British Government at present. I 
 remain of opinion that an interference will become necessary, but I 
 think that the necessity will be brought about by a financial cata- 
 strophe, and not by any popular outbreak, or by any disorganisation of 
 the Army, such as it is, or of the administration of the Government in 
 the provinces, such as it is. 
 
 "While T am not one of those who regard the Contingent Force as 
 an oppression and an injustice, I yet think that we do not stand free of 
 blame in respect of the footing on which we have maintained it. And 
 whenever the Nizam shall manifest a sincere wish to enter into an 
 amendment of his administration, I shall be ready on the part of the 
 Government of India to meet his endeavours to reduce the expenditui'e 
 of his kingdom by entering on the consideration of the means of 
 diminishing the extravagant costliness of this Force and its append- 
 ages. 
 
 " You will also receive a despatch intimating that we are prepared 
 to charge only 6 per cent, interest on the moneys advanced to His 
 Highness. 
 
 " The war in the Punjaub is much to be lamented in every respect. 
 It is an additional reason for regretting its occurrence, that it is of a 
 magnitude and an urgency which demands that the Government of 
 India should for the time lay aside the consideration of every other 
 political problem which can by any possibility bear delay, however 
 desirable its solution may be, and however willing the Government may 
 be to apply itself to the study of it. 
 
 " I shall be glad to hear whether the very explicit declaration of the 
 opinion of this Government has had any influence at all on the Nizam 
 or not. The present reconciliation with the Dewan rests, as it appears 
 to me, on no intelligible or trustworthy foundation at all. 
 
 " I shall address you separately on Shorapore and the Roman Catholic 
 priests at Secunderabad. The latter is a very untoward and awkward 
 affair. 
 
 " In the midst of all this business, I must beg you to offer my best 
 respects and regards to your daughter, who has now felt, I hope, the 
 full benefit of her trip. 
 
 " Believe me, my dear General, 
 
 " Yours very truly, 
 
 "Dalhousie." 
 
 Even at the very outset of the official relations between Lord 
 Dalhousie and my father, it seems right that I should, call attention
 
 270 COXTEASTED VIEWS. 
 
 to the very wide, and, as it proved, irreconcilable, difference between 
 the principles and the method for dealing with the difficulties and 
 the defects of the Nizam's Government recommended by the 
 Resident, and those adopted by the great Proconsul whose decision 
 was conclusive. It is impossible for anyone to shut his eyes to 
 the fact that the attitude and tone assumed, from the very first, by 
 Lord Dalhousie, were not really considerate or friendly towards our 
 faithful though weak Ally ; and I shall show, moreover, that there 
 was a latent misunderstanding as to the exact nature and limits of 
 the measures proposed by General Fraser, which was never fully 
 visible to either of the correspondents, and which has never hitherto 
 been properly explained. 
 
 Strange to say, with full appreciation of those grounds for hope- 
 fulness which the Eesident laid before him, Lord Dalhousie was 
 hopeless as to any reform of the Hyderabad administration by the 
 moderate application of British influence in aid of internal resources 
 and Native capacity. " Full examination of past representations 
 and of despatches up to the present time", writes Lord Dalhousie, 
 " compels me to feel that the state of the country from any sup- 
 posed oppression or misrule is not such as to warrant an interference 
 of the British Government at present. I remain of opinion that an 
 interference will become necessary, but I think that the necessity 
 will be brought about by a financial catastrophe, and not by any 
 popular outbreak, or by any disorganisation of the Army, or of the 
 administration of the Government in the provinces, such as it is." 
 
 That phrase, "such as it is", is enough to show that the Governor- 
 General quite recognised the improvements required in the 
 administration, but was not inclined to give that measure of help, 
 in any form, which General Fraser, with his long local experience, 
 assured him would be quite sufficient. When Lord Dalhousie spoke 
 of " interference", he meant — though the Eesident was not aware of 
 it, — interference to the extent of complete suppression of local 
 government by an influx of highly salaried English officers, in the 
 style of the Mysore Commission, as it is enforced still in the Nizam's 
 provinces of Berar. Any interference, short of this, Lord I hdhousie 
 considered would not be advantageous or profitable to the British 
 Government. He thought that interference would be made neces- 
 sary by "a financial catastrophe", but he wished to wait for it. He 
 wished to wait for a pretext ; and he wished, also, to wait till the
 
 UNFEIENDLY INDIFFERENCE. 271 
 
 war in the Punjaub was over, that his hands might be free to act. 
 He would not accept General Fraser's assurances that all the pres- 
 sure demanded by the occasion was moral and persuasive, if rightly 
 directed, and that there would be no call for coercion. Now, it is 
 true that both Lord Ellenborough and Lord Hardinge, swayed by 
 the prejudices of Calcutta, were equally convinced that nothing 
 could be done atHyderabad without some degree of military coercion, 
 and used the wars in Scinde, Gwalior, and on the Sutlej as pleas 
 for deferring those firm remonstrances and definite counsels which 
 the Resident suggested. 1 But their language was not offensive or 
 menacing. The Earl of Dalhousie at the earliest moment revealed 
 to the Resident his anticipation of coercive measures becoming 
 necessary, and his perfect indifference as to the consequences that 
 might fall upon the Hyderabad State. The Nizani "must bear 
 his fate when it comes". "If the Nizam chooses to precipitate his 
 crisis in the meantime" — that is, before the Punjaub war is over, — 
 " he must go to the dogs his own way, for the Government of India 
 has no time just now to take care of him — unless, indeed, he has a 
 mind to have a war too, in which case we should be able to attend 
 to him." 
 
 It is not easy to distinguish here the note of friendly consider- 
 ation for a State and a dynasty with which we had never been at 
 war, and which had stood by us in every time of need and of trial 
 while British power was being established in India. 
 
 Lord Dalhousie expected "a financial catastrophe". He thought 
 that we were not " free of blame in respect of the footing on 
 which we maintained" the Contingent. He admitted "the ex- 
 travagant costliness of this Force and its appendages". Yet he 
 would do nothing to diminish that "extravagant costliness" which 
 was the main cause of the Nizam's financial difficulties. 
 
 Lord Dalhousie judged rightly that the official instructions con- 
 veyed at the same time with this letter would not be "satisfactory" 
 to General Fraser. The whole spirit of the Resident's policy and 
 proposals were misunderstood and, as it were, perverted. The 
 Governor-General spoke of the Resident contemplating " adminis- 
 tration directly by ourselves", and "assumption of authority by 
 British officers". But while the Governor-General, in using these 
 terms, was thinking — to use his own words again — of "organising 
 
 1 Ante, pp. 201,202, 209, 210.
 
 272 ASSIGNMENT FOE A TKIIM. 
 
 e great political revolution", of setting aside the Prince, the 
 Minister, and all the local dignitaries, and of flooding the country, 
 as he did at last in Berar, with English officers, General Fraser 
 had no such intention and no such suspicion, at this period, of 
 Lord Dalhousie's. revolutionary views. General Fraser from the 
 very first deprecated any repetition of the Mysore sequestration; 
 having declared that " the permanent assumption of any portion of 
 that country would be a stain upon our good faith and national 
 character". 1 All that he asked for was explicit and straightforward 
 support of the Resident and the Minister, so that their influence 
 over the Hyderabad Durbar should be established beyond all 
 dispute, and that they should be able to work uninterruptedly 
 in concert. Then, however direct and however strong British 
 influence might be in the administration of Hyderabad, it could 
 be applied without public scandal, or dishonour to the Prince ; 
 there would be no "organised revolution" or sweeping displacement 
 of the higher Native officials. General Fraser's plan, repeatedly 
 propounded, was to employ no more than three English gentlemen 
 in the Civil administration, and those not, strictly speaking, 
 " British officers", that is to say, not in the Queen's or Company's 
 service. They were Captain Meadows Taylor and Mr. Henry 
 Pighton, whose names I have already had occasion to mention, 
 and Captain Commandant Bullock. Captains Taylor and Bullock 
 were local officers of the Nizam's Army ; Mr. Dighton was, as we 
 know, a merchant and a banker. All three, while really subordi- 
 nate and responsible to the Resident, would have been in the 
 service and pay of the Nizam. 
 
 Above all, as will be seen more in detail hereafter, it was 
 General Fraser's firm conviction that if ever the extreme measure 
 of formally assigning a portion, or the whole, of his dominions to 
 the management of the British Resident should be pressed on the 
 Nizam, the assignment should be made for a special number of 
 years — five years being, in his opinion, quite a sufficient period for 
 the firm establishment of a reformed administration in every 
 department. 
 
 The very positive and peremptory rejection of his advice by 
 Lord Dalhousie did not convince General Fraser, or convert him 
 to the policy of letting the Nizam "go to the dogs". Lord Dal- 
 
 1 Ante, p. 28.
 
 LABOUR LOST INDEED. 273 
 
 housie in this letter professed great aversion to anything resem- 
 bling "compulsion". General Fraser knew that there need be no 
 compulsion. There was so even a balance in the counsels of the 
 Durbar, that one firm word would have turned the scale in favour 
 of the Dewan and the Resident. But when the Governor-General, 
 to whose orders and instructions the liesident was bound to con- 
 form, declared that to insist on the Nizam retaining Sooraj-ool- 
 Moolk in office would be "labour lost and folly", there was nothing 
 more to be said for the time in any direct communication. It is 
 ill arguing with the master of twenty legions. General Eraser's 
 labour was indeed lost.
 
 274 
 
 CHAPTER YIIT 
 
 A Church Riot — The Portuguese Patriarch and the Yicars Apostolic — 
 Bishops and Priests under Military Interdict — Letters to and from 
 Lord Dalhousie — Letter to Major Moore — Intrigues against Sooraj-ool- 
 Moolk — His early Efforts to Diminish Feudal Tenures and Hereditary 
 Jurisdictions — Dismissal of Sooraj-ool-Moolk — Letters from Lord 
 Dalhousie — Subsidiary Force against the Goolburga rebels — Letters to 
 and from Sir Henry Pottinger — E. B. Eastwick. 
 
 The Eoman Catholic Bishop's case, mentioned in Lord Dalhousie's 
 last letter, was, indeed, as he said, an "untoward and awkward 
 affair". 1 It was one of a long series of disputes and disturbances 
 arising out of the ecclesiastical pretensions of the Portuguese 
 Archbishop of Goa and Patriarch of the Indies, which for nearly- 
 half a century gave much trouble to the civil and military autho- 
 rities in British India, and plenty of work to the police and the 
 courts of justice. The Archbishop, nominated by the King of Por- 
 tugal under an ancient Concordat, claimed certain metropolitan 
 powers over the entire Continent of India, which were not acknow- 
 ledged by the Vicars Apostolic, directly appointed by the Pope, 
 exercising episcopal functions over a great number of Eoman 
 Catholic missionaries, and over the priests acting as military 
 chaplains to the troops in our cantonments. Hence arose frequent 
 disputes as to cure of souls between the Goanese and the Euro- 
 pean priests, which in many cases assumed the concrete form of a 
 conflict for the possession of a chapel. The Native Christians, 
 and the mixed race calling themselves Portuguese, widely spread 
 through India, naturally sided with the priests of their own 
 country and complexion ; while our soldiers, as naturally, preferred 
 the Irish and French missionaries. Without hazarding any opinion 
 on the merits of a controversy quite beyond the sphere of my 
 judgment, I may add that after having been carried on for many 
 years, both in our Courts and in the Eoman Curia, the dispute has 
 
 1 Ante, p. 269.
 
 MILITARY INHIBITION. 275 
 
 been, to all intents and purposes, decided against the Patriarch of 
 Goa, both by ecclesiastical and municipal jurisdiction, under pro- 
 test, however, from both Church and King in Portugal. 
 
 In 1848, one of these contests for the possession of a chapel 
 arrived at the acute stage in the cantonment of Secunderabad, 
 forming a vexatious and unintelligible puzzle for the military 
 magistrate and the officer commanding the Force. While the 
 matter was yet sub judice, circumstances led to a collision between 
 the Goanese and European priests, with whom the coloured 
 Catholics and the Irish soldiers respectively took sides, and at 
 last something like a riot took place, in which no very serious 
 acts of violence were committed beyond the wrecking of the 
 chapel the possession of which was in question. Some soldiers of 
 the Queen's Regiment and of the Company's Artillery had taken 
 part in the riot, and one or two Irish priests were accused of 
 having incited them to violence by words spoken at the altar ; 
 while the Vicar Apostolic, Bishop Murphy, was blamed for not 
 having, as the military authorities alleged, either previously for- 
 bidden or subsequently blamed the violent words and acts of his 
 curates and his flock. After a long inquiry and much correspond- 
 ence, the Government of Madras decided that the Irish Bishop 
 and priests could not be allowed any longer to remain in contact 
 with our soldiers at Secunderabad ; and the Brigadier in command 
 having summarily expelled them from the cantonment, called 
 upon General Eraser, in pursuance of orders from Madras, to 
 deport them from the Nizam's dominions. This, as will be seen 
 from the following extracts of a despatch on the subject, dated 
 11th September 1848, the Resident hesitated to do without explicit 
 instructions from the Government of India, to which he was 
 immediately subordinate. It will be seen also that the General 
 appreciated the singular encroachments on the spiritual field to 
 which the Madras Government was committing itself, and the 
 inextricable complications in which we might soon be involved. 
 
 " Under common circumstances I should, of course, not hesitate to 
 give effect to any application I might receive from the Government of 
 Fort St. George ; but on an occasion of so much importance as the 
 present one, wherein I am entirely unacquainted with the proceedings 
 of the recent inquiry at Secunderabad, and can possess, therefore, no 
 assurance that the Governor-General in Council will assent to the very 
 
 t2
 
 276 A GOOD WORD 
 
 strong measure of removing the Right Rev. Dr. Murphy and others 
 from His Highness the Nizam's dominions, I have deemed it better 
 to apply for the instructions of the Government of India before I 
 proceed to give effect to the resolution of the Government of Fort St. 
 George. 
 
 "It is not my intention to offer any opinion with regard to the 
 expediency or otherwise of the measure now in question, being quite 
 ignorant, as above stated, of the details of the inquiry on which it has 
 been founded ; but it may not be irrelevant on my part to state that 
 Dr. Murphy, who is Bishop of Philadelphia in partibus, and Vicar 
 Apostolic of a very large diocese, including Hyderabad, has been about 
 ten years at this station, and that during the whole of this time I have 
 never witnessed any improper or indiscreet conduct on his part, or 
 heard him spoken of by anyone otherwise than as a person of the most 
 gentlemanly and conciliatory demeanour, and undeviatingly characterised 
 by the most humble and unassuming deportment. 
 
 " Viewing the question as one affecting a violation of the rights of 
 property, or as one of military discipline, I have no remark to offer; 
 but if the Government of Fort St. George makes the selection of a 
 Roman Catholic priest to administer to the spiritual wants of the 
 Catholics of H.M.'s 84th Regiment, dependent on the exclusive judg- 
 ment of the Commanding Officer "of that corps, — as would seem to be 
 the case on reference to the Minutes of Consultation now forwarded, — 
 a serious error, as it appears to me, will be committed if the person so 
 selected belongs to the Portuguese Church of Goa, since the Arch- 
 bishop of Goa and the priests belonging to his diocese are expressly 
 prohibited by the Court of Rome from exercising spiritual jurisdiction 
 within any of the Vicariats Apostolic of India, or anywhere except in 
 those places where Portugal possesses territory and political power. 
 It may be, and doubtless is, entirely right that we should exercise as 
 little interference as possible in Roman Catholic religious questions 
 of this kind ; but it is more especially clear that we should not ex- 
 ercise any Mich interference as would involve and encourage a direct 
 opposition and act of disobedience to the spiritual authority of that 
 power which all Roman Catholics are bound to obey." 
 
 To Lord Dalhousie lie wrote privately, as follows. 
 
 "Hyderabad, 12th September 1848. 
 
 "My Lokd, — I must advert to the late disagreeable events at 
 Secunderahad, and the Resolution of the Madras Government in con- 
 sequence, which were the subject of an official communication from 
 me under yesterday's date to Calcutta. 1 
 
 1 Lord Dalhousie himself was then in camp, on his way to the Punjaub, 
 so that the case might have escaped his notice, and have been settled in 
 ordinary routine by the Council at Calcutta.
 
 FOR THE BISHOP. 277 
 
 " Tt was not without a somewhat anxious consideration of the 
 matter that I determined to defer acting in compliance with the 
 application from Madras, until I should receive the instructions of 
 your Lordship's Government. It seemed to me that the removal 
 from his diocese of a Bishop hitherto so highly and so universally 
 esteemed as Dr. Murphy, was an extreme measure which at least re- 
 quired previous submission to the Government of India. It will be 
 seen that in my reply to the Madras Government I offered no opinion, 
 still less presumed to comment on its proceedings; but I cannot refrain 
 from observing that the measures determined at Madras appear to me 
 to be extremely severe, or from expressing a hope that the ultimate 
 decision of the Supreme Government will be well considered, not only 
 with reference to the intrinsic merits of the Madras Resolution, but 
 also with some thought of the clamorous discussion which the enforce- 
 ment of that Resolution will inevitably raise at home, and peiliaps 
 throughout the Roman Catholic world. Dr. Murphy is held in high 
 respect and regard, as I have reason to know, both at Rome and by all 
 the Bishops and members of his communion in India; and his summary 
 and peremptory removal from his diocese will, I imagine, be an act 
 almost without a parallel in English history since the Reformation, 
 certainly since the Revolution of 1688. It will assuredly attract much 
 attention, and I doubt if it will be considered justifiable, in the relative 
 positions of the Protestant and Roman Catholic Churches, by any 
 party in Church or State, unless some very strong and urgent reasons, 
 of which I have heard nothing, can be advanced in favour of it. 
 
 "I have given official intimation to the Officer Commanding the 
 Hyderabad Subsidiary Force, that as far as regards the removal of the 
 Right Reverend Dr. Murphy and certain of his priests from the Nizam's 
 dominions, I have referred for the instructions of the Government of 
 India ; but I have abstained from making any remark to him regarding 
 his execution of any orders he may receive from Madras regarding 
 the expulsion of these parties from the cantonment of Secunderabad. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, my Lord, 
 
 " Your very faithful and obedient servant, 
 
 "J. S. Fraser." 
 
 Here is Lord Dalhousie's reply to this and other letters from 
 the Resident : — 
 
 " Ghazeepore, November 4, 1848. 
 
 " My dear General Fraser, — In my last letter I omitted to return 
 to you Lord Ellenborough's letters, which you sent to me in original. 
 They arc now enclosed.
 
 278 lord dalhousie's letter. 
 
 " The Government of Madras .sent to us the papers relative to your 
 Roman Catholic Bishop shortly after we received your letter. The 
 question was a ticklish one in every way, and I took time to consider 
 it. The despatch will have shown you that we concurred in your view, 
 that the removal of the Bishop from the territories of the Nizam was 
 not only a very strong measure in itself, but a much more violent one 
 than the circumstances of the case would justify. Bishop Murphy 
 was, however, in my judgment, greatly to blame in the matter; and it 
 is, in my opinion, quite necessary that it should be made clear that 
 neither priest nor Bishop can be permitted with impunity to incite men 
 to commit outrages against the law, or to interfere with military 
 discipline. I have no doubt that the Bishop, being the discreet, sensible 
 person you describe him to be, will keep himself within bounds, and 
 hold a tighter rein over his subalterns. If not, I shall not hesitate to 
 adopt very decided measures. 
 
 " With regard to the present case, I have no doubt that the Eccle- 
 siastical authorities will recognise the necessity of moving the priests 
 altogether away from Hyderabad, and spare the Government of 
 India the disagreeable duty of taking steps for compelling them to 
 go. 
 
 " In respect of the proposal made by Captain Taylor for the establish- 
 ment of a Force in the district of "Shorapore, I am quite willing to be 
 guided by your opinion, which at present is so clearly adverse to the 
 pi'oposal. The present time is in itself unpropitious for such a pro- 
 posal ; since our own wants towards the North will compel us to draw 
 heavily on the Bombay and Madras Presidencies for aid in troops. 
 But in truth I can see nothing advanced by Captain Taylor which goes 
 to prove the necessity for the measure he recommends. Doubtless the 
 presence of British troops would increase the security and ensure the 
 tranquillity of that country ; but I see no reason to doubt that it might 
 be kept tranquil without them; and under these circumstances, and 
 fortified by your opinion, 1 would advise you to discourage Captain 
 Taylor from making such an application, unless subsequent events 
 should give you reason to change the opinion you at present entertain. 
 I return his letter and enclosure. 
 
 " I cannot bring myself to believe that there is any cordiality, or 
 likelihood of endurance in the professed reconciliation between the 
 Nizam and his Dewan. I therefore did not think it the least necessary 
 to do otherwise than to reply directly to the official complaints His 
 Highness addressed to me, without taking notice of the apparent 
 reconciliation, of which he had said nothing to me, either by himself 
 or tli rough you. I augur no good from the apparent patching-up of 
 relations between them. 
 
 "The debt to us has had a terrible lift by your last report, and is,
 
 THE BISHOP RESTORED. 279 
 
 as I always thought, more likely to bring about the crisis than any 
 other circumstance. But all good powers avert it just now ! 
 " I hope to be on the frontier in three weeks. 
 
 " Believe me, yours very truly, 
 
 " Dalhousie." 
 
 And so Bishop Murphy was not expelled from his diocese, but 
 was forbidden to enter its principal town, where were situated his 
 cathedral church, the principal schools, and charitable institutions 
 under his charge. For two years he could obtain no release from 
 these anomalous and unmanageable conditions, and was obliged to 
 seek redress in London, taking with him a letter to General Fraser's 
 old friend in the Court of Directors, Major Moore. 
 
 " Hyderabad, 7th January 1851. 
 
 " My dear Moore, — This letter is to recommend to your courtesy 
 and kindness a friend of mine, the Right Rev. Dr. Murphy, Bishop of 
 Philadelphia, in partibus iufidellum, and Vicar Apostolic of Hyderabad, 
 who was removed from his diocese by order of the Madras Government, 
 about two years ago, in consequence of a religious dispute, in which 
 some of the men of the 84th Foot took a part, but who was afterwards 
 permitted to remain within his diocese, though excluded from Secun- 
 derabad. As, however, his cathedral or principal church is there, this 
 was almost equivalent to suspension from the functions of his office. 
 
 " I do not presume to express any opinion on the merits of the case, 
 as I have had no official or private cognisance of the papers connected 
 with it. Of the personal qualities, however, of Dr. Murphy I can speak 
 with confidence, as I have known him for at least ten years, and a 
 man of milder disposition and temper, and of more gentlemanly and 
 unassuming deportment, I have never known in my life. 
 
 " He is going home to endeavour to secure reinstatement in his former 
 position and place of residence, but my only object, as I began this 
 letter by saying, is to beg that you will do me the favour to receive him 
 with that civility and kindness which are habitual to you. 
 " Believe me, my dear Moore, 
 
 " Very sincerely yours, 
 
 "J. S. Fraser." 
 
 Eventually, by instructions from the Court of Directors, the 
 military interdict was raised, and Bishop Murphy returned from 
 London, invigorated probably by the change of air, to resume the 
 full exercise of his episcopal functions in Secunderabad. 
 
 All through the latter half of 1848 intrigues were in progress
 
 280 SERVICE TENURES 
 
 against the Ministry of Sooraj-ool-Moolk, whose reforms, and whose 
 rumoured projects of reform, were by no means acceptable either 
 to those who had thriven on the abuses of Chundoo Tail's rule and 
 hoped for their revival, or to the higher class of Chieftains and 
 Nobles, who stood by the ancient ways and feared — with good 
 reason from their point of view — every innovation. The greatest 
 ambition of the courtier or successful functionary at Hyderabad 
 was always that of obtaining the grant of a service Jaghire, or 
 landed estate, on the feudal tenure of maintaining so many troops. 
 Much of the land revenue was thus alienated, by favour or influence, 
 to very little purpose, with the additional objection that by old 
 custom the Jaghiredar exercised the powers of magistracy and police 
 within his own estate, which constituted a serious obstacle to 
 administrative reform. The late Nawab Sir Salar Jung, during his 
 long and useful career as Minister, was constantly occupied in 
 breaking down, as occasion offered, that same system of military 
 tenures and the right of maintenance, with the usual accompani- 
 ment of hereditary jurisdiction, which it was the great object of so 
 many English enactments to abolish, in the period from Edward I 
 and Richard II down to Henry VII, who at last succeeded in 
 putting them down for ever. But in pursuing this policy Sir Salar 
 Jung was only carrying out the process that had been sketched out 
 by his uncle, Sooraj-ool-Moolk, and to a limited extent brought 
 into action under the advice and influence of General Fraser. 
 
 In a Memorandum respectfully submitted to the Nizam in 
 November 1848, by Sooraj-ool-Moolk, immediately before he gave 
 over charge to his successor, the Dewan thus mentions an inves- 
 tigation into service tenures as one of the measures which he had 
 been prevented by opposition from carrying out, but which he still 
 urgently recommended for His Highness's consideration : — 
 
 " It is necessary that an inquiry should be made regarding personal 
 Jag-hires, and those for which services are required; and also regarding 
 the pay of the troops who are in the service of the Jaghiredars, on what 
 account it has been allowed ; and whether the Sunnuds of the Jaghires 
 are for life or otherwise; and whether the persons to whom the Sun- 
 nuds were originally given arc alive or dead." 
 
 The dread of such an investigation as this, and the secret remon- 
 strances to which it gave rise, were among the most effectual causes 
 of Sooraj-ool-Moolk's temporary lapse from the Nizam's favour, and
 
 AND JURISDICTIONS. 283 
 
 dismissal for a time from office, at the end of 1848: No British 
 Loan being obtainable; ho relief or mitigation secured of the monthly 
 demand for the Contingent, there was nothing to prove that the 
 J >ewan had any support from our Government, or enjoyed anything 
 like the consideration that had been accorded for so many years to 
 Rajah Chundoo Lall. All the Munsubdars, all the Talookdars, all 
 the Jaghiredars, actual and expectant, were encouraged to raise 
 their voices, if only in a whisper, against the Minister and the 
 Resident, who were, according to their views, combined against 
 them, and bent on their degradation. Attempts were made at this 
 period, but without success, to persuade the Nizam not only to insist 
 on removing Sooraj-ool-Moolk from office, but to make a formal 
 complaint to the Governor-General against the Resident, in the hope 
 of obtaining his removal also. The Nizam is understood never to 
 have entertained this wild proposal, but that it was pressed upon 
 him there is no doubt. In a letter to the Governor-General, 
 dated 11th December 1848, the Resident refers to this particular 
 form of intrigue, which was promoted also by some offensive articles 
 in one of the Madras newspapers. 
 
 " I submit for your Lordship's perusal a private note that I received 
 two or three days ago from Sooraj-ool-Moolk, and which I thought it 
 rig-lit to abstain from sending up officially. Sooraj-ool-Moolk's informa- 
 tion may possibly be biassed by his feelings under his removal from 
 office; but I have many special reasons for relying on the accuracy of 
 his facts. Your Lordship will perceive that much mischief is hei'e 
 
 attributed to Mr. , and it is evident that this gentleman is 
 
 contravening the positive and repeated orders of the Court of Directors, 
 that lie should hold no intercourse with the Nizam's Government or its- 
 officers except through the channel of the Resident. It might be dif- 
 ficult for me, however, to prove these clandestine visits of his to the 
 City ; and even if they could be prevented he would, no doubt, find 
 means to continue the communications with his confidential friends 
 there through the medium of secret emissaries. In the event of these 
 intrigues becoming more mischievous, and more distinctly traced to 
 him, I should perceive no effectual remedy but that of expelling him 
 from the Nizam's country ; and as this would perhaps be a measure of 
 too sevei'e a nature for the British Government to have recourse to, 
 and might occasion more noise and discussion than the matter is 
 worth, I shall say nothing about it officially unless in your Lordship's 
 judgment I ought to do so."
 
 282 SOOEAJ-OOL-MOOLK DISMISSED. 
 
 Lord Dalhousie's reply was prompt and very much to the 
 
 purpose. 
 
 " Camp Loodiana, December 26th, 1848. 
 
 " My dear General Fjraser, — I have to acknowledge your letter of 
 11th instant with its enclosure. I have no inclination to doubt that a 
 great deal of Sooraj-ool-Moolk's intelligence to you is correct, includ- 
 ing the interference of a particular gentleman who is named. But 
 there is evidently no proof at present. Assuming that there were, it 
 would be a very questionable exercise of power to deport under such 
 circumstances, and one that should certainly not be resorted to without 
 reference to the Court. 1 I am not disposed to attach much political 
 importance to his interference, especially if the tenor of his communica- 
 tions is to any such effect as that reported, regarding the Governor- 
 General immediately removing you, or any other Resident, on the 
 mere complaint of the Prince to whom he is accredited. If H.H. 
 sends any impudent letters of that kind to me, I will make his knuckles 
 so smart as never Nizam's knuckles smarted before. 
 
 " I shall be curious to see the course of events for some time to 
 come. 
 
 " The Bombay troops have at last arrived at Mooltan, and opera- 
 tions were to be renewed yesterday. They have now an army of 
 nearly 18,000 men and sixty siege guns, which should surely be 
 enough. 
 
 " Believe me, yours sincerely, 
 
 " Dalhousie." 
 
 It was during an interview with the Eesident, at which Sooraj- 
 ool-Moolk was present, on the 10th of November 1848, that the 
 Nizam, after a long discussion, finally declared, in the manner 
 thus described by General Fraser, his determination to dismiss the 
 Dewan : — 
 
 " The conversation ended by the Nizam acquainting me that he was 
 dissatisfied with Sooraj-ool-Moolk, and that as this sentiment appeared 
 to be mutual, he would remove him from his office, and appoint another 
 Dewan. 
 
 " As I had no instructions to press the claims of Sooraj-ool-Moolk 
 on the Nizam's favourable consideration, and it appeared contrary to 
 the tenor of the Governor- General's instructions that I should do so, I 
 merely bowed to His Highness's determination, and expressed a hope 
 that he would inform me of the name of the person whom he might 
 think proper to select. 
 
 1 The Court of Directors.
 
 SHUMS-OOL-OOMRA DEWAN. 283 
 
 " In the course of conversation, and during one of its pauses, I took 
 an opportunity of mentioning to the Nizam that the Supreme Govern- 
 ment had reduced the rate of interest upon the debt due by him to the 
 Company's Government, on account of the advances made for the pay 
 of the Contingent, from 12 to 6 per cent, per annum. The Nizam 
 listened to this remark, but made no reply to it." 
 
 The immediate successor of Sooraj-ool-Moolk was named Amjud- 
 ool-Moolk, apparently a person of no great capacity, and who only 
 remained in office for about a month. The Nizam then nominated 
 the Nawab Shums-ool-Oomra, a nobleman of the highest rank, of 
 unimpeachable honour and universally esteemed, but who was 
 not, in General Fraser's opinion, as well inclined towards a reform- 
 ing and economical policy as Sooraj-ool-Moolk. Although still, in 
 conformity with the latest instructions received from the Govern- 
 ment of India, he made no remonstrance against the Nizam's free 
 choice of a Minister, the Resident spoke his mind to the Governor- 
 General, from whom he received the following letter referring to 
 the installation as Dewan of Shums-ool-Oomra. 
 
 " Camp Ferozepore, 
 
 " January 29th, 1849. 
 
 " My dear General Fraser, — I have received your letter of the 8th 
 with the public letter to which it refers. I will send no reply for some 
 days, as you wish that an interval should be allowed to elapse before it 
 is answered. I do not think, however, tliat there will be any use in 
 your absenting yourself from this man's investiture, since there is 
 nothing definite against him, although there is as little definite in his 
 favour. If so, I fear we shall go on vetoing Dewans for ever. But I 
 epiite concur with you in thinking that care must be taken that it is 
 clearly understood there is no approval of this officer, although we 
 consent to his appointment. 
 
 " Certainly, if the Nizam asks for the assistance of troops against 
 the Eohillas, I would move the Contingent. It is just one of the 
 services to which they should be applied; and if they are called into 
 action, I conceive they will do a service to humanity if they should 
 exterminate wretches capable of such deeds. 
 
 " You read the papers, and will, therefore, judge of what is passing 
 here. I am neither grumbler nor croaker ; but with the past before 
 my eyes, I can't conceal from myself that there is room for some 
 anxiety as to the future. Under ordinary circumstances I should, 
 with such an army, have no anxiety at all. The Mooltan Force — 12 or
 
 284 SUBSIDIARY FORCE 
 
 13,000 of them — are now on their march to join the Commander-in- 
 Chief. 
 
 " The troops, on the whole, behaved very well on the loth * * *.' 
 
 " Believe me, yours sincerely, 
 
 " Dalhousie." 
 
 During the year 1848 there had been several occasions for 
 calling out the Contingent for the suppression of minor disturb- 
 ances ; but in one affair of greater importance, where the delin- 
 quents were the hereditary custodians of a Mohammedan shrine 
 and place of pilgrimage of great reputed sanctity at Goolburga, 
 the Eesident found it more convenient, and thought it more advis- 
 able, to set the Subsidiary Force in motion. The duty was quickly 
 performed, without bloodshed, by a detachment under Colonel 
 Blundell, C.B., and the holy men of Goolburga, who had com- 
 pletely set the Nizam's authority at defiance, were brought in as 
 prisoners to Hyderabad. Some question was raised by the Govern- 
 ment of Madras and the Government of India as to this employ- 
 ment of the Subsidiary Force, more especially as expense had 
 been incurred, whereas if the Contingent had, as usual, been sent 
 out, all the charges would have been debited to the Nizam's 
 Government. 
 
 On this subject lie writes to Lord Dalhousie, under date the 
 24th of November 1849. 
 
 " In the Goolburga affair it was a part of the Hyderabad Subsidiary 
 Force I employed, and no part of the Contingent, excepting the 
 Cavalry Regiment which is permanently stationed at Goolburga. I 
 had ample reasons for this, but as I observe my proceedings on the 
 occasion have been commented upon, I have prepared a Memorandum 
 on the subject, a copy of which is herewith enclosed. I should be 
 glad to know your Lordship's sentiments regarding the employment, 
 as a general principle, of the Hyderabad Subsidiary Force or of the 
 troops of the Contingent. I am disposed to think that this question 
 should be left very much to the discretion of the Resident, who will 
 be guided by local circumstances, which cannot always be foreseen, 
 and cannot, therefore, be made the subject of positive ride. 
 
 " I have observed it mentioned in the papers that the movement of 
 the troops I ordered from Secunderabad cost 25 or 30 thousand rupees. 
 If it did this, which I can scarcely believe, and if even so small a part 
 of the Subsidiary Force as I required cannot be moved for a few days 
 
 1 At the battle of Chillianwalla.
 
 ACTIVELY EMPLOYED. 285 
 
 without involving so great :m expense, I cannot consider that it is kept 
 up, as it ought to be, in an efficient state, ready for immediate service ; 
 for heavy expenditure attending its employment detracts from its effi- 
 ciency, inasmuch as it would make me reluctant to have recourse to 
 its services. 
 
 " I should be loath to incur the risk of involving the Government in 
 so great an expenditure as what is above mentioned, without an indis- 
 pensable necessity for so doing." 
 
 hi the Memorandum forwarded with this letter, after giving 
 details as to distances from the scene of action, and disposable 
 numbers at the several stations of the Subsidiary Force and 
 Contingent respectively, the General explains that " part of the 
 field force ordered to Goolburga being Europeans of Her Majesty's 
 84th Regiment, it seemed preferable that the whole detachment 
 should be furnished from the Subsidiary Force and commanded 
 by one of its superior officers, rather than that the two Companies 
 of Europeans should be placed under the orders of an officer of 
 the Contingent." 
 
 " Viewing the matter in a more general point of view, it may be 
 observed that with reference to Article. V of the Subsidiary Treaty of 
 1798, the peculiar and special duty of the Hyderabad Subsidiary 
 Force is that of ' overawing and chastising all rebels or exciters of 
 disturbance in the dominions' of the Nizam. Whereas, strictly speaking, 
 the Contingent, if viewed as a Force organised in lieu of the six 
 thousand Infantry and nine thousand Horse referred to in the 12th 
 Article of the Hyderabad Treaty of 1800, and for the purpose of being 
 employed on the service for which the Nizam agreed to furnish those 
 15,000 men, should rather be considered as intended to assist the 
 British Government in its external wars, when engaged in them con- 
 jointly with the Nizam, than to maintain the internal peace of His 
 Highness's dominions. 
 
 " On the whole, it would appear the more desirable arrangement to 
 leave the selection of any force required for service, whether from the 
 Subsidiary Force or from the Contingent separately, or from both in 
 conjunction, to the discretion of the Resident, who would be guided by 
 the circumstances of each case." 
 
 Eventually all the proceedings in this matter were approved, 
 ami the general principles laid down by General Eraser were 
 accepted by the Government of India. 
 
 Some correspondence between the General and Sir Henry 
 l'ottinger, Governor of Madras, in the early part of 1819, present
 
 286 BATTLE OF GOOJERAT. 
 
 some features of interest. On the 24th January 1849, after a few 
 words on business regarding the appointment of a medical officer 
 to the Nizam's Army, the Resident makes these remarks : — 
 
 " I regret to say that matters have not improved much at Hyderabad 
 since I had the pleasure of enjoying your hospitality at Madras. The 
 Supreme Government seem averse to talk decidedly to the Nizam, 
 though nothing could have any effect but a plain, determined, and 
 decided mode of addressing him. Intrigue, corruption, and mismanage- 
 ment are not to be corrected by whispers and soft, unmeaning phrases. 
 One reason, however, of the Governor-General's not having taken more 
 decided measures in this quarter is that he is so much occupied in the 
 North-West, and certainly he has a great deal there to engage his 
 attention. 
 
 " I am glad to say that I apprehend no disturbance in the part of 
 India where I am, and at all events it is extremely unlikely that any 
 should arise which 1 could not put down myself. 
 
 " The Marquis de Coislin and Captain Puysegur are still with me, 
 and I regret to say that the Marquis has been extre nely unwell. I am 
 much pleased with his society and conversation, and consider his visit 
 here quite a piece of good fortune. He is a man of higher l'ank than 
 I was at first aware of, being a Duke and Peer of France, which titles, 
 however, he chose to leave in abeyance during the Goveimment of 
 Louis Philippe." 
 
 He writes to the same on the 13th March 1849 : — 
 
 "We have now a new Dewan at Hyderabad, Shums-ool-Oomra, with 
 whom I have not yet had sufficient conversation, or transaction of 
 business, to enable me to form anything like a fair opinion of his 
 ability. 
 
 "Lord Gough has at length gained something like a real victory, 
 but we have yet to learn the final results of this war. There is no 
 doubt that matters have been much mismanaged in the whole of this 
 Punjaub war. You justly observe that the molehill has been allowed 
 to increase to a mountain, and I can scarcely dare to hope that the 
 ultimate consequences will not prove injurious to the interests of our 
 Empire in India." 
 
 On the 28th of February Lord Dalhousie had written a letter to 
 General Fraser from " Camp, Ferozepore", in which were the 
 following observations on that same crowning victory of Lord 
 Gough over the Sikhs at Goojerat. 
 
 " The action of the 21st at Goojerat came in good time, but not a 
 bit too soon. It was a smasher. The Sikhs were supposed to have had
 
 DUC DE COISLIN. 287 
 
 fifty-nine guns in the field. We have already secured fifty-three, and, 
 I hope, may account for the balance. They lost all their camp, baggage, 
 stores, and immense quantities of ammunition, and fled in complete 
 rout. Large bands of them are gone across the Jhelum. General 
 Gilbert, with 12,000 men, has gone after them, and to drive the 
 Afghans out of Peshawur. The Afghans have already evacuated 
 Bunnoo, and I should not be surprised if those at Peshawur went off 
 without a fight. If they stand one, I have no sort of doubt as to the 
 result. 
 
 " The campaign has been an anxious one, as you may well 
 imagine. I hope it is all right now, and that we may look, under 
 Providence, for early and complete success. 
 
 " Believe me always, sincerely yours, 
 
 "Dalhousie." 
 
 On the 16th of November 1849, the General writes as follows 
 to Sir Henry Pottinger, at the time when the Sultan had refused 
 to give up the Hungarian and Polish refugees to the Emperor 
 
 Nicholas. 
 
 " Our next news from Europe will be very interesting, as we shall 
 probably learn the result of the important question which has arisen 
 between Russia and Turkey. I lately* received a letter from a French 
 gentleman who stayed with me for about a month at Hyderabad, the 
 Duke de Coislin, who is a great friend and partisan of the Duke of 
 Bordeaux, and is now on a visit to the Duchess of Berry at Gratz. 
 He tells me that the aspect of affairs in Europe is still very threatening. 
 He states, also — though, perhaps, the wish may be father to the 
 thought — that the present Government of France is approaching to its 
 downfall, and that efforts are being made, in which he himself is a 
 strenuous co-operator, to effect a coalition between the two branches of 
 the House of Bourbon. 
 
 " I shall say nothing of the Nizam's country. Affairs remain pretty 
 much in the same way as they have been for fifty years past ; so that 
 matters here have but little novelty, or any other charm, to recommend 
 them. If it were not for the good pay, which I cannot afford to give 
 up, I should be happy to bid adieu to-morrow to the office I hold at 
 this Court." 
 
 In a letter dated 11th June 1850, General Fraser mentions 
 having been much interested in a recent publication, Dry Leaves 
 from Young Egypt, which had very much modified his views as to 
 the conquest of Scinde, and asks Sir Henry Pottinger if he knows 
 the author of that book, to which he receives the following reply.
 
 si I; HENRY POTTINGER. 
 
 " Guindy, 20th June 1850. 
 
 '• Mi dear General, — I have to thank you for your acceptable letter 
 of the 11th instant. I only await a reply I ordered to be made to Air. 
 Whitelock before disposing of the vacancy which I presume his decision 
 will cause at Kurnool. He is most fortunate. My letter of the 4th 
 instant will have given you all the news that I got from England by 
 t lie Last mail. 
 
 "Dry Leaves from Young Egypt was written by Captain Edward 
 Eastwick (brother of the Director 1 ), who is now among the Professors 
 at Haileybury College. He is an exceedingly talented, conscientious 
 man, and you may rest assured that every syllable of his work is 
 minutely correct. The seizure of Scinde without a just plea was a 
 monstrous act of injustice, and one on which I have never hesitated to 
 express my sentiments. If I may be allowed to use the expression, the 
 spoliation has long since revenged itself on us by an outlay exceeding by 
 some millions sterling the whole of the revenue. Truth is great, and 
 will always prevail, which has been strongly exemplified in my case. 
 I wrote privately to a friend from China, expressing my ideas about 
 Scinde. This friend, Major Del Hoste, who had been there with me 
 as Surveyor to my first mission, inconsiderately showed my letter to an 
 Editor at Bombay. It was copied, — that part in which I had spoken of 
 Scinde, — sent home, and appeared under my signature in the Morning 
 Chronicle. This brought on me the combined wrath of Her Majesty's 
 Ministers, the Dnke, and all the Ellen borough clique, and I should have 
 been left in poverty, with fine titles and honours, had not my friend 
 Joseph Hume, to whom I was then personally unknown, taken up my 
 cause, and carried a vote of an annuity of £1,500 a year through the 
 House of Commons, in spite of all the opposition of Sir Robert Peel, 
 aided by the Duke and the men in power. When the Whigs wanted 
 a Governor for the Cape, they begged me to go, and this was followed 
 up by my unsolicited appointment to Madras. On that taking place, my 
 kind friend, Sir James Lushington, wrote me that I should have to 
 forfeit a portion of my salary here equal to my annuity; but on the 
 question being referred to the Queen's Law Officers, they pronounced 
 that it was a pension from the country, not a grant from the Queen, and 
 that it could not be interfered with except by another Act of Parlia- 
 ment, which, of course, was never thought of. Every one of the 
 
 1 Edward Backhouse Eastwick, subsequently our Envoy in Persia, a C.B., 
 and for some yens M.P. for Falmouth. He died in 1883. His brother, 
 Captain W. J. Eastwick, "the Director", afterwards Member of the Indian 
 ( louncilj warmly espoused the lost cause of the Scinde Ameers, and has ever 
 since, notably in the cases of the proposed annexation of .Mysore and the 
 second Afghan war. always been found a wise adviser in Indian affairs, and 
 the constant advocate of justice, cL tnency, and [mpei ial honour.
 
 THE IRON DUKE. 289 
 
 Directors individually expressed to me his perfect concurrence in my 
 sentiments regarding Scinde ; and even the Iron Duke has been pleased 
 to make the amende by giving my eldest boy a commission in his 
 regiment, the Grenadier Guards, to which he was gazetted on the 8th 
 of April last, five days before his eighteenth birthday. This, I hear, is 
 really an extraordinary act of favour, as numbers of young men of the 
 highest rank were on the list ; and my gratitude to the Duke is in 
 pi'oportion to the great kindness he has, after the eleventh hour, con- 
 ferred on me. 
 
 " I sent off my Travels in Beloochistan by banghy' some days ago. 
 In reading them, you must please remember that I wrote them at twenty 
 years of age, wholly unassisted, when I was a subaltern of Pioneers. 
 Just before they went home I was appointed Assistant to my revered 
 master, Mountstuart Elphinstone, from whose example I learned all I' 
 know in this Indian world. You will join with me in saying that I 
 could not possibly have had a better master. 
 
 " I am sure you will excuse this dissertation on self, but I wished you 
 to know my feelings about Scinde and the unhappy Ameers. 
 
 " With my kindest regards to your daughter, I remain, my dear 
 General, 
 
 " Yours very sincerely, 
 
 . " Henry Pottinger." 
 
 In his reply to this letter, dated the 17th August 1850, mention- 
 ing that he had just returned by parcel post the work on 
 Beloochistan, the General says : — 
 
 " I was still more interested in the slight sketch you gave me in 
 your last note of some of the principal events of your public life. I 
 need not dwell on the impression it left on my mind, because it could 
 not possibly have been otherwise than it has been, nor differ from that 
 which the rest of the world entertains. 
 
 " Private letters from Simla mention that the Governor-General and 
 Sir Charles Napier are upon bad terms, and that the latter gives 
 violent and very indecorous expression to the anger with which he is 
 inspired. 
 
 " Neither my public nor private letters from the Governor- General 
 lead me to suppose that any particular or marked steps are contemplated 
 with respect to the Nizam's country, excepting the simple enforcement 
 of payment, by the end of the year, of His Highness's debt to us, 
 which now amounts to sixty-four lakhs of rupees. The Nizam, however, 
 
 1 Parcel post, established in India fifty years before it was adopted in 
 Great Britain and Ireland. 
 
 U
 
 290 PBESSUEE FOE 
 
 asserts that he will be able to pay this himself before the prescribed 
 time." 
 
 During the brief Ministry of Amjad-ool-Moolk, and the some- 
 what longer though still brief incumbency of Shums-ool-Oomra in 
 1849, it may be said that nothing worthy of record was done for 
 the improvement of the country, and that no progress whatever 
 was made in reducing the heavy debt claimed by our Government 
 on account of advances made for the pay of the Contingent. The 
 Government of India, while refusing, as we have seen, to give 
 direct and decided support to Sooraj-ool-Moolk, or to take any 
 step that might have the effect of dictating to the Nizam the choice 
 of a Minister, had plainly expressed its dissatisfaction at the change 
 that had been made, and sanctioned General Fraser's proposal that 
 he should indicate that dissatisfaction in a way that would be 
 generally understood, by absenting himself from the Durbar of 
 investiture when the new Dewan was installed in office. At the 
 end of 1848 the Nizam was expressly reminded, by order of the 
 Government of India, that "the debt due by His Highness on 
 account of the Contingent has-been increasing, and now amounts 
 to a very large sum." The Nizam was told that " the payment of 
 the interest of this debt must be made regularly, and that no 
 arrears whatever will be allowed in the payment of the Contingent 
 Force by His Highness' s Government"; and also that " His High- 
 ness will no doubt see the propriety of instructing his Minister 
 to provide, without any prolonged delay, for liquidating the prin- 
 cipal of the debt." 
 
 "His Highness will clearly understand", it was added, "that in 
 the event of these demands not being attended to with regularity, 
 the Governor-General will feel himself under the necessity of 
 taking such measures as shall be effectual, both for ensuring those 
 objects for which the faith of this Government is virtually pledged, 
 and for maintaining the security of its own interests." 
 
 No reduction in the debt, no greater regularity in the monthly 
 pay of the Contingent, having appeared -in the interval, Lord 
 Dalhousie reiterates, in the two following letters, his determination 
 to enforce a financial settlement at no very distant period. The 
 marked contrast between the views of Imperial policy entertained 
 by the Resident and the Governor-General appears very distinctly 
 in that passage of Lord Dalhousie's letter in which he totally
 
 PAYMENT. 291 
 
 declines to "recognise" any "mission entrusted to us to regenerate 
 independent Indian States merely because they are misgoverned". 
 General Fraser did recognise that such a mission was confided to 
 us, and was convinced at once of its practicability, and of the 
 beneficial results that would spring from its being undertaken in 
 good faith. 
 
 " Simla, June 6th, 1849. 
 
 "My dear General Fraser, — I have received your public letter 
 referred to in your private letter of 22nd May. An answer has been 
 sent, intimating that there is no necessity for stopping the construction 
 of roads commenced in the Nizam's territories. Your despatch bears 
 marks of having been written in anger, but the roads is the only topic 
 in it which calls for reply. 
 
 " With regard to the remainder of your letter, I can only l^ieat 
 what I have said before publicly and privately,— I will rigidly act up to 
 the requirements of the Treaty with him. I will give him aid and 
 advice. I will effectually take care that if he chooses to ruin himself 
 in spite of aid and advice, he shall not disturb the peace of British 
 territory, or either injure or play with British interests. But I will 
 not contravene the Treaty on the pretence of protecting the Nizam ; 
 and I disavow the doctrine of our having any moral or political obliga- 
 tion to take the Government of his country into our own hands, merely 
 because he mismanages his own affairs ; and I recognise no mission 
 entrusted to us to regenerate independent Indian States, merely because 
 they are misgoverned. 
 
 " When we are invited, or our own interests affected, I will act 
 decidedly enough. 
 
 " The letter reporting Shums-ool-Oomra's professed inability to pay, 
 will probably lead, more or less remotely, to important consequences. 
 I have solemnly warned the Nizam of the consequences of neglecting 
 the removal of the financial difficulties in which he goes on involving 
 himself. Some fine morning he will be rudely awakened by feeling 
 himself suffering those consequences. 
 
 " In the meantime I have only to request that you will continue to 
 give the Minister straightforward aid. and that both he and his Master 
 shall be distinctly told, as they seem to doubt it, that I am in earnest 
 in what I have said. 
 
 " Believe me, yours sincerely, 
 
 " Dalhousie." 
 
 " Simla, July 6th, 1849. 
 " My dear General Fraser, — I have received your letter of 21st 
 ultimo. I am very sorry that the Nizam is bent on breaking his own 
 
 u 2
 
 292 THE " PERPETUAL WRESTLE". 
 
 head apparently, but if he is resolved on doing so, I shall provide that 
 the interests of this Government are fully cared for. His Royal brother 
 in Oude is engaged in the same process, and as the two years' probation 
 conceded by Lord Hardinge is drawing to a close, I shall be obliged 
 to act. 
 
 " In short, my hands are likely to be full enough of these booby 
 potentates for some time. 
 
 "Everything remains tranquil in this quarter, 1 and with vigilance I 
 hope may continue so. The Board is working very well, and the pro- 
 mise is good at pi-esent. 
 
 " I cannot fancy anything more vexatious to a man than M. dt 
 Coislin's position. We are looking out for him here. 
 
 ' : Believe me, yours sincerely, 
 
 " Dalhousie." 
 
 A letter to Mr. Dorin, who, as Senior Member of Council, was 
 President at Calcutta, conducting the details of Government during 
 the Governor-General's absence in the North-West, will give some 
 notion of what Lord Dalhousie called " the perpetual wrestle with 
 the Dewan" for the " pay of the Contingent". 
 
 " Hyderabad, 8th April 1849. 
 
 " My dear Sir, — I have deferred for two or three days replying to- 
 your letter of the 20th ultimo, until I should be enabled to give you 
 some definite information on the subject to which it related. The 
 promise of the Nizam's Durbar to pay me seventeen lakhs of rupees 
 by the 22nd of January last, and the same amount every four months 
 afterwards, has not been in its first part fulfilled, and now appears to 
 have been altogether forgotten. The Minister, Shums-ool-Oomra, has, 
 however, just assured me that he will pay regularly every month the 
 interest of the general debt due to us, and five lakhs of rupees per 
 annum in liquidation of the principal, beginning in April 1850. Pay- 
 ments to this small extent, I do not doubt that he will be able to effect, 
 if he is able to effect anything at all ; but as it would require eleven 
 years to discharge the debt, at the rate just mentioned, I doubt 
 whether the Supreme Government, to whom I have written officially 
 on the subject, will assent to the proposal. The Minister, indeed, 
 expresses a hope that he will be able to do more; but I cannot ask the 
 Supreme Government to attach real importance to such vague expres- 
 sions as this. 
 
 " I cannot but feel assured that under a vigorous and decided admi- 
 
 1 Meaning the newly annexed Punjaub.
 
 PUNJAU1? ANNEXED. 293 
 
 nistration a reduction of absolutely useless expenditure might be made 
 almost immediately, to the extent of twenty or thirty lakhs of rupees 
 per annum, and ultimately, perhaps to double that amount. 
 
 " But neither Shums-ool-Oomra, nor any other Minister, could effect 
 this without the most decided and openly declared support from u<-'. 
 He would be opposed by the whole Court, and I may say by the whole 
 country. 
 
 " I shall be at all times happy to have the pleasure of hearing from 
 you when I can be of any use, or give any information you may desire, 
 and remain always, 
 
 " My dear Sir, yours very sincerely, 
 
 " J. S. Fraser." 
 
 Just at tins time also the following letter to Colonel (afterwards 
 General Sir Mark) Cubbon, Commissioner of Mysore, alludes to a 
 recent affair in which the Contingent had proved its military 
 efficiency and its usefulness in preparing the way for orderly 
 administration. 
 
 " Hyderabad, 16th May 1849. 
 
 " Mr dear Cubbon, — I ought sooner to have acquainted you with the 
 safe arrival of the fine cattle you Were so kind as to send me for the 
 Nizam. Pray accept my best thanks for the trouble you were so good 
 as to take on this account, and command my services here in return if 
 ever they can be of use to you. The Nizam was very much pleased 
 with the cattle, as you will see by the enclosed copy of a note from the 
 Dewan, who conveys his Master's sentiments on the subject as well as 
 his own. The expenses of the cattle during the journey, Rs. 476 2 10, 
 according to the memo, furnished by Chunda Hoossain, is lodged in 
 my treasury, and will be brought to your account when you favour me 
 with the whole account of our debt to you. 
 
 " And so the Punjaub is now fairly annexed to the Empire. Lord 
 Dalhousie will now be able, I hope, to attend a little to the interior 
 improvement of India, as we can scarcely have any enemy now to 
 disturb us excepting as the result of a war in Europe. 
 
 " I am assisting the Nizam's Government to get rid of some trouble- 
 some Rohiilas, or, to speak more properly, Afghans, from this country; 
 and a little affair in Berar, the other day, showed what stern stuff the 
 Cavalry of the Contingent are made of. 
 
 " Adieu, my dear Cubbon, and believe me ever, with kindest wishes, 
 
 " Most sincerely yours, 
 
 " J. S. Fraser."
 
 294 ROHILLAS 
 
 It would be altogether unprofitable to revive here at any length 
 a discussion that is quite out of date, and no lunger liable to 
 recur; but as Lord Dalhousie will be found, from the next letter. 
 to have differed from General Fraser as to getting rid of the 
 " troublesome Eohillas", I may just observe that in the first place 
 the Resident was, in the words of his letter to Colonel Cubbon, 
 " assisting the Nizam's Government" to carry out a measure, by 
 means of the Nizam's own troops, and at His Highness's expeaseT"" 
 which the local authorities, the British Resident included, con- 
 sidered essential for the cause of peace and good order. It was to 
 cost our Government nothing, not even by any movement of the 
 Subsidiary Force. In the second place, although Lord Dalhousie 
 tried to draw a distinction, the Eohillas were just as much 
 " foreigners in the Deccan" as the Arabs, while they were far more 
 turbulent and disorderly. In the third place, the objection was 
 by no means admissible that Peshawur was to be made a " Botany 
 Bay" for all the vagabonds of Hyderabad. The Eohillas were not 
 convicts, nor, properly speaking, criminals. They were military 
 adventurers out of service ; and at Peshawur, or in its neigh- 
 bourhood, they would have been at home, not in a penal settlement, 
 but in a region where they could rejoin their own tribes and easily 
 find subsistence. It was impossible for them to settle down in 
 the South of India. 
 
 The " very smart and gallant affair" to which Lord Dalhousie 
 refers in another part of his letter, took place on the 6th of May, 
 near the village of Gowree in Berar, under the command of 
 Brigadier Hampton, one of the Nizam's local officers, who was 
 himself severely wounded, besides three English and four Native 
 officers. On this occasion the medical officer of the detachment 
 joined most gallantly in a Cavalry charge, and considered himself 
 to be thereby entitled to special commendation, a claim which 
 Lord Dalhousie, with most judicious discrimination, distinctly 
 declined to award. 
 
 "Simla, May 30th, 1849. 
 
 "My dkar General Fraser, — I have to acknowledge your letter of 
 15th May, and a previous one regarding the Rohillas. I am sorry you 
 have raised the question again ; since the very direct decision of the 
 Government of India upon it on previous occasions, and the full 
 approval of the Court of Directors accorded to the decision, leave no 
 course open but a continuance in the views before expressed. The
 
 AND ARABS. 295 
 
 question of the removal of the Arabs to which you allude, is one which; 
 in my opinion, is more fairly open, since, if there is to be an expulsion 
 at all, it certainly should be of those who are entirely foreigners, rather 
 than of the Rohillas in the first instance. 
 
 " But I must say frankly that I cannot concur in the measure you 
 propose now, any more than formerly. 
 
 " I cannot assent to the supposed impossibility of disarming, or other- 
 wise restraining from violence and tumult, some 3,000 or 4,000 Rohillas 
 spread over the Kingdom. The attempt has never yet been made, so 
 far as I can see, and I cannot concur in the necessity of a measure so 
 wholesale, and so nearly approaching to an exercise of arbitrary power 
 greater than the British Government usually countenances, until other 
 measures have been fully tried. If these people are either rebellious 
 or tumultuous (as I have said in the public reply), the Nizam's Con- 
 tingent should be employed against them under your orders, whoever 
 they are, and wherever they are ; and they should be sternly dealt 
 with, severely punished, and if refractory, always disarmed. With all 
 the apathy and feebleness that can be imputed to the Nizam's Govern- 
 ment, I cannot bring myself to doubt that the force which you have at 
 your disposal, vigorously directed by yourself, would very readily and 
 very quickly put an end to the possibility of so inconsiderable a body 
 of men seriously disturbing the peace or prosperity of a Kingdom. At 
 all events, I can by no means consent, especially after the Court's 
 approval of my previous refusal, to undertake the transport of this 
 tribe bodily to Peshawur. 
 
 " I am willing to give every aid to the Nizam which the Treaty 
 enjoins, or which the utmost stretch of friendship could require. But 
 I i*eally cannot recognise any sort of obligation, or any reason, for 
 carrying the complaisance of the British Government so far as to 
 undertake the conveyance of the collective vagabondism of the Nizam's 
 Kingdom in order to deposit it in one of our own Provinces. 
 
 " Let the Nizam repress turbulence, as I reassert he can do, with the 
 aid of the Contingent, in his own dominions. If there are offenders, 
 let him banish them, and I will take care that they shall not disturb 
 the peace of the districts under my Government. It is too much to 
 expect that I should agree to take an infinite deal of trouble to save 
 H.H. from it, or that I should volunteer to constitute a British Pro- 
 vince to be practically the Botany Bay for Hyderabad. 
 
 "With inference to the 800 or 1,000 Bohillas who you say are 
 encamped in the City, I would observe that the Nizam having, as you 
 tell me, 20,000 troops of his own on the spot, I cannot perceive the 
 possibility of its ever becoming necessary to lead British troops against 
 such a handful. 
 
 " I beg to impress upon you the extreme inexpediency of engaging
 
 296 A FIGHTING DOCTOR. 
 
 troops in street and house fighting, which such a business would be. 
 A bombardment, of course, could never be used in such a case, except 
 by way of threat, as you employ it in your letter. 
 
 " Thanks for copy of Dr. McEgan's letter. I have endeavoured to 
 do justice to the conduct of the troops in this very smart and gallant 
 affair. I did not wish to insert any " wet blanket" remark in a, public 
 letter, but I do not wish to omit observing to you that Dr. McEgan 
 had no business where he was. His duty is to mend, and to preserve 
 himself in a condition for mending, broken heads, and not to go about 
 breaking heads himself. As luck would have it, he escaped. Had he 
 been himself wounded, he would have sacrificed the detachment under 
 his medical charge, and would have entirely neglected his own duty in 
 order to gratify his personal inclinations. Gallantry is very praise- 
 worthy in itself, but not when the display of it involves neglect of 
 clear professional duty. It was his duty to keep himself out of 
 harm's Avay. 
 
 " I say nothing of the debt until the answer of the Minister comes. 
 I may remark, however, that I do not mean to be fenced with by the 
 Minister, or put off till another time. I must have those sixty lakhs — 
 pi'ompt payment. 
 
 " Matters are quiet on this frontier, and I hope are not likely to be 
 disturbed soon. 
 
 " Believe me, yours sincerely, 
 
 " Dalhousie." 
 
 On the 18th of May 1849, the Assistant Eesident, Captain 
 Cuthbert Davidson (afterwards Colonel and Eesident), had a long 
 conversation, under General Eraser's instructions, with the Minister 
 Shums-ool-Oomra, which was fully reported to Government, and 
 some passages in which appear necessary to a full comprehension 
 of the now rapidly approaching crisis in the financial relations 
 between the Hyderabad State and our Government. 
 
 " The Minister spoke of the amount he would have to pay in eighteen 
 months for the troops of the Contingent up to the 30th of April 1850. 
 The Contingent, he said, had for many years been of the greatest service 
 to the Government in keeping the country peaceable ; and they were 
 the only troops, except those immediately about his own person, on 
 whose fidelity the Government could place the slightest reliance. He 
 hoped, therefore, that no reductions would be made in them for the 
 present, as he intended to reduce by discharge those Government 
 troops who were really useless, and also by removing fictitious names 
 from the muster-roll. 
 
 " He then referred to the letter from the Government of India of the
 
 SHUMS-OOL-OOMKA. 297 
 
 28th of April 1849, with a Persian translation of which lie had been 
 furnished, and asked if I really thought the Governor-General would 
 make a demand for the repayment ' at once\ or at ' an early period', of 
 the fifty-four lakhs due to the British Government. I replied that he 
 ought to study the tenor of the letter, and be prepared to pay the 
 money as therein required. He remarked that he had always until now 
 supposed that it had been the desire of the Government of India to 
 build up the Government of its ancient Ally, and not to ruin it irre- 
 trievably ; and begged I would write down a memorandum of the total 
 receipts of revenue expected for the ensuing year, and then inform him 
 how it was possible for him to make arrangements for such a payment, 
 and yet provide for the whole expenditure of the general Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 " Shums-ool-Oomra then said, ' His Highness is my nephew by mar- 
 riage, and in the hopes of restoring order in his dominions, and re- 
 establishing his Government, I alone accepted the office of Dewan, as, 
 at the close of life, I was not otherwise desirous of such an arduous 
 and responsible office .... When I assumed the powers recommended 
 for the Minister in the Goveimor- General's khureeta of the 7th of 
 September. 1846, I hoped that I was really possessed of the Prince's 
 confidence and support, and that 1 should have full authority to 
 conduct the affairs of the country. But I am thwarted by secret and 
 
 private influence, male and female Sooraj-ool-Moolk, who was 
 
 a nobleman of ability, had to contend against the same evil influ- 
 ences.' " 
 
 Large funds, regarding which he went into detailed explanation, 
 were " squandered", the Minister complained, and " improperly 
 appropriated, without an object, and without even the pretence of 
 any good purpose," and he said : — 
 
 " Unless all the revenues formerly apportioned for the general expen- 
 diture of the Government were restored to the charge and control of 
 the Minister, and he were really invested with full powers, he would 
 tender his resignation, as without this being acceded to, were he even 
 from his private resources to advance the 54 lakhs due to the British 
 Government, it would be of no eventual advantage to his Master. 
 
 " The Minister vaguely alluded to the jealousy that existed regarding 
 a cordial intercourse with Europeans, and said that he knew quite 
 well the Nizam's Government could not be rightly directed or pro- 
 longed for any length of time without the friendly advice and co-opera- 
 tion of the Resident in its administration, added to the most energetic 
 exertions of the Sovereign and his Minister." 
 
 But this authoritative co-operation of the Resident with the
 
 298 DEBTOR 
 
 Minister was what Lord Dalhousie would not prescribe or permit. 
 It is to this confidential interview with the Nawab Shums-ool- 
 Oomra, and a note from liim to General Fraser, conveying the 
 same sentiments, that Lord Dalhousie alludes in the following 
 letter. 
 
 " Simla, August 25th, 1849. 
 
 " My dear General Fraser, — On the day before yesterday I received 
 your private letter regarding this very unexpected turn in the politics 
 of His Highness. The confidential letter of Shums-ool-Oomra to you 
 lias an air of candour and truthfulness which impress one with the 
 belief that be is an honest man, as Ministers go in the East. I have, 
 therefore, readily introduced a few civil words to him into the despatch 
 which goes to you to-day. The rest of it has reference to the debt. 
 There is no use in advising this man, or warning hirn any more on 
 that head, and I must have the money. Previously I had intimated 
 to him that prompt payment must be made. His own flourish on that 
 subject, which you have reported, has enabled me to take a step which 
 will draw matters to a close. I am in earnest in it; and you may, 
 therefore, feel secure, when communicating the message to His Highness, 
 in employing such earnestness of expression as may let him know that 
 I will infallibly do what I say. 
 
 " Purposely I have avoided specifying any particular measure ; but 
 he may make up his mind that there will then be decided action on the 
 part of this Government. 
 
 " We continue quiet on this frontier. We have had at last excellent 
 rains, — a circumstance which is of infinite moment, politicalby, this 
 year. 
 
 " Believe me, yours sincerely, 
 
 " Dalhousie." 
 
 In a letter dated 2nd of July 1849, General Fraser, apologising 
 for seeming to protract the discussion regarding the removal of 
 the Ptohillas, pointed out that the Government of Lord Hardinge 
 had sanctioned the procedure he now once more proposed. He 
 wrote privately, because he thought it generally unadvisable and 
 " unbecoming for a public officer to give prominence in his des- 
 patches to any differences of policy between successive Govern- 
 ments". Lord Dalhousie replied as follows : — 
 
 " Simla, August 27th, 1849. 
 "Dear General Fraser, — Matters of great weight, and demanding 
 early consideration, have occupied all my attention since I received 
 your letter of 2nd ultimo. I have directed to-day a reply.
 
 AND CREDITOR. 299 
 
 " I do not perceive the inconvenience you feel in orders now issued 
 being different from those you quoted issued by Lord Hardinge. Cir- 
 cumstances have changed — so must orders. 
 
 " Moreover, the orders of the Court, your Masters and mine, have in 
 the meantime been transmitted to me. I must obey them, and in so 
 doing give instructions in accordance with them, whether they are 
 consistent with previous instructions or not. 
 
 " I remain, yours sincerely, 
 
 " Dalhousie." 
 
 And here is another letter very plainly stating the Governor- 
 General's opinion as to the exigencies and prospects of the Nizam's 
 Government, but giving no further hope of that friendly but firm 
 intervention to secure the "passive permission of the Sovereign" 
 which General Fraser always maintained would be sufficient to 
 ensure the effectual co-operation of the Eesident and the Minister. 
 
 " Simla, September 5, 1849. 
 
 " My dear General, — I received some days ago your interesting letter 
 of 12th ult., with enclosures. There seems no especial reason to doubt 
 the correctness of the returns which Shums-ool-Oomra sent you. With 
 such an income, and with so little necessity for expenditure, Hyderabad 
 ought to be a richly flourishing State, and with even passive permission 
 by the Sovereign, very soon would be so. 
 
 " There is clearly no reason why, as a creditor, this Government 
 should take pity on His Highness, and most assuredly he shall have no 
 more rope given him. 
 
 " This was intimated to you in a public letter lately, and I shall most 
 certainly act up to it. 
 
 " Many thanks for your congratulations on the honours they have 
 bestowed upon me. 
 
 " Believe me, yours sincerely, 
 
 " Dalhousie." 
 
 On the 31st of July 1849, the Nizam invited the Eesident to a 
 private interview, for the purpose, as it proved, of announcing the 
 dismissal of Shums-ool-Oomra from the office of Dewan. No 
 courtier or servant was present after the Eesident was intro- 
 duced. 
 
 " His Highness received me with his usual civility and kindness, and 
 after the usual complimentary phrases, upon my making some remark 
 about the state of the weather and the extent to which cholera, I had 
 understood, was prevailing in the City, the Nizam entered into a some-
 
 300 shums-ool-oomra's 
 
 what length)- disquisition on the nature of that disease, with the history 
 of which, and of its appearance and prevalence at different periods in 
 Imlia, he seemed well acquainted. He observed that it arose from some 
 peculiar atmospheric change, and that when certain aspects appeared 
 the cholera invariably ensued, and ceased at their disappearance. I 
 asked His Highness whether the narrow and crowded streets of the Cit)- 
 and its accumulated tilth — of which I had just had sensible evidence on my 
 way to the Palace — might not in some degree contribute to the frequent 
 outbreaks of this disorder. His Highness appeared to be excessively 
 amused at the futility of this notion of mine, and assured me that it was 
 utterly destitute of foundation. He said the streets had been just as 
 they were at present for more thau a hundred years, and that their 
 condition could have nothing to do with the cholera. If His Highness 
 had concurred with me I should have taken the liberty of suggesting 
 an experiment in cleaning and paving the streets, and in other sanitary 
 measures; but his very decided mode of ridiculing the idea left me no 
 opening for such advice. 
 
 " In the course of his remarks on the cholera, the Nizam quoted a 
 passage from the Koran, and this led him to make a comparison between 
 it and the Christian Gospel. He asked me how far the construction of 
 the New Testament and the time of its composition after the Ascension 
 of our Saviour could be compared with the gradual arrangement and 
 disposition of the sentences of the Koran, and their being openly revealed 
 and imparted from time to time for the guidance of the followers of the 
 jjrophet Mohammed. I listened without taking much part in this dis- 
 course, and he concluded by asking me to procure for him a Persian and 
 a Hindustani translation of the New Testament, — not a printed copy, 
 which he told me he had some difficulty in reading, but in the written 
 nastdliq character. His Highness repeated this request several times, 
 and I said that I should have much pleasure in executing the commis- 
 sion with which he had honoured me. I hope the peculiar and unex- 
 pected character of this request will render my acquiescence in it 
 excusable, although formally and literally in contravention of the rule 
 against the execution by the Resident of any commissions lor His 
 Highness. 
 
 "After this His Highness entered on the business for which lie had 
 desired my attendance, and proceeded, without any preliminary or intro- 
 ductory remark, to say that he had determined that Shums-ool-Oomra 
 should no longer he Minister. 
 
 " He said that about two months ago, when he was at Surroonuggur, 
 Shums-ool-Oomra had tendered to him his resignation of the office of 
 Dewan, or rather, that he had actually resigned. His Highness em- 
 ployed the expression, ' Guzasht diya', which means an absolute 
 surrender, not, ' Istifa', which may signify merely the tender of resig-
 
 DISMISSAL. 303 
 
 nation, to be accepted or not iccording to the pleasure of the person to 
 whom it is offered. 
 
 "He made the same complaint of him that he had made of Sooraj- 
 ool-Moolk, when he first disagreed with that nobleman, that he acted 
 in the affairs of State without His Highness's knowledge. He dwelt 
 strongly on the fact that the agreement of Shums-ool-Oomra to repay 
 our debt by instalments of five lakhs of rupees per annum had been made 
 without either His Highness's knowledge or approval. He stated that 
 had the necessary communication been made to him he could have taken 
 more immediate steps for the payment of the debt. It was a mere 
 question of money, he remarked, which he regarded as of little import- 
 ance. He made very light of this part of the case ; and, from the style 
 and manner of his observations, he seemed desirous of conveying to me 
 the impression that if urged to pay the money he could do so at once." 
 
 After describing a very long conversation, in which lie defended 
 Shnms-ool-Oomra as he had previously defended Sooraj-ool-Moolk, 
 the General says : — 
 
 " I then addressed His Highness, and said, ' When I communicate 
 to the Governor- General the circumstances of which you now inform 
 me relating to Shums-ool-Oomra's resignation, is it your wish that I 
 should say anything regarding the debt due by Your Highness's 
 Government to the Honourable Company ? ' 
 
 " To this His Highness replied, ' That will be settled when you 
 receive the Governor-General's reply'." 
 
 The Resident could obtain no decided answer from the Nizam 
 as to a successor to Shums-ool-Oomra, nor any clue to His High- 
 ness's intentions, except an observation that he "must have a 
 Peshcar, — that it was impossible to conduct the business of State 
 without a Peshcar." 
 
 In reporting the retirement of Shums-ool-Oomra to the Govern- 
 ment of India, the Resident observed that only five months having 
 elapsed since the appointment of Shums-ool-Oomra, there was 
 hardly sufficient time to judge whether he possessed the capacity 
 and energy of character requisite for the post. " But ", continued 
 the Resident, " so far as my own official connection with him 
 during the short time he has been Dewan, enables me to offer any 
 remark on the subject, I deem it but justice to him to say that I 
 have witnessed in him no want of ability, and that I have every 
 reason to believe him to be imbued with honourable principles, 
 and with a sincere desire to forward by every just means the
 
 302 A TERM FIXED. 
 
 interests of this country. I may add that his manners and 
 demeanour have ever been such as suited his high rank, and that 
 I have no reason to believe that his public conduct has ever been 
 tainted by duplicity or by any disregard for truth." 
 
 It is but just to remark that during Shums-ool-Oomra's brief 
 tenure of office the current monthly pay due to the Contingent 
 was paid with punctuality. He received an acknowledgment of 
 the Governor-General's satisfaction at the manner in which he had 
 acted under circumstances of great difficulty. 
 
 In September 1840, Rajah Earn Buksh once more received 
 investiture as Peshcar, and assumed charge of the administration, 
 no one being nominated to the high office of Dewan. The pros- 
 pect of any settlement of the debt seemed more distant than ever, 
 and the monthly payment of the Contingent began to fall off in 
 regularity. Under these unpromising circumstances the Governor- 
 General considered that a fitting opportunity had arrived for 
 fixing a definite period within which the debt must be liquidated 
 in full. The Resident was directed to require " that the whole 
 amount should be discharged by the 31st of December 1850. If, 
 on the arrival of that period, the Governor-General's present expec- 
 tations were disappointed, his Lordship would feel it his duty to 
 take such decided steps as the interests of the British Govern- 
 ment demanded." Those " decided steps", it was well understood, 
 would be the exaction of territorial security for the payment of 
 principal and interest. 
 
 To this impending measure of sequestration, and to the adminis- 
 trative disorder which threatened to make its enforcement at even 
 an earlier date advisable, Lord Dalhousie refers in his next letter. 
 
 " Camp, Bhyrowal, November 20th, 1849. 
 
 "My dear General Frasee, — I shall be very happy to meet your 
 wishes regarding Dr. Maclean. Indeed, I have already done so by 
 giving him leave for six months, and intimating that he shall be re- 
 appointed, so as to satisfy the letter of the law. The regulation, which 
 puts medical men on a different footing from other branches of the 
 Bervice in respect of leave, seems to me to be an unmeaning one; but 
 as long as it is extant I think it right to attend to it. 
 
 " If the Peshcar, or the Nizam, or both of them (for it seems hard 
 to decide which is the real culprit, and most probable that both are so), 
 should continue to create the obstacles to the regular payment of 
 the Contingent, — which for some time were removed, and are now
 
 PAYMENT OR MORTGAGE. 303 
 
 being renewed, — they will compel me most reluctantly to anticipate 
 the period which I have fixed as that of interference of the Supreme 
 Government in respect of financial affairs in Hyderabad. 
 
 " I do not care much about the liquidation of the principal of the 
 debt, or even about the regular payment of the interest in the inter- 
 vening period from November 1849 to December 31st, 1850 ; but I 
 am quite disinclined to recur again to the periodical advance of the 
 pay for the Contingent, implying, as it does, previous inconvenience 
 and hardship upon the troops, as well as a gradual increase of the 
 already existing debt. 
 
 " The Nizam will force me, in such a case, to take possession of terri- 
 tory at once, whereby the means of paying the Contingent with 
 certainty and regularity will be placed in the hands of this Govern- 
 ment, virtually pledged to ensure such payment. 
 
 " It would not be expedient yet to make this announcement defini- 
 tively to the Minister. Its necessity, however, at an early period 
 appears so probable, that I beg to have, confidentially, your views on 
 the particular districts which may be most conveniently mortgaged, as 
 it were, for this purpose. Clearly, one adjoining to our territories at 
 some point would be desirable. 
 
 "The Due de Coislin's view of the future of France seems the only 
 sensible one, and (as far as my very limited knowledge of French affah-s 
 enables me to judge) the only one which has any chance of becoming a 
 practical view. Everything that I have heard leads me believe that 
 his estimate of the character of the Due de Bordeaux is not nnduly 
 partial. He ought to have now learned wisdom, if ever a Bourbon 
 could be taught that lesson. 
 
 " Believe me, yours sincerely, 
 
 " Dalhousie." 
 
 The next letter, although only referring to some personal changes 
 in the Staff of the Contingent, is not devoid of interest, and throws 
 light on the process by which that part of the Eesident's duty was 
 in those clays conducted. 
 
 " Camp, Moultan, December 31st, 1849. 
 
 "My dear General Fraser, — I have received your letter of the 14th. 
 You will have since then received the Gazette. 
 
 " I do not wish that Captain Mackenzie's local majority should 
 supersede the commissions previoxishj granted to Brigadier Johnston 
 or Brigadier Hampton ; but I wish that he should continue posted to 
 the First Class Division, giving him advantage in respect of allowances, 
 but not in respect of military rank. 
 
 " I perceive the newspapers hold Captain Mackenzie's appointment
 
 304 COLIN MACKENZIE. 
 
 up as an injustice to the Nizam's officers. I do not admit this. I will 
 not, as long as I am here, recognise any obligation to observe rigidly 
 the succession of seniority in the Nizam's or any other Contingent. 
 I see enough every day of the curse which a strict seniority system 
 inflicts, to decide me against admitting it anywhere but where I am 
 forced to do so. The local officers of the Nizam's service have had 
 their fair share from me; and to recognise Brigadier Johnston's claims 
 as exceeding the distinguished services of Captain Mackenzie would to 
 my mind be absurd. 
 
 " Believe me, yours sincerely, 
 
 " Daliiousie." 
 
 Captain Colin Mackenzie, the newly appointed Brigadier, 
 mentioned in Lord Dalhousie's letter, was a very distinguished 
 officer, whose hairbreadth 'scapes and chivalrous conduct 
 in Afghanistan resembled those of some hero of romance, and 
 whose gallantry, when almost a boy, in the Coorg campaign 
 had attracted my father's attention at the time, and had 
 never been forgotten. Although, as will be seen, their official 
 relations were not quite unruffled, General Fraser always regarded 
 him with respect and affection, and it has been a great pleasure to 
 me, having myself known him and loved him well, to see from the 
 recently published memoirs of Lieut-General Colin Mackenzie, 
 C.B., that his kindly feelings towards General Fraser were unin- 
 terrupted and unchanged to the last. 1 
 
 Having determined, and announced his determination to the 
 Nizam's Government, that the debt on account of advances made 
 for the Contingent's pay must be entirely liquidated by the last 
 day of 1850, and that in default of a full settlement the assignment 
 of districts "in mortgage", to use Lord Dalhousie's own words, 
 would be exacted, the Governor-General desired to have all the 
 information that could be given him as to the territory most con- 
 veniently situated for transfer to British management, with a 
 view, also, to their possible retention, if the Nizam could be in- 
 duced to give his consent, to ensure the regular monthly payment 
 of the Contingent Force. 
 
 In a letter dated Hyderabad, 19th December 1849, General 
 Fraser answers Lord I dalhousie's inquiry as to the best districts to be 
 
 1 Storms and Sunshine of a Soldier's Life (Edinburgh : Douglas, 1884), vol. i, 
 pp. 34, 37 ; vol. ii. p. 108.
 
 DISTRICTS FOR SECURITY. 305 
 
 appropriated as security for the payment of the debt. He explains 
 the great difficulties he has always experienced in getting accurate 
 and detailed information as to the revenue of the Nizam's 
 dominions ; and forwards, as " the nearest approach" he has been 
 " able to obtain to anything like an account on which some de- 
 gree of confidence could be placed", a sketch map, furnished by 
 Sooraj-ool-Moolk when he was first appointed Dewan, giving 
 " definite limits to each Talook, with a suitable amount of revenue 
 to be collected by each Talookdar, who was to reside in his district* 
 and administer its affairs himself, not living in the City, as had 
 been the usual custom, leaving the administration to an ill-paid 
 Naib or deputy." In selecting districts for our management, the 
 Eesident said he would be "guided by convenience of position 
 and facility for the collection of revenue". These advantages were 
 to be found in the two districts of Berar, Payen Ghat and Bala 
 Ghat, 1 and the district of Bassim, the three producing, according 
 to the schedule attached to Sooraj-ool-Moolk's sketch map, an 
 annual revenue of Bs. 39,89,000, while the average annual 
 expense of "the Nizam's Army", or Contingent, was Bs. 38,26,500. 
 
 " Berar Payen Ghat is the richest and most profitable portion of the 
 Nizam's dominions, both in an agricultural and commercial point of 
 view, and I have never heard of any particular difficulty existing with 
 regard to the collection of its revenues. I believe there is no part of 
 India superior to it for the production of cotton ; and the culture and 
 exportation of this article might, under our management, be extended 
 to a much greater degree than has ever been the case. 
 
 " The three Talooks I mention are compactly situated, forming 
 nearly a square or parallelogram, of which the North and North- West 
 boundary would be the chain of hills on which the forts of Narnulla 
 and Gawilghur are situated, adjoining the Company's districts on the 
 Nerbudda, a portion of Scindia's country, and part of Khandesh. The 
 North-East boundary would be the Wurda river, which separates the 
 Nizam's dominions from those of the Rajah of Nagpore. 
 
 " It may be observed that several portions of Berar were transferred 
 to the Nizam by the Peishwa, in the Western part of that territory, and 
 by the Rajah of Nagpore in the Eastern part ; and it may be supposed 
 that the Nizam would, therefore, be less disinclined to cede this portion 
 of territory to our temporary management than he would with regard 
 ■of his ancient patrimonial dominions. This may be the case or not, 
 
 1 Below and above the Ghat or range of hills.
 
 306 TEMPORARY ASSIGNMENT. 
 
 but I allude to it as a possible circumstance that we may have to con- 
 sider in any eventual negotiations." 
 
 It will be seen here, and it deserves particular attention, that at 
 this period, when a territorial assignment for the re-establishment 
 of a financial equilibrium in the Nizam's affairs was first discussed, 
 General Fraser contemplated and proposed that this assignment 
 Mas to be " temporary", and as such it was treated by him, from 
 first to last, in all his negotiations vrith the Nizam, and in his 
 correspondence with Lord Dalhousie and with the Government of 
 India. 
 
 After explaining that without more searching inquiries, which 
 could not be made at this moment without raising suspicion, it is 
 impossible to be quite sure whether Sooraj-ool-Moolk's figures 
 represented net revenue or gross revenue, without deducting the 
 costs of collection, he goes on to say: — 
 
 " If the net amount were only, as here supposed possible, 35 lakhs ot 
 rupees, this would easily be made up by additional adjoining territory. 
 This wonld also be the more necessary if we added, besides the expense 
 of the Contingent, Appa Dessaye's Chout and the allowance toMohi- 
 put Ram's family, amounting to Rs. 120,000 per annum, and also 
 the interest due on the Nizam's debt, if not otherwise paid, about 
 Rs. 324,000 per annum. The deficiency on the Contingent and these 
 other items would amount to between seven and eight lakhs of rupees 
 a year, for which it would be convenient to have a suitable portion of 
 the Dowlutabad district. But if the Nizam objected to this, from his 
 probable dislike to transfer to our management that part of his domi- 
 nions in which Dowlutabad and Aurungabad are situated, we might 
 then demand as much of the upper portions of the Nandair and Kullum 
 districts as would suffice to make up what was wanting. 
 
 " Having referred to the trade of Berar as likely to improve and 
 extend under our management, I beg to transmit for your Lordship's 
 perusal, copies of some reports by Pestonjee Meerjee, Esq., and by Mr. 
 Digliton, on the subject of the cotton and opium produced in that 
 district. 
 
 " There is already a report in the City of Hyderabad that the 
 Supreme Government has it in contemplation to demand a portion of 
 the Nizam's territory, in liquidation of his debt to us, and for the 
 current expenses of the Contingent. The report is said to have arisen 
 from an article in one of the Madras newspapers, which must have 
 been published at Madras some days previously to the receipt of your 
 Lordship's letter. The newspaper and jour letter reached me simul- 
 taneously. There could have been no connection, therefore, between
 
 THE PESHCAu'S PROTEST. 307 
 
 them ; and either the Madras article was a mere conjecture of what 
 might happen, or it must have been furnished by certain parties at 
 Hyderabad, who not un frequently receive information of what is about 
 to be said or done by the Supreme Government, and before I do so 
 myself. I think I mentioned to you personally, what I also stated in 
 writing to Lord Ellenborough, 1 that Rajah Chundoo Lall always dis- 
 bursed large sums of money for the purpose of obtaining timely 
 information from Calcutta of the intentions of our Government in 
 every matter regarding Hyderabad." 
 
 Early in 1850 new proofs were given in quick succession that 
 if the necessity of demanding and exacting territorial security 
 from the Hyderabad State for the heavy arrears and current pay 
 of the Contingent were to be averted, it would not be through 
 the administrative capacity or the commanding influence of the 
 Peshcar, Rajah Ram Buksh. Though nominally at the head of 
 affairs, his measures, frequently adopted with the advice or 
 approval of the Resident, were so constantly thwarted or set 
 aside by direct intervention from the Palace, that he piteously 
 protested, in a note to General Fraser dated the 1st of February 
 1850, and on many other occasions, against being held " respon- 
 sible for the disorganisation of the Government". In the above- 
 mentioned note he wrote as follows : — 
 
 " I beg to represent that it is highly expedient that the present state 
 of affairs should be made known to the Government of India, but I 
 leave this to your pleasure. I am merely the well-wisher of both 
 Governments, but from such impediments and changes I am altogether 
 helpless and blameless. Without the assistance of- the British Govern- 
 ment the reorganisation of this Government would be impossible to an 
 angel from heaven. As you are the well-wisher and guardian of this 
 Government, it is absolutely necessary that you should be informed of 
 the way in which affairs are being conducted." 
 
 This invocation of British authority in aid of the cause of regular 
 administration, and for the suppression of the caprice and corrup- 
 tion of a Court, made in such terms and in such a tone by the 
 Peshcar, identical with similar complaints and similar appeals made 
 by Sooraj-ool-Moolk and Shums-ool-Oomra, go very far to confirm 
 General Fraser's reiterated assurances that this was in reality " a 
 weak and submissive Government", if rightly treated ; and that if 
 the course he recommended were taken with precision and good- 
 
 i Ante, pp. 197, 198. 
 
 'x2
 
 SOS PESHCAB POWERLESS. 
 
 will, the old abuses of the Hyderabad Court could be held in check 
 and gradually abolished, and the rule of law instituted all over the 
 country, not only without military demonstration or coercion, but 
 with common consent and public acclamation. If it were made 
 known by one of those direct and decisive communications which 
 the General repeatedly drafted, but could never get adopted with- 
 out some destructive modification, that both the Minister and the 
 Resident had the full confidence of our Government, and would act 
 in concert, no resistance would be offered to their projects of reform. 
 Fortified by that support, Rajah Chundoo Lall had exercised 
 absolute sway during thirty years of loose and lavish rule. 
 
 The disastrous results of Chundoc Lall's mismanagement could 
 have been rectified in four or five years if the same support, on 
 broad grounds of Imperial duty and policy, had been given to 
 ool-Sooraj-Moolk, or even to Ram Buksh, under the supervision 
 of the Resident. 
 
 In forwarding the note from the Peshcar just mentioned, General 
 Fraser endeavoured to present the procedure he had always recom- 
 mended under a somewhat new aspect, and with some new and 
 very pointed remarks. 
 
 " The utter powerlessness of the present Peshcar is sufficiently illus- 
 trated by the recent instance, related by himself in his last private 
 note. 
 
 " It is my deliberate opinion, formed after considerable experience of 
 the character of the Nizam, that nothing less than a decided British 
 administration will save this country as long as the present Sovereign 
 remains on the musnud. But nothing has yet occurred which would 
 justify our proposing, and still less insisting upon, so decided a measui'e 
 as this, under existing Treaties. 
 
 " The full and unfettered power of selecting his own Dewan or 
 Minister, under whatever denomination, has already been conceded by 
 us to the Nizam ; and in this respect, therefore, we cannot retrace our 
 steps. But the matter appears to assume a different aspect if the Nizam 
 does not confide to his Minister that full power which it was under- 
 stood by our Government should be the case, when we acknowledged 
 his independence to the extent above-mentioned. And it may, I con- 
 ceive, under these circumstances, be competent to us, without injustice 
 or violation of good faith, to insist that the Minister whom His High- 
 ness appoints shall be charged with bond fide full powers to administer 
 the affairs of this important country. 
 
 " The British Resident is now placed in the false and undignified
 
 INTERVIEW WITH NIZAM. 309 
 
 position of being the mere correspondent of one of the Nizam's officers 
 called a Minister, and asserted by the Nizam to possess the power of 
 one, but who, in point of fact, scarcely possesses more authority than 
 the lowest clerk in a Government office. 
 
 " We ought, therefore, I think, to guard effectually against the risk 
 of the Minister being thwarted and impeded, although nominally vested 
 with full powers, by this additional proviso, that, in order to ensure the 
 support of the British Government, whose representative at this Court 
 has under his control the only force capable of maintaining peace and 
 good order, the Minister shall act in all cases with the full and express 
 concurrence of this officer, and deviate in no essential point from his 
 advice, which would, of course, always be given under the general 
 instructions of his own Government, and under due responsibility to 
 that authority." 
 
 Many complaints having reached the Residency of the incon- 
 venience and delay caused to travellers, and even to military 
 detachments from the Company's territory, in consequence of the 
 negligent manner in which the fords and ferries on the rivers were 
 kept up, and from positive impediments being offered by the local 
 authorities, apparently of set purpose, the Resident was directed by 
 the Supreme Government to ask for an interview with the Nizam 
 and to make a serious remonstrance on the subject. The interview 
 accordingly took place on the 20th of April 1850, and is thus 
 described : — 
 
 " After the usual preliminaries of conversation, before giving me time 
 to deliver the message for which I had come, His Highness took the 
 initiative, and commenced a long discourse on the state of his country, 
 and the incapacity of his Ministers, to whom he attributed all the mis- 
 fortunes and embarrassments of his Gevernment. In proportion as he 
 blamed others he assumed credit to himself, and took some pains to 
 convince me that everything would be right if his Ministers would only 
 obey his orders, and be guided by his judgment instead of trusting to 
 their own. 
 
 " He asked me if I had ever known him to do an oppressive act, or 
 whether I ever heard complaints of his own personal proceedings ; and 
 after this he spoke at considerable length regarding the relations between 
 his Government and ours, and the advantages we had received from our 
 connection with him, especially our possession of the Northern Circars, 
 the Ceded Districts, and, more recently, the district of Kurnool. 
 
 " As soon as he allowed me the opportunity, 1 observed that there was 
 a subject on which I had a few words to address to him, and that I 
 thought it desirable, if he had no objection, that his Minister should be
 
 310 LETTER TO 
 
 present. Rajah Ram Buksh was accordingly sent for, and after stand- 
 ing in His Higlmess's presence for some time, was desired to sit down. 
 
 " I then delivered the Governor-General's message in the precise 
 terms directed in your letter, and although the Peshcar once or twice 
 attempted to interrupt me with explanations, I requested him to be 
 silent until J had finished what I had to say. 
 
 " When I had done, the Nizam appeared much irritated with the con- 
 duct of the Peshcar, to whom alone he seemed disposed to attribute the 
 occurrences that had given room for complaint, and addressed him for 
 some time in a strain of severe and angry reproach. He enjoined upon 
 him to take every requisite step, and to give every order which might 
 prevent a recurrence of similar complaints ; and ended by desiring him 
 to send, if necessary, Munsubdars and parties of troops to the several 
 ferries over the rivers, and other places where the Company's troops 
 and travellers had suffered inconvenience, for the purpose of enforcing 
 these orders. 
 
 " The Nizam then turned to me, and assured me most emphatically 
 that no similar cause of complaint should ever occur again, and that if 
 it did so the responsibility should rest upon himself. 
 
 "He then again addressed himself for some time to the Peshcar, with 
 the design apparently of impressing on his mind that he must never, 
 on any occasion, act on his own judgment, or by his own authority, 
 but that he was always to apply to His Highness himself for instructions. 
 The Peshcar said little or nothing in reply, but he appeared anxious 
 and disquieted, and was evidently by no means satisfied with the 
 observation sof his Master. 
 
 " The turn which His Highness's observations had taken indicated 
 a disposition and intention the very reverse of those counsels I had 
 wished to inculcate, and to impi^ess upon his mind. It appeared to me, 
 therefore, that this was not a fitting time to speak to His Highness as 
 I had purposed, and that it would be expedient to postpone this subject 
 to a more suitable occasion." 
 
 Certainly the direct requisition on the subject of roads, ferries, 
 and facilities for travelling, pointedly addressed by the Govern- 
 ment of India to His Highness in person, would hardly seem to 
 have been a measure calculated to promote the free action of the 
 Peshcar, or to elevate or ingratiate him in the mind of his Master. 
 The incident was unfortunate. On the 30th of May 1850, General 
 Eraser writes to Lord Dalhousie : — 
 
 ' I was happy to hear that your Lordship had recovered your health, 
 and that the speculations of the Indian papers in this respect were un- 
 founded. A large portion of health and strength will be required to
 
 LORD DALHOUSIE. 311 
 
 enable you to fulfil the task that yet lies before you ; for the interior 
 organisation and improvement of India are likely to prove a duty still 
 more arduous and onerous than the waging of external wars and the 
 conquest of provinces. 
 
 " We are tolerably quiet now in the Nizam's country. I have lately 
 withdrawn two of the detachments that were out in Berar, but retain 
 the third at Mulkapoor, until the authority of the Nizam's local officers 
 there is perfectly established, when I shall withdraw that also. 
 
 " Different opinions are entertained here regarding the capability of 
 the Circar to repay us its debt, amounting now to 6,400,000 rupees. 
 From what Shums-ool-Oomra and Sooraj-ool-Moolk told me at different 
 times, I have no reason to suppose that the Nizam still possesses any 
 very large amount of private treasure, except in jewels. But still it 
 seems to be thought that if matters come to extremity, and that the 
 Nizam has to choose between repaying us the debt or yielding up part 
 of his country, he will be able to do the former by means of something 
 from himself, and contributions and exactions from others. In the 
 meantime, the pecuniary exigencies of the State appear to be supplied 
 as far as they are so at all, by a system of nuzzuranas. Every office, 
 every Talook, every command, is sold; though the Peshcar, Rajah 
 Ram Buksh, disclaims having recourse to these objectionable means. 
 
 " I have received several private, or, rather, secret notes lately from 
 the Nizam's brother, Mubariz-ood-Dowla, who is confined in the Fort 
 of Golconda, 1 soliciting my interference on his behalf. But he earnestly 
 entreats me not to allow these communications of his to become known, 
 lest his fate should be rendered worse, thus depriving me of an oppor- 
 tunity of taking any step to alleviate his condition ; which I might 
 otherwise be glad to do. If a better Government were established 
 here, I should pi^obably propose his liberation, as well as that of most, 
 if not all, of the Moulavees and other persons who were confined at the 
 same time with him in 1839 ; but upon this subject I will not trouble 
 you further at present. I may have occasion to addi'ess Government 
 officially regarding it hereafter." 
 
 During the first half of the year 1850, the Resident had much 
 anxious and perplexing work to perform, in consequence of the 
 Nizam's differences with the Nawab Shums-ool-Oomra, which the 
 Resident had to reconcile as best he could, and which had arisen 
 between His Highness and that nobleman, his near relative, the 
 hereditary Commandant of the Household Troops, and in that capa- 
 city the ruler, with almost independent jurisdiction, of a very large 
 
 1 Ante, pp. 59, Gl.
 
 312 SERVICE JAGHIRES 
 
 estate. 1 Very soon, moreover, after the installation of Rajah 
 Earn Buksh as Peshcar, the Nizam had begun to manifest 
 signs of uneasiness at the manner in which public business was 
 carried on, and several times, in conversation with General Fraser, 
 expressed himself very strongly to that effect, but without the 
 Resident finding it possible, although the opportunity seemed so 
 favourable for such an argument, to persuade His Highness that 
 the best plan would be to appoint a Dewan with full powers, and 
 to place full confidence in him. The Resident gave every assurance 
 within the scope of his instructions that the British authorities 
 would watch as carefully as the Nizam himself could do, over the 
 proceedings of the Minister, and would never tolerate any adminis- 
 trative measure on his part that could be injurious to the State. 
 The Nizam could not be persuaded at this time to part with what 
 he unfortunately conceived to be the substance of personal power, 
 but which, from the impossibility of his controlling, or even com- 
 prehending, all the details of executive and financial procedure, 
 was in truth nothing more than the shadow of authority. The 
 Nizam more than once inquired, in the course of these interviews, 
 as if by way of strengthening his own position, whether Mr. Martin, 
 who had been Resident at Hyderabad from 1825 to 1830, had not 
 stated soon after His Higlmess's accession to the Musnudinl829,that 
 the Supreme Government of India had fully recognised the Nizam's 
 prerogative of appointing and dismissing his Dewan and Peshcar. 
 General Fraser was, of course, compelled to acknowledge, after the 
 many assurances to that effect that had been given to the Nizam, 
 and after Lord Dalhousie's declaration that " it would be only lost 
 labour and folly " to press a Dewan in whom we had confidence on 
 His Highness, 1 that such a right had been conceded by our Govern- 
 ment. And on this very unsatisfactory footing, neither the Nizam 
 nor the Resident having any faith in the capacity or efficiency of 
 Rajah Ram Buksh as the nominal head of the administration, the 
 affairs of the Hyderabad State continued to the first week of 
 October 1850. 
 
 All that General Fraser could do during the incumbency of 
 Rajah Ram Buksh was to remind His Highness of the expectation 
 
 1 With the permission of the Nizam, however, the command is now 
 divided, and members of the family hold separate divisional charge. 
 s Ante, pp. 2G8, 273.
 
 AND SEPARATE JURISDICTION. 
 
 of the Government of India that the interest of the debt on account 
 of advances made for the Contingent, then amounting to more 
 than half a million sterling, would he paid regularly ; and that the 
 monthly payment of those troops, for whose discipline the British 
 Government was responsible, should be regularly provided for, and 
 no more arrears allowed to accumulate. The General was instructed 
 to warn the Nizam that in the event of these requirements not 
 being satisfied, the Supreme Government of India would most 
 certainly not refrain much longer from instituting measures both 
 for its own reimbursement and security, and for protecting the 
 interests of those faithful soldiers for whom its own faith was 
 virtually pledged. General Fraser was, furthermore, directed to 
 express the very deep regret with which the Supreme Government 
 had observed the prevailing disorders of the State, and the still 
 greater perplexity in which they were likely to fall, if the Nizam 
 did not make a wise exercise, without delay, of the authority which 
 belonged to him. General Fraser was desired to report from time 
 to time the effect which these communications might have on His 
 Highness's counsels. 
 
 On the 28th of August 1850, the Assistant Eesident, Captain 
 Davidson, by desire of the Eesident, had an interview with the 
 Peshcar, Eajah Earn Buksh, who stated that he had lately repre- 
 sented to His Highness the Nizam, and wished it to be understood 
 by General Fraser, that " he could only suggest measures for car- 
 rying on the Government and renovating its finances, but must not 
 be held responsible if they failed, since he was entirely deprived 
 of the power to give them effect." Earn Buksh reported also that 
 "His Highness hinted that he should shortly pay ten lakhs of 
 rupees in cash for the general debt due to the British Government, 
 and pawn jewels for the remaining amount." "I begged", says 
 Captain Davidson, " that the Minister would inform me to whom 
 His Highness intended pledging his jewels, and if he thought it 
 probable the Soucars would really advance money, taking jewels 
 as security. He replied, ' Not one of them.' I then again asked 
 to whom he supposed His Highness meant he would pledge them, 
 to which the Peshcar replied that he did not know." 
 
 After this it soon became evident that Eajah Earn Buksh could 
 not retain much longer the nominal position of Minister. On the 
 7th of October the Eesident was requested by the Nizam to visit
 
 314 DISMISSAL OF 
 
 His Highness at the Palace. The interview that took place is 
 thus described. After the usual preliminary inquiries after the 
 Governor-General's health, and regarding the approaching visit of 
 the Coinmander-in- Chief to Hyderabad, " a considerable pause 
 ensued." 
 
 " The Nizam then renewed the conversation. He said he wished to 
 confer with me on the affairs of the country. He commenced, as is 
 not nnusnal with him, with a history of the relations subsisting between 
 the two Governments ; and gave me a long account of the aid afforded 
 by his grandfather, Nizam Ali Khan, in our wars with Tippoo, when 
 he sent down a large force to Seringapatam under command of Secunder 
 Jah ; and again, afterwards, in our second and last war with that 
 Prince, when a large force was sent from hence under command of 
 Mecr Allum, and assisted in the capture of Seringapatam. He spoke 
 of Lord Harris's repeated acknowledgment of the value of this co- 
 operation. 
 
 " He then touched more briefly on subsequent events, and the inti- 
 mate political connection between the two Governments — it being 
 apparently his object in these remarks to impress upon my mind a full 
 recollection of the friendly and Cordial alliance that had always sub- 
 sisted between them. 
 
 " He then proceeded to the subject of Rajah Ram Buksh's administra- 
 tion, which he censured in the severest terms, and told me repeatedly that 
 the Rajah had quite deceived him, and had falsified the promises he had 
 made when lie was appointed Peshcar. He alluded to the objection I had 
 then offered to the appointment, and to the personal responsibility he 
 had taken upon himself for the consequence. But the promise to 
 advance sixty lakhs of rupees for the exigencies of the State had been, 
 he said, entirely violated ; as was another — the Nizam added — which 
 the Peshcar had made him at the same time, though His Highness had 
 not before communicated it to me, to furnish without fail fifty lakhs of 
 rupees a year for the pay of the Contingent. 
 
 " The Nizam then took a note out of his pocket, which he requested 
 me to read. This note conveyed a promise, expressed in few and 
 decided terms, to furnish fifty lakhs of rupees per annum for the pay 
 of the Contingent. His Highness then desired me to look at the seal, 
 which I did, and saw upon it the words ' Rajah Ram Buksh Bahadur'. 
 Upon returning it to the Nizam, I said, ' The Peshcar promises here to 
 furnish fifty lakhs of rupees for the Contingent, but the pay of the 
 Contingent is not forty lakhs of rupees a year.' To this the Nizam 
 replied, ' He meant the pay of the Contingent whatever it might be, 
 more or less.' 
 
 " His Highness then continued for a considerable time to descant on
 
 RAJAH RAM BUKSH. 315 
 
 the numerous delinquencies of Rajah Ram Buksh, among which he 
 enumerated particularly his having entertained, without authority, 
 troops to the extent of fifteen lakhs of rupees per annum. 
 
 " To what purpose, I asked, were these troops entertained ? Was it 
 not for the benefit of the State? 'For his own,' the Nizam imme- 
 diately replied, with an angry look which indicated the resentment he 
 felt at the injury thus inflicted on his Government. 
 
 " The other instance of misconduct he particularly mentioned was 
 his failing either to take any measures for liquidating the debt due to 
 the Company, or for regularly disbursing the pay of the Contingent. 
 Upon this last point His Highness dwelt at considerable length. He 
 stated that he had always considered it of primary importance, as the 
 payment to be first made, and in preference to all others. He observed 
 that Maharajah Chundoo Lall had repeatedly impressed upon his mind 
 the importance of maintaining the Contingent and regularly paying it, as 
 an indispensable means of preserving the peace and tranquillity of the 
 country. 
 
 " His Highness spoke warmly on this subject, repeated his sense ot 
 the value of the services of this Force, and did not drop the slightest 
 hint that he considered the Contingent either an unnecessary burden 
 upon his finances, or otherwise than a valuable body of troops which 
 ought at all hazards to be maintained. * 
 
 " He terminated a long explanation of what he considered the mis- 
 conduct of the Peshcar, by informing me that he had determined to 
 dismiss him from his office, and requested me to inform the Governor- 
 General of all that he had said on this subject. 
 
 " The Nizam then remaining quiet for some time, I broke the silence 
 by saying, ' Has your Highness come to any decision regarding a 
 successor to Rajah Ram Buksh?' To this he replied, 'I have this 
 subject in consideration, and shall let you know the result.' He 
 mentioned five days as the time within which he might have occasion 
 again to see me on this point. 
 
 " I inquired to whom he desired me to address myself on current 
 affairs of business pending ultimate arrangements. He said I might 
 address my notes, as formerly, to Amjud-ool-Moolk. 
 
 " His Highness then adverted to the debt due to our Government, 
 and after again blaming the Peshcar severely for having deceived him 
 on the subject, he begged me to inform the Governor-General that he 
 pledged his word for the payment of thirty lakhs of rupees in fifty 
 days from this date, and the remainder in two years by gradual instal- 
 ments. 
 
 " I replied that I should not fail to communicate his wishes to the 
 Governor-General, but added that under the intimation of his Lord- 
 ship's intention, as formerly communicated to His Highness, that the
 
 31 G THE NIZAM'S 
 
 whole debt should be paid by the end of this year, I could by no means 
 take upon myself to express an opinion that his proposal would be 
 assented bo. To this His Bighness observed, '1 trust to you. You 
 know the condition of this Government. You are the friend of both 
 Governments, and it is your office to maintain the friendly feeling that 
 subsists between us. I rely with confidence on the representation 
 you will make to the Governor-General.' 
 
 " I then inquired whether I was to understand that besides this 
 proposed mode of liquidating the debt due to us, the pay of the Con- 
 tingent would be furnished without fail regularly every month. To 
 which he replied, 'Certainly, it should be so.' 
 
 " His Highness, after this, observed that there was another cominuui- 
 cation he wished me to make to the Governor-General, namely that he 
 gave his solemn word that in 1,200 days from this time he would so 
 regulate the affairs of his Government that no fault should be found 
 in it; and that if in this respect he failed, we might impose on him 
 such conditions as we pleased, to which he would not demur. He 
 repeated this two or three times, and the particular period specified 
 being rather remarkable, I paid attention to the terms in which he 
 expressed it, which were both 'twelve hundred days', and 'one 
 thousand two hundred days', as if he attached some mysterious or 
 superstitious importance to this' particular period. He very distinctly 
 repeated more than once, ' If I do not fulfil my Word, you may impose 
 your own conditions. I will acquiesce in them.' 
 
 " I took my leave in the usual way, impressed, as I have not un- 
 frequently been on former occasions, with the .striking discrepancy 
 between the Nizam's apparent good sense and good feeling in conver- 
 sation, and the weakness and unreasonableness that frequently seem 
 afterwards to characterise the acts of his Government. And I feel 
 that attributing the disposition and the degree of capacity to the Nizam 
 that T have so often done, it may seem unintelligible to the Govern- 
 ment of India that I cannot influence him to act somewhat more in 
 conformity with the judicious tendency of what he says. 1 must 
 therefore say a few words in explanation of what may seem a failure 
 in my public conduct. 
 
 " The Nizam laboured under the defects of a total want of ex- 
 perience of human character, and in the management of public affairs 
 and men, until he came forward for the first time in the capacity of a 
 ruler and administrator after the death of Rajah Chundoo Lall. 
 
 "He is absolutely inaccessible to the British Resident at Hyderahad, 
 except upon rare and formal occasions, and he guards with singular 
 and jealous care against all familiar communication between the 
 Resident and the Nobles of his Court. It will appear scarcely credible 
 that although I have been here for some years, I have never once seen,
 
 GOOD SENSE. 317 
 
 and much less had any personal intercourse with, most of the persons 
 whose names are constantly mentioned to me, and often appear in my 
 despatches, — as, for example, Rajah Bal Mookund, Iktidar Jung, Meer 
 Imam, the Duftur-wallas, and others, who are known to be the Nizam's 
 most confidential advisers, and whom he sees and converses with most 
 habitually. These persons live in the City, and like most of the other 
 Nobles of the State, never leave it. When I myself go into the City, 
 which I do only to wait upon the Nizam, or occasionally to visit the 
 Minister for the time being, these men are invisible, and seem to be 
 kept carefully out of my sight, for I cannot attribute it to accident 
 that my eye has never yet fallen on them. 
 
 " To all this may be added that it is not a small correction here, or 
 a remedy for particular abuses there, or the reorganisation of any 
 particular Department that is wanted, but a total change in the 
 existing system, and substitution in lieu thereof, of a comprehensive 
 scheme of rational administration, for which the Nizam's mind, not- 
 withstanding the favourable qualities I attribute to it, is quite unpre- 
 pared. He is singularly tenacious of the ancient forms and customs 
 of Government observed by his ancestors, and could not easily be 
 induced to consent to that large deviation from them which the actual 
 circumstances require." 
 
 But although the Nizam, secluded as he was, and fenced round 
 with etiquette, could not be " easily" induced to consent to the 
 necessary changes and sacrifices, General Fraser was always con- 
 vinced that his consent could have been obtained through the 
 medium of a Dewan, strengthened by the avowed support of our 
 Government, and in constant and authorised association with the 
 British Resident. And the Mzam's good sense and good feel- 
 ing, and the judicious tendency of some of his remarks on this 
 occasion, were calculated to confirm the views which the Resident 
 umed in vain on our Government. 
 
 In the last quarter of 1850 the General had much trouble in 
 settling, by his own authority, aided by the investigations of a 
 Court of Inquiry, and supported by the decisive judgment of the 
 Governor- General, a series of disputes between some of the superior 
 officers of the Contingent at the cantonment of Ellichpore, one 
 of them being his own valued friend, Brigadier Colin Mackenzie. 
 One subject of difference arose out of the expulsion from the town 
 of Ellichpore, by Brigadier Mackenzie's order, of a banker of con- 
 siderable wealth and high position named Kishen Dass, on the 
 ground of his having given a fraudulent or corrupt verdict as pre-
 
 318 CORKESPONDENCE WITH 
 
 sident of a Punchayut or jury of arbitration. The Resident 
 reversed this order on appeal, after full consideration of the case 
 on its merits. The Brigadier then claimed, under the regulations 
 laid down for military bazars, the absolute right of expelling any 
 person "of bad character" from the cantonment of Ellichpore. 
 The Resident explained that the regulations for keeping disorderly 
 characters out of military bazars were never intended to apply to 
 persons of the social standing of the banker, Kishen Dass. The 
 Brigadier had taken upon himself to suspend compliance with the 
 Resident's orders, and requested that the whole correspondence 
 might be submitted to the Governor-General. "With this request 
 General Fraser at once complied, finding fault at the same time 
 with Brigadier Mackenzie's "disputatious and disrespectful style", 
 and requiring the immediate readmission of Kishen Dass to his 
 house and place of business. It is to this unpleasant affair that 
 Lord Dalhousie refers in the following letter : — 
 
 " Camp, October 1st, 1850. 
 
 "My dear General Fraser, — I am sorry to see that your Briga- 
 diers have begun to squabble. I have replied, fully supporting your 
 decision. Your orders ought to be final on such questions, and I shall 
 at all times desire to maintain them fully. 
 
 " I have not adverted to the tone of the correspondence, because 
 your authority should be sufScieat to deal with that. Brigadiers must 
 keep civil tongues in their heads, as well as other people ; and I have 
 no doubt that you will establish that doctrine in this case. 
 
 " Dr. Walker's death makes a vacancy. I have made no appoint- 
 ment till I hear from you, lest I should get into more scrapes. Let me 
 know whether you wish your son-in-law, Dr. Bell, to be named. 
 
 " Believe me, yours very truly, 
 
 " Dalhousie." 
 Here is the General's answer : — 
 
 " Hyderabad, 18th October 1850. 
 " My Lord, — I had yesterday the pleasure to receive your Lordship's 
 letter of the 1st instant, and beg to say what, perhaps, I ought to have 
 said sooner, that, if not inconsistent with any other application you 
 may have received, or with any presumed promise, or with any one of 
 the numerous circumstances by which Governors-General sometimes 
 find themselves hampered in the distribution of patronage, I shall be 
 glad to see Dr. Bell nominated to the vacancy occasioned by Dr. 
 Walker's death.
 
 LORD DALHOUS1E. 319 
 
 " I most sincerely regret the strange turn which Mackenzie has taken, 
 subversive of everything like even decent suboi'dination ; for as I had 
 already every respect for him before he came into the Nizam's Army, 
 so I was fully prepared to act with him in the most cordial and friendly 
 manner. His last letter accuses me of ' illegality' ; but Heaven knows 
 wherein the illegality consists. I have been perfectly unable to find it 
 out, as have been equally my Military Secretary, Johnston, and the 
 Judge Advocate, McGoun, who study, perhaps more attentively than 
 I do, the rules and regulations of the Nizam's Army, and the extent of 
 my authority. In directing that the individual named Kishen Dass 
 should be allowed to return to Ellichpore, I merely did what I consi- 
 dered to be an act of justice ; and if I had not done so, I should have 
 been handed up by him to the Supreme Government, and probably to 
 the Court of Directors. My Military Secretary, who was an intimate 
 friend of Mackenzie, wrote him two or three private letters, suggesting 
 to him a more rational line of conduct than that he was pursuing. 
 But his endeavours were fruitless, and he has discontinued them. 
 
 " The Nizam has as yet appointed no Minister, nor does it seem cer- 
 tain that he will appoint one at all. But all is uncertainty, and he may 
 appoint one to-morrow. It is a wretched position in which the Resi- 
 dent is placed here, but there is no help for it. Forcible interference 
 or assumption of power would not bo justifiable ; and from anything 
 short of it, in the shape of mere advice and suggestions, I have long 
 since abandoned any hope of success. 
 " I remain, my Lord, 
 
 " Your very sincere and faithful servant, 
 
 "J. S. Eraser. 
 " To the Marquis of Dalhousie, K.T., etc., etc., etc., Simla." 
 
 The next letter does not indicate much hope in the Eesident's 
 mind as to any spontaneous improvement in the Nizam's affairs. 
 
 " Hyderabad, 5th November 1850. 
 " My Lord, — There is yet no Minister appointed here. It is reported 
 that the Nizam expects the British Government will excuse him the 
 debt he owes us altogether, and Rajah Ram Buksh has sent me 
 
 a private message that Mr. has lately gone secretly into 
 
 the City at night, and has had an interview with one of the Nizam's 
 most confidential servants. Perhaps they are asking his advice, for 
 they have a great opinion of his cleverness and power of getting people 
 out of scrapes as well as into them. This poor man is very old, infirm, 
 and almost blind ; but he appears to be still as deeply imbued as ever 
 with the spirit of intrigue. What I am now stating to your Lordship 
 privately, it would be my duty, if it could be proved, to report
 
 320 THE "AMENDE HONORABLE". 
 
 officially, as the Court of Directors long ago positively and repeatedly 
 
 prohibited Mr. from having any communication with the Nizam 
 
 or his Court." 
 
 Here is the next letter from Lord Dalhousie, marking the ter- 
 mination of the painful incident in the disciplinary control of the 
 Contingent that has already been mentioned. 
 
 " Camp, Hoshiarpore, November 8th, 1850. 
 
 " My DEAR General FRASERy — I have directed that Dr. Bell should 
 be put iu orders as posted to the Cavalry Regiment. 
 
 "Brigadier Mackenzie's conduct is extraordinary and qnite unac- 
 countable. He is quite in the wrong as to the merits of Kishen -Dass's 
 case, and if he were as right as he is wrong, his mode of advocating 
 his cause could not be tolerated for a moment. 1 have sent him a most 
 severe censure to-day through you. He shall be written to privately, in 
 order that he may comprehend that he must either guide himself dif- 
 ferently or go. He is an excellent soldier and a good man, but he must 
 observe his place if he wishes to keep it. 
 
 "Tour letters have been most temperate and considerate — indeed, 
 beyond what Mackenzie deserves. I hope you will have no further 
 trouble on this head. 
 
 " Believe' me, yours sincerely, 
 
 " Dalhousie." 
 
 The correspondence terminated with a letter from Brigadier 
 Mackenzie, dated the 5th of November 1850, which the General, 
 in forwarding it to Government, declared to be " satisfactory, and 
 honourable to the good feeling and calmer judgment of that 
 officer." 
 
 The Government and the Commander-in-Chief of Madias were 
 desirous, towards the close of 1850, to reduce the numbers of the 
 Subsidiary Force at Secunderabad in the course of a general redis- 
 tribution of the Madras Army; but the Resident strongly opposed 
 this measure, as being inconsistent with the terms of the Treaty of 
 1800; and although the intervention of the Governor-General did 
 not become necessary, the next letter shows that it would have 
 been exercised in accordance with General Eraser's opinion, had. a 
 
 reference been required. 
 
 " Camp, Buttala, Nov. 10th, 1850. 
 
 "My dear G-ENERAL FRASER, — I have received your letter of the 
 31st ult. You were very right not to let yourself be weakened at 
 present, and I have no doubt the Coramander-iu-Chief will see the
 
 CHAIBS AL FRESCO. ."21 
 
 propriety of your views. Of course I shall do nothing which could 
 possibly render a force necessaiy or prudent without giving you ample 
 notice. 
 
 " On the question of the debt, and the course to be adopted, I shall 
 address you very soon. 
 
 " Believe me, yours very truly, 
 
 " Dalhousie." 
 
 As the month of December commenced, there seemed little 
 prospect of the debt due to the British Government being liqui- 
 dated by the Nizam by the end of the month — the term which 
 Lord Dalhousie had laid down as that which was to be followed, 
 in case of default, by a demand for territorial security. On the 
 16th of December Sooraj-ool-Moolk waited on the Eesident, by 
 desire of the Nizam, to represent the financial embarrassments of 
 the State, as well as the impossibility of obtaining a loan from the 
 Soucars, and to request that some further delay might be allowed 
 in the payment of the debt. He specified twelve lakhs of rupees 
 per annum as the amount that His Highness would stipulate to 
 pay as instalments to clear off the whole debt. The General gave 
 a verbal answer to the effect thai he should communicate His 
 Highness's wishes to the Governor-General, but holding out no 
 hope that the Government of India would depart from its re- 
 solution. 
 
 After some more communications with Sooraj-ool-Moolk, Gene- 
 ral Fraser waited upon the Nizam in the forenoon of the 22nd of 
 December, at His Highness's encampment on the borders of the 
 Hoossain Saugor tank, or lake, at the distance of about two and a 
 half miles from the Besidency. The General says : — 
 
 "I waited upon him accordingly at eleven o'clock, and he received 
 me under a shamiyana 1 in front of a large Durbar tent, with the view 
 directly before us of the Hoossain Saugor tank, and the cantonment of 
 Secunderabad on the opposite bank. His reception of me was con- 
 ducted in a manner never observed before. When I waited upon him 
 in his own Palace in the City, both His Highness and myself are 
 always seated on the floor, but on the present occasion I found that two 
 chairs were placed for us, on one of which His Highness sat, and I on 
 the other, close to him. 
 
 " The substitution of chairs for a seat on the floor may, perhaps, 
 have been occasioned by a remark which I made soon after the Com- 
 
 1 A canopy.
 
 322 INTERVIEWS 
 
 mander-in-Chief 's arrival here, that if an interview took place between the 
 Nizam and His Excellency, I considered it desirable that the usual 
 mode of my reception, which I thought objectionable in two or three 
 respects, should be departed from in favour of one more suitable to the 
 rank and station of the Commander-in-Chief. 
 
 " The Nizam detained me for an hour and a half, and no other 
 person was present. The first half-hour was passed in ordinary 
 conversation; and His Highness then gradually brought forward the 
 subject on which he had desired to confer with me, which was simply 
 that of urging me, by every argument in his power, to recommend to 
 the Governor- General the acceptance of his proposition regarding the 
 mode of liquidating the debt due to the British Government. He 
 dwelt on the long friendship of his family and State, on the immense 
 difficulties with which he had to contend, and on the impossibility of 
 raising any more loans from the Soucars, as had been done in the time 
 of Chundoo Lall. He observed that he had still jewels to the value of 
 one and a quarter crore of rupees ; but I, of course, held out no 
 encouragement to him to suppose that the British Government would 
 take any part in any transaction founded on such security. 
 
 " I informed His Highness that it would be my duty to communicate 
 all that he had said, bat that I had no reason to hope that the Gover- 
 nor-General would recede from the resolution he had expressed ; and 
 that, with every wish to avoid taking any step that would be disagree- 
 able to His Highness's feelings, I could not do otherwise, on receiving 
 the instructions of the Government of India, which I had every reason 
 to expect within the next six or seven days, than act in conformity 
 with them. 
 
 " His Highness then asked, and in the course of a few minutes 
 repeated the question several times, what other instructions I could 
 receive except that of demanding payment of the money he owed us. 
 
 " I replied that I could not tell of what nature my instructions would 
 be, but that immediately on their arrival their purport should be made 
 known to His Highness. 
 
 " I told His Highness I was afraid that he was not fully informed as 
 to the real state of his country, and that I must beg permission to tell 
 him that it was in a very disorderly condition, for which I could per- 
 ceive no other possible remedy than the appointment of an able and 
 active Minister. 
 
 " His Highness replied that he was sensible of the truth of what I 
 had said, and that^he proposed to appoint a Feshcar, with an understand- 
 ing, however, that nothing should be done by him without previous 
 communication to His Highness himself. 
 
 " When I spoke of the present disorderly condition of the Berar 
 country, the Nizam remarked that this was, in a great measure, owing
 
 WITH THE NIZAM. 323 
 
 to the number of Rohillas whom the British Government had allowed 
 to flock into his dominions from Bhopal and other surrounding dis- 
 tricts, and requested me to send an order immediately on my return 
 home to the officer commanding the Ellichpore Division, to move with 
 a party of the Contingent against Gholam Hassan Khan, the present 
 actual holder of the jaghire of Ellichpore, and remove him from the 
 station he occupies, and which he refuses to resign. 
 
 " I replied that this had been forbidden by the Supreme Government, 
 in consequence of the Ellichpore dispute having arisen from pecuniary 
 transactions of which the Government could not approve. 
 
 " To this His Highness remarked that neither pecuniary transactions 
 nor nuzzuranas had anything to do with the case ; but he could not 
 convince me of this, and I therefore avoided pursuing the discussion, 
 and the subject gradually dropped. 
 
 " The Nizam terminated the conversation in the same spirit in which 
 he had commenced it, trusting that the indulgence of delay in the 
 payment of the debt would be granted; desiring me to inform the 
 Governor- General that the Sovereign of this country, after the most 
 intimate and friendly connection with the British Government of more 
 than half a century, had been reduced to the necessity of earnestly 
 soliciting that consideration, which he trusted could not be denied 
 him." 
 
 In January 1851 General Eraser again strongly recommended 
 that the Nizam should be "urgently pressed, in terms which, 
 though expressed in a friendly tone, would scarcely admit of 
 denial, to appoint a Dewan — not a Peshcar, whose recognised 
 position is entirely different from that of a Dewan — with such 
 full powers as would enable him to enter on the administration of 
 the country, unimpeded by those obstacles which Sooraj-ool-Moolk 
 and Shums-ool-Oomra lately experienced during the short tenure 
 of office respectively held by them." 
 
 On the 25th of January General Fraser again had a private 
 interview with the Nizam. His Highness, notwithstanding the 
 confident assurances so recently given, had paid up to the end of 
 December 1850 no portion of the Contingent debt, which then 
 amounted to upwards of seventy lakhs of Hyderabad rupees. 1 
 
 The General addressed the Nizam in the plainest and most 
 direct terms, and fully explained to him the actual state of his 
 country, telling His Highness that he was " kept in ignorance of 
 
 1 Exactly, Hyd. Rs. 70,77,416 : 2 : 4. 
 
 y2
 
 324 FULL POWERS LIMITED. 
 
 these facts by the interested persons whom he habitually admitted 
 to his presence". 
 
 " His Highness listened to me throughout with patience and atten- 
 tion, but, I regret to say, not with that advantage which 1 had ven- 
 tured, though not very confidently, to anticipate. With respect to the 
 debt, he said it was impossible for him to promise more than he had 
 already done, namely, to pay us twelve lakhs of rupees a year of the 
 capital, besides interest, and occasionally such additional sums as cir- 
 cumstances might enable him to furnish. 
 
 " I repeated what I said during our previous interview, that under 
 this arrangement it would require six years to liquidate the debt, which 
 I was satisfied would not answer the purpose of the Government of 
 India, and I adverted to the engagement he had already failed to 
 accomplisb, to pay thirty lakhs of rupees within fifty days from the 8th 
 of October last. 
 
 " He said that he had been cruelly deceived and disappointed by the 
 Soucars with whom arrangements had been made and, he thought, 
 completed, for a loan at that time ; and that he could not take upon 
 himself to pay off more than the twelve lakhs a year. 
 
 " I dwelt at considerable length on the absolute necessity of having 
 a Minister at the seat of Government, possessed of ability to rule the 
 country, and of sufficient decision of character to cause His Highness's 
 authority to be respected. 
 
 "His Highness replied, as he did in my last interview on the 24th 
 ultimo, that he would appoint a Peshcar before the end of the month, 
 which, as this is the 22nd of the Mohammedan month of Rabi-ul- 
 awwal, would be within a few days. 
 
 " I then told His Highness distinctly, that if by a Peshcar he meant 
 a person whose only duty it was to collect the revenue and look after 
 the finances of .State, it was by no means sufficient, and that a Minister 
 was required, vested with full powers, and competent to superintend 
 and command every department of the State. 
 
 "'Whether I appoint a Peshcar or a Dewan', the Nizam rejoined, 
 ' lie will have the full powers you allude to; but he must inform me of 
 everything he does, and always act with my permission.' 
 
 " I then made His Highness clearly understand that this was not 
 what I meant by being vested with full powers ; and that if his Minister 
 could act only under the unceasing control of His Highness, and be 
 liable to constant opposition from the self-interested persons who are 
 known to rule His Jlighness's counsels, the appointment might as well 
 not be made at all. 
 
 " Referring once more to the appointment of a Dewan, the Nizam 
 remarked that the salary of this office was very great, being three
 
 A LAST WARNING. 325 
 
 lakhs of rupees a year, or 25,000 rupees a month ; and he seemed dis- 
 posed to infer that this particular appointment was objectionable on 
 that account. 
 
 " To this I replied that, in my opinion, as I had once before stated to 
 His Highness, an allowance of 25,000 rupees was too much, and that 
 I thought 10,000 rupees per mensem would be sufficient remuneration 
 for this office. 
 
 " His Highness rejoined that there were many expenses connected 
 with the situation besides those of a merely personal nature. 
 
 " I could, in short, obtain no definite or explicit promise from the 
 Nizam on the subject of a Dewan, and it seemed to me that the objects 
 of my interview had entirely failed. I. told him so, and begged him 
 that, instead of allowing me to report to Government what had then 
 passed between us, he would give a little more calm consideration, and 
 favour me with a reply in the course of to-morrow, or whenever he 
 judged most convenient, through the medium of Syfe Jung Bahadur, 
 or any other person. 
 
 " ' What is the use of having recourse to these mediums ?' His 
 Highness said ; ' you are the best medium.' 
 
 " 1 understood from this that he wished me to consider what he had 
 said as final, and I therefoi'e said, ' I have never had an interview with 
 Your Highness of which I regret the'result so much. It has not been 
 satisfactory, and will not be satisfactory, to the Government of India. 
 It has been attended with no advantage.' 
 
 " ' That', replied the Nizam, with a faint smile, ' will depend upon 
 your advocacy. I rely upon it.' 
 
 " Your letter was still in my hand, and I said to His Highness, ' This 
 letter contains advice, and a preliminary intimation from the Govern- 
 ment of India ; but, unless I greatly err, it will be the last of this 
 character. My next communication will, I am persuaded, contain 
 neither advice nor suggestion, but a resolved decision. I have dis- 
 charged my duty, and the responsibility of whatever may happen here- 
 after rests with Your Highness, not with me.' Immediately after this 
 I bowed and took leave." 
 
 The " resolved decision" was being prepared for announcement 
 and execution, not without scruples and misgivings in Lord Dal- 
 housie's mind, as will be seen from his reply to the following 
 letter from General Fraser. 
 
 " Hyderabad, 30th January 1851. 
 
 " My Lord, — I duly received your letter of the 6th instant, to which 
 I shall reply more particularly in the course of a few days, as well as 
 to the latter part of the official letter under date the 4th instant. In 
 the meantime I send a copy of the little outline map, formerly trans-
 
 326 A PIECE OF PARCHMENT. 
 
 mitted, which you mention has been mislaid. I find, upon more 
 minute investigation, that the amount of revenue therein assigned to 
 the different Talooks is much overrated. I shall send up the most 
 correct accounts attainable, both of the revenue as it was under good, 
 or at least tolerable, management, and what it is now, or was in 1258 
 Fuslee — 1848-49. I am still of opinion that Berar Payen Ghat and 
 Bera Bala Ghat will be the best districts for our purpose, but to this 
 we must now add the Circar of Dowlutabad. 
 
 " The whole case regarding this country is by no means an easy one, 
 and I shall perhaps consider it my duty to take a somewhat more 
 extensive view of the subject than merely that which is referred to in 
 the official letter of the 4th. If we are to do anything at all for the 
 benefit of this unfortunate Nizam, we must speak plainly — courteously, 
 and in as friendly a tone as circumstances may admit, so as to give no 
 just cause of offence or complaint, but still in such a way as cannot be 
 mistaken. 
 
 " I remain, my Lord, 
 
 " Yours very faithfully and obediently, 
 
 "J. S. Fraser. 
 " To the Most Noble the Marquis of Dalhousie, K.T., 
 
 Governor -General of India." 
 
 Here is the answer : — 
 
 " Camp, February 20th, 1851. 
 
 " My dear General, — I have had the pleasure of receiving your 
 letter of 30th ult., and the first official letter. 
 
 " I will not trouble you now further than to say that you took the 
 right tone in your interview with the Nizam. You say ' we must 
 speak plainly'. We have been doing that surely for a good while past. 
 But speaking, I fear, will do no good ; and when we come to act, or 
 wish to do so, there is an inconvenient piece of parchment barring the 
 way, which His Highness will not set aside, and which I am not 
 inclined to break through. Hence we are stationary. Undesirable as 
 that attitude may be, I do not see — nor, I think, can you point out — any 
 remedy for it but time, which will bring a cure for this, as it does for 
 all other ills. 
 
 " Believe me, my dear General, 
 
 " Yours sincerely, 
 
 " Dalhousie." 
 
 In the recently published memoir of General Colin Mackenzie 
 an extract is given of a private letter from Lord Dalhousie, dated 
 12th September 1852, which harmonises very closely with what is 
 said in the latter part of the above letter. The Governor-General,
 
 AN EPISTLE SUGGESTED. 327 
 
 referring to the unsatisfactory administration of the Nizam's 
 dominions, says : " As for taking the country, I fervently hope it 
 will not be taken in my time, at least. Treaties can't be torn up 
 like old newspapers, you know." 1 
 
 In the following two letters General Fraser explains to the 
 Governor-General what he means by " speaking plainly", but 
 " courteously", to the Nizam, " in a friendly tone", giving " no just 
 cause of offence", but " in such a way as cannot be mistaken". It 
 will shortly be seen how different a " tone" was assumed by Lord 
 Dalhousie. — how far from " friendly", how far from " courteous", 
 how certain to give " offence", and how " mistaken" in its main 
 doctrine. 
 
 " Hyderabad, 12th March 1851. 
 
 " My Lord, — As Brigadier Beatson has at length officially announced 
 his intention of returning to England, the temporary command of the 
 Cavalry Division has necessarily devolved upon the next senior officer, 
 Captain Commandant Yates. I enclose an extract from the Confiden- 
 tial Review and Inspection Report of the 5th Nizam's Cavalry, which 
 I have just received from Brigadier Beatson, as it may lead your 
 Lordship to appoint, with as little loss of time as may conveniently be 
 practicable, a permanent successor to this command. 
 
 " I have had the pleasure to receive your Lordship's note of the 
 20th ult., at the end of which you observe that you do not see, nor 
 think that I can point out, any remedy for the difficulties and stationary 
 attitude in which we are now placed at Hyderabad. 
 
 " I think that a letter from your Lordship to the Nizam, of the sub- 
 joined purport, might be attended with some advantageous result, 
 though I am far from alleging that it certainly would be so. It might 
 be worth while, I think, to make the attempt, and I perceive in it no 
 violation of treaty or good faith, or exhibition of any principle that a 
 British Government need be ashamed to avow. 
 
 " ' The disorganised state of affairs in your Highness's 
 dominions has now reached such an extent that your Government 
 is on the brink of ruin, and the moment appears to be approaching 
 when your independence as a Sovereign Prince will be extinguished, 
 not by any foreign enemy or pressure from without, but by the force 
 of circumstances arising from internal misgovernment. 
 
 " ' Your country is irretrievably oppressed with debt. Your Irregular 
 Troops are frequently mutinying for want of pay, while many thousands 
 of them continue a useless burden to the State, who might, with the 
 utmost advantage, be disbanded. A long-continued system of mis- 
 
 1 Storms and Sunshine of a Soldier 's Life (1884), vol. ii, p. 77.
 
 328 THE SUGGESTED 
 
 management has diminished the public revenue which once placed 
 Hyderabad on a par with the most powerful and richest States of 
 India, to an amount which does not now suffice for the current 
 expenses of the Government. Commerce is almost annihilated by the 
 weight of those taxes that are imposed upon it, either by the Govern- 
 ment itself, or those inferior officers and other subjects of the Govern- 
 ment who arrogate to themselves a right to levy taxes which is neither 
 authorised nor ought to be allowed. 
 
 " ' Roads and means of communication, the first want of a civilised 
 country, are in a deficient and degraded condition throughout the 
 greatest part of your dominions ; for such are the necessities of the 
 State that the amount which it has been found possible to appropriate 
 to their construction or repair is altogether insufficient for the end 
 proposed. The frequency of complaint indicates great defects in the 
 administration of justice, and constant highway robberies afford 
 abundant proof that the ancient Police system of the country has been 
 neglected and discontinued. Your country is overrun with foreign 
 mercenary troops, of whom the Arabs alone are now counted by 
 thousands, who exclude your natural-born subjects from that employ- 
 ment and service under the Government they have a right to expect, 
 and have acquired an influence and authority which is beyond your 
 power to control. The absence of an efficient Executive Government 
 at Hyderabad has produced the inevitable consequence that your 
 authority is but little respected at the capital, and is altogether disre- 
 garded in the provinces. 
 
 " ' To what can all this lead, or rather to what has it already led, but 
 to the imminent ruin and extinction of your Sovereignty ? I entreat 
 you to reflect upon this state of affairs ; exercise your own unbiassed 
 judgment, uninfluenced by the false representations of a party and the 
 evil suggestions of those who have not the good of the State, but solely 
 the furtherance of their own interested ends, in view. 
 
 " ' I address you as the oldest and most faithful Ally of the British 
 Government in India ; as one whose power, political station, and inde- 
 pendence I am desirous to maintain, rather than see them undergo 
 that fate with which they are threatened, of being for ever irrecover- 
 ably lost. There is but one way in which the object I have thus at 
 heart can be attained, and I propose it to you with a preliminary and 
 explicit understanding that it is competent to you to accede to or 
 decline it. Assent to an act of wisdom is now in your power. In a 
 short time nothing will be left to you but the fatal consequence of 
 having rejected it. 
 
 " ' The only certain and effectual way of escaping the danger with 
 which you are threatened will be to place your country, for a certain 
 and defined number of years, under the exclusive management of the
 
 EPISTLE. 329 
 
 British Government, to be restored at the expiration of that term 
 to your Highness's free and sovereign power. 
 
 " ' If at that time it shall appear expedient that a modification of our 
 existing political relations is necessary, with a view to the maintenance 
 of your State, and your position as a Sovereign Prince and Ally of the 
 British Government, and to prevent a recurrence of the dangerous 
 predicament in which you are now placed, that expediency will be 
 rendered the subject of a friendly negotiation, which may lead to the 
 adoption of ulterior measures of arrangement and permanent security. 
 
 '"I beg your Highness to remark distinctly that I perceive no remedy 
 short of that which I have explained which may surely liberate you 
 from your present heavy embarrassments and imminently impending 
 dano-er. I regard your adoption of the plan I have now placed before 
 your view as the only certain and effectual means by which you may 
 ultimately secure your independence and the recovery of that power 
 which, in the vain attempt to govern the country yourself, without the 
 intervention of a Minister, you have allowed to escape from your 
 hands. I will not deceive you by allowing you to suppose that I 
 consider any other arrangement than that above explained sufficient to 
 attain the object in view, for you have so long disregarded my advice 
 to appoint and maintain in office an efficient Dewan, who might, by a 
 well-regulated system of management,' and acting in cordial co-operation 
 with the Officer who represents the British Government at your High- 
 ness's Court, have rescued your country from the state of disorganisation 
 into which it has fallen, that I believe your existing embarrassments to 
 be now irretrievable, excepting by the means I have pointed out, and 
 which it depends upon your Highness to adopt or decline as your own 
 unfettered judgment may dictate. 
 
 " ' Whatever the consequences of your resolution in this respect may 
 be, they will rest with yourself. I have discharged the duty of a 
 friend.' 
 
 " This is but an outline, or rough framework, of what might be said, 
 and I have not alluded in it to the important fact of our being on the 
 point of curtailing the Nizam of nearly a third of his dominions, 
 whatever his resolution may be regarding a temporary cession of the 
 whole of them to us ; although this might, of course, be done with 
 advantage, as it would be eminently confirmatory of the other argu- 
 ments brought forward. What might be said on this part of the 
 subject is more particularly referred to in my public letter of the 4th 
 February last. 
 
 " Our right to demand a part of the Nizam's country, to repay the 
 debt he owes us, I consider quite undoubted, whether he likes it or 
 not ; and, therefore, I should never think of alluding to his assent to
 
 330 A PROPOSITION, 
 
 that part of the question, or to the contingency of his opposing to it 
 anything like positive dissent. 
 
 " I remain, my Lord, with great respect, 
 
 " Your very faithful and obedient servant, 
 
 "J. S. Fraser." 
 
 " Hyderabad, 14th March 1851. 
 " My Lord, — I concluded my letter yesterday hastily, not to be too 
 late for the tappal, 1 or I should have taken the liberty of adding this 
 further remark, that however unlikely it might be that the suggested 
 proposal to the Nizam should be attended with success, or receive his 
 assent, it might at least be of some use to the British Government 
 itself hereafter, by its proving that we had not absolutely confined 
 ourselves to the security of our own pecuniary interests, but that in 
 doing so we had plainly warned him of the general state of his country, 
 and adopted the only means to save him from the ruin it portended, — 
 a consummation likely to be hastened by the very measure of our 
 securing the repayment of the debt due to us, our right to do which 
 no one can contest. The bare and isolated fact of our merely securing 
 the attainment of our own just demand might still be characterised by 
 the opponents of the Government, as being harsh and inconsistent with 
 our profession of friendship for the Nizam, in as far as it obviously 
 tended to precipitate his downfall. The risk of this anticipated 
 objection is removed by our being able to show that we had placed it 
 in his power not only to avert his downfall, but to secure and perpe- 
 tuate that sovereign independence which nothing had endangered but 
 his own gross misgovernment. If it were said, ' What measure was 
 this ? To avoid a possible contingency, you asked a man to give you 
 up the temporary management of his whole country. And what right 
 had you to expect that he would accede to this with the example of 
 India before his eyes ?' I would reply, The case to be guarded against 
 was much more than a contingency. Its occurrence was inevitable. 
 And with regard to the step taken to warn the Nizam of this very 
 certainty, and the mode of guarding against it, it was the only one that 
 presented itself. It would be for our critical opponents in this case to 
 say what other step could have been taken. For myself, I must plainly 
 say that I see none. I, of course, can never intend to contemplate 
 the violation of a Treaty. But even the modification of our existing 
 Treaties, or substitution of others in lieu of those now in force, would 
 not suffice unless involving, as an initial step, the very one I am pro- 
 posing to the Nizam's spontaneous acceptance. That step may appear 
 a very simple one, and doubtless it is so. But complicate it as I will, 
 
 1 Post.
 
 NOT A DEMAND. 331 
 
 and render it as deeply political, or even Machiavellian, as I may, I 
 can devise nothing better. We are realising the dreadful punishment 
 recorded somewhere of a living body chained to a dead one. Struggle 
 and writhe as we may, the festering corpse is at our side, and we cannot 
 disengage ourselves from it. 
 
 " The only possible alternative to the above plan, though a very 
 inadequate one, is the appointment of a Dewan — the best that can be 
 had, probably Shums-ool-Oomra or Sooraj-ool-Moolk — with an explicit 
 understanding that, although ultimately responsible to his Sovereign 
 and his country, he shall be unfettered in the current exercise of his 
 rule, and be permitted to act in concurrence with the British Resident. 
 
 " I have, perhaps, to beg your Lordship's pardon for troubling you 
 so much and so frequently on this subject. But my mind is deeply 
 penetrated with a sense of its difficulty, and I cannot but be anxious to 
 afford any light, however faint it may be, which may serve to dispel 
 the darkness of our way. 
 
 " I remain, my Lord, with great respect, 
 
 " Your very obedient and faithful servant, 
 
 " J. S. FllASER." 
 
 The General, in a despatch to the Government of India, dated 
 the 4th of February 1851, which has already been published in 
 a Blue Book, 1 made officially the same proposition that lie had 
 made in the letter to Lord Dalhousie just given, that the Nizam 
 should be urged, " in such a calm and dispassionate tone as could 
 give no offence", to entrust the whole of his country "to our sole 
 and exclusive authority and management for a definite number of 
 years." He spoke of it as "a proposition only, and by no means 
 an imperative demand, from which His Highness would not be 
 permitted to dissent"; and he dwelt very much on the fact that 
 it would " have reference much more to the interests of the Nizam 
 himself than to those of the British Government". 
 
 The General pointed out that the Nizam had not hitherto been 
 able to pay the Contingent regularly, which had been the sole 
 cause of the accumulation of debt to the amount of seventy lakhs 
 of rupees. We were now about to assume "the temporary man- 
 agement of a tract of country yielding from thirty to forty lakhs of 
 rupees per annum", — the letter from the Government of India 
 specified " the allotment of revenue to the amount of thirty-five 
 lakhs of rupees annually for the liquidation of the debt in three 
 
 1 Nizam's Territory (418 of 1854), pp. 13 to 17.
 
 332 A PUPPET PESIICAK. 
 
 years"} — and he could not be expected to pay the Contingent 
 more easily or regularly, "with his financial means diminished to the 
 extent above-mentioned." 
 
 The General was convinced that if Sooraj-ool-Moolk, armed 
 with the declared confidence of the Supreme Government, were 
 associated with him, they could persuade the Nizam without much 
 difficulty to consent to such a scheme of British management as 
 would commend itself to the judgment of all those who wished 
 the independence of the Hyderabad State to be maintained ; a 
 scheme whereby only three English officers, under the Resident's 
 authority, and without the displacement of any native officials, — 
 except for incompetence or misconduct, — would be employed in 
 the Civil administration. Within a term of three, or at the most 
 five years, the finances would, he believed, be placed in such a 
 condition that the Contingent could be paid every month without 
 fail, and administrative reforms would be so firmly established 
 that there would be no fear of the old abuses raising their heads 
 again. 
 
 On the 25th of February 1851, the Nizam appointed as Peshcar 
 a Brahmin named Ganesh Kao, " the great-grandson of Vitto 
 Pundit, known by the title of Rajah Bahadur, who was for some 
 time Dewan to the Nizam's grandfather, Nizam Ali Khan." This 
 person was so notoriously incompetent, and so obviously brought 
 forward as "a mere puppet", that General Fraser felt himself 
 bound, while stating that "His Highness could of course make the 
 appointment if he pleased", "to decline any personal connection 
 or the establishment of official intercourse with Ganesh Eao in 
 the capacity of Peshcar, without the distinct orders of the Govern- 
 ment of India." 
 
 In a letter dated the 16th of March 1851, the General reiterated 
 the advice he had so often given before, in different forms and on 
 various occasions. 
 
 " In several of my recent despatches I have brought prominently 
 forward, as an alternative to our own assumption of the management 
 of the country, the expediency of insisting on the Nizam's appointing 
 an efficient Dewan. I beg permission to recur to this subject on the 
 present occasion, for though the proposition appears simple enough, it 
 is attended, under present circumstances, with considerable difficulty. 
 
 1 Letter dcited 4th January 1851, — see Nizam's Debt (418 of 1854), 
 p. 13.
 
 REAL DEWAN WANTED. 333 
 
 " Slmms-ool-Oomra and Sooraj-ool-Moolk are the only persons under 
 whose ministerial management I should anticipate the slightest hope 
 of success. I do not believe there are any other equally able men in 
 the State, oi^, if there are, I am not acquainted with them : and it is an 
 important fact that public opinion never appears to point to any other 
 single individual who might be supposed capable of sustaining the 
 office of Dewan . 
 
 " The Government of India has placed it in the power of the Nizam 
 to select whom he pleases for the office of Dewan. The Nizam has 
 greatly abused the power thus conceded, and he should, in my opinion, 
 be taught that he must not thus play with the interests of his Govern- 
 ment, and endanger its very existence. 
 
 " No man could well succeed in the management of this country 
 who had not the confidence of its inhabitants, and, as a still more 
 essential qualification, who was not known to possess the confidence 
 of the British Government. A defect in the latter point would probably 
 be fatal to those schemes of finance in which any man appointed Dewan 
 would at the very outset of his administi'ation be required to engage." 
 
 The Nizam, the Resident complained, repeatedly " brings forward 
 a mere puppet, which he calls a Dewan or a Peshcar, and thinks 
 by these means to fulfil ostensibly our just demands and ex- 
 pectations." 
 
 " To consent to be thus deceived and trifled with would be unworthy 
 of us, and cannot, I am persuaded, come within the scope of the views 
 of the British Government. 
 
 " Yet, as I cannot take upon myself to act decidedly upon this con- 
 viction, as long as I remain ignorant of the precise extent of the 
 concession intended to be made to the Nizam with regard to the 
 appointment of his Minister, 1 shall be glad to be informed how far the 
 Government of India may have approved, or otherwise, of my having 
 suspended the acknowledgment of any official connection with Ganesh 
 Rao." 
 
 On the 31st of March the General again reported that " the 
 transaction of business at Hyderabad was either entirely in abey- 
 ance, or in the hands of persons with whom" the Resident had 
 "no official relations", and strongly urged that "His Highness 
 should not only be advised to appoint an efficient Dewan, but that 
 this measure be insisted upon in terms" suitable to the Nizam's 
 "continued and persevering rejection of the counsels of the Supreme 
 Government". " In proportion", said the Resident, "as time is
 
 334 FIRST HINTS OF BLAME. 
 
 allowed to elapse without some decided step being taken, difficulties 
 increase." 
 
 In the month of April the Nizam recommenced employing 
 Sooraj-ool-Moolk in his former capacity of Vakeel or agent for 
 the transaction of business with the Eesident; and General Fraser, 
 though not expecting him to be appointed Dewan with full 
 powers without some very strong pressure from our Government, 
 looked upon the change as a satisfactory one, " as there can be no 
 doubt that Sooraj-ool-Moolk is a man of superior understanding 
 and ability as compared with Syfe Jung", or any of those persons 
 who had lately been put forward. Some private notes from 
 Sooraj-ool-Moolk, which might have been turned to good account 
 at the time, if the Supreme Government had fallen into General 
 Fraser's views as to the promotion of a natural and internal cure 
 for the ills of Hyderabad, were also forwarded at this time to 
 Calcutta. 
 
 The Government of India being indisposed to do anything but 
 wait for a financial catastrophe, or for the "crash", as Lord Dal- 
 housie called it, in some shape, was not well pleased with General 
 Fraser's consistent and, as they seemed at Calcutta, importunate 
 efforts to do something besides "securing our own interests", — 
 something for the Hyderabad State, for our faithful Ally, his 
 country and his people. 1 In a despatch dated the 25 th of March 
 1851, the Eesident was told that "the course he was to pursue 
 had more than once within the last two years been clearly and 
 explicitly declared", and he was "requested by the Governor-' 
 General to be so good as to conform to the instructions already 
 "iven", " the application he had made for fresh directions appearing 
 to his Lordship to be quite uncalled for." 
 
 General Fraser, in his reply, respectfully maintained that he had 
 not urged a question already answered. He had asked whether 
 the Government would ratify, sanction, or approve the ridiculous 
 appointment of Ganesh Eao as Peshcar. And he pointed out as 
 a proof of the readiness with which the Nizam could be induced 
 to conform to advice from the Government of India, if pressed 
 with tact, in the style he had recommended, towards the choice 
 and support of an efficient Minister, that His Highness had sent 
 Ganesh Eao to wait on the General, and had cancelled his appoint- 
 1 Papers, Nizam's Debt (418 of 1854), pp. 15, 1G.
 
 BRIGADIER BEATSON'S OFFER. 335 
 
 ment as soon as the Resident bad refused to enter into official 
 relations with him. 
 
 Lord Dalhousie was at last becoming impatient of General 
 Fraser's adherence to a policy that was calculated to prevent a 
 catastrophe, as will be seen from his next letter, which, being 
 chiefly taken up with another subject, must be preceded by the 
 letter from General Fraser to which it is a reply. 
 
 " Hyderabad, 31st March 1851. 
 " My Lord, — I forward the accompanying letter, in conformity with 
 the wishes of Brigadier Beatson, who would think I was not doing 
 justice to his ambitious aspirations if 1 did not submit them to your 
 Lordship. The Brigadier does not reflect on the origin and constitution 
 of the Hyderabad Contingent, when he proposes that any part of it 
 should be sent to the Cape. I have informed h im that there are numerous 
 objections to his proposal, and that I have not the slightest expectation 
 of its being acceded to. I have as many Kaffirs to contend with here 
 as Sir Harry Smith has at the Cape. 
 " I remain, my Lord, 
 
 " Tour very faithful and obedient servant, 
 
 " J. S. Fraser." 
 Here is Brigadier Beatson's letter: — 
 
 " Mahabuleshwur, 24th March 1851. 
 
 " My dear General, — I have just heard of the insurrection at the 
 Cape, and it appears to me that it would be a good opportunity to 
 volunteer two regiments of the Nizam's Cavalry to proceed immediately 
 in steamers from Bombay. 
 
 "If the Kaffirs have not taken Cape Town we should find no 
 difficulty in mounting our Cavalry ; but in case we find that place 
 already occupied, and that we are to disembark under cover of 
 the fire of our men-of-war, a large squadron will no doubt be sent 
 immediately to the Cape, if Mr. Cobden and such people have left us 
 a squadron. In that case it would be advisable to take our horses with 
 us, or at least that they should follow as soon as possible. What I 
 would propose, then, is that the men, all ready for dismounted service, 
 should be sent off immediately in steamers, taking their saddles and 
 bridles with them; and that the horses and tattoos 1 should start at the 
 same time in sailing vessels. If we find horses on our arrival we are 
 ready to mount at once ; and if we do not, we can act dismounted till 
 our horses arrive. 
 
 " This is a splendid opportunity for the Nizam's Cavalry, and I hope 
 
 1 Ponies.
 
 33G SHARP WORDS. 
 
 you will propose it to the Governor- General, at the same time asking 
 his Lordship to let me withdraw my resignation, for the purpose of 
 proceeding in command of the Brigade to the Cape of Good Hope. 
 
 "I am certain every man in the Cavalry Division would volunteer; 
 so the only difficulty would be in the selection. Whatever regiments 
 you fix on, I will answer for their readiness to go. So you have only 
 to sanction the movement, and I will proceed at once to bring the two 
 regiments down to Bombay, or as many more as the Government of 
 India may consent to send. 
 
 " Believe me, my dear General, 
 
 " Yours very sincerely, 
 
 " W. F. Beatson." 
 
 This was Lord Dalhousie's answer: — 
 
 " Camp, April 16th, 1851. 
 
 "Dear General Fraser, — I return you Major Beatson's letter. 
 His proposal is a silly one. The Nizam's regiments are wanted at 
 home — not at the Cape. I am compelled to say that a comparison of 
 the several letters Major Beatson has written regarding his resignation 
 oblige me to regard his conduct as not quite ingenuous. I did not 
 wish for his resignation. He was welcome to have remained twenty 
 years as Brigadier. But his resignation was made deliberately, and 
 after long notice. His successor was appointed, and set off to join. 
 Several consequent appointments had been all filled up, and I cannot 
 now cancel all this. 
 
 " I did not want Major Beatson's appointment, but as he resigned 
 it he cannot expect to be allowed to play fast and loose with the 
 Government as his caprice or convenience may suggest. 
 
 " I have been concerned to see in your recent letters to the Govern- 
 ment some tartness of reply to instructions which I have thought 
 proper to issue, but which appear to be unpalatable to you. I have 
 much respect for your character and ability, and should be i*eluctant 
 to say anything calculated to give you pain. But I do not profess to 
 reckon meekness among my personal qualities, and sharp words are 
 likely to meet with very shai^p answers. 
 
 "I return to you Sooraj-ool-Moolk's notes. His mission and his 
 messages cannot be recognised. 
 
 " I remain, yours very truly, 
 
 " Dalhousie." 
 
 Brigadier Beatson followed up his first letter with a second. 
 
 " Mahabuleshwur, 8th April 1851. 
 " My dear General, — I am much obliged to you for sending my 
 proposal regarding the Cape to the Governor- General.
 
 BEATSON REJECTED. 337 
 
 " I am, perhaps, too sanguine in such matters, but as you have been 
 kind enough to forward my letter, I think it probable the Governor- 
 General will not make any objection, particularly if he should have 
 received by last mail a requisition from England to send troops 
 from this country; and I think we may without vanity say that it 
 would puzzle his Lordship to find anywhere such Cavalry as you could 
 give him from the Nizam's Contingent. 
 
 " I showed the Naib Duffadar and four Sowars, now with me, to 
 Sir John Grey* the other day, and told him I was in hopes that two 
 of the Regiments might be sent to the Cape. He was delighted with 
 the appearance of our men, and seemed to think they would do much 
 better than English Dragoons for the Kaffirs. He even talked of 
 writing to his relative, Lord Grey, on the subject. 
 
 " I will, of course, now wait for the answer of the Governor-General, 
 in hopes that it may be favourable. 
 
 " This is a beautiful place and a fine climate, and being so near the 
 Nizam's territories, if Mrs. Fraser or any of your family require a 
 change they would find this a delightful residence in the hot weather. 
 
 " Believe me, very sincerely yours, 
 
 " W. F. Beatson." 
 
 Lord Dalhousie was not more -favourably impressed by the 
 
 second letter than by the first. 
 
 " Camp, April 29th, 1851. 
 
 " Dear General Fraser, — I return to you Brigadier Beatson 's letter. 
 It is so silly that it does not deserve an answer either from you or 
 from me. 
 
 " If Sir John Grey ever made such a speech as is related, he is even 
 further gone in his dotage than his critics assert. I have received no 
 orders for troops from England. I have sent instructions to the 
 Presidencies to hold European Infantry in readiness, but I do not 
 think they will be required by the last intelligence. 
 
 " Believe me, yours very truly, 
 
 "Dalhousie." 
 
 In his letter of the 16th of April, Lord Dalhousie expressed his 
 disapproval of a certain degree of "tartness" in the tone of 
 General Fraser's official correspondence. That the General was 
 utterly disheartened about this time by the apparent determination 
 of our Government to do nothing in the way of either leading or 
 driving the Hyderabad State into the road of safety, will be shown 
 
 1 Then Commander-in-Chief at Bombay.
 
 338 LETTER TO 
 
 as clearly, perhaps, as can be done by the following letter to his 
 old friend Major Moore, then in the Court of Directors. 
 
 " Hyderabad, 4th May 1851. 
 
 " My dear Moore, — You stated in one of yonr notes some time ago 
 that mine was not a very enviable situation at Hyderabad. I fully 
 assent to this ; not only with reference, however, to the Nizam and his 
 people, but moi'e especially so to the weakness and want of energy of 
 my own Government, which throw more difficulties in my way and are 
 more injurious to his country than all the bad qualities of the Nizam's 
 advisers. But I do not propose now to enter deeply into this subject. 
 I have written dozens and dozens of despatches most fully and ex- 
 plicitly, and the Court of Directors ought to know by this time what 
 my sentiments are, not only with regard to minor transactions and 
 departments here, but what is of greater importance with regard to 
 the only means that seem to present themselves by which the final ruin 
 of the country can be averted. You once said in a note to me that 
 you were desirous of upholding the tottering fabric of the Nizam's 
 power. So am I, and so I have ever been, and to this end have all my 
 suggestions and recommendations tended. The British Government 
 profess the same desire, but their acts belie their professions. Look at 
 the general and underrating tenor of my reports and despatches since 
 the resignation of Chundoo Lall, and look at the undeviating tenor of 
 the conduct of the British Government. Is there any analogy or con- 
 sistency between these two things ? None ! I had in view the object 
 I have stated, that of saving the Nizam from perdition ; but the virtual 
 result of the measures of the British Government, whatever its profes- 
 sions may have been, is the approaching subversion of the Nizam's 
 power, and the almost inevitable absorption of his country into our 
 Empire. Where is the investigation of accounts I recommended ; the 
 reduction of unnecessary expenditure to an enormous amount ; the dis- 
 bandment of useless troops ; the re- establishment of the ancient system 
 of police ; and fifty other things that I recommended to Sooraj-ool- 
 Moolk, that we worked out together, and to which he would have given 
 effect, if he had been in the first instance supported, instead of being 
 discouraged and slighted by Lord Hardinge ? He was removed from 
 office, not, it is true, as a positive act of the Government of India, but 
 certainly in consequence of reasonable support being withheld. The 
 result was the removal of the only man who had professed a desire to 
 co-operate with me in the reform of the country — Sooraj-ool-Moolk. 
 From that hour to this there has been the positive negation of all 
 Government deserving the name. 
 
 " I am ashamed of the weakness and irresolution of my own Govern- 
 ment, and I would add a still meaner quality, but that it is just possible
 
 MAJOR MOORE. 339 
 
 they did not speak with deliberate hypocrisy — although it has that 
 effect — in professing a wish to maintain the Nizam's independence, while 
 obstinately refusing to adopt or encourage the measures which alone 
 could have promoted that object. 
 
 " The Nizam declares that he will not appoint a Dewan with full 
 administrative powers, and thus we have got into a dilemma from 
 which it will not be easy for us to extricate ourselves. 
 
 " I have lately suggested reasons for placing it in the Nizam's power 
 to give up to our management the administration of his country for 
 about five years, — reasons which, if properly and fairly urged, would, I 
 am confident, render it the Nizam's wish, as well as his interest, to 
 assent to our proposition. At the expiration of that period we might 
 make such arrangements as would preclude the possibility of the 
 country ever reverting to its present degraded and backward condition. 
 I am not at all contemplating the part we have played in Mysore, but 
 look to the temporary ruler going back in due time to the humbler 
 position of Resident. 
 
 " Do not imagine that I am now speaking for myself. I am very 
 tired of Hyderabad and all its concerns. My patience is quite ex- 
 hausted, and I am desirous of nothing so much as that my present 
 amanuensis should exercise for a short time just that small portion of 
 economy which will enable me to bid .a final adieu to public life, or at 
 all events to that harassing and unprofitable scene in which I am now 
 engaged, and to those duties which any fool could discharge as well as 
 I, since no other quality is required for them than dull subserviency. I 
 feel as if the last ten years of my life had been thrown away, and that 
 I have been labouring with unremitting assiduity at a fruitless and 
 ungrateful task. 
 
 " Now, my dear Moore, I have given you the result of about twenty 
 pacings up and down the old library at the Residency, with which it 
 is more probable you would not have been troubled if I had had to 
 write it myself in my own crabbed and illegible hand, or had a less 
 faithful amanuensis than my wife to write for me. Give my kindest 
 regards to Mrs. Moore and Willy. 
 
 " Believe me, always very sincerely yours, 
 
 "J. S. Fraser." 
 
 The General had good cause, from his point of view, to be per- 
 plexed and puzzled as to the policy and probable proceedings of 
 the Government of India. But he was very soon to find out that 
 under the rule of Lord Dalhousie, whose powerful personality then 
 embodied the Government of India, there was not so much weak- 
 ness or irresolution as he supposed, but that the indifference or 
 
 z2
 
 340 AMELIORATION OK 
 
 absolute unwillingness as to any measures that would really be 
 beneficial to the Hyderabad State, were even greater than he had 
 imagined. The Governor-General was not in the least disposed to 
 adopt either of General Fraser's plans. Lord Dalhousie would not 
 use that influence, which the Resident assured him would be irre- 
 sistible, to induce His Highness to name a Dewan with whom the 
 British representative could co-operate ; nor would he entertain 
 the scheme of temporary management of the Nizam's dominions. 
 Lord Dalhousie did not recognise the Imperial duty of instructing 
 and reforming the allied States. He expressly repudiated our 
 having any such mission. He made the repudiation of any such duty 
 a principle for his own guidance. Commenting in Council on what he 
 called the "mixed government proposed" for Hyderabad, of Minister 
 and Resident, — " If", he said, " provision be made for carrying it 
 actively and practically into operation, all the toil of a laborious 
 task, and all its real responsibility, must ever fall on the British 
 Agent, by whom the Native Ministry is controlled. The Agent, on 
 his part, while he reaps no advantage from his labours for his own 
 State, must feel himself to be without undivided authority." 1 
 
 And just in the same way, when the temporary management of 
 the small Rajpoot State of Kerowlee was proposed, he .objected 
 that we should " for many years to come have to bear the labour 
 of governing this State, employing, always at inconvenience, a 
 British officer for the purpose," and at the end of the young 
 Prince's minority have to " hand over the country with its revenue 
 of four lakhs of rupees". 2 When the question of the annexation or 
 of the reform — for which General Sir William Sleeman answered — 
 of the friendly and faithful State of Oude was under consideration, 
 Lord Dalhousie, pronounced in one of his consultative Minutes, 
 that if the British Government undertook "the responsibility, the 
 labour, and the risk," of reconstructing and reforming a Native 
 State, it ought, " after providing for the pensioned dynasty, for the 
 administration of the Province, and for its progressive improve- 
 ment," to be allowed to appropriate the surplus revenue to Imperial 
 purposes. 3 
 
 And here it seems necessary to call to mind that this point of 
 
 1 Papers, Nizam's Debt (418 of 1854), p. 38. 
 ' 2 Papers, Kerowlee, 1855, p. 9. 
 3 Oude Papers, 1856, p. 190.
 
 APPROPRIATION. ^41 
 
 our being entitled, in case of our undertaking the reform of a 
 Native State, to appropriate its surplus revenue, is the very point 
 for which the Government of Lord Ellenborough stipulated, with 
 reference to Hyderabad, in 1843, and which the Court of Directors 
 expressly negatived as unfair and unjust. 1 
 
 It is worthy of remark in this connection, that in the first draft 
 of the Treaty of 1853, Lord Dalhousie endeavoured to obtain the 
 surplus revenue of the Assigned Districts by means of an absolute 
 cession ; 2 that in the revised Treaty of 1860 the surplus revenue 
 was once more claimed, but again successfully reserved by the 
 Nizam's Government ; our negotiators, however, obtaining a release 
 from the obligation of furnishing accounts to the Nizam, on con- 
 dition of handing over any surplus that might remain, after paying, 
 entirely at our own discretion, all expenses of local administra- 
 tion. 3 
 
 On the 16th of April 1851, in a letter to Sir Henry Pottinger, 
 the Governor of Madras, General Fraser says : — 
 
 " I regret to say that I have received no definite instructions as yet 
 regarding the Nizam's affairs, or the payment of the large debt due to 
 us, now nearly 75 lakhs of rupees. I have said everything I can on 
 this subject, but they seem to dread all approach to it, and to have a 
 peculiar aversion to any effectual interference here. I have never 
 wished for any infringement or violation of Treaties, but I cannot 
 
 1 Ante, pp. 188, 189. 
 
 2 When the negotiations were beginning in 1853, under Colonel Low, the 
 Nizam, " pointing to the draft Treaty, which was lying on the floor, and on 
 which he seemed to look with a sort of horror, said, ' There never, in the 
 time of General Fraser, was such a thing as that brought to me'." — Nizam's 
 Debts (418 of 1854), p. 120. 
 
 3 That condition, to say the least, — I feel bound, with some reluctance to 
 add, — has been stretched to the uttermost, and the surplus payable to the 
 Hyderabad State reduced beyond all fair expectation, by the ever-growing 
 charges, both of civil administration in the Berar Provinces and of the 
 Contingent. I have always officially offered all the opposition in my power 
 to these progressive exactions, and I am encouraged in what seems to me to 
 be the duty of protesting against them here by the fact that my representa- 
 tions in 1866, regarding the surplus revenue and accounts of the Assigned 
 Districts being withheld from the Nizam's Government, had their due 
 weight, led to a settlement and payment of surplus revenue being made, 
 and met with the approval of Sir Stafford Northcote, then Secretary of 
 State for India.
 
 342 GENERAL FKASER'S 
 
 help thinking that much more could have been done than has been 
 done." 
 
 In one of those despatches which had called forth from Lord 
 Dalhousie the warning as to their "tartness" of style, the General 
 had commented on the unconcern with which the Nizam and his 
 private advisers received " the gentle suggestions and mild expos- 
 tulations, such as it has been the habit of the British Government 
 to address to His Highness." 
 
 A few weeks were to prove that the Government of India had 
 not been staying its hand from any "weakness" or "irresolution", 
 and that it was quite capable of " expostulation" in terms that 
 could hardly be characterised as " gentle" or " mild". On the 
 27th of May 1851, Lord Dalhousie recorded a Minute, accompanied 
 by the draft of a Khureeta, or letter to the Nizam, which contained, 
 between them, a most extraordinary mixture of protestations in 
 favour of the Nizam's independence, and of measures and menaces 
 involving the destruction of his independence. 
 
 The Governor-General declared his " entire dissent from, and 
 disapproval of the policy which the Resident has suggested for 
 the adoption of the Government of India". In other paragraphs 
 of the Minute — not included in the despatch founded on it, and 
 only made known to General Fraser when the Blue Book of 1854 
 was published, — the Governor-General denounced the Eesident's 
 policy as " a system of unwarranted and officious meddling", pro- 
 ceeding, he feared, " not from sentiments of enlarged benevolence, 
 but from the promptings of ambitious greed." This policy, he 
 said, was that of " disregarding international contracts, in order 
 to obtrude on Native Princes and their people a system of sub- 
 versive interference, which is unwelcome alike to Prince and 
 people." 1 
 
 And yet in this very Minute, and in the orders based upon it, 
 Lord Dalhousie was directing and instituting " a system of subver- 
 sive interference" over one-third of the Nizam's country, its 
 richest provinces, for the purpose of extorting the payment of a 
 very doubtful debt, and which he eventually enforced by threats 
 of military coercion. General Fraser's policy, in its most extreme 
 form, was that of temporary management for a fixed period, with 
 
 1 Papers, Nizam's Deht (418 of 1854), p. 38.
 
 "AMBITIOUS GREED." 343 
 
 the consent of the Sovereign, and with the willing aid of the 
 great dignitaries of the State. The alternative and more moderate 
 plan, which the Resident had been urging ineffectually, from first 
 to last, and which he declared to be still practicable, was that of 
 the installation of an efficient Minister, with full powers, and with 
 an understanding that for a certain term he should act in consul- 
 tation with the British Eesident, and under the control of instruc- 
 tions approved by the British Government. To either of these 
 plans General Fraser was convinced, with good reason, that he 
 could obtain the support of the most influential nobles, and the 
 consent of the Nizam. All that the General required to strengthen 
 his hands and those of the Minister in whom he had confidence, 
 and with whom he felt he could co-operate, was that their plan 
 should be commended to the Nizam in a direct and distinct com- 
 munication from the Governor-General. This Lord Dalhousie 
 declined to do because, according to him, it would be " unwar- 
 ranted and officious meddling". Yet in that very same Minute, 
 with incredible inconsistency, he claimed the right of addressing 
 the Nizam "in terms of earnest remonstrance and authoritative 
 counsel". 1 "Authoritative counsel" was all that General Fraser 
 had asked for, but he could never get it. He now got much more 
 than he wanted. 
 
 General Fraser, it may be remembered, had, on the 12th of 
 March, submitted, in a direct letter to the Governor-General, the 
 draft of a Khureeta to the Nizam, written in what might well be 
 called " terms of earnest remonstrance and authoritative counsel", 
 in a style at once dignified and decided, convincing and concilia- 
 tory. 2 Tf this draft had been adopted at the time, and the course 
 pursued which was then recommended, the Eesident was well 
 assured that he could gain the requisite ascendancy over the 
 counsels of the Nizam. But no notice was taken of it. Three 
 months more were allowed to elapse, and then a Khureeta was 
 addressed to the Nizam of a very different character from that 
 which the General had suggested. 
 
 The notions of " earnest remonstrance and authoritative counsel" 
 prevailing at Calcutta, more especially in the Persian translation 
 office, must have been very different from those which General 
 
 1 Nizam's Debt (418 of 1854), p. 34. 
 
 2 Ante, p. 327.
 
 344 LORD dalhousie's 
 
 Fraser entertained. Even in its English version, for which alone, 
 it maybe said, the Governor-Genera! conld be held responsible, 
 the language of the Khureeta to the Nizam, dated the 6th of June 
 1851, cannot but appear extremely offensive, when it is considered 
 that the matter in question was really one of money and accounts, 
 and that it was addressed, in Lord Dalhousie's own words, to " an 
 old and staunch Ally", with whom " for more than half a century 
 relations of amity" had subsisted. 1 The Nizam had never been 
 suspected of any ambitious designs, or even of any delusions as to 
 his comparative strength by the side of the British Government. 
 Yet he was threatened with " the indignation of the Government 
 of India", " whose power", he was reminded, " can crush you at 
 its will". 2 
 
 These are hard words, even in the English edition, as presented 
 to Parliament, but in the Persian original, as presented to the 
 Nizam, the terms, instead of being anything like "earnest remon- 
 strance and authoritative counsel", would be more fairly described 
 as terms of gross insult and menace. The phrase which in English 
 appears as "whose power can crush you at its will", means, when 
 properly translated, "whose power can make you as the diost tender 
 foot, and leave you neither a name nor a trace"? 
 
 It may be argued that this violent language has no reference to 
 money matters, but to "open insults'' alleged to have been offered 
 "to British troops" within His Highness's territories. In the first 
 place, it was going very far to characterise as an "outrage on the 
 dignity" of the British Government that on two occasions there 
 should have been petty disputes between small detachments of 
 our Sepoys on the march, and the Arab soldiery stationed in 
 villages in the vicinity of which our troops halted. In each case, 
 anyone who should now peruse the reports might well have some 
 doubt whether the Arab commandant or the young English officer 
 in charge of the detachment was in fault ; in each case apology 
 and reparation were offered; and on the last occasion, which 
 
 1 Paras. 45 and 27 of the Minute, Nizam's Debt (418 of 1854), pp. 45 
 nd 86. 
 
 2 Nizam's Debt (418 of 1854), p. 42. 
 
 3 In order that there m;iy be no mistake as to the exact meaning, I giv e 
 the Persian word «, transliterated as follows: — "ffa/r yah Jcwhahad an'&lishan 
 rapamal sakhta be nam malum sazand."
 
 "EARNEST REMONSTRANCE." 345 
 
 happened at a village called Beechkonda, in December 1850, when 
 a guard of the 17th Madras Native Infantry was prevented from 
 entering certain precincts, said to be occupied by the wives and 
 children of the Nizam's Irregular troops, the unfortunate Arabs 
 were severely punished by various terms of imprisonment. But 
 in the second place, the object of the Khureeta was twofold, — 
 first to insist on the payment of an alleged debt arising from 
 advances made for the Contingent ; and, second, to insist on the 
 permanent maintenance and regular pay of the Contingent as a 
 Force existing under "the obligations of a Treaty". With these 
 objects in view the Nizam was exhorted to disband his Arabs and 
 other Irregular troops, in order that funds might be available for 
 the expenses of the Contingent ; and the chief argument against 
 the retention in service of the Arabs and other mercenaries was 
 founded on these trivial collisions with our marching detachments, 
 magnified into "outrages" against the "dignity" of the British 
 Government. Thus it was merely in furtherance of the demands 
 in favour of the Contingent that this unprovoked insult was 
 offered to our "old and staunch Ally". 
 
 The Governor-General's orders were that the Nizam, having 
 failed to pay the debt accumulated, with interest, for advances 
 made for the pay of the Contingent, was to be "called upon to 
 make over to the British Government" certain "portions of his 
 territory", viz., the provinces of Berar, and the border districts 
 down to Shorapore and the Eaichore Doab, between the Kistna 
 and the Toombuddra. The Eesident was to use his "discretion in 
 not urging His Highness to compliance with undue haste." But 
 no " remonstrances or solicitations" were to be admitted, and the 
 Nizam was to be told that "the Governor-General's determination 
 was fixed irrevocably". 1 
 
 Although the Governor-General had, in General Fraser's opinion, 
 rushed into the opposite extreme from inaction and indefinite 
 expostulation, and had very much overdone the demand for ex- 
 plicit and authoritative counsel, — for even the Nizam himself 
 could not have been more shocked than the Eesident was at the 
 harsh and hectoring language of the Khureeta, — still the immediate 
 results of the evident determination of the Supreme Government 
 to have either cash or security completely confirmed and proved 
 i Nizam's Debt (418 of 1854), p. 43.
 
 346 A MINISTER INSTALLED. 
 
 the accuracy of the General's forecast, and the soundness of the 
 policy he had always recommended. When Lord Ellenborough, 
 Lord Hardinge, and Lord Dalhousie in succession, had insisted on 
 the necessity of having a great military force within hail, and 
 alleged the occupation of our forces elsewhere as a reason for 
 leaving Hyderabad alone, General Fraser had always written to 
 the same effect, — for example : — 
 
 " This is a weak and subdued Government. Hesitation on our part 
 might inspire the Circar for a moment with the semblance of boldness, 
 and with a desire to escape control; but I have not the slightest 
 apprehension that any protracted resistance would ever be offered to 
 the expressed will and resolution of the Government of India." 1 
 
 In the Khureeta of June f 851, the Governor-General had in- 
 sisted on "the agency of a Minister" as "indispensable"; and 
 "intimated" an "expectation" that a Minister should "forthwith" 
 be appointed, "whose position in society, whose personal character, 
 and whose acquaintance with public business" should "constitute 
 him a fit agent for transacting the important affairs now depending 
 between the Government of India and the Court of Hyderabad. 2 
 A copy of the Khureeta was, as usual in such cases, privately com- 
 municated to His Highness on the 20th of June. On the 23rd the 
 Nizam signified to Sooraj-ool-Moolkhis intention of appointing him 
 Dewan with full powers, and desired him to write privately to 
 the Resident, informing him of that point being settled. On the 
 29th Sooraj-ool-Moolk was invested with the customary patent 
 and dress of honour, and on the next day paid a visit of ceremony 
 to the Kesident as the Nizam's Minister. 
 
 On the 1st of July 1851, General Fraser waited on the Nizam 
 for the purpose of formally delivering the Governor-General's 
 Khureeta, "accompanied by schedules of the districts to be trans- 
 ferred to our temporary authority". His Highness then said that 
 Sooraj-ool-Moolk would discharge the debt and also pay the Con- 
 tingent. On the 16th of July the Eesident was able to report 
 to the Government of India that " His Highness had found means 
 to take upon himself both these objects, namely, the entire and 
 immediate payment of his debt to us, and giving the best security 
 that could be offered for the future regular payment of the Con- 
 
 1 Ante, p. 201. 2 Nizam's Debt (418 of 1854), p. 42.
 
 HALF THE DEBT PAID. 347 
 
 tingent, short of the actual transfer to us of part of his country 
 for this purpose." Under these circumstances the Eesident did 
 not consider he should be "justified in at present urging the 
 demand for the transfer of districts, and consented to postpone it 
 until the pleasure of the Government of India should be known." 
 
 The Governor-General approved of General Fraser's proceedings. 
 " The Government of India", it was said in a despatch dated 31st 
 July 1851, "had no desire to take possession of territory, except 
 as a security for the gradual liquidation of His Highness's debt ; 
 when liquidation of that debt, not gradually but at once, was 
 provided for by His Highness, a cession of territory could no 
 longer be desired by the Government." 1 
 
 On the 15th of August the Nizam's Government had, in con- 
 formity with its promise, completed the payment of the first 
 instalment — more than half — of its debt to the British Govern- 
 ment, " Company's Bupees 34,08,485 : 11 : 4, leaving the balance 
 of Co. Es. 32,97,702 : 9 : 2, to be paid on or before the 31st of 
 October 1851." 2 
 
 The following letter from General Fraser to the Governor- 
 General will show that there were no misgivings up to its date as 
 to the punctual and full payment of the second half of the debt 
 on account of the Contingent. 
 
 " Hyderabad, 2nd September 1851. 
 
 " My Lord, — I this morning received your letter of the 19th ultimo, 
 and shall be guided by the information you have given me regarding 
 the places on which it will be most convenient, in the order stated by 
 the Secretary, that hoondees in payment of the Nizam's second instal- 
 ment be drawn. I have not yet received any instructions from Cal- 
 cutta on this subject. 
 
 " I shall endeavour to ensure that the bills are good. Those drawn 
 in payment of the first instalment were all furnished by the wealthiest 
 and most trustworthy Soucars here, and I have no reason to suppose 
 that any failure will take place in the payments. I have come out to 
 pass some time at Bolarum, the Nizam's cantonment, ten miles from 
 Hyderabad, and expect to receive a visit from the Minister on Friday 
 next, when he will, no doubt, let me know what the Nizam is doing. 
 I hear from my Assistant, Captain Davidson, whom I have left behind 
 at Chudderghaut, that they are thinking of nothing but the reply to 
 
 1 Nizam's Debt (418 of 1854), pp. 52, G3. "- Ibid., p. 67.
 
 348 A COUNTER-CLAIM. 
 
 your Lordship's khureeta, and that His Highness is objecting to any 
 positive promise of reductions in the number of his Arabs or other 
 Irregular troops. 
 
 ".Mr. is exhibiting 'the ruling passion strong in death' (for 
 
 his age and infirmities seem to be hastening him to the grave), and is 
 said to be deeply engaged, as usual, in the political intrigues of the 
 City. I am sorry to say it is reported that even Sooraj-ool-Moolk has 
 succumbed to the terror of being held up, as heretofore, to public 
 scorn in the newspapers, and that he has not only granted a handsome 
 
 monthly allowance to and the other members of his family, but 
 
 that he is also in frequent secret communication with him. It would 
 of course be difficult, if not impossible, to prove this. 
 
 " I have been sending up an official despatch to-day about a question 
 that Sooraj-ool-Moolk has thought proper to agitate regarding the Se- 
 cunderabad Abkaree, or contract for the sale of spirituous liquors, and 
 I cannot help thinking that his note on this subject bears every mark 
 of having been dictated by a European, or at least a man of European 
 education and habits of thinking, both as regards its matter and its 
 style. The tone of expression in which it is couched but just stops 
 short, and hardly that, of being disrespectful to the British Government. 
 I cannot bring myself to imagine that it has emanated altogether or 
 exclusively from Sooraj-ool-Moolk." 
 
 This is Lord Dalhousie's answer : — 
 
 " Simla, September 28th, 1851. 
 
 " Dear General Fraser, — I have received to-day your letter of the 
 2nd instant. Before this time you will have heard from Calcutta 
 regarding the hoondees. If their wishes can be complied with so much 
 the better, but our great object is to get the bills, and good ones. The 
 mere convenience of place must give way to the main object of getting 
 the money safe somewhere. 
 
 " The proceedings you mention are very disgraceful. If you can 
 bring it home by any reasonable evidence, though it were short of 
 judicial proof, I should, without hesitation, address the Court of 
 Directors, and intimate my intention of removing the whole family 
 from the territories of this Native Prince, under the powers given by 
 the Act. 
 
 " Believe me, yours sincerely, 
 
 " Dalhousie. 
 
 "P.S.— I presume I shall hear from you regarding the conduct of 
 one of the Cavalry Regiments, to which I see allusions." 
 
 The Nizam's answer to Lord Dalhousie's Khureeta was not
 
 nizam's reply delayed. 349 
 
 despatched until the 23rd of September 1851. x The Dewan Sooraj- 
 ool-Moulk, in a private note, to the Resident, explained this delay 
 by saying that His Highness wished to wait until the payment of 
 the first moiety of the debt, thirty-four lakhs of rupees, had been 
 paid. " His Highness", he added, " seemed to be concerned at the 
 severity of the tone of the Governor-General's letter, and always 
 had some excuse for delaying a reply to it." 
 
 With reference to the second instalment, General Fraser ad- 
 dressed the following letter to the Governor-General. 
 
 " Hyderabad, 30th September 1851. 
 
 " My Lord, — 1 have received your Lordship's letter of the 1st instant, 
 and shall not fail to bear in mind that it is your fixed intention to act 
 rigidly up to the declaration of the public despatches, and to exact full 
 payment of the remaining instalment of the Nizam's debt at or within 
 the date named. This appears to me to be somewhat more rigid than 
 the instruction conveyed in the Secretary's letter of the 31st of July 
 last, which contains these words : — ' If, however, from whatever cause 
 the arrangement to which his Lordship now assents shall materially 
 fail, you will fall back on the instructions conveyed in my letter of the 
 6th June last, No. 1783, and will require and enforce the cession of 
 territory therein enjoined.' Here some allowance appears to be made 
 in the event of an immaterial or partial failure, by which I conclude 
 was meant that the extreme measure of taking territory was not to be 
 had recourse to if the greater part of the second instalment were paid 
 by the 31st of October. I have never hinted to the Nizam's Govern- 
 ment that any failure whatever would be allowed, but on the contrary 
 have given Sooraj-ool-Moolk to understand that I expected the whole 
 balance to be paid by the 31st of October, or that the Circar must 
 expect an immediate demand for territory. It was as well I did so, as 
 this is in accordance with the terms of your private letter now under 
 acknowledgment, that full payment is to be exacted by the 31st of 
 October. 
 
 " As far as I can learn from Sooraj-ool-Moolk himself, there is not 
 likely to be any failure, as he informs me that he has no doubt the 
 whole amount will be paid punctually. 
 
 " I was making up my despatch to Government, with the Nizam's 
 reply to your Lordship's Khureeta, at the moment when I received your 
 letter to which I now reply. His answer was too long delayed, and I 
 had several times remonstrated with the Minister on this subject. But 
 
 1 It will be found in the Blue Book, Nizam's Debt (418 of 1854), pp. 46 
 to 48.
 
 350 CAVALRY DISSENSIONS. 
 
 I am quite sure that no discourtesy or disrespect was intended, or I 
 should have adopted a very different style of remonstrance. On 
 this subject a private and confidential note from Sooraj-ool-Moolk 
 reached me last night, which I transmit to your Lordship just as I 
 received it. 
 
 " A disagreeable state of things has occurred in the 5th Nizam's 
 Cavalry at Aui'ungabad. It seems to have arisen from a strong party 
 feeling in the Regiment, originally occasioned, as far as I can perceive, 
 by an injudicious measure of the Commanding officer in calling for a 
 list of the inferior class of Mohammedans in his Regiment, which 
 naturally excited much distrust and dissatisfaction, and has finally 
 resulted in the Rissaldar, and several other Native officers and men, 
 being placed under arrest or confinement. I have ordered the requisite 
 steps to be taken, but have not addressed Government officially on the 
 subject, as the case is rather a complicated one, and I cannot yet form 
 a definite judgment regarding it. 
 " I remain, my Lord, 
 
 " Tour very faithful and obedient servant, 
 
 "J. S. Eraser." 
 
 This " disagreeable" affair in the Nizam's Cavalry Regiment at 
 Aurungabad, now first mentioned, was destined to occupy a dis- 
 proportionate share of the General's attention for many months, 
 and to exercise an unpleasant influence over the last days of his 
 long tenure of the Hyderabad Residency. Lord Dalhousie's next 
 letter explains his views with regard to the second payment of 
 
 debt expected from the Nizam. 
 
 " Simla, October 14th, 1851. 
 
 " My dear General, — I have just received your letter of the 30th 
 ultimo, and reply at once, to relieve you of any doubts regarding what 
 you view as a discrepancy between my private letter of 1st instant, 
 and official letter of 31st July. None was intended. In both I con- 
 templated insisting on substantially full payment ; but I did not in 
 either mean to preclude you from holding the payment sufficient for 
 the time, even though it should fall something short of the actual total. 
 I don't wish to go on my ' pound of flesh'. 
 
 " Perhaps the best plan will be to report what has been paid on 1st 
 November. 
 
 " Yours sincerely, 
 
 " Dalhousie. 
 
 " P.S. — The Khureeta is trash. I had, perhaps, better not send 
 back the accompanying confidential letter, lest it should go astray in 
 the Post Office — D."
 
 351 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Apology for the Contingent — Lord Dalhousie denies extortion — The Sub- 
 sidiary duties done by the Contingent — Lord Dalhousie will not reduce 
 a man — He admits the excessive costliness of the Force, but will not 
 set a good example to the Nizam — Debt of 1853 created by Lord Dal- 
 housie's neglect — Savings by unlawful reduction of Subsidiary Force 
 rightly belong to the Nizam — Excise revenues of Secunderabad and 
 Jaulnah unjustly appropriated — No debt really due by the Nizam in 
 1851 or 1853. 
 
 We have now arrived at that stage in our narrative when, under 
 heavy and decisive pressure, a large sum of money had been paid 
 by the Hyderabad State to the British Government, and a second 
 instalment at a short date promised, on account of the Force called 
 sometimes " the Nizam's Army", and sometimes " the Contingent". 
 We are coming, also, very close to the period when territorial 
 security was exacted from the Hyderabad State, under the forms 
 of a Treaty, for the payment of another large sum of accumulated 
 arrears with interest on the same account, and in order to provide 
 for the regular monthly pay of that Force. This appears, there- 
 fore, to be a suitable place to examine the arguments on both sides 
 as to the legitimate origin and maintenance of the Contingent ; as 
 to the growth of the heavy liabilities on its account entailed upon 
 the Nizam ; and as to the existence of any counter-claims by the 
 Hyderabad State against Lord Dalhousie's demands. The most 
 frank and open apology for the existence and maintenance of the 
 Contingent is to be found in a despatch from the Government of 
 India, dated the 7th of October 1848. Here are its most important 
 passages : — 
 
 "Colonel Low, in para. 14 of his despatch of 20th July last, when 
 remarking on the state of the finances of Hyderabad, observes that he 
 feels it to be a painful consideration that the debt under which that 
 State is labouring, is in a great degree to be attributed to the vast sum
 
 352 SUBSIDIARY SERVICE SHIFTED. 
 
 which the Nizam is annually required to pay for the support of the 
 Contingent. He counsels a gradual reduction of the expense, which 
 should be commenced, however, he thinks, without delay. 1 The 
 Governor-General in Council concurs to a considerable extent with 
 Colonel Low, but not to the full extent to which he goes. 
 
 " His Lordship in Council cannot acknowledge that the British 
 Government commits any injustice, or practises any extortion whatever 
 on the Nizam's Government, in requiring that this Force, fully manned, 
 equipped, and disciplined, shall be maintained in His Highness's ter- 
 ritories and at his expense. 
 
 " The Treaty of 1800 gave us a right to demand at any moment 
 15,000 troops from the Nizam. Experience soon proved to us that 
 whenever the demand was made, we should receive, not 15,000 troops, 
 but as many worthless and undisciplined rabble. 2 We rightly and 
 justly construed the Treaty to mean that we were to be supplied with 
 the specified number of effective soldie?*s ; and we, therefore, with un- 
 questionable equity, may and do demand of His Highness, that certain 
 precautions should be taken to keep on foot a regular Force, paid by 
 him and officered by us, which shall be available for the maintenance 
 of peace in those central districts of the Deccan, and we demand only 
 8,000 instead of 15,000 men." 
 
 Here I must interrupt the official argument of 1848 for a 
 moment, to observe that by the Treaties of 1798 and 1800, — Article 
 xii of the latter providing for every imaginable exigency, — " the 
 maintenance of peace in the Deccan", and the subordination of all 
 the Nizam's feudatories, was to be ensured by the Subsidiary 
 Force, for which the Hyderabad State paid by a large territorial 
 cession. The Contingent, therefore, only did our prepaid work at 
 the Nizam's expense. The Subsidiary Force, in disregard of these 
 Treaties, was relieved from its contracted work, and, in defiance of 
 those Treaties, was reduced from its contracted strength, to the 
 advantage of the Honourable Company's finances. 3 
 
 The Governor-General pursues his apology : — 
 
 " His Lordship in Council does not think that we are called upon in 
 j ustice to reduce a man of that Force, reserved as they are for the 
 service of His Highness, and for upholding his authority and interests ; 
 
 1 Ante, pp. 248 to 254. 
 
 2 On this point see Appendix B, The Nizam's Military Co-operation. 
 
 3 See the statement by Colonel Sykes and other Directors, ante, p. -J.60.
 
 GOOD EXAMPLE REFUSED. 353 
 
 and his Lordship in Council is very certain that in policy we ought 
 not to adopt any such measure." 
 
 And here again I must interpolate a remark. If this Force was 
 " reserved for the service of His Highness", it was, confessedly, doing 
 the sole duty prescribed by Treaty for the Subsidiary Force, and 
 could not, therefore, be the Force which Lord Dalhousie had pre- 
 viously in this same despatch declared we had, by Treaty, "a right 
 to demand at any moment". I shall show presently that we 
 had no such absolute and unlimited right, but if we had, a Force 
 " reserved for the service of His Highness' could not be available 
 for our wars " at any moment". 
 
 " At the same time", the despatch continues — 
 
 "His Lordship in Council agrees with Colonel Low in thinking that 
 we cause the Contingent to become a much heavier burden on the 
 Nizam's finances than it ought to be. The Staff", in the opinion of the 
 Governor-General in Council, is preposterously large; the pay and 
 allowances, and charges of various kinds, are far higher than they 
 ought to be." 
 
 " The Contingent is a much heavier burden on the Nizam's 
 finances than it ought to be", — " the pay and allowances, and other 
 charges, are far higher than they ought to be", — " the Staff is 
 preposterously large". Lord Dalhousie had, also, said on other 
 occasions that the Contingent was "unfairly large and too expen- 
 sive", 1 and had admitted its " extravagant costliness". 2 
 
 And yet " we are not called upon in justice to reduce a man"; 
 and the Governor-General goes on to say that he will not even set 
 the Nizam a good example by reducing this too heavy, " prepos- 
 terously large", " unfairly large" burden. The good example must 
 come from His Highness. 
 
 " Whenever His Highness shall evince a desire to enter honestly 
 and sincerely into an examination of the state of his Kingdom, and 
 give evidence of his willingness to endeavour to find a remedy for its 
 evils, the Governor-General of India will be prepared to make every 
 exertion to introduce such changes into the Contingent Force as may 
 safely diminish the great cost which it imposes on the State, while it 
 leaves the Force in a state of thorough efficiency to meet the purposes 
 contemplated in the Treaty. 
 
 " More than this, the Governor- General in Council is very willing to 
 
 1 Ante, p. 258. 2 Ante, p. 269. 
 
 A A
 
 354 
 
 "VERY WILLING". 
 
 commence on the reduction of the numerous and expensive Staff 
 appointments in the Force, bj getting rid of them as vacancies occur, 
 and opportunities arise. Beyond this the Governor- General in Council 
 does not consider that it would be wise to go at present." 
 
 Before leaving this despatch it must be observed that although 
 the Governor-General was " very willing to commence on the 
 reduction of the numerous and expensive Staff", he did not do so. 
 " Vacancies" did " occur", and " opportunities" did " arise". But 
 the vacancies were filled up as usual, and the opportunities, somehow 
 or other, escaped notice. At no opportunity between October 1848 
 and May 1853, when the Treaty assigning territorial security for 
 our demands was concluded, — not even after August 1851, when, 
 by the appointment of a Minister and the payment of thirty-four 
 lakhs of rupees, His Highness had surely " given evidence of his 
 willingness", and " evinced a desire to enter" on a better course, — 
 were any reductions made in the " preposterously large Staff", or 
 in any of the other " expensive charges" which, as Lord Dalhousie 
 admitted, made the Contingent " a heavier burden on the Nizam's 
 finances than it ought to be". 
 
 The cost of the Contingent in 1849 was thirty-eight lakhs and 
 a half. Its numerical strength and cost were almost exactly the 
 same in the last year of its existence as " the Nizam's Army". 1 
 
 In 1848 the Governor-General admitted the "preposterous" 
 charges of the Contingent. He professed to be " prepared", and 
 " very willing", " to make every exertion" that " might safely 
 diminish" those charges " as vacancies occurred, and as oppor- 
 tunities offered". In five years he did nothing. 
 
 That he could have "safely diminished" the charges within that 
 period, and without any wonderful " exertion", is proved by the 
 fact that, when there was a possibility of loss or inconvenience to 
 our Government, Lord Dalhousie, in the first clear year after the 
 
 1 The exact figures, as officially g 
 
 iven, are- 
 
 
 
 
 
 European 
 Officers. 
 
 Warrant 
 
 and 
 Non-Com- 
 missioned 
 
 .Officers. 
 
 Natives of all Ranks. 
 
 Guns. 
 
 Camp 
 Followers. 
 
 
 
 Cavalry. 
 
 Infantry 
 and 
 
 Artilloiy. 
 
 Annual Cost. 
 
 1849 
 1 852 
 
 71) 
 79 
 
 90 
 82 
 
 2910 
 2910 
 
 6731 
 G731 
 
 37 
 
 37 
 
 881 
 881 
 
 Rs. 
 
 38,45076 
 38,30000
 
 SAVINGS MADE WHEN WANTED. 
 
 355 
 
 Assigned Districts were taken, reduced the cost of the Contingent 
 to twenty-four lakhs and a half, and after three years to twenty- 
 three lakhs. 1 The Nizam's Army was, according to the official 
 statement, "reorganised on the 1st of January 1854, and its 
 designation changed to that of the Hyderabad Contingent". For 
 the first year of reorganisation its cost is officially declared to 
 have been only seventeen lakhs and a half of rupees. 
 
 If, therefore, in the four years — 1849 to 1852 inclusive — before 
 the stringent and peremptory demands of 1853, the Governor- 
 General had made the same "exertion to diminish" those charges 
 confessed by himself to be " preposterous and extravagant", that 
 he made as soon as those demands were satisfied, there would have 
 been no pretext for making those demands at all. There would 
 have been no debt in 1853. There would have been a clear 
 saving to the Nizam's Government in those four years of at least 
 sixty lakhs of rupees. Let it be understood that the Nizam was 
 perfectly passive ; he was allowed no choice or voice in the 
 organisation or expenditure of the Contingent. All he had to 
 do was to meet the charges, either in cash or in account. The 
 alleged debt of 1853, amounting to fifty lakhs of Hyderabad 
 rupees (or forty-three lakhs of Company's rupees), arose entirely 
 from the advances, with interest upon them, made by the Eesident 
 out of his own treasury to supplement all the sums that could be 
 extracted from the Nizam's Government for the charges of the 
 Contingent. But if those charges had been reduced in time, — 
 when Lord Dalhousie's eyes were open to their " preposterous" 
 character, — the sums extracted from the Nizam's Government 
 would have been more than sufficient. Taking, as we surely may, 
 the savings that ought to have been made in the four years before 
 1853, as identical with the savings that actually were made in the 
 four years after 1853, viz., sixty lakhs, we find that in May 1853, 
 
 1 Here are the official figures : — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 European 
 Officers. 
 
 Warrant 
 
 and 
 Non-Com- 
 missioned 
 
 Officers. 
 
 Natives of all Ranks. 
 
 Guns. 
 
 Camp 
 
 Followers. 
 
 
 
 Cavalry. 
 
 Infantry 
 and 
 
 Artillery. 
 
 Annual Cost. 
 
 1855 
 1856 
 1857 
 
 50 
 49 
 50 
 
 56 
 56 
 56 
 
 2300 
 2300 
 2300 
 
 6282 
 6282 
 6282 
 
 24 
 
 24 
 24 
 
 644 
 644 
 644 
 
 Rs. 
 24,65,418 
 22,72,032 
 23,02,273 
 
 A A 2
 
 356 THE NIZAM'S BURDEN. 
 
 instead of owing fifty lakhs for the Resident's advances, the Nizam 
 would have had ten lakhs to the good in his own treasury. He 
 would not have paid more, because he would not have been called 
 upon to pay more. 
 
 We learn, furthermore, from the dissent by Sir Henry Willock 
 in the Blue Book of 1859, that " the despatch of the Court of 
 Directors of the 18th December 1849 sanctioned a more extensive 
 relief to the Nizam than that contemplated by the Governor- 
 General" — and, it must be added, "contemplated" only. "We are 
 of opinion", the Directors had said, " that these measures ought 
 not to be made dependent on the conduct of the Nizam. If the 
 Contingent imposes upon the finances of the Nizam a greater 
 burden than is required by the maintenance of efficiency, the 
 Nizam ought at once to be released from such unnecessary pres- 
 sure." " Since the issue of the above instructions", continues Sir 
 Henry Willock, " the embarrassments of the Nizam have increased; 
 his country has been disturbed by internal commotion ; the services 
 of the Contingent have been refused him, when they might legiti- 
 mately have been afforded ; the revenue has been further on de- 
 cline ; the pressure of the Contingent has been more sensibly felt, 
 and no step has been taken to carry out the instructions of the 
 Court. Vacancies have occurred in the Staff of the Contingent, 
 and they have been filled up by the Governor-General." 1 
 
 " Successive Residents at Hyderabad", said Sir Henry Willock,. 
 " officers of high character and standing, Sir Charles Metcalfe, 
 Colonel Stewart, General Fraser, and Colonel Low, have severally 
 declared that we are not justified by Treaty in making such large 
 calls on the Nizam's treasury, and that the burden of the Contin- 
 gent has materially operated in producing the financial embarrass- 
 ments which now paralyse the power of the State." 2 
 
 The Honourable Court again addressed the Government of India 
 on the 3rd December 1851, expressing their desire that "by a 
 general revision of the constitution and expenses of the Contingent, 
 the Government of India should set an example to the Nizam of 
 the retrenchments which the condition of his finances so urgently 
 requires." Nothing was done. 
 
 But although nothing was done, there was, we perceive, a prac- 
 tical unanimity of opinion at the Hyderabad Residency, in the 
 
 1 Papers Relating to the Nizam (2M of 1859), p. 9. 2 llnd.
 
 OUR "INEXPENSIVE GAINS". 357 
 
 Council-chamber at Calcutta, and in Leadenhall Street, that the 
 cost of the Contingent was excessive, and ought to be diminished. 
 And this opinion had prevailed for many years. 
 
 Thus it may fairly be said that the alleged debt of fifty lakhs of 
 rupees, accumulated between 1849 and 1853, was debt directly, if 
 not deliberately, created by Lord Dalhousie's refusal, with his eyes 
 open and his conscience awakened, to cut down those "excessive" 
 and "preposterous" charges, which he cut down very promptly 
 when, by using the debt of his own creation as a pretext, he had 
 got securely in pawn the Nizam's Berar provinces. 
 
 But was the so-called Contingent a Force of legitimate origin, 
 and lawfully maintained at the Nizam's expense ? That seems to 
 be extremely doubtful. Colonel Low, when acting as Besident in 
 1848, said that the Contingent was kept up "for purposes of our 
 own, not of the Nizam's." 1 There is a perfect chain of official 
 admissions to the same effect from 1819 down to 1853. In a 
 Minute of 10th November 1819 the Marquis of Hastings thus 
 expresses his determination as to the maintenance of the Contin- 
 gent : — " It is perfectly true that those troops are, in fact, more 
 ours than those of the Sovereign by whom they are maintained. 
 Although paid by the Nizam, and nominally appertaining to His 
 Highness, their habit of receiving their stipend through us, and of 
 being commanded by British Officers, leave room for the expecta- 
 tion that in any rupture between the States they would side with 
 us against their ostensible master. Now, would it be consonant to 
 wisdom, or to the trust reposed in us by the Honourable Company, 
 that we should sacrifice such a security to a casuistical point of 
 equity ?" And further on in the same Minute he says that it would 
 be " impolitic to let an over-refinement cause our open abrogation 
 of such an inexpensive addition to our strength". 
 
 The " casuistical point of equity" and " over-refinement", to 
 which Lord Hastings refused to sacrifice our " inexpensive" gains, 
 are expressions which tell their own tale with cynical straight- 
 forwardness. 
 
 Here is an extract from the instructions issued by Lord Hastings 
 to the Besident on the 2Gth October 1819. 
 
 " This invariable attention to the interests of Chundoo Lall (to which 
 we are in honour bound), and the maintenance of the Reformed 
 Troops" (the Contingent Force), " are the essentials for us. 
 
 1 Ante, p. 248.
 
 358 THE CONTINGENT 
 
 " The Reformed Troops, which we owe to Chundoo Lall, will have 
 taken such root in the establishment of the country, that there can 
 be little hazard, and shortly there will be none, of any endeavours to 
 reduce them." 
 
 If the Nizam were to indicate any wish to remove the Minister, 
 the following course was prescribed by Lord Hastings to the Resi- 
 dent, in a letter dated 25th October 1822. 
 
 " The proposition would have to be met with such a countenance as 
 should imply serious consequences. You would give it to be understood, 
 by intelligible hints, that the removal of Chundoo Lall would cause a 
 material change in the connection between the two Governments. It 
 would be fitting to throw out, as if loosely, that, should a Minister in 
 whom the British Government could have no confidence be entrusted 
 with His Highness's concerns, it might be incumbent on the British 
 Government to look to its- interests in another mode than what had 
 hitherto sufficed, and to claim for itself, as standing in the Peishwa's 
 position, all those rights over the Hyderabad dominions which that 
 Prince had possessed. This glimpse of eventual procedures would 
 assuredly be decisive. The Governor-General in Council holds the 
 good faith of this Government to be staked for the maintenance of 
 Rajah Chundoo Lall in his office, unless he shall be guilty of some 
 distinct delinquency : and you will please to regard it as a special obli- 
 gation upon you to support that Minister." 1 
 
 R-ajah Chundoo Lall was, in fact, upheld at the head of 
 the Hyderabad administration by irresistible British power 
 for more than thirty years, and then reluctantly given up, 2 
 not in accordance with the judgment or wishes of the Sove- 
 reign, not for the advantage of the people, but for the promo- 
 tion of what were officially asserted to be British interests, and 
 which certainly were the interests of a great many English 
 officers, for the purpose of compelling the Hyderabad State to 
 sustain from its revenues this Force, which no Treaty recognised 
 or justified, and which was employed in doing the duties which 
 properly devolved, under Treaty and in return for a subsidy terri- 
 torially secured, on the Hyderabad Subsidiary Force. 
 
 No operation, no march, no movement, was ever made by the 
 Hyderabad Contingent, that we were not bound, by the terms of 
 the Treaty of 1800, to make for the service of the Nizam, by 
 means of the Hyderabad Subsidiary Force. 
 
 ^Hyderabad Papers, 1824, pp. 31, 32. 2 Ante, pp. 193, 194.
 
 DOES OUR WORK. 359 
 
 Even Lord Dalhousie himself admitted this, in substance and in 
 terms, in the 45th paragraph of his Minute of 30th March L853, 
 when he said : — 
 
 "I am well aware that indirectly we derive benefit from it. It preserves 
 order within the dominions of the Nizam, and so performs duties which 
 in some degree would otherwise fall on the Subsidiary Force. Neither 
 do I overlook the fact that, if the Contingent should be abolished, our 
 obligation to protect His Highness's person, and to repress important 
 resistance to his authority, would remain in force, while our means of 
 fulfilling the obligation would be diminished." 1 
 
 Lord Dalhousie appears, it is true, to qualify this admission by 
 saying "in some degree", and by adding an assertion that "the Sub- 
 sidiary Force is not required by Treaty to perform all the petty 
 services that now fall upon the Contingent". But without admit- 
 ting that any degree or distinction of services can be founded on 
 the comprehensive engagements of the Treaty of 1800, it is quite 
 enough to remark that " petty services" could have been performed 
 by a petty Force. 
 
 Colonel Sykes pointed out in the Court of Directors that a most 
 unwarrantable and insidious assumption was made by calling this 
 Force "the Hyderabad Contingent". 
 
 "Although Captain Sydenham, the Resident, for the first time 
 designates the Nizam's Infantry as the Nizam's Contingent, he does 
 not claim the shadow of authority for the designation. The Resident 
 neither adverted to the authority of the Nizam for it, nor does it appear 
 that the Nizam directly or indirectly sanctioned it, or even knew of it. 
 In short, it was a term gratuitously assumed by the Resident, and 
 could not honestly be identified with a Contingent which the Nizam 
 was only bound to supply in the time of actual war ; but the term has, 
 unhappily for the Nizam, adhered to that body of troops ever since, 
 and has occasioned mistaken associations in the minds of successive 
 authorities in India, that it was a commutation of the Contingent 
 stipulated for in the Treaty of 1800, and that we were therefore justi- 
 fied in exacting its maintenance." 2 
 
 It is needless to argue here the question whether any tenable 
 or plausible case can be presented for the assertion, occasionally 
 made, that the Contingent was maintained under Treaty obliga- 
 tions, for this simple reason, that Lord Dalhousie, having originally 
 
 1 Nizam's Debt (418 of 1854), p. 112. 
 
 2 Papers Relating to the Nizam (234 of 1859), p. 13.
 
 360 SUBSIDIARY SAVINGS 
 
 made use of that plea, and emphasised it with the most imperious 
 and intimidating language in his direct address to the Nizam, 1 
 afterwards, on more careful examination of the facts, withdrew that 
 plea, and put on record, in the clearest possible terms, that the Nizam 
 stood bound by no such Treaty obligations. In the 16th para- 
 graph of his Minute of 80th March 1853, after explaining at some 
 length how he had arrived at the conclusion, he says : — " These 
 are the reasons by which I have found myself forced to the con- 
 clusion that the Government of India has no right whatever, either 
 by the spirit or by the letter of the Treaty of 1800, to require the 
 Nizam to maintain the Contingent in its present form." Again, 
 in its 44th paragraph he says: — " I, for my part, can never consent, 
 as an honest man, to instruct the Resident to reply, that the Con- 
 tingent has been maintained by the Nizam, from the end of the 
 war in 1817 until now, because the 12th Article of the Treaty of 
 1800 obliges His Highness so to maintain it." 2 
 
 Granting, however, for the sake of argument, that the Force in 
 question was rightly called the Contingent, that it was of legi- 
 timate origin, and even that it was kept up in obedience to the 
 terms of a Treaty, so that the advances made by the British 
 Government for its pay constituted a debt properly charged 
 against the Hyderabad State, it remains to be inquired whether 
 the Nizam's Government had not some counterclaims, or charges 
 which ought to have been taken as a set-off against the debt on 
 account of the Contingent, and would have equalled or surpassed 
 it in amount. 
 
 The Nizam ceded territory under the Treaty of 1800, in com- 
 mutation of a subsidy in cash, on the express stipulation that in 
 return for it the British Government was to maintain the Hyder- 
 abad Subsidiary Force at a certain specified strength. But that 
 Force was reduced, without the Nizam's consent, and in disregard 
 of Treaty obligations, for a lengthened period, to a lower strength 
 than that specified, at a great pecuniary saving to the British 
 Government. The British Government was able to reduce the 
 numbers of the Subsidiary Force, and its own expenditure, mainly 
 in consequence of the services rendered by the Contingent, and 
 
 1 See paragraphs 8 and 34 of his Minute of the 27th of May 1851, and his 
 Khureeta to the Nizam. — Nizam's Debt (418 of 1854), pp. 32, 34, 41, ante, 
 p. 344. 2 Niza?u'i> Debt (418 of 1854), pp. 100, 111.
 
 DUE TO THE NIZAM. 3G1 
 
 the expenditure thereby imposed on the Hyderabad State. The 
 savings arising from the unauthorised reduction of the Subsidiary 
 Force ought clearly, therefore, to have been credited to the Nizam's 
 Government. 
 
 This fact was perfectly well understood by our authorities. 1 
 Major Moore, in the Court of Directors, thus explained the posi- 
 tion in his Dissent, dated the 7th November 1853 : — 
 
 " We have reduced the numerical strength of our Regiments in the 
 Subsidiary Force from 1,000 firelocks to 750 of Infantry, and from 
 500 sabres to 420 in each Regiment of Cavalry, and the number of 
 troops kept up by us in the Hyderabad territory for the last thirty 
 years has been more than one-fourth less than the number for which 
 we had contracted, and received payment in advance. 
 
 " Upon what plea did we fall short in the due performance of our 
 contract ? By what right have we received payment for troops we did 
 not furnish ? If these facts are true, are we, or are we not, bound to 
 account to the Nizam for what we have received from him for an 
 equivalent we have not fulfilled ?"- 
 
 If the saving of at least one-fifth of the cost of the Subsidiary 
 Force for thirty years, in contravention of the Treaty of 1800, 
 and by the substitution of the so-called Contingent kept up at the 
 Nizam's cost, were fairly calculated, without any interest, it would 
 place a sum of more than two crores of rupees — two millions 
 sterling — to the credit of the Hyderabad State. 
 
 The Nizam's Government in 1851 had a still more tangible and 
 categorical claim for very large sums of money annually appro- 
 priated by our authorities for a series of years, but really due, 
 and eventually acknowledged to have been due, to the Hyderabad 
 State. 
 
 In a letter dated the 6th of February 1850, General Fraser 
 submits a request for a suitable remuneration being granted to an 
 officer performing the duties of Superintendent of Police at 
 Secunderabad, the cantonment of the Subsidiary Force, where 
 " it is reckoned that about 54,000 of the Nizam's subjects reside". 
 The Resident had no doubt that this officer ought to be paid for 
 these additional duties, but raises the question " whether he should 
 be paid by his own Government or by that of His Highness the 
 Nizam". Here is his own opinion : — 
 
 1 See letter from Lord Auckland's Private Secretary, Mr. J. R. Colvin 
 ante, p. 91. 2 Papers Relating to the Nizam (234 of 1859), p. 4.
 
 362 nizam's claim 
 
 " It appears to me that it should be by the former, because our 
 Government receives the profits of the Secunderabad Abkarree, or 
 excise duties arising from the sale of spirituous liquors and intoxicat- 
 ing drugs, and appropriates them to its own use, amounting on an 
 average of the last ten years to 84,124 : 13 : 1 Company's rupees 1 per 
 annum ; and I cannot find on the records of my office any sufficient 
 reason to justify our thus having appropriated the whole of these 
 profits to ourselves, without the assent of the Nizam's Government, or 
 even, so far as I can learn, any communication with it on the subject. 
 
 " On the contrary, the very question now referred to was recently 
 brought forward by Shums-ool-Oomra Bahadur, during his adminis- 
 tration, and was not decided only because he was removed from office, 
 and that the discussion of the matter has not since been renewed by 
 the Nizam's Government. 
 
 " I may add that the profits of the Kurroorgeeree, or duty on grain 
 and other articles of consumption imported into the cantonment, are 
 appropriated exclusively by the Nizam's Government ; although I 
 perceive no sufficient reason why any distinction should be made 
 between these two sources of revenue, in as far as regards the right of 
 appropriating them. 
 
 "Our own Regulations, no doubt, provide for the levy of Excise 
 duties in Military cantonments in the Company's territory, and the 
 proceeds are received and carried to account by the Civil Collector ; 
 but I apprehend we should be somewhat embarrassed to show our right 
 to make these Regulations applicable to the cantonment of Secunder- 
 abad, under the peculiar circumstances above explained." 
 
 And in a postscript to this letter the Resident adds : — 
 
 " It may be proper for me to observe that with regard to the appro- 
 priation of the average amount of Abkarree duty received at Secun- 
 derabad, viz., Company's rupees 84,124 : 13 : 10 per annum, I have 
 reason to believe that but a small proportion, perhaps not more than a 
 fourth part, is disbursed on account of the expenses of the police 
 establishment, etc., at Secunderabad, and that the balance of above 
 60,000 rupees per annum is remitted to Madras, and carried to the 
 credit of the Honourable Company." 2 
 
 The Nizam's Minister, in a note to the Resident, dated the 19th 
 of August 1851, renewed his claim on the part of the Hyderabad 
 Government to the profits arising from the Abkarree, or Excise 
 
 1 About a lakh (100,000) of Hyderabad rupees. 
 
 2 The Abkarree collections at Jaulna, the other cantonment of the Sub- 
 sidiary Force, raised the amount to more than Rs. 100,000 per annum.
 
 TO SECUNDERABAD EXCISE. 363 
 
 and liquor licences, in the cantonment of Secunderabad, " in 
 terms", as General Fraser said, " showing an intention to claim the 
 arrears of revenue for past years, which has hitherto been appro- 
 priated by the British Government." 
 
 " It appears to me", continued the Resident in his remarks on 
 the Minister's demand, " that some difficulty may be found in 
 solving this question in such a manner as will prove satisfactory 
 to the Nizam's Government ; and I beg to refer to my letter under 
 date 6th of February 1850, giving cover to a correspondence 
 between the Minister and myself, in which the same subject is 
 brought forward that is now renewed by Sooraj-ool-Moolk, when I 
 took occasion to express some doubt of the justice of our appro- 
 priating to ourselves the entire and exclusive profits of the 
 Abkarree contract in question." 
 
 " Viewing the Hyderabad Subsidiary Force as a mere Lushkur or 
 Camp, as it was originally called, accompanied by its own usual number 
 of camp-folio wers, it might seem fair enough that the proceeds of the 
 Abkarree contract should have beeu appropriated for the payment of 
 police and other charges. But the matter assumes a different aspect, 
 when, in process of time, the Camp bebame a permanent cautonment, 
 and gradually drew withiu it, or around it (for the precise limits of 
 the cantonment have never yet been determined), a large number of 
 His Highness's subjects, estimated by Brigadier James at between 
 50,000 and 60,000, resorting thither for the purposes of trade, or the 
 advantage of our military protection." 
 
 The General considered, however, that the question of the 
 arrears of this Excise revenue was open to argument " on plain 
 and reasonable grounds", and was clearly " inadmissible" under 
 the actual circumstances. 
 
 " If, before the receipt from Government of the final orders on this 
 subject, any intimation reaches me from the Nizam's Government of its 
 expectation that the arrears of Abkarree revenue shall be takeu as 
 payment, or part payment, of the second instalment of the debt still 
 due to us by the Nizam, and to be paid before the 31st proximo, I shall 
 at once declare it to be out of the question that I should allow what 
 is at best a problematical claim to be regarded as a set-off against the 
 fulfilment of a positive and unconditional engagement to pay within 
 an early fixed period the amount of a bond fide and acknowledged 
 debt." 
 
 In a despatch dated the 12th of November 1851, Lord Dalhousie
 
 564 UNJUST APPROPRIATION 
 
 entirely rejected this claim on the part of the Nizam's Government 
 in the following terms : — 
 
 " His Lordship thinks there is no ground for the claim to the tax on 
 the part of the Nizam. It is a check established for the maintenance 
 of order, sobriety and discipline among the troops in cantonment ; and 
 as such is not claimable by His Highness, but belongs to the Power 
 whose troops they are, and who are placed in such cantonment by 
 virtue of Treaty." 
 
 The reasoning in this paragraph could hardly be more feeble or 
 more perverse. "By virtue of Treaty," the Treaty of 1800, whereby 
 the Nizam paid fully for the service, the Honourable Company 
 agreed to maintain the Subsidiary Force. By Article v of the 
 Treaty of 1800, the Nizam ceded "to the Honourable East India 
 Company, in perpetuity, all the territories acquired by His High- 
 ness under the Treaty of Seringapatam of 1792, and under the 
 Treaty of Mysore of 1799", " for the regular payment of the tvhole 
 expense of the said augmented Subsidiary Force." 
 
 As if this proviso were not enough, under Article vm of the 
 same Treaty, " the said East India Company agrees to accept the 
 said districts as a full and complete satisfaction for all demands on 
 account of the pay and charges of the said Subsidiary Force." 1 
 
 One part of "the whole expense" or "el targes" of keeping up such 
 a Force, was necessarily that of " maintaining order, sobriety and 
 discipline among the troops in cantonment". How could that 
 expense be chargeable to the Nizam's Excise revenue ? But even 
 if that expense could, under any pretext, have been so charged, 
 General Fraser tells us, in the postscript to his letter of the 5th of 
 February 1850, 2 that only a small part of the Abkarree collections 
 was required for the police and sanitary arrangements of the 
 cantonments, and that three-quarters of these collections were 
 annually remitted to the Madras Government, that is to say, were 
 appropriated for Imperial purposes. 
 
 But it is really no longer possible for anyone to raise an argu- 
 ment in favour of the arbitrary refusal of Lord Dalhousie in 
 1851, or to revive the discussion on the lines adopted by that 
 Governor-General, since the principle was, after full consideration, 
 eonceded in favour of the Hyderabad State by the Government of 
 Lord Canning, as mentioned in the following extract of a despatch 
 1 Aitehison's Treaties, vol. v, pp. 71, 72. 2 Ante, p. 3G2.
 
 ACKNOWLEDGED. 365 
 
 dated the 12th of October 1860, from the Resident, Colonel David- 
 son, to the Government of India, which contains as ample an 
 acknowledgment as could well be made. 
 
 " I have always been of opinion that, had the pecuniary demands of 
 the two Governments been impartially dealt with, we had no just claim 
 against the Nizam for the present debt of forty-three lakhs of Com- 
 pany's rupees. His Highness's Minister, in a note dated 19th August 
 1851, when pressed on account of the arrears of the pay of the Con- 
 tingent, asked for the surplus of the Abkarree revenue of Secunderabad 
 and Jaulna, which was afterwards prospectively allowed to be a por- 
 tion of the legitimate revenue of the Hyderabad State. We carried 
 these revenues, which at present amount to one lakh annually, to our 
 own credit from 1812 to 1853 ; say for forty-one years. The above 
 would have given the Nizam a credit of forty-one lakhs (£410,000), 
 without interest, against the debt we claimed. Further, we charged 
 His Highness, from January 1849 to May 1853, with interest at six per 
 cent, on advances for the pay of the Contingent, which charge for 
 interest amounted to ten and a half lakhs of rupees, although the 
 Nizam earnestly protested against being made to pay interest at all, 
 but nevertheless it was debited against him in account. 
 
 " I believe it must be apparent, from what I have stated above, that 
 in 1853 we had little or no real pecuniary claim against the Nizam." 1 
 
 Again, in his Administration Eeport for the official year 1861-62, 
 paragraph 150, the same Eesident, Colonel Davidson, says : — " This 
 debt the present Nizam and his father equally refused to acknow- 
 ledge. They brought counter-claims against the British Govern- 
 ment, which they complained had neither been recognised nor 
 refuted." 
 
 It appears to me, therefore, impossible to avoid the conclusion 
 that in 1851, when the Nizam was compelled to pay upwards of 
 forty-two lakhs of rupees, by Lord Dalhousie's peremptory demand 
 for territorial security, and in 1 853, when, under threats of mili- 
 tary coercion, he was made to give territorial security for an 
 alleged debt of about forty-three lakhs more, His Highness did not 
 really owe one single rupee to the Honourable Company, but that, 
 on the contrary, the pecuniary balance, if rightly calculated, would 
 have been immensely in favour of the Hyderabad State. 
 
 1 Papers, Deccan, Hyderabad Assigned District* (338 of 18G7), p. 27.
 
 366 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Small Payment on account of Debt — Nizam's jewels pawned — Letters to 
 and from Lord Dalhousie — The Nizam says the Contingent is not to be 
 reduced — Lord Dalhousie declares he has given no hint on that subject 
 — A Respite Granted — General Fraser's Instructions for managing 
 Assigned Districts — No Treaty wanted — Interviews -with the Nizam — 
 His Highness doubts whether he should please us if he improved his 
 own troops — The Resident instructed not to press for payment of Debt 
 — Lord Dalhousie determined on territorial assignment, with a Treaty — 
 His important Letter on this subject and General Fraser's answer — 
 Project of the Hyderabad Bank — Lord Dalhousie's veto — Honest 
 abstraction of State Jewels and their redemption — Trial of Zoolficar 
 Ali Beg — Censure of Government — General Fraser's indignant rejoinder 
 and resignation — Departure from Hyderabad. 
 
 Although the second instalment of the Nizam's debt, amounting 
 to about thirty-two lakhs of Company's rupees, was to have been 
 paid npby the 31st of October 1851, General Fraser, after a weari- 
 some series of written communications, and private interviews 
 with the Nizam and his Minister, had only received by the 5th of 
 December, the sum of Co. Ks. 873,547. On that day the Besiclent 
 wrote to Lord Dalhousie that he could not yet say that " the 
 desired effect had been produced, but perhaps enough to induce 
 the Government of India to wait a little longer." On the 11th of 
 December the General wrote again, as follows : — 
 
 " My Lord, — You will probably desire to know what chance there is 
 of the remainder of the Nizam's debt being paid by the 4th proximo. 
 I did not advert to this point in my public letter of the 5th instant, 
 because I did not possess information on the subject which would give 
 any value to my opinion regarding it. Having written, however, the 
 day before yesterday a private note to Sooraj-ool-Moolk, for the pur- 
 pose of exciting him to activity in the provision of means for the final 
 liquidation of the Nizam's debt, I took occasion to ask him how it 
 happened that he was only enabled to send me Co. Rs. 873,547, Avhen 
 in his note to me of 28th October last, he told me that he had twenty
 
 A WELCOME ANNOUNCEMENT. 367 
 
 lakhs of Hyderabad rupees ready; and in liis note of the 1st November, 
 that the Nizam had made over jewels, etc., to him to the amount of 
 thirty lakhs of rupees. I received his reply last night, and transmit 
 it for your Lordship's information. 
 
 " I remain, My Lord, 
 " Your very faithful and obedient servant, 
 
 " J. S. Fraser." 
 
 The hopes held out in Sooraj-ool-Moolk's private note, though 
 expressed with some confidence, were not calculated to convey 
 anything like certainty to the experienced mind of the Eesident, 
 or to the Governor-General, for the Minister said that more than 
 half of the eight lakhs of rupees just sent had been raised by 
 pawning some of the Nizam's jewels, and that he relied chiefly on 
 a similar transaction on a larger scale — for which, he assured 
 General Fraser, His Highness had issued orders — for completing 
 the second instalment. 
 
 Sooraj-ool-Moolk had written to the Eesident on the 19th of 
 November a note, which was at once forwarded for the Governor- 
 General's information, in which the Minister stated that at a con- 
 ference witli the Nizam on the subject of reducing the number of 
 troops, His Highness " commanded" him " to except the troops of 
 the Sarf-i-Khass, for his Highness's own protection and personal 
 attendance, and also the Contingent". 1 
 
 It is to this " official announcement of the King's wishes," 
 eagerly welcomed and made the most of at Calcutta, that Lord 
 Dalhousie alludes in his next letter. 
 
 " Camp Futtehghur, December 26th, 1851. 
 " My dear General Fraser, — A great accumulation of business at 
 this moment must prevent me for a short time from entering officially 
 on the subject of your last despatch, but I lose no time in saying to 
 you privately that I quite coincide with you in all you have done 
 regarding the payment of the second instalment of the Nizam's debt. 
 The real and the only object of this Government has been to obtain 
 that payment, and the fixing peremptorily of a final day for its pay- 
 ment was resorted to as the sole effectual means of convincing the 
 Nizam that we were in earnest. I have no desire to press him to a 
 day, and am very willing to make all reasonable allowances for the 
 undoubted difficulties with which he has to contend, and which his 
 
 1 Nizamh Deht (418 of 1854), p. 86.
 
 368 NO HINT OK PROMPTING ? 
 
 Minister is apparently struggling manfully, and in good faith, to 
 overcome. 
 
 " I, therefore, without allowing him to suppose that there is any 
 relaxation on our part, — a belief which you have wisely discouraged, — 
 am willing to give him reasonable time to complete his payments as he 
 can, assuring you at the same time that if you see any reason to doubt 
 the sincerity of his exertions for that purpose, or the reality of his now 
 declared intentions to reduce, I shall still have recourse to the occupa- 
 tion of such territory as shall suffice to pay the remaining portion of 
 the debt on the same terms as were contained in my original de- 
 claration. 
 
 " The official announcement of the King's wishes regarding the Con- 
 tingent, proceeding as it has done from himself, without any hint or 
 prompting from any of us, is a matter of great importance, especially 
 as it was on record before the question which I addressed to you on 
 that point had reached Hyderabad. The negative assent (if I may so 
 say), which consisted in the absence of any remonstrance, and even the 
 expressions used in conversation with the King, were hardly sufficient, 
 and, at all events, fell far short of what he has now formally pro- 
 nounced. 
 
 " If Sooraj-ool-Moolk successfully conducts to a conclusion the several 
 measures to whicb I have referred, he will deserve well of his Master, 
 and will richly deserve any compliments which you may suggest for 
 his gratification and encouragement. 
 
 " I will write officially very soon. 
 
 " Yours sincerely, 
 
 " Dalhousie. 
 
 "P.S. — I am sorry Capt. Griffin memorialised, especially as he did 
 so without personally memorialising me. I quite recognised the pecu- 
 liarity of his case, and was prepared on the first opportunity to remedy 
 it. But as he has handed me up, of course T must hold my hand. He 
 can't expect me to be coerced into serving him. 
 
 "D." 
 
 Lord Dalhousie says that "the official announcement" of the 
 Nizam's "wishes regarding the Contingent" — that it was not to be 
 included among the troops to be disbanded or reduced, — was " a 
 matter of great importance", "proceeding, as it has done, from 
 himself, without any hint or prompting from any of us." He 
 must quite have overlooked the fact, though the date was not 
 very far distant, that in June he had personally addressed the 
 Nizam, telling him that " the maintenance of the Contingent" was
 
 RATHER A STRONG HINT. 369 
 
 " a duty imposed on the Government of Hyderabad by the stipu- 
 lations of existing treaties"; and that "the efficient maintenance 
 of this Force" was " not only necessary to fulfil the obligations of 
 Treaty, but essential as the main support of the stability" of His 
 Highness's " throne". The injunctions, — for they are, indeed, 
 rather too strong to be described as " hints", — occurred in a docu- 
 ment calling upon the Nizam to give territorial security for the 
 accumulated arrears of that Contingent, telling him that the 
 " independence of his sovereignty" was in " imminent danger", 
 and incidentally reminding him that he had to deal with a " great 
 Government, whose resentment it was dangerous to provoke", and 
 which' could, " whenever it pleased, crush him under foot, and 
 leave him without a name or a trace". 1 
 
 Whatever may have been Lord Dalhousie's intention in asserting 
 a treaty obligation for the Contingent, there can be no doubt that 
 the Nizam, in his simplicity, took it as a very strong hint — not 
 the first he had received by any means, 2 though, perhaps, the 
 strongest — that the Contingent was a sacred institution. The 
 Nizam Nasir-ood-Dowla had been nurtured in that faith by its 
 high priest Bajah Chundoo Lall, ordained and sustained in office 
 by a succession of British authorities merely for its preservation. 
 It may be worth while recalling the observation made by His 
 Highness at an interview with General Eraser on the 7th of 
 October 1850. "He observed that Maharajah Chundoo Lall had 
 repeatedly impressed upon his mind the importance of maintaining 
 the Contingent and regularly paying it." 3 Lord Dalhousie now 
 renewed the testimony and the covenant, assuring the Nizam that 
 on the maintenance of this Force depended " the stability of his 
 throne", since its disbandment would involve the violation of a 
 Treaty. Lord Dalhousie very soon, as we shall see, ascertained 
 and acknowledged that there was no such Treaty obligation, but 
 the Governor-General's corrected views were never communicated 
 to the Nizam. 
 
 At the end of the year 1851, satisfied for the time with the pay- 
 ment of forty-two lakhs of rupees on account, and still more with 
 what he called the " official announcement" that the Nizam would 
 
 1 Ante, p. 344. Nizam's Belt (418 of 1854), pp. 41, 42, 43. 
 
 2 See, for example, the hint given by Lord Ellenborough's Government. 
 — Ante, p. 165. 3 Ante, p. 315. 
 
 . . 1, B
 
 370 "hints" or "orders". 
 
 not ask to be relieved from the Contingent, Lord Dalhousie 
 recorded a Minute on the 3rd of January 1852, declaring his 
 intention of " not proceeding to extreme measures", as he " saw 
 cause to believe that His Highness was, in sincerity, labouring to 
 meet the requirements which such measures were intended to 
 enforce". He quoted with peculiar satisfaction the report of the 
 Dewan, Sooraj-ool-Moolk, that the Nizam had expressly made his 
 plan of reducing troops " exclusive of the Sarf-i-Khass and the 
 Contingent, which, in conformity with orders, are to remain fixed 
 and determined as at present." There is much reason to believe, 
 if only from these words, that what Lord Dalhousie would not 
 recognise even as " hints" the Nizam considered as " orders". His 
 Highness understood most certainly that he had no choice or voice 
 as to the essential point, the expense of this Force, a truth plainly 
 acknowledged by Lord Dalhousie when he states in this Minute 
 that it is "imposed" on the Nizam. He reiterates his "opinion 
 that the Contingent is unnecessarily costly, and that the same or a 
 sufficient Force could be maintained at a less expense than is now 
 imposed on His Highness's treasury." He says that " some time 
 ago" he " he took measures with a view to reducing the charges of 
 the Contingent", and he "trusts" that "means may be found of 
 lightening the burden without impairing its real efficiency". 1 
 Excellent and equitable as may have been Lord Dalhousie's inten- 
 tions for the moment, "means" were not "found", and the "burden" 
 was not " lightened ", as has already been shown by authentic 
 figures. 2 
 
 The " extreme measure", now suspended for a term, was, as we 
 know, the demand for districts in " mortgage", as a security for the 
 alleged debt, and with a view to its gradual liquidation in three 
 years. The officers selected to take charge of the three districts, 
 with the sanction of the Governor-General, were Captains Meadows 
 Taylor and Bullock and Mr. Henry Dighton. 3 While it yet 
 appeared likely that this " extreme measure" would have to be 
 put in force about June 1851, General Fraser issued identical 
 instructions to these three gentlemen, " appointed to the adminis- 
 tration of certain provinces of His Highness the Nizam, trans- 
 ferred to our temporary management." These instructions received 
 
 1 Nizam's Debt (418 of 1854), pp. 91, 92. 2 Ante, pp. 354, 355. 
 
 3 Nizam's Debt (418 of 1854), p. 35 ; ante, p. 272.
 
 TEMPORARY TRUST. 371 
 
 the approval of the Government of India, and a few extracts will 
 explain their general tendency and spirit. 
 
 " You Lave not now been appointed to the administration of a district 
 in British territory to which a system of known and established rules 
 is already applicable, and where arrangements once made are likely to 
 be of permanent duration ; but on the contrary you are placed in charge 
 of a portion of territory belonging to an independent foreign Prince, 
 to be administered by us merely in temporary trust. Were the dis- 
 tricts in question ceded to us in perpetuity, there can be no doubt that 
 the whole present system of management would require great nd 
 radical change. But you must bear in mind that this is forbidden, 
 equally by the circumstances of the case and the instructions of the 
 Government of India." 
 
 The Eesident forwarded for their information the letter from 
 the Government of India (published in the Bine Book), No. 1783, 
 dated the 6th June 1851, and called their particular attention to 
 its paragraph 9, where it was enjoined, "that as little change 
 as possible is to be introduced when transferring the Nizam's 
 districts to the authority of the British Government, and that for 
 the present our superintendence over the transferred districts is to 
 be general, and should not extend to any close interference with 
 the details of administration". 1 
 
 " Under the orders of the Government of India you will adhere, as 
 nearly as circumstances will conveniently permit, to the system which 
 you may find already established in the districts placed under your 
 charge with respect to the assessment and collection of revenue ; and 
 you will of course perceive it to be desirable to abstain from making 
 any revenue agreements, or contracts of any description, for periods 
 beyond three years at most from the beginning of 1261 Fuslee; at the 
 expiration of which time, as the districts in question may be restored 
 to His Highness the Nizam's authority, we should in all likelihood find 
 ourselves much inconvenienced and embarrassed by having deviated 
 from this rule." 
 
 In all their plans and suggestions for changes, by appointment, 
 promotion, or dismissal among the official classes of the districts, 
 as in the measures prescribed or suggested by General Fraser him- 
 self in these instructions, for the improvement of the local insti- 
 tutions of police and the administration of justice, and for the 
 execution of public works, he warned these officers that they 
 
 1 Nizam's Debt (418 of 1854), p. 44. 
 
 D B 2
 
 372 SCHOOL OF ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 " must never cease to bear in mind the express and special object 
 for which the transferred districts have now been made over to 
 our temporary management". 
 
 " I enclose a copy of the authority with which His Highness the 
 Nizam has furnished me, to take charge of the transferred districts ; 
 and I add to it the requisite authorisation from myself, empowering 
 you to enter upon your duties as Superintendent." 
 
 These instructions were issued; but owing to the Nizam having 
 paid up the first instalment of thirty-four lakhs of rupees, as 
 described in our last chapter, the three officers were stopped just 
 as they were proceeding to their respective districts. But it will 
 be seen from these instructions, that if the arrangement had been 
 carried out, as originally designed and worked out in all its details 
 by General Fraser, in communication with the Government, and 
 in direct correspondence with Lord Dalhousie, there would have 
 been no doubt, question, or possibility of debate as to the assign- 
 ment being temporary ; while the actual charge would have been 
 committed to three local officers, holding no British commission 
 or warrant, but acting under ( a double authorisation from the 
 Nizam and from the Resident, who, in this formality and in his 
 control over the management, would have represented both our 
 Government and that of His Highness. The districts were to be 
 managed very much as Captain Meadows Taylor was then manag- 
 ing Shorapore, with the Nizam's consent, under the control of the 
 British Resident. There was to be no Treaty, convention, or instru- 
 ment impeding total or partial restitution, or in any way impair- 
 ing the sovereign rights of the Nizam. It was to be little more 
 than a revival of the agency of English Superintendents intro- 
 duced by Sir Charles Metcalfe, and hastily relinquished in 1829 
 to please Rajah Chundoo Lall. 1 General Fraser's aim, as in his 
 previously defeated project for a model district under Mr. 
 Dighton,' 2 was that of establishing under his own guidance a 
 school of administration, which might gradually spread its influ- 
 ence over the whole country, and into the counsels of the State. 
 And these results he thought would be more easily, more effec- 
 tually, and more permanently readied and retained under the 
 elastic and considerate arrangements he suggested, than under 
 compulsion disguised as a Treaty. 
 
 1 Ante, p. 3G. 2 AntP ^ p . 21 9, 220.
 
 TEMPORARY MANAGEMENT. 373 
 
 It was towards a very large and, if possible, a complete exten- 
 sion of this plan of temporary tutelage and administrative educa- 
 tion, that General Fraser endeavoured at every fitting occasion 
 during his long tenure of the Residency, from the time of Lord 
 Auckland 1 down to that of Lord Dalhousie, to lead our Govern- 
 ment, but always without effect. His influence over both the 
 Nizam and the most powerful and capable nobles of his Court, 
 Sooraj-ool-Moolk and Shums-ool-Oomra, and their confidence in 
 his fair and beneficent intentions towards the Hyderabad State, 
 augmented in so manifest a manner after the lapse of the first few 
 years, that having entertained considerable doubts originally as to 
 the Nizam's free consent being ever given to a scheme of reform- 
 ing management, he became perfectly certain at last that he could 
 secure the consent of His Highness and the zealous co-operation 
 of his Minister. But that plan did not suit Lord Dalhousie. 
 
 The temporary assumption of districts having been dropped for 
 the time, the early months of 1852 were chiefly passed in an 
 unsatisfactory series of remonstrances and explanations between 
 the Resident and the Minister, with occasional references to the 
 Nizam himself, on the subject of " the very partial and imperfect 
 manner in which they were paying the arrears of the Contingent". 
 In a letter dated the 14th of May 1852, General Fraser once 
 more — though several times almost forbidden to renew the pro- 
 posal — wrote to the Government of India : — " I cannot hesitate to 
 repeat the opinion already offered on former occasions, that the 
 Nizam's Government possesses but little capacity or vigour, and 
 that if the Nizam is to be replaced in a position of honourable inde- 
 pendence among the Native Princes of India, this will never be 
 done otherwise than under temporary European management." 
 
 Some observations made by the Nizam on one or two occasions 
 about this period are somewhat interesting and significant, when 
 considered from the standpoint of the head of a State the relations 
 of which with our Government, and its comparative importance, 
 had been so remarkably modified by circumstances almost within 
 his own recollection. At a private interview with His Highness 
 on the 26th June 1852, the Resident complained that engagements 
 to pay the Contingent regularly, by the allotment of the revenues 
 of certain districts, had not been kept. 
 
 1 See p. 45.
 
 374 A ROYAL KETOKT. 
 
 " Instead of seeming to consider any apology necessary, the Nizam 
 entered upon, as he generally does at every interview I have with him, 
 a long explanation of the difficulties and disordered condition of 
 the State, which he dated from the time of Maharajah Chundoo Lall. 
 He spoke of these difficulties as being the cause of the deepest distress 
 to him, and observed that the condition of his country filled him with 
 grief. 
 
 "'Why, then,' I replied, ' does not your Highness immediately remove 
 the source of this grief by applying yourself with energy and vigour 
 to the relief of your financial embarrassments by the reduction of all 
 unnecessary expenditure, moi'e particularly of the Irregular troops, or 
 Tynatee Jamayut Force, costing, as it does, nearly twice as much as the 
 Contingent, and being absolutely worthless ? ' 
 
 " ' If your Highness,' I continued, 'is resolved to maintain a body of 
 Irregular troops, disband at least a considerable portion of the present 
 nominal force ; take means for assuring yourself that the remainder 
 are actually and in good faith kept up for the service of the State, and 
 let them be better clothed and disciplined than the wretched beings 
 who now pass under the name of soldiers.' 
 
 " The Minister here remarked to His Highness that, on entering the 
 precincts- of the Palace, I had stopped in front of the Battalion that 
 was drawn up there to salute me, and had expressed my astonishment 
 that the Nizam could permit such a miserable, ill- clad, and undisci- 
 plined rabble to mount guard near his Pala. 
 
 " Upon this, the Nizam, turning to me again, replied, ' These troops 
 are, as you say, worthless, and have not the clothing and discipline of 
 yours. But what can I do ? If I were to proceed to clothe, and dis- 
 cipline, and organise them more regularly, what would your Govern- 
 ment say, and what ideas would it entertain ?' 
 
 " I did not consider it necessary to press His Highness for the mean- 
 ing of this last remark." 
 
 On the 23rd of July, Captain Davidson, the Assistant Resident 
 (afterwards Colonel and Eesident), was informed by the Dewan 
 Sooraj-ool-Moolk of some remarkable observations lately made by 
 the Nizam. 
 
 " His Highness on several occasions lately had remarked to him, 
 when he pressed for money from His Highness's private treasury to 
 pay the Contingent, ' Don't be afraid — the British Government never 
 can take from me districts to pay troops I am not bound to support by 
 the Treaty.' The Nizam also told the Minister that it was his duty to 
 have the pension-list of the Contingent, amounting to nearly two lakhs of 
 rupees per annum, regulated, as it was not the custom of his Govern-
 
 "ABSTAIN FROM PRESSING." 375 
 
 ment to pension men belonging to foreign parts (Hindustan, as distin- 
 guished from the Deccan), not his own subjects, and who could gain 
 their own livelihood by agriculture and other pursuits, but to pension 
 women and old people who had no other means of gaining their sub- 
 sistence. 
 
 " The Nizam also remarked, ' I am aware that the days when my 
 alliance was useful or desirable to the British Government are well- 
 nigh at an end ; but I fully rely upon its* honour and good faith for the 
 performance of the different articles of the Treaties existing between 
 the two Governments'." 
 
 By this time there can be little doubt that Lord Dalhousie's 
 mind was made up to have the Berar Provinces by means of a 
 Treaty, for General Eraser had received a letter from the Govern- 
 ment of India, dated the 10th of April 1852, easily interpreted now, 
 under the light of subsequent events, but which was puzzling at 
 the time, in which the Resident was desired to make every arrange- 
 ment possible " for the regular pay of the Contingent, abstaining at 
 this moment from pressing for payment of the principal of the Com- 
 pany s debt." 
 
 The important letter from Lord.Dalhousie, to which our atten- 
 tion must now be turned, opens for the first time the question of a 
 Treaty, whereby the territorial assignment of the Nizam's best 
 provinces was to be obtained, and the Hyderabad Contingent con- 
 verted from its peculiar status, at once arbitrary and precarious, 
 into a permanent and recognised Force, available for our purposes 
 but paid by the Nizam. 
 
 " Government House, Calcutta, September 16th, 1852. 
 
 " Dear General Fraser, — The unfortunate interruption of many 
 important matters caused by the war in Burmah has prevented the 
 Government from dealing with the affairs of the Nizam, as, under more 
 favourable circumstances, it would have attempted to do. The state of 
 the Contingent, however, as represented in your despatches for months 
 past, is so unbecoming to the Government, and so unjust to the Force, 
 and the application of any remedy by the Nizam or his Minister appears 
 by your last despatch to be so hopeless, that however inconvenient the 
 measure may be, and however un propitious the time, a new effort must 
 be made by the Government of India for an adjustment of this long 
 vexed question. 
 
 "The two leading demands of the British Government in 1850 were, 
 payment of the debt due by the Nizam to the Government of India, 
 and security for the regular payment of the Contingent. These points,
 
 376 LOUD DALIIOUSrE 
 
 especially the fh-st, were urged with more severity than usual, on the 
 ground, justly taken, of the total indifference of the Nizam to his obli- 
 gations both towards this Govern m nt and the Contingent, and his 
 neglect of every duty necessary for the maintenance of his relations 
 with us. 
 
 " Under the pressure of these representations and demands, the 
 Nizam has undoubtedly done much, though by no means all that he 
 professed and promised, towards redeeming his obligations and resum- 
 ing the observance of his duties. He has paid up somewhere about 
 two-thirds of his debt, he has appointed a Minister, and he has made 
 plausible, though probably insincere, and certainly unperformed, pro- 
 mises for the reduction of his expenses, and for examination of the real 
 condition of his finances. 
 
 "On the other hand, he has not only palpably failed to meet our 
 second demand for the regular payment of the Contingent, but he has 
 endeavoured to repudiate his promise of setting apart certain specified 
 revenues for this purpose, and even to deny having made it. 
 
 " The consequence has been that the Contingent, even after your 
 recent payments from the British treasury, is.no less than five months 
 in arrears ; and the officers and men of the Force are shown, not by 
 your despatches only, but by private intelligence received here also, to 
 be in great straits and to be exposed to severe losses. The compliance 
 of the Nizam with the requirements of this Government, and his 
 appointment of a Minister, tardy though it was ; and the exertions he 
 has made, unquestionably at great pecuniary disadvantage, to pay our 
 debt, would dispose me to relax the peremptory strictness of our 
 demand for entire repayment. But, on the other hand, the total neglect 
 of what is a still more direct duty on his part, namely, the payment 
 to his Contingent, and the fresh violation of his promise to make per- 
 manent assignment of revenues exclusively fort-hat purpose, induce me 
 to resolve on pressing that point, and insisting upon a bondjide settle- 
 ment, one way or the other. 
 
 " I say ' one way or the other', because I am unable to concur with 
 you in the views you take, and which you have urged in a recent 
 despatch, of the Treaty obligation of the Nizam to maintain the Con- 
 tingent in its present form. 
 
 " The Government of India frequently speaks of the obligation to 
 maintain the Contingent imposed by Treaty, because for forty years the 
 Nizam has admitted practically the application of such an interpreta- 
 tion to the 12th Article of the Treaty of 1800. If, however, the Nizam 
 should turn round upon us, and deny the obligation existing by Treaty, 
 I am bound as a public man to say that I could not honestly argue that 
 there was any other warrant than that of practice for upholding the 
 Contingent. I could argue, and have argued, that His Highness's
 
 DEMANDS A TEE AT Y. 377 
 
 conduct has hitherto given that construction to the Treaty, and that 
 till it is rejected and'resisted, there is an obligation upon him to sup- 
 port properly the Force which, under that construction, he has allowed 
 us to organise : but if he were to take his stand upon the Treaty, I 
 could not argue that either the letter, or the spirit of it, bound the 
 Nizam to maintain 9,000 troops, of a peculiar and costly nature, in 
 peace, because it bound him to give 15,000 of his troops on the occur- 
 rence of war. 
 
 " The question cannot be allowed to remain any longer in a state of 
 uncertainty. The positive demand which must now be made upon 
 him to make satisfactory provision in our hands for the payment of the 
 Contingent, which he has heretofore consented to maintain, must 
 bring the question to a point. And whatever be the decision, effect 
 must be given to it by a formal instrument ; because we have seen 
 that neither the official assurances of the Minister, authorised to give 
 assurance, nor the personal word of the Sovereign, solemn and pledged, 
 will afford us any security for the performance of the promise which 
 they may ratify. 
 
 " The specific demand which we must make, supported by the 
 reasons to which I have adverted, is that the Contingent shall be put 
 upon a clear and secure footing by means of a Treaty, supplementary 
 to that of 1800, which must be concluded for the purpose. The 
 amount of the Contingent, its duties, etc., must be distinctly specified ; 
 and for its payment territory must be made over to the British 
 Government. This territory shall be assigned only, not made over in 
 sovereignty ; and it shall be on the same footing as the territories 
 assigned by Scindia in Gwalior in 1843, for the like purpose of main- 
 taining a Contingent. The actual territory to be assigned will probably 
 be those which the Government of India intimated its intention of 
 occupying unless the debt due to it should be liquidated. Power to 
 exercise the rights of government must, of course, be conveyed to us 
 within the ceded districts of the Nizam. 
 
 " On concluding this arrangement, the Government of India will 
 relinquish any further demands for the immediate payment of the 
 rest of the debt due to it. The Contingent shall be fully paid-up by 
 the British Government, on the part of the Nizam ; and the aggregate 
 sum, composed of this payment of arrears, together with the unliquidated 
 residue of debt, shall constitute a loan to the Nizam (either for a long 
 period or indefinitely), on which interest shall be paid as before, at the 
 rate of 6 per cent, per annum. 
 
 " The revenues of the ceded districts, after defraying expenses of 
 management, shall be applied (1st) to the payment of the Contingent 
 (2nd) to the payment of interest on the loan above-mentioned; (3rd) 
 to the smaller payments annually due ; (4th) the surplus, if any, to be
 
 378 POSSESSION 
 
 paid over to the Nizam, for whose information and satisfaction the 
 accounts of the ceded districts sball annually be submitted by the 
 Government of India. 
 
 "An assurance shall further be given to His Highness that the ex- 
 penses of the Contingent shall, as opportunity offers, be reduced to 
 the lowest sum consistent with the maintenance in full efficiency of 
 the Force he may name. 
 
 "The Nizam, in his official communications with you, as the repre- 
 sentative of the British Government, during last year, formally stated 
 that he wished the Contingent to be maintained. He even stipulated 
 for its maintenance at its full present force, as the only condition on 
 which he would consent to effect those reductions in the other troops 
 of his State, which, for his own sake, we have urged him to make. 
 
 " His interest must strongly urge him to uphold the only Force in 
 any degree at his disposal in whose discipline and fidelity he can place 
 the smallest reliance. The terms we propose for his adoption are per- 
 fectly just, moderate, and usual. They provide for no more than the 
 maintenance of the number of troops for which he stipulates, on the 
 most economical footing which maybe compatible with their efficiency; 
 and the assignment of lands for the payment of the force is not an 
 alienation of sovereignity, but a cession of management made for his 
 own behoof, just as it was lately made for the neighbouring State of 
 Gwalior. 
 
 " In short, if the Nizam be sincere in the expression of his wishes, 
 and at all reasonable as to the mode of executing them, he can make 
 no objections to a proposal which is so obviously favourable to his 
 interests. 
 
 " But unfortunately we have had many proofs that the Nizam cannot 
 be depended upon as either reasonable or sincere. 
 
 "Notwithstanding, therefore, the formal declaration in 1851 of his 
 wishes for the maintenance of the Contingent, he may be so insincere 
 as to repudiate that wish now, as he has lately attempted to repudiate 
 his promise made at the same time for the assignment of specific 
 revenues for its payment. He may take his stand on the actual 
 Treaty, and deny his obligation to uphold the Contingent it its present 
 form, \\ ben he sees it about to be permanently established in that form. 
 He may be so unreasonable as (while willing to render the Contingent 
 permanent) to object to the assignment of territory for its payment, 
 though this is essential to its permanency. 
 
 " If he shall do so, the question will become more grave than 
 it has ever yet been. At this moment I do not wish to commit 
 myself to any declaration as to the course the Government of India 
 would, under such circumstances, feel itself called upon to take. 
 But, assuming that the Government should resolve to admit his re-
 
 BY FORCE. 379 
 
 pudiation of the Contingent (whatever it may think of the conduct of 
 a Prince who could act so dishonestly), still the Contingent must be 
 provided for at the present moment, and for some time to come. For, 
 assuming that the Treaty does not impose upon the Nizam the obli- 
 gation to keep up the Contingent, he and his predecessors have for 
 forty years continued to do so. They have raised a numerous army, to 
 whom, in a certain degree, the right of pension has been granted, and 
 for whose proper treatment the faith of the British Government, by 
 whose officers the Contingent is commanded, has been pledged. The 
 Nizam cannot be permitted to disband this army at once, and to turn 
 its soldiers loose upon the country. Such an act would be inconsistent 
 either with justice to the troops, or with the tranquillity of the 
 country. 
 
 " If, then, the Nizam should refuse to give his consent to the con- 
 tinuance of the Contingent, provision must still be made for its main- 
 tenance, while it is in the course of being gradually absorbed with a 
 view to its ultimate extinction. For that purpose an assignment of 
 territory will be as indispensable as in the other case. The Nizam 
 must be prepared to give it: if he refuses, the British Government 
 will not submit to such an outrage upon all justice, and will take 
 temporary possession of the territories by force, for the purposes already 
 indicated. 
 
 " In case of a refusal by the Nizam of the proposals regarding the 
 Contingent, the Government of India cannot be expected to treat H.H. 
 with any indulgence, and the demand for the liquidation of the residue 
 of the debt will not be relaxed. 
 
 " Having thus sketched to you the outline of those measures which 
 the Government of India feels itself obliged to adopt towards the 
 Nizam, I wish to be favoured with your opinion as to the probability or 
 otherwise of our obtaining His Highness's consent to them ; and to invite 
 any suggestions which you might wish to offer as to the most eligible 
 mode of proceeding with a view to ensure success. 
 
 " Being aware of your views regarding the hopelessness of any 
 measure for bettering the condition of the Nizam's dominions, which 
 does not include the assumption of their management by the British 
 Government, and thinking it likely that you may be disposed to urge 
 some attempt being made to accomplish that end now, in connection 
 with the adjustment of the Contingent, I think it right to add that 
 my own opinion, as well as that of the Council, is wholly opposed to 
 such a policy, and that, therefore, it need not be mooted on this occa- 
 sion. 
 
 "The arrears of the Contingent should not be allowed again to 
 increase beyond the point to which you reduced it by the last payment.
 
 380 GENERAL PHASER'S 
 
 Your instructions authorise you to take Steps for preventing their 
 doing so. 
 
 " Requesting a reply as early as you may be able to give it, 
 
 " I beg to remain, yours very truly, 
 
 " Dalhousie." 
 
 To this important letter General Fraser returned without delay 
 a reply, which appears to me to be equally important for the his- 
 torical and for the personal purposes of this Memoir. 
 
 " Hyderabad, 29th September 1852. 
 
 "My Lord, — I have had the honour to receive your Lordship's con- 
 fidential letter of the 16th instant, to which I hasten to reply. This 
 letter refers almost exclusively to certain measures which, in your 
 Lordship's opinion, it has become necessary to adopt for the purpose of 
 ensuring the future regular payment of the Contingent, consequent on 
 the failure, and even disavowal, of the Nizam's promise to set apart 
 certain districts of which the revenues were to be appropriated to this 
 specific object. 
 
 "Adverting to the Nizam's debt to the British Government on 
 account of the sums already advanced by us for the pay of the Con- 
 tingent, your Lordship observes 'that the violation of his promise with 
 regard to the permanent assignment of revenue for the dischai'ge of the 
 monthly demands of the Contingent, has induced you to resolve on 
 pressing this point, and insisting upon a bond fide settlement. 
 
 " I have never, to the best of my I'ecollection, urged in any of my 
 despatches that the Nizam was bound by treaty to maintain the Con- 
 tingent in its present form, though I have observed that he was bound 
 by treaty to maintain an available Force of much greater magnitude, 
 and involving a much more onerous burden upon his State than the 
 maintenance of the Contingent, yet with few or none of its advantages. 
 I have spoken of the Nizam's voluntary maintenance of the Contingent 
 as the alternative to an obligatory and absolute stipulation by which 
 we might insist upon his abiding, if he preferred doing so rather than 
 maintain the Contingent. I have never offered my opinion as to any 
 obligation to maintain the Contingent being imposed by Treaty, because 
 I am well aware that the Treaty expresses no such stipulation ; but it 
 has appeared to me that if the Nizam chose to reject the option of 
 maintaining the Contingent, we had then every right to insist on a 
 Force of 9,000 Cavalry and 0,000 Infantry being maintained for the 
 purposes of eventual war, I know well that this last mentioned Force, 
 undisciplined and irregularly organised, would never in any case prove 
 of much service; but I keep in view this stipulated obligation of the 
 Nizam as a fair and legitimate set-off and counteraction to any attempt
 
 LAST REPLY. 381 
 
 ho might meditate to rid himself of the expense of the Contingent. 
 Your Lordship's argument in support of the Nizam's obligation to 
 maintain the Contingent is founded upon the fact that for forty years 
 he has practically admitted the application of such an interpretation 
 of the 12th Article of the Treaty of 1800. To this reasoning I express 
 no dissent, because the general tenor of your letter does not appear to 
 sanction, and still less to encourage, the tender of my own personal 
 opinions when they chance to be opposed to those of the Government 
 of India. But when your Lordship proceeds to observe that the 
 Nizam's consent has hitherto been given to this construction of the 
 Treaty, I may be permitted to remark that the consent, if given at all, 
 has been but a tacit one ; for, as far as I am aware or can recollect, His 
 Highness never expressed any direct judgment in favour of the main- 
 tenance of the Contingent until he did so in my interview with him in 
 October 1850, which was immediately afterwards reported to 'Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 " The ultimate consequence or result of the two several points of 
 view in which your Lordship and myself regard this question is this : 
 that by the former the Nizam is virtually relieved from the obligations 
 of the 12th Article of the Treaty of 1800, without any corresponding 
 or equivalent compensation to us in lieu of it, for your Lordship admits 
 that he might insist on the gradual a'bsorption and final extinction of 
 the Contingent ; whereas by the latter, in which I consider him under 
 an obligation to maintain the Force referred to in the 12th Article of 
 the Treaty, he is bound in justice, if it does not suit his purpose and 
 the state of his finances to maintain that large Force, to accede at least 
 to the equivalent we propose in the existence of the Contingent as at 
 present organised. 
 
 " I consider this so clear, that in the agreement now about to be 
 framed, I would expressly relieve him from the stipulation of the 12th 
 Article of the Treaty of 1800, substituting the Contingent in lieu 
 of it, to remain as a permanent Force for the ordinary duties of the 
 Nizam's country, and applicable to our own purposes in the event of 
 our requiring it elsewhere. 
 
 "I concur in the justice of your Lordship's remark, that until His 
 Highness's assent to the existence of the Contingent is denied, and its 
 further maintenance resisted by him, he is under an obligation to 
 support the Force which he has thus allowed us to organise. Tour 
 Lordship's opinion, then, with regard to the Nizam's obligation to 
 maintain the Contingent, at least for the present, upon whatever train 
 of reasoning that opinion may be formed, being clear and decided, you 
 have resolved to leave this question no longer in doubt, but to proceed 
 immediately to determine those measures which are considered neces-
 
 382 GENERAL FItASEIt'S 
 
 sary to ensure the regular pay of the Contingent in future, and to 
 define at the same time its number, amount of pay, duties, etc., etc. 
 
 " The measure which your Lordship proposes to take with this view 
 is that a portion of territory shall be assigned on the same footing as 
 territories were assigned by Scindia in 1843, for the like pui*pose of 
 maintaining a Contingent ; and your Lordship adds that the actual 
 territories to be so assigned will probably be those which the Govern- 
 ment of India formerly intimated its intention of occupying until the 
 debt then due by the Nizam to the Company should be liquidated. It 
 is also understood that power to exercise the rights of government 
 within the ceded territories must be conveyed to us by His Highness 
 the Nizam. 
 
 "Your Lordship states that on concluding this arrangement the 
 Government of India will relinquish any further demand for the imme- 
 diate payment of the remainder of the debt due. The Contingent will 
 be fully paid up by the British Government on the part of the Nizam ; 
 and the aggregate sum composed of this payment of the arrears of the 
 Contingent, together with the unliquidated residue of debt, shall con- 
 stitute a loan (either for a long period or indefinitely), on which 
 interest shall be paid as before at the rate of six per cent, per annum. 
 The revenues of the ceded districts, after defraying expenses of manage- 
 ment, are to be applied, first, to the payment of the Contingent ; secondly, 
 to the payment of interest on the debt and further loan above men- 
 tioned ; thirdly, to the smaller payments annually due ; and fourthly, 
 the surplus, if any, will be paid over to the Nizam, for whose informa- 
 tion and satisfaction the accounts of the ceded districts will annually be 
 submitted by the Government of India. 
 
 " An assurance is further to be given to His Highness that the 
 expenses of the Contingent shall, as opportunity offers, be reduced to 
 the lowest sum consistent with the maintenance in full efficiency of the 
 Force he may name. 
 
 " Your Lordship proceeds to observe that the terms thus proposed 
 for the Nizam's adoption are perfectly just, moderate, and usual ; and 
 you express an opinion that if the Nizam is sincere in the expression of 
 his wishes, and at all reasonable as to the mode of executing them, he 
 can make no objections to a proposal which is so obviously favourable 
 to his interests. 
 
 " If, however, the Nizam should refuse to give his consent to this 
 arrangement, and to the continuance of the Contingent, your Lordship 
 observes that provision must still be made for its maintenance, while 
 it is in the course of being gradually absorbed with a view to its ulti- 
 mate extinction, for which purpose an assignment of territory will be 
 as indispensable as in the other case, and that this arrangement will be 
 enforced upon the Nizam if he does not voluntarily accede to it.
 
 LAST REPLY. 383 
 
 " Tour Lordship concludes by desiring my opinion as to the pro- 
 bability or otherwise of our obtaining the Nizam's consent to these 
 measui'es, and any suggestions are invited, which I may wish to offer, 
 as to the most eligible mode of proceeding with a view to ensure 
 success. 
 
 " To the fact of the arrangements above proposed being just and 
 moderate, as far as regards merely our own interests, and the obliga- 
 tions under which I have acknowleged that I consider the Nizam to 
 be placed, I fully assent ; but if it be desired that I express an explicit 
 and straightforward opinion upon the subject, I cannot allow it to 
 be limited and circumscribed by this simple and exclusive view of the 
 case. As regards ourselves, the justice of this proposed arrangement 
 cannot be impugned ; but as regards the Nizam, I consider it to involve 
 his certain ruin, and the utter extinction of his power as an indepen- 
 dent Sovereign. I am not now going to renew any suggestion for our 
 proposing to the Nizam to cede to us the temporary management of 
 the whole of his country, since your Lordship acquaints me that this 
 is so entirely opposed to the views and policy of the Government of 
 India ; and therefore, without proceeding so far as to suggest any other 
 course of procedure in substitution of, or in addition to, that which 
 your Lordship has decided, I will confine myself on the present occa- 
 sion to a slight sketch of the consequences to the Ni%am which this 
 arrangement must involve, and of the opposition therefore which I 
 think His Highness will be likely to offer to it. 
 
 "A very large, and probably the greatest part of that territory which 
 we are now proposing to bring under our management, belongs to 
 Arab Chiefs, and other powerful Talookdars, most of whom have such 
 large outstanding demands upon the Nizam's Government, — on account 
 either of nuzzeranas exacted from them for their investiture, which 
 they will allege has not yet been reimbursed to them 'from the profit of 
 their districts ; or of territorial revenue forestalled and actually paid 
 by them to the Government, — that although I do not contemplate the 
 probability of their offering any armed opposition to the British 
 Government in regard to the surrender of their Talooks, yet I 
 cannot but anticipate that, their resources and means of repaying them- 
 selves being thus at once cut off, their pressure upon the Nizam's Govern- 
 ment will be such as rapidly to accelerate that bankruptcy which, if it 
 has not yet been actually declared, is certainly impending. 
 
 " It is not my opinion that any circumstances whatever in which the 
 Nizam could be placed would induce him to offer any actual resistance 
 to the absolute demands or injunctions of the British Government. 
 But I think we might expect from him that passive resistance which 
 would consist in his refusing any formal cession to us of the required
 
 384 PASSIVE RESISTANCE PROBABLE. 
 
 districts, while at the same time he would allow us to adopt our own 
 means for taking possession of them if we chose to do so. 
 
 " The character of the Nizam is such that it is impossible to foresee 
 with any certainty to what line of conduct it would prompt him in any 
 given case, but 1 have stated what I think it would probably be in the 
 matter now in question. He has a great deal of ancestral and dynastic 
 pride ; and this, with the self-complacent retrospect in which he fre- 
 quently indulges, as to the advantage which his alliance has proved 
 to the British Government in past years, and an anticipation of the 
 increased difficulties in which he will be involved by the claims of 
 those who, under our management of his territory, must necessarily be 
 removed from their lucrative offices and situations, will, I think, con- 
 stitute altogether a powerful motive for his resisting our proposal as 
 far as he can do so, and endeavouring to stave off what he will regard 
 as a great calamity and degradation, by promises and protracted 
 negotiations and the temporary expedients he may have recourse to, 
 either by making, at the last moment, a payment in liquidation of our 
 demands from his own private treasures, if he possesses them (upon 
 which latter point no one here pretends to possess any certain inform- 
 ation), or by exacting a loan from the Nobles and other Chiefs of the 
 State by impressing upon their minds that his ultimate downfall must 
 be accompanied # by their ruin also. 
 
 " I have spoken above of the necessary removal of Talookdars and 
 others when their districts are brought under our management ; and 
 the Government will judge of the extent of that necessity, when it 
 adverts to the description I have frequently had occasion to give of the 
 mode in which these Talookdars administer the affairs of their 
 districts ; residing for the most part in the city of Hyderabad, deeply 
 engaged in pecuniary transactions with the Nizam's Minister and 
 others, maintaining their personal interests by extensive bribery, and 
 ruling their distant Talooks by an inferior class of Naibs, whose 
 misconduct and oppression form a frequent source of complaint on the 
 part of the Ryots and other inhabitants of the country. 
 
 " The general purport of what I would say is this, that although I 
 think we have an abstract right, as far as we are ourselves exclusively 
 concerned, to propose to the Nizam the arrangements which your 
 Lordship is now contemplating, we ought not to shut our eyes to what 
 appears likely to be the certain consequence of those arrangements to 
 the Nizam, if they are proposed to him in their present bare and isolated 
 form, without our recommending to him at the same time other 
 coincident measures, and aiding to give them effect, which would 
 counteract and avert the evils to which I have referred as the prohablc 
 and almost, certain result that will otherwise ensue. 
 
 " With respect to the most eligible mode of proceeding with a view
 
 HINT AS TO HARD WORDS. 385 
 
 to ensure success, in the event of your Lordship determining on those 
 measures which form the subject of your letter, it appears to me thab 
 the means most likely to influence the Nizam, and to render his 
 acquiescence probable, is that your Lordship should personally address 
 him a letter, stating plainly and explicitly the grounds of your present 
 procedure, and furnish me at the same time, for presentation to His 
 Highness, or previous discussion with the Minister, a draft of the 
 instrument which you would propose to be mutually concluded between 
 the British Government and His Highness. Your Lordship's letter to 
 the Nizam, 1 think, should be expressed in the most distinct and 
 determined but, of course, courteous language. The more decided 
 and resolute its tone, consistently with that friendly feeling which 
 subsists, and should be understood to continue to subsist, between the 
 two Governments, the more likely it will be to ensure the Nizam's 
 assent, and to prevent those attempts which he will otherwise be sure 
 to put in practice, to evade your demands, or at least to render them 
 the subject of a protracted negotiation. The language of the letter 
 cannot be too decided and definitive, provided it affords the Nizam no 
 room to complain of unnecessary severity and harshness, or exhibits 
 an apparent intention of coercing him merely because we possess the 
 power of doing so. 
 
 " The agreement, or other formal "instrument, by whatever name it 
 may be designated, cannot, I think, be better or more judiciously 
 worded than in the manner which your Lordship appears to have in 
 view. After an explanatory preamble, which the circumstances of the 
 case naturally require, the provisions of the instrument should be 
 plain, distinct, and specific, leaving no room for subsequent doubt or 
 uncertainty, and precluding, as far as possible, every chance of future 
 misunderstanding, or any necessity for reagitating the same questions 
 which ought at once and at first to have been definitely settled. 
 
 " I refrain from touching on the future organisation of the Con- 
 tingent, and those modifications of its present system which may 
 seem desirable, until I receive the instructions of your Lordship to this 
 effect. 
 
 " I remain, my Lord, with great respect, 
 
 " Your very faithful and obedient servant, 
 
 " J. S. Fraser. 
 "To the Most Noble the Marquis of Dalhousie, K.T., etc., etc." 
 
 From the first of these two long letters, that of Lord Dalhousie, 
 we find that the Governor-General, about a year after having 
 impressed upon the Nizam, in June 1851, in vehement and 
 menacing language, that the Contingent existed, and must be 
 
 c c
 
 386 "practice" and "orders". 
 
 maintained, by virtue of the obligations of a Treaty, had already 
 learned that this assertion was untenable. "I am bound as a public 
 man to say", he acknowledges in September 1852, " that I could 
 not honestly argue that there was any other warrant than that of 
 practice for upholding the Contingent." 
 
 He makes the most of the " practice", and of the long-continued 
 acquiescence of the Nizam's Government ; and he dwells again on 
 the Nizam's alleged " wish that the Contingent should be main- 
 tained" — that "official consent" which had been so eagerly wel- 
 comed at Calcutta, 
 
 " He even stipulated", the Governor-General writes, " for its 
 maintenance at its full present force, as the only condition on 
 which he would consent to effect reductions in the other troops of 
 his State." 1 This version of the contents of Sooraj-ool-Moolk's 
 note is by no means borne out by the mere words ; while, as already 
 remarked, the true significance of the incident was that the 
 domineering decree of June 1851 had forced the Nizam to sub- 
 scribe to the false creed that the Contingent was the offspring of 
 a Treaty, a sacred institution on which depended " the stability of 
 his throne", and which must be kept up "in conformity with 
 orders". 2 In his own council chamber, as we know, the Nizam 
 declared he was " not bound by Treaty to support these troops", 
 but after the Khureeta of June 1851, he felt himself effectually 
 silenced on that subject in his intercourse with the Governor- 
 General. 
 
 Lord Dalhousie's great and well-founded anxiety was, as he lets 
 us know at every turn, lest the Nizam should " take his stand on 
 the actual Treaty and deny his obligation to uphold the Contingent 
 in its present form, when he sees it about to be permanently esta- 
 blished in that form". 3 
 
 So long as he really believed in the Treaty obligation, he was 
 i content with a friendly co-partnership in the mortgaged districts, 
 ; as designed by General Eraser. But when he lost that moral 
 ( claim he grasped at more material security. Having convinced 
 himself that he had unwarrantably threatened the Nizam under 
 the untenable pretext of a Treaty, Lord Dalhousie left that un- 
 tenable pretext and those unwarrantable threats to operate 
 .unchanged, until he could efface the Haw, and bind the Nizam 
 
 ^.Ante, p. 378. 2 Ante, p. 370. c Ante, p. 378.
 
 "your lordship's resolve." 387 
 
 with that Treaty obligation which had hitherto been confessedly a 
 mere pretence. Recognising at last the defective and precarious 
 title of the Contingent, he determined to make it valid by a 
 Treaty, and thus to have that " inexpensive addition to our 
 strength", as Lord Hastings called it, " put upon a clear and 
 secure footing", and "permanently established". And as Lord 
 Dalhousie had the giant's strength, and was prepared to use it, the 
 Nizam had to submit. That is the whole story of the Treaty of 
 1853. 
 
 With what reluctance, under what a painful sense of official 
 subordination, General Fraser once more approached this problem 
 under its new aspect of a Treaty to be imposed on the Nizam, is 
 quite evident even in the guarded and measured language of his 
 answer to Lord Dalhousie. He refers throughout to " your Lord- 
 ship's opinion", and " your Lordship's resolve". 
 
 " I have never", he says, " to the best of my recollection, urged 
 in any of my despatches that the Nizam was bound by Treaty to 
 maintain the Contingent in its present form." 
 
 " Your Lordship's argument in support of the Nizam's obligation to 
 maintain the Contiugent is founded upon the fact that for forty years 
 he has practically admitted such an interpretation of the 12th Article 
 of the Treaty of 1800. To this reasoning I express no dissent, because 
 the general tenor of your letter does not appear to sanction, and still 
 less to encourage, the tender of my own personal opinions, when they 
 chance to be opposed to those of the Government of India. But when 
 your Lordship proceeds to observe that the Nizam's consent has hitherto 
 been given to this construction of the Treaty, I may be permitted to 
 remark that the consent, if given at all, has been but a tacit one ; for, 
 as far as I am aware, or can recollect, His Highness never expressed 
 any direct judgment in favour of the maintenance of the Contingent 
 until he did so in October 1850, Avhich was immediately afterwards 
 reported to Government." 
 
 This refers to the private interview, described in its proper place, 
 when the Nizam spoke of the repeated injunctions on this point of 
 Eajah Chundoo Lall. 1 
 
 When Colonel Low, during the negotiations for the Treaty of 
 1853, pressed upon the Nizam Lord Dalhousie's argument of his 
 having " practically acquiesced" for so many years in the main- 
 tenance of this Force, he added : " Moreover, your father thought it 
 
 1 Ante, p. 315. 
 
 C C 2
 
 388 HIS HIGHNESS'S CONSENT. 
 
 a good arrangement, and therefore he consented to it." " I was 
 here interrupted", says Colonel Low, " by the following exclama- 
 tion, 'Don't say myj.father, say the Maharajah.' T asked if he 
 meant Rajah Chundoo Lall, and he replied in the affirmative." 1 
 "Whenever the Nizam'spoke of Chundoo Lall in this connection, he 
 obviously meant that the Maharajah was considered by him in 
 these matters as the mouthpiece of the Honourable Company, and 
 that, therefore, the Contingent was, in his eyes, inviolable. He 
 had been brought up in that belief, and Lord Dalhousie had 
 sternly checked the slightest deviation from it. 
 
 General Fraser had, at several previous periods, had occasion to 
 report officially that the Nizam viewed the Contingent " with dis- 
 like", that he paid it " reluctantly", that he " would most willingly 
 get rid of the heavy expense it involved", and that he was "averse" 
 to it. The General had, also, officially given his opinion that 
 " neither the continued maintenance nor the original organisation 
 of the Contingent is " provided for by an} T existing Treaty".' 2 
 
 In reply to the Governor-General's inquiry as to "the probability 
 or otherwise of our obtaining His Highness's consent " to the 
 assignment of districts under Treaty, General Fraser gave his 
 opinion that the Nizam would "not offer any actual resistance to 
 the absolute demands or injunctions of the British Government", 
 but that we might expect " that passive resistance which would 
 consist in his refusing any formal cession of the districts, while he 
 would allow us to adopt our own measures for taking possession 
 of them, if we chose to do so." 
 
 It is worthy, also, of notice that in the last paragraph but one 
 of his letter, while suggesting that Lord Dalhousie should address 
 another letter to the Nizam, the Resident advises that it "should 
 be expressed in the most distinct ami determined, but, of course, 
 courteous language", and again, that "the language of the letter 
 cannot be too decided, 'provided it affords the Nizam no room to 
 complain of unnecessary severity and harshness, or exhibit* an 
 apparent intention of coercing him merely because we ^>ossess the 
 power of doing so." 
 
 This was a pretty clear hint that General Fraser did not admire 
 such diplomatic amenities as telling the Nizam that he was as 
 "the dust under foot", and could easily be crushed into nothing- 
 
 i Nizam's Debt (-118 of 1854), p. 95. - Ante, pp. 90, 94, 16. r >.
 
 A BANK PROJECTED. 389 
 
 ness, and that he^did not recommend their repetition. Such pre- 
 sumption on his part, joined with his forecast as to passive re- 
 sistance, which subsequent events proved to be very accurate, and 
 with his evident distaste for "negotiations" that might be "pro- 
 tracted"', unquestionably placed General Fraser before the eyes of 
 Lord Dalhousie as not the most flexible instrument or the best 
 possible agent for the stern and prompt execution of the process 
 on which the Governor-General was now quite determined. It is 
 understood that very soon after the General's last letter was re- 
 ceived at Government House, it was arranged that Colonel Low 
 was to succeed to the Hyderabad Presidency as soon as it could be 
 vacated. 
 
 An opportunity can always be found, or fabricated, in the course 
 of official business, for giving a hint, even to an officer so highly 
 placed and so distinguished as General Fraser, that he is no longer 
 looked upon with favour, and that his resignation would be 
 acceptable. 
 
 Great efforts were made in the year 1852 by a syndicate of the 
 leading Soucars of Hyderabad, under the chairmanship of Air. 
 Dighton, and with the Minister *Sooraj-ool-Moolk heartily co- 
 operating with them, to establish a Government Bank in the City, 
 which was to become a public treasury for the receipt and dis- 
 bursement of revenue, and to supersede entirely the antiquated 
 financial system. So many of the intended shareholders and 
 directors of this Bank were interested in maintaining the terri- 
 torial and political integrity of the Hyderabad State, and in the 
 establishment of an effectual check on provincial expenditure and 
 remittances, that it was worth their while to arrange for lending 
 money to the Nizam at a much lower rate than the usurious 
 interest that had hitherto prevailed. The capital was fully sub- 
 scribed, and a loan of forty lakhs of rupees, at six per cent., on the 
 security of a large portion of His Highness's jewels, was speedily 
 arranged, and was to have been devoted to the liquidation of the 
 debt claimed by the Honourable Company on account of the Con- 
 tingent. The jewels were actually received in pledge, and placed 
 in Mr. Dighton's charge. 
 
 General Fraser, whose intimacy with Mr. Dighton has been 
 mentioned, was generally informed of the endeavours that were 
 being made to start the Bank, and was even consulted as to some
 
 390 THE BANK 
 
 points in its proposed organisation. But he took no part whatever 
 in its formation, and the experiment seemed to him, up to the very- 
 day of its local success, very mil i lady to succeed. Any premature 
 interference on the part of the Resident, or of the Government, 
 would, in the event of failure, have strengthened the opposition 
 against the Minister, and would have wrecked this last scheme for 
 rescuing the Nizam's Government from its difficulties without a 
 territorial cession. When, however, the local success of the under- 
 taking was assured, the Resident was informed officially by the 
 Minister of what had been done, and, as a proof of the Bank being 
 a reality, he declared that he should be prepared on a certain day 
 to pay forty lakhs of rupees as an instalment of the debt. But 
 Sooraj-ool-Moolk and the Hyderabad Syndicate had reckoned 
 without their host. Lord Dalhousie had made up his mind to 
 have the Berars. He had already told the Resident to " abstain 
 from pressing for payment of the debt." 1 General Fraser's report 
 of the proposed Bank was received by the Governor-General with 
 uncpaalin'ed disapproval and displeasure. He would have none of 
 it. Such a financial combination, involving, if the Governor- 
 General understood rightly the* information given him, " the lend- 
 ing of money by a British subject to a Native Prince", " without 
 the consent and approbation of the Court of Directors of the East 
 India Company, or of the Governor in Council of one of the 
 Governments in India", would be contrary to the spirit and the 
 letter of an Act of Parliament, viz., 37 George III, chapter 142, 
 section 28. The consent assumed to be necessary Lord Dalhousie 
 would not give. 2 On the contrary, the Resident was desired to 
 send immediate and full information as to the persons under whose 
 direction the Bank was being organised, and was instructed that in 
 the event of any one of them being a European, the Hyderabad 
 Government would be forbidden, under Article VI of the Treaty 
 of 1798, to give him any employment, or " to permit him to remain 
 within its territories". And so Mr. Dighton was for the second 
 time proscribed, 3 and even threatened with deportation. This was 
 a death-blow for the Bank, and threw alarm and confusion into 
 
 1 Ante, p. 375. 
 
 2 It was very doubtful whether this consent was really required, but there 
 Avas no contending against the Governor-General's political and executive 
 power. 3 Ante, pp. 220, 221.
 
 WRECKED. 391 
 
 every comer of the Palace and the City. Everything had been 
 founded, and everything depended, on the confidence placed in 
 Mr. Dighton's financial capacity and integrity at the head of the 
 new undertaking, and also to some extent on the credit of his good 
 relations with the Eesidency and the Government. All the scaf- 
 folding of the frail structure fell down at once. On every side 
 there was doubt, distrust, and panic. Some of the cash was inter- 
 cepted and impounded. The Nizam, very naturally indignant at 
 his disappointment, and filled with doubts as to the destiny of his 
 jewels, retained a great part of the money intended for the pay- 
 ment of debt. All who were concerned or interested in the abor- 
 tive Bank saw nothing before them more hopeful than complicated 
 litigation in a locality where the judicial institutions were far from 
 satisfactory. There were even wild and inconsistent rumours 
 abroad, now that the Nizam would repudiate the pledge and seize 
 his jewels, now that, as they were beyond the precincts of the 
 Palace, the Governor-General would claim to have a lien on 
 them. 
 
 Although all has now been told relating to the proposed Bank 
 of Hyderabad that occurred up to the time of General Fraser's 
 resignation, a few words must be added to complete this episode. 
 General Fraser had gone, and there was an interregnum for a few 
 weeks under his Assistant, Major Davidson, until the arrival of 
 his successor, Colonel Low. Consternation spread among those 
 who had contributed to the capital of the Bank in reliance on 
 the influence and management of Mr. Dighton. They could not 
 believe that the Government of India had really forbidden a 
 voluntary association for so beneficial a purpose. They suspected 
 that there was a fraudulent design somewhere to deprive them of 
 their money. And even those who were the best informed knew 
 that their funds and their security were in great jeopardy. The 
 Minister could do nothing more. Mr. Dighton, whose conduct 
 and reputation had sustained the whole concern, was beset and 
 literally besieged for some days. In order that the large sum of 
 money already advanced should not be lost to its proprietors, or 
 to say the least, the payment of principal and interest deferred 
 to an indefinite date — it was requisite to act promptly. The jewels 
 were deposited at the house of Mr. Dighton's right-hand man, 
 Mohammed Azim Ali Khan, in the Chudderghaut Bazar, on the
 
 -1392 BONEST THIMBLEB1G 
 
 road to the Residency., outside the City walls. They were under 
 the charge of a double guard of Arabs and Rohillas, and there 
 were three locks to the coffer, of which three different interested 
 parties kept the keys. Mr. Dighton declared himself to be under 
 the necessity of going to Madras, partly on business, partly for 
 change of air, as he was out of health, and suggested that before 
 his departure the jewels had better be examined and compared 
 with the catalogue attached to the mortgage-deed. A committee 
 of the shareholders was appointed for this purpose, and so ela- 
 borate w r ere the checks and counterchecks under which the 
 scrutiny was performed, that each tray of the jewel-chest in suc- 
 cession was carefully restored to its place perfectly empty in the 
 inner chamber, after the Committee had verified and passed its 
 contents as correct in the outer apartment. A pair of jack-boots 
 .and a pith helmet formed the simple apparatus employed in a 
 fconveyancing process worthy of Robert Houdin. The strong-box 
 with its three locks remained under the double guard of Arabs 
 and Rohillas ; while Mr. Dighton proceeded to Madras, without 
 an escort, carrying half of the jewels in his own palanquin ; the 
 apothecary in attendance on him having unconscious charge of the 
 other half — worth about a quarter of a million sterling — in a box 
 labelled " medical comforts". 
 
 No news of the flitting was given to the Minister until the 
 
 precious deposit was well across the Kistna River, within British 
 
 territory, when a letter was despatched to Hyderabad. Every one 
 
 concerned, the Nizam included, had still perfect confidence in the 
 
 probity of Mr. Dighton. The jewels were shipped to England, 
 
 where Mr. Dighton, also, very soon proceeded. In the meantime 
 
 the Berar Provinces were assigned under the Treaty of 1853, and 
 
 the Minister, Sooraj-ool-Moolk died. One of the first objects of 
 
 his nephew and successor in office, the Nawab Salar Jung, was to 
 
 redeem the State jewels, and he opened a correspondence with 
 
 Mr. Dighton. The jewels were then in Holland, and a contract 
 
 for their sale, under the powers conferred by the Nizam's bond, 
 
 was very nearly completed. Salar Jung immediately found the 
 
 means to pay the large sum due for interest, and by the end of 
 
 1854 the principal sum was discharged, and the jewels restored to 
 
 the strong-room in the Nizam's Palace. This transaction, whereby 
 
 the young Minister kept faith with those who had come forward
 
 STRAINED RELATIONS. 393 
 
 at a great crisis to help the Nizam — without avail, fjom no fault 
 
 of theirs — was the first of a series of measures which speedily 
 gained him the confidence of his Sovereign, of the financial com- 
 munity, and of the British Government, 
 
 The utter failure of the Bank project, through Lord Dalhousie's 
 arbitrary prohibition, the consequent panic and confusion in the 
 local money market, and the temporary abstraction — justifiable 
 though it was — of such a large quantity of the Palace jewels, left 
 the Nizam quite helpless, without cash, credit, or security, to meet 
 the peremptory pressure of Colonel Low — enforced as his Assistant 
 and successor, Colonel Davidson, said, by " objurgations and 
 threats" 1 — for a territorial assignment under treaty. 
 
 The Governor-General's veto on the Bank, and his evident dis- 
 pleasure at the Resident's toleration of that enterprise, was one 
 more sign, which General Fraser could not misunderstand, that his 
 relations with Lord Dalhousie were becoming strained. But 
 another source of disagreement had, also, been opened for some 
 time, and came to a climax in September 1852. 
 
 It may be remembered that in a letter that has already been 
 given, dated 30th September 1851, General Fraser had briefly 
 informed Lord Dalhousie of " a disagreeable state of things in the 
 5th Nizam's Cavalry at Aurungabad", arising out of "a strong- 
 party feeling in the Ptegiment", and that he had, even in that early 
 stage of the affair, attributed its origin to the " injudicious" con- 
 duct of the Commandant. 2 Captain Yates, the Commandant in 
 question, w T as one of the old local officers in the service of the 
 Nizam ; and that General Fraser was not very wrong, either in his 
 original impression or in his final judgment, may be gathered from 
 the following paragraph of a letter of the Government of India, 
 dated 17th September 1852, in which the whole of the proceedings 
 are reviewed : — 
 
 5. " His Lordship in Council approves of your having suspended 
 Captain Commandant Yates from the functions of his commission, 
 and he concurs with you in your opinion of the conduct of that officer. 
 You are requested to submit for consideration such measures as vou 
 may deem expedient lor the future disposal of that otficer." 3 
 
 1 Hyderabad Assigned Districts (338 of 1867), p. 26. 
 
 2 Ante, p. 350. 
 
 3 As there was nothing beyond serious errors of judgment, nothing
 
 394 BBIGADEBB WILLIAM MAYNE. 
 
 The only other officer whose conduct General Eraser seriously 
 censured was Brigadier William Mayne ; and it is impossible for 
 me to ignore the fact, though I lay no great stress on it, that the 
 Brigadier had been a popular and favoured member of Lord 
 Dalhousie's family, as Commandant of the Body Guard, and that 
 throughout this long and complicated business he had been — for 
 he made little secret of it — in constant correspondence with more 
 than one of the Governor-General's personal Staff. And yet, in 
 spite of the bias in his direction evident in the following para- 
 graph of the same letter, it will, I think, be almost equally evident 
 that the strictures of the Eesident on the Brigadier's conduct must 
 have been well founded : — 
 
 4. " The Governor-General in Council considers the conduct of 
 Brigadier Mayne to have been arbitrary in regard to the trials held at 
 Aurungabad; and the orders he issued as affecting the officers and 
 men then under accusation and awaiting trial, were, in the opinion of 
 his Lordship in Council, much to be regretted. 1 In some instances 
 there are indications of a want of due subordination on the part of the 
 Brigadier to the authority of the Resident, which his Lordship in 
 Council cannot view without dissatisfaction ; but in no way does it 
 appear to the Governor- General in Council to be shown that partiality 
 can be attributed to Brigadier Mayne, while his Lordship in Council 
 would wish that Brigadier Mayne had been treated with more consi- 
 deration, and had been allowed, by the Court Martial at Bolarum, to 
 explain his proceedings at Aurungabad, on which proceedings the 
 Court thought fit to make severe comments. The total denial, also, to 
 Brigadier Mayne of all inquiry into the authorship of the letter of 
 ' Nizamite', is a further instance in which the Governor-General in 
 Council considers Brigadier Mayne to have been treated without 
 consideration." 
 
 The Governor-General admitted the justice of General Fraser's 
 condemnation of Brigadier Mayne for having been "arbitrary" in 
 his treatment of the officers and men under his command, and 
 "insubordinate" in his behaviour towards his superior officer. 
 Nevertheless, he was acquitted of " partiality", and more " consi- 
 deration" was claimed for him. As to the neglected inquiry into 
 
 affecting his honour or character, imputed to this gentleman, he was placed 
 in another appointment, without command of troops, uutil provided with a 
 pension. 
 
 1 A very mild term !
 
 SILLADAKS AND BAEGHEERS. 395 
 
 the authorship of the "Nizamite" letter, General Fraser shall 
 speak for himself. 
 
 The paragraphs we have quoted from the letter of Government 
 will give some slight notion of the way in which personal quarrels, 
 official recriminations, and newspaper scandals were mixed up 
 with more important questions of military discipline and the 
 organisation of Indian Cavalry. Assuredly, I am not going to 
 enter on a wearisome history and analysis of the long series of 
 charges and counter-charges affecting persons of every rank in 
 the Nizam's Cavalry, from a private trooper up to a Brigadier, 
 arising out of what General Fraser called "an injudicious measure 
 of the Commanding Officer", Captain Yates, " in calling for a list 
 of the inferior class of Mohammedans in his Eegiment." 1 Suffice 
 it to say, that in the Hyderabad Contingent, as in all the Indian 
 Irregular Cavalry to this day, the monthly pay issued for each 
 trooper is pay for man and horse, — the horses belonging not to the 
 Government but to the officers and men of the corps. The right 
 of owning horses in the Eegiment — the right of each horse being 
 termed an Assamee — was heritable and saleable, and greatly 
 esteemed as property conferring more or less of social position 
 and influence. The owner of one or more horses is called a 
 Silladar, — if riding and owning one horse only, a Khudaspa Silla- 
 dar, — and the man riding a horse not his own property is called a 
 Bargheer. The men of all ranks in the Hyderabad Cavalry were 
 supposed to be "ashrdf", or men of birth; and by various rules 
 of etiquette and slight privileges, much valued by the troopers 
 and observed by the English officers, were addressed and treated 
 as gentlemen. Even the Bargheers were not always or necessarily 
 lower in station than the Silladars who owned horses, whose 
 horses they rode and from whose hands they received their share 
 of the pay issued for each Assamee ; for in many instances the 
 Bargheer was the Silladar's son, kinsman, or clansman, and might 
 have before him the prospect of inheriting or of buying an 
 Assamee. But in many, perhaps most, cases the Bargheer was 
 the retainer or dependent of his Silladar, and of lower social 
 standing. These, however, were delicate points, not publicly or 
 fficially recognised, and with which it was obviously most unad- 
 visable for any English officer to interfere. Unfortunately, Captain 
 
 1 Ante, p. 350.
 
 39G ZOOLFICAR ALI ACCUSED. 
 
 Commandant Yates, of the 5th Nizam's Cavalry, without consult- 
 ing his Eissaldar, Zoolficar Ali Beg, the senior Native officer, who 
 would have cautioned him against such a step, persuaded himself 
 or was persuaded by some designing person, that some Bargheers 
 had found their way into the ranks who could not be considered 
 as ashrdf, or men of birth ; and either with a view to getting rid of 
 them, or of keeping out recruits of this class in the future, the 
 Commandant ordered lists to be prepared which would have openly 
 displayed and officially confirmed invidious and offensive distinc- 
 tions between different classes of soldiers, who were quite accus- 
 tomed and content to meet on parade or in the orderly room on a 
 footing of soldierly comradeship, while off duty, and in private 
 life there might be every comparative degree of intimacy, of 
 reserve, or of deference between them. It may be easily understood 
 how the apple of discord was thus thrown into the ranks of the 
 Regiment. A few intriguers, probably with an eye to something 
 that might be picked up in the way of promotion or the purchase 
 of Assamees, if a general row took place, would see no objection 
 to the classification for which Captain Yates called, but the great 
 majority were against it, and so' far as it was possible, opposed it. 
 The Rissaldar, Mirza Zoolficar Ali Leg, himself a man of rank, 
 with a somewhat large " Pagah", 1 or body of Assamees, numbering 
 in all thirty-seven horses, remonstrated against the measure, so far 
 as was consistent with the respect and subordination due to the 
 Commandant of the corps. But the mischief was done ; discon- 
 tent and mutual distrust were introduced into the Regiment : 
 anonymous letters and petitions began to fly about ; and at last 
 Zoolficar Ali Beg was accused of having encouraged underhand 
 opposition and secret denunciations, and taken part in what was 
 called " a conspiracy" against the Commandant, was placed in 
 arrest, and ordered for trial by Captain Yates. Uncpiestionably 
 and inevitably, under the circumstances, a strong " party feeling" 
 was excited. Even the English oilicers of the Contingent took 
 sides — very few, however, supporting Captain Yates — and when 
 Rissaldar Zoolficar Ali Beg was sent before a European Court- 
 Martial at Bolarum, the head-quarters of the Contingent, one 
 of the senior oilicers of the Force, Brigadier Johnston, offered to 
 appear as amicus cur ice for the Eissaldar and to conduct his defence. 
 1 For further explanation, see Additional Appendix, pp. i to xxvi.
 
 CAPTAIN McGOUN'S VIEWS. 397 
 
 General Fraser allowed this offer to be accepted, having previously 
 acceded to the prisoner's application to he tried at Bolarum by 
 European officers, on the plea that he could not be sure of a fair 
 trial at Aurungabad, where the Regiment was stationed. The 
 Rissaldar did not, of course, make such a statement, but it was 
 well understood that he was afraid of the local influence over 
 Native officers and witnesses of Captain Yates and Brigadier Mayne. 
 Throughout these vexatious and perplexing proceedings the 
 Resident availed himself at every step of the advice of a very 
 acute and able officer, Captain McGoun, Deputy Judge Advocate- 
 General to the Subsidiary Force and the Nizam's Army, — after- 
 wards General and Military Auditor-General at Madras, — and in 
 the following extract from one of his earliest private letters to 
 General Fraser on this subject, he will be seen to have detected 
 the inquisitive, inquisitorial, and unjudicial temper in which the 
 whole affair commenced and was conducted, and to have expressed 
 that same aversion to it which General Fraser avowed, and which 
 was most injuriously imputed to him by Lord Dalhousie as " party 
 feeling". Captain McGoun's letter is dated the 7th of October 
 1851, and was accompanied by his written opinion as Judge Advo- 
 cate on the proceedings of a Punchayut, or Native Court-Martial, 
 at Aurungabad — which proved to be first of a long list — on 
 Karamut Ali, a non-commissioned officer of the oth Nizam's 
 Cavalry, charged with having sent an anonymous "urzee", or 
 petition, to the Resident complaining of the offensive distinctions 
 made by the Commandant, Captain Yates, between different 
 classes of men in the Regiment. The Punchayut had found the 
 man guilty. Captain McGoun, believing in his innocence, and 
 being quite certain that there was no evidence of his guilt, advised 
 the General not to confirm the verdict and sentence. In the 
 Memorandum on this case Captain McGoun analysed the evidence 
 at great length, sifting the grain from the chaff, and in the letter 
 he added a less formal explanation of his views. 
 
 " You will observe that I sometimes make rise of the word legal, but 
 I am well aware that these Punchayuts are supposed to be beyond the 
 pale of the law, and I have not been testing this one even by the 
 standard of a court-martial. I have endeavoured to view it through 
 the medium of those great principles of reason and equity on which our 
 jurisprudence, with all its faults, is founded, and in particular by those
 
 398 ZOOLFICAR ALI ACQUITTED. 
 
 rules of evidence which are applicable to every inquiry. You will per- 
 ceive that much of the evidence here produced is what the lawyers call 
 '•/' s inti r alios acta", and in no way rightly affected the prisoner. What 
 A says or does, or what is said or done in his presence, with his assent, 
 may be adduced against him in evidence ; but what B says to C, or C 
 to D, cannot effect A, unless A has been a party to their sayings 
 or doings, or assented thereto. The admission of this description of 
 evidence has, I can have no doubt, heavily weighed against the 
 prisoner. 
 
 " I may be biassed, as many may be in this matter, for I confess all 
 my feelings as a man and a soldier are with the men, not with the 
 officer who is at the head of them ; but making every allowance, as I 
 have tried to do, for this feeling, I cannot bring my mind to believe 
 that the prisoner is guilty of the charge, i.e., that he forwarded the 
 anonymous urzee, and abused Yates." 
 
 In April 1852, the series of trials terminated in the full and 
 honourable acquittal of Eissaldar Zoolficar Ali Beg, and the 
 Government, as we have seen, agreed with General Fraser on the 
 two main points of the original and persistent errors of Captain 
 Yates, and of blame being due to Brigadier Mayne for his conduct 
 and demeanour both towards his superiors and his inferiors. Yet 
 the confirmation of all the Besident's acts and orders was accom- 
 panied by what, when General Fraser's high position and distin- 
 guished services are considered, cannot but appear a most gratuitous 
 and unjustified censure on his personal conduct in the supervision 
 of these intricate proceedings. If it had been intended to provoke 
 the Resident into tendering his resignation, or to give him a broad 
 hint that he no longer possessed the confidence of the Governor- 
 General, the language and the style of these passages could not 
 have been better chosen. The letter from the Secretary to the 
 Government of India was dated 17th September 1852, and it was 
 mainly an answer to a despatch dated 17th of November in the 
 previous year, before the trial of Zoolficar Ali Beg had commenced, 
 in which the Besident had thus explained his reasons for having 
 removed the trials from Anrungabad to the head-quarters of the 
 Contingent at Bolaium. 
 
 " Since these trials commenced, and during their progress, so violent 
 a party spirit has exhibited itself among many officers at Aurungabad, 
 that had I allowed my attention to be withdrawn from the primary and 
 essential business in hand, by the mutual attacks and recriminations of
 
 STRICTUltES OF GOVERNMENT. 399 
 
 these gentlemen, the investigation and settlement of the original charges 
 preferred against the prisoners would have been rendered a matter of 
 secondary consideration ; and the whole case would have become in- 
 volved in most embarrassing confusion. It is to put a stop as far as 
 possible to any further manifestation of this objectionable spirit, and to 
 bring back the European officers to a calmer and more rational conduct 
 than that by which their proceedings have hitherto been marked, that 
 I have removed the trials from Aurungabad to Bolarum, within the 
 sphere of my own more immediate and direct authority." 
 
 Referring point blank to General Fraser's original and continued 
 animadversions on the party spirit that rendered the settlement 
 of these cases so painfully difficult, the Secretary to the Govern- 
 ment of India wrote as follows : — 
 
 " 3. His Lordship in Council desires to record the regret with which 
 he observes the party feeling so evidently evinced in the cases at Aurun- 
 gabad and at Bolarum, during the investigation of the accusations pre- 
 ferred against the Bissaldar Zoolficar Ali Beg and other persons. 
 From this party feeling, in the opinion of his Lordship in Council, the 
 Resident himself has not been exempt. It appears to his Lordship in 
 Council that sufficient means for insuring to the parties accused a fair 
 trial might have been found without adopting the unusual measures 
 deemed expedient by you." 
 
 The letter then goes on to specify a number of matters entirely 
 within the competence of General Fraser as Eesident and Com- 
 mander of the Contingent, such as the permission given to Briga- 
 dier Johnston to undertake the prisoner's defence ; the publication 
 by the Eesident of a General Order dated the 8th of April 1852, 
 notifying the acquittal of the Itissaldar, " while the subject of the 
 charges was yet under the consideration of the Government 
 of India"; and "the entire suppression of all inquiry into the 
 alleged connection of Captain Orr with the authorship and publi- 
 cation of the offensive and unbecoming letter signed ' Nizamite' in 
 the Bombay Times newspaper of the 18th of October 1851," as 
 " indicating the same bias of feeling on your part of which you so 
 justly complain as shown by others." 
 
 The General's reply, dated 6th October 1852, to this despatch 
 very plainly reveals the sentiments of indignation and resentment 
 which it had excited, and was perhaps, intended to excite. He 
 said : —
 
 400 A PROTEST. 
 
 " I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, No. 
 3,268, under date the 17th ultimo, and learn with equal pain and sur- 
 prise that the Government of India attributes to me a party feeling in the 
 case of the recent trial of Zoolficar Ali Beg, of the 5th Cavalry, and other 
 persons. A party feeling, entertained by an officer in my situation, upon 
 whom the final issue of the trial depended, implies so serious a fault, and 
 such an utter disqualification for the duties of the office with which I 
 am vested, that I feel compelled, in justice to myself, to repudiate this 
 imputation in the most direct and emphatic terms consistent with the 
 respect I owe to the Government ; and to affirm that in so far as any 
 human being can judge of the motives of his own conduct, there is not 
 the slightest real foundation for so dishonouring a charge. To have 
 acted under a party feeling, or any other influence whatever but a 
 simple desire to do my duty, would have been an abuse of the authority 
 I derive from my office, and a perversion of the ends of justice, which 
 I must be permitted to disclaim in the most distinct and unqualified 
 terms. The whole of my conduct in this case, from first to last, was 
 founded on the anxious desire to remedy the evil consequences of that 
 party feeling which was evinced by others, but in which I did not in 
 the remotest degree participate. Personally, I could have had no 
 motive for such feeling, or for partiality to any one of the parties 
 concerned more than to another. Brigadier Mayne and Captain- 
 Commandant Yates, and Captain Orr, and the accused person, Zoolficar 
 Ali Beo-, and every other individual concerned in the whole transaction, 
 were all precisely alike to me. I had no conceivable motive for leaning 
 or bias to the cause or interests of one rather than of another. I was 
 not on terms of such close and familiar intimacy with any one of these 
 parties as to lead to any wishes and ulterior views on my part regarding 
 the final issue of the trial, except such as were prompted by a simple 
 desire to insure that the strictest and most impartial justice should be 
 administered. But besides the absence of any assignable motive for 
 such conduct, I affirm that it was my constant endeavour, and scrupu- 
 lously sustained resolution, during the whole pi'ogress of this investiga- 
 tion from first to last, to keep my mind divested of every extraneous 
 influence, and of that bias which might naturally have been induced 
 by the expressions of sympathy which were loudly and generally uttered 
 for what was deemed a cruel and unjust persecution of an innocent 
 man." 
 
 The General went on to show, in a manner perfectly convincing, 
 that what the Government called his "unusual measures" Mere 
 intended and well calculated to make sure that the prisoner had an 
 impartial trial, and that they were neither unprecedented nor
 
 nizam's court .martial. 401 
 
 unusual. With regard to the fault attributed to him in what is 
 called " the premature publication of a General Order" while the 
 charges against the Rissaldar were yet under the consideration of 
 the Government of India, the General said : — 
 
 " It is not in my recollection that I ever submitted those charges for 
 the consideration or orders of the Government of India. 
 
 " The confirmation or otherwise of the sentence passed by a General 
 Court Martial, is vested in the Resident by His Highness the Nizam, 
 under the sanction of the Government of India; and with respect to 
 the Resident's confirmation or otherwise of the sentences of General 
 Punchayuts in the Cavalry Division, he acts in this respect in conformity 
 with the practice that has obtained in the Contingent, without a single 
 exception, from its first formation to the present day. In finally 
 disposing, therefore, of the verdict and sentence of the Court which sat 
 at Bolarum, without further reference to the Government of India, I 
 am not aware that I assumed an authority which I did not rightfully 
 possess." 
 
 This was conclusive and unanswerable. The Government of 
 India had apparently quite forgotten that, notwithstanding all its 
 encroachments and assumptions of authority, the Contingent was 
 the Nizam's Army, serving in a foreign State, and that under no power 
 but that of the Nizam could the proceedings of a court-martial in 
 that Force be legalised. It was forgotten, also, that the verdict of 
 such a court, the sentence, and its confirmation, were all judicial 
 acts over which the Executive Government of India had no 
 legitimate power of control or interference, any more than it had 
 over the proceedings of the Supreme Court of Bengal. 
 
 Immediately after the conclusion of the Treaty of 1853, when 
 the Contingent had ceased to be the Nizam's Army, it was found 
 that there was no legal authority under which a General Court 
 Martial could be held in that Force, and that the defect could not be 
 supplied without either a change in its constitution, or an exten- 
 sion of the powers conferred on the Commander-in-Chief at Madras. 
 In 1853, when Colonel Low, after completing the Treaty of 1853, 
 was called up to the Supreme Council, his successor Mr. Bushby 
 was a Civilian. Major McGoun, who had left Hyderabad, had 
 been promoted, and was acting as Judge-Advocate-General of the 
 Madras Army, thus explains what then occurred, in a letter dated 
 from Bangalore, 3rd September 1853, to General Fraser, who was 
 
 then in England. 
 
 D D
 
 402 INQUISITION 
 
 " The Contingent being now a British one, no one can assemble 
 courts-martial in it without a Warrant from our Commander-in Chief, 
 Sir Richard Armstrong. My Lord Dalhousie applied for one in his 
 usual offhand way, but his Excellency refused, as his Warrant from the 
 Queen did not authorise his granting a Warrant to any one but an 
 officer ' not under the rank of Field Officer.'' This will, I imagine, lead to 
 a field officer being appointed to command the Contingent in the room 
 of the Resident." 
 
 This proves the complete accuracy of General Fraser's conten- 
 tion, that his power of assembling courts-martial and confirming 
 their sentences was derived from the Nizam, and was beyond the 
 legal authority of the Government of India, and that such 
 assembly or confirmation, therefore, did not require the sanction 
 of our Government. 
 
 As to the alleged " suppression of all inquiry into the author- 
 ship and publication of a letter signed ' Nizamite' in the Bombay 
 Times newspaper", General Fraser wrote, in his reply of September 
 17th, as follows : — 
 
 " It is true I did suppress that inquiry, because I considered it 
 objectionable in two points of view, — first, that if the inquiry was 
 expedient at all, the time and occasion were not suitable for it, in the very 
 midst of the military trials at Aurungabad. Those proceedings would 
 have been embarrassed and obstructed by the intervention of fresh 
 matter having no immediate or direct relation to those trials ; and with 
 this additional anomaly, that both the prosecution in the one, and the 
 proceedings in the other, were to be superintended and conducted by 
 the same officer, Captain Strange. 
 
 " But secondly, and what I consider of more importance than the 
 first objection, I do not regard, and never have regarded, articles in 
 newspapers to be a fit subject for military inquiry. If there is a 
 reasonable expectation that positive pi^oof can be obtained against an 
 officer in the army as the author of a false and infamous statement in 
 a newspaper, he is, of course, subject to have charges preferred against 
 him, and to be brought to a court-martial. But with regard to a mere 
 preliminary inquiry, for the purpose of eliciting from a suspected 
 officer an acknowledgment of his offence, and consequent crimination 
 of himself, I consider this as being no more warranted by Military 
 than by Civil Law ; and the legality of such an assumption of power 
 by superior authority seems to me to be so uncertain and problematical, 
 that I know not in what manner an officer could be proceeded against, 
 who, under these circumstances, should deny the lawfulness of such 
 inquiry, and repudiate any obligation to make an admission which
 
 DECLINED. 403 
 
 would involve an acknowledgment of guilt. What an officer might 
 choose to do voluntarily is another question. I am now speaking of 
 the matter as a duty of obligation. 
 
 " It seems to me that the course of procedm^e to which an officer 
 should have recourse, who finds himself the subject of a dcfamatoi'y 
 attack in a newspaper, is plain and obvious. He has either to prefer 
 charges against the suspected writer, if an officer of the Army, with a 
 view to his being brought to a court-martial, provided the accuser 
 possesses sufficient proof to establish the charges, or, failing this, to 
 prosecute the publisher of the paper in a Civil Court for libel. 
 
 " But since the Government of India is of opinion that inquiry into 
 Captain Orr's supposed offence should not have been suppressed at the 
 time when I did so, I have only to observe that it is now open to 
 Brigadier Mayne or Captain Yates to prefer a regular charge against 
 this officer ; when, if I find that there appears to be sufficient evidence 
 to substantiate it, I shall order him to be brought to a court-martial, 
 and the case regularly and legally disposed of." 
 
 There was no evidence at all, and no charge was ever preferred 
 against this officer. Here, also, the strictures of the Government 
 of India were conclusively and unanswerably rebutted. 
 
 Before despatching his reply of the 6th of October 1852, the 
 General communicated it to the Deputy Judge-Advocate General, 
 whose regular duty had made him the adviser of the Eesident on 
 all points of military law. This is Captain McGoun's opinion on 
 the whole matter in dispute : — 
 
 " My dear General, — I have read over your proposed reply two or 
 three times. My feeling on the subject is one of intense regret that 
 you should have been placed in a position to render such a reply 
 necessary. But the groundlessness of the accusation leaves you, as I 
 conceive, no alternative. Nothing could be more clear, or more 
 convincing than your answer : it is far too much so to be palatable at 
 Calcutta. However, this is not to be helped, and there can be no 
 crime in a man defending himself against an unjust accusation. Every 
 word you have said is the truth . It is respectfully said ; and whether 
 it is agreeable, or not, to the Government of India, must be a matter of 
 perfect indifference to you. You have repudiated the motive imputed 
 to you, and there the matter rests as far as you are concerned. 
 
 " I do not see that you can amend what you have written. In one 
 or two paragraphs you might soften down what you have said, — for 
 instance, in paragraphs 2 and 3 the words circumflexed by me in 
 pencil might, I think, be omitted ; and the concluding part of para- 
 graph 5 might be modified, made more general. The words in para- 
 
 D D 2
 
 404 THE GOVERNMENT REJOINDER 
 
 grnpli 13, "did not come within the legal competence of the Govern- 
 ment", might also he omitted, for although true they are strong. 
 
 " These are mere verbal alterations : no others appear to me neces- 
 sary, but I shall do myself the pleasure of breakfasting with you 
 to-morrow, and having a talk about the matter generally. Meanwhile, 
 believe me, 
 
 " Very faithfully yours, 
 
 " Thos. McG-oun. 
 
 " P.S. — I fear the English of it all is that Mayne has been let off at 
 your expense. "We have an old saying in Scotland that ' Every herring 
 ought to hang by its own head.' " 
 
 After the General had left Hyderabad, but before lie had sailed 
 from Madras, the Government of India sent a rejoinder, dated 
 26th January 1853, to his indignant letter of the 6th October, 
 maintaining that the strictures and censure he complained of were 
 " fully justified". There is really nothing in it worthy of re- 
 production here. It sustains none of the positions taken up in 
 the first letter and subverted by General Eraser ; and even with 
 regard to the alleged authorship of a letter in the Bombay Times 
 by Captain Sutherland Orr, the Government adopts General 
 Fraser's view that any inquiry into that matter would be inex- 
 pedient. Where argument is attempted in the letter it fails, 
 because the facts are misunderstood or misstated, which is clearly 
 shown in the following letter from the Deputy Judge-Advocate- 
 General, Major McGoun. 
 
 "Mulkapore, 9th February 1853. 
 
 " My dear General, — The day before I left Secunderabad Davidson 
 was good enough to show me the Governor-General's reply to your 
 remonstrance, if I may so call it. I shall not attempt to describe my 
 feelings of disgust and vexation at its perusal. If it were a mere 
 matter of dispute between you and the Government, it w r ould be best 
 treated with silence and — something else; but as doubtless the whole 
 matter will be considered by the Home Government, I think it desir- 
 able that you should put them right as to facts, and leave the argument 
 where it is. Before going further, I must ask you to excuse my 
 offering this unsolicited advice. No one but yourself knows all the 
 circumstances so well as I do ; and I truly wish I could be put into 
 the witness-box to testify to the care and attention you bestowed 
 on the case from first to last, and how anxious you were to give it an 
 unprejudiced and unbiassed consideration. Knowing all this, the 
 letters from the Government have given me more pain than I ever felt 
 about any public matter.
 
 CRITICISED. 405 
 
 " I did not get a copy of the letter, but I read it attentively, and 
 recollect well the misstated facts. 
 
 " First : it is assumed that the European Court at Bolarum was a 
 General Court Martial. It was never so intended nor so designated. 
 The Nizam's Cavalry Regulations provide Punehayuts for officers and 
 men of that branch, but it is not laid down whether these Punehayuts 
 shall consist of European or Native officers. You felt — and the 
 matter was fully discussed — that you had the option of appointing 
 the one or the other, and the occasion fully justified the selection of a 
 European Court. It is also to be borne in mind, although a secondary 
 consideration, that it was the express wish of the Prisoner that the 
 Court should be so constituted. To say, therefore, that it was in any 
 way an exceptional or unusual Court, or that it was a General Court 
 Martial at all, is not fact, and any argument founded thereon is as 
 worthless as the assertion itself. 
 
 " Second : it is asserted that you allowed, and implied that you en- 
 couraged, Brigadier Johnston to defend the Prisoner. I recollect 
 perfectly well your telling Major Johnston that you would allow the 
 Brigadier to come down to the Court at Bolarum, but you did not 
 interfere with the Court's action by authoritatively sanctioning his 
 undertaking the Prisoner's defence. I was surprised, therefore, at 
 finding in the Governor- General's letter an evident impression that 
 something more than this had been conveyed to the Brigadier. It 
 shows profound ignorance of military usage to say that prisoners are 
 not allowed the aid of a friend. It is a thing of every-day occurrence ; 
 and where, as in this case, there was a stong bond of friendship be- 
 tween the Brigadier and the Rissaldar, it would have been a gross abuse 
 of power to have denied the latter the aid and assistance of his friend. 
 I entertain strong opinions on this point, and consider it would be 
 intolerable- tyranny if a man in the position of a prisoner defending 
 himself against utter ruin and against the loss of what is dearer to him 
 than life itself, should be denied the aid of his friend's counsel. We 
 soldiers are in a measure slaves, but not to that extent. As to the 
 charge or insinuation of your pitting one Brigadier against the other, 
 it is childish, — as is also the accusation that the Rissaldar ought not to 
 have been allowed to choose a European Court, and to say he had no 
 confidence in a Native Punchayut. It makes me feel sick to consider 
 such arguments. 
 
 " Third: In another paragraph you are said to have visited, or allowed 
 your Staff to visit, the Rissaldar while under trial. This is not fact. 
 It is not true. None of your Staff visited him. I can only say for 
 myself that I did not even go to Bolarum the whole time the trial 
 was going on ; and so anxious was I to stand clear of becoming 
 
 DD*
 
 466 "mayne's feelings." 
 
 or seeming biassed, that when some of the proceedings were sent to me 
 to Jaulnah privately, I returned them unread, with a strong letter, to the 
 person who had acted so indiscreetly. Had you visited the Prisoner, 
 or allowed your Staff to do so, there might have been some ground for 
 the view the Government has taken ; but as it is pure invention — and 
 of a most malicious nature — it should not go uncontradicted, and that 
 in the plainest terms. 
 
 " Fourth : It is argued that although competent to appoint and con- 
 firm the proceedings, you should not have passed any remarks on the 
 .Kissaldar and his case, as it fettered the Government. If the Govern- 
 ment had predetermined to victimise the Rissaldar, without reference 
 to his guilt or innocence of the charges against him, the argument 
 would hold good ; but who ever heard of the supreme military authority 
 having power to dispose of a trial only in part — to confirm, but not to 
 express approval or blame ? It would be well, at any rate, if Govern- 
 ment read the proceedings — for which they have not yet called — and 
 thus became acquainted with all the circumstances, before venturing on 
 an adverse opinion on so large a range of subjects. 
 
 " Fifth : You are said to have concurred in the Court's opinion of 
 Mayne's conduct. Suppose you did, — was his conduct beyond your 
 authority and control ? I have again perused the remarks of the 
 Court, and I do not find in them anything reflecting seriously on 
 Mayne. He is hardly alluded to throughout. 
 
 " Sixth: In the concluding paragraph there is an unmeaning remark 
 about ' courtesy' to Mayne, as if you should have set justice, discipline, 
 and every other consideration aside, and consulted only his feelings 
 and wishes ! However, this would not be worth noticing, but in 
 this paragraph there is a misstatement, viz., that you directed the 
 restoration of the men in General Orders. You did no such thing. 
 But if you had — you had the power to do as you did ; and if you did 
 right — and that is not disputed — why cavil at the modus? But it 
 would appear, as I said before, as if nothing was taken into account 
 but Mayne's feelings. 
 
 " These are the principal points which occurred to me in reading 
 over this most extraordinary letter. I know it will be your inclination 
 to treat it with silence and — something else ; but still, as I have 
 already said, it is worthy of consideration whether you ought not to 
 put them right as to facts, making them, if you like, a present of their 
 arguments. 
 
 " Now, my dear General, you must excuse my thus offering my 
 unasked-for opinion. You will comprehend the feelings that prompt 
 me to do so. D.V. I shall be at Madras on the 23rd or 24th, some 
 days before you sail, and I need not say how delighted we shall be to 
 see you again before your departure from India.
 
 HIGH TIME TO LEAVE. 407 
 
 " Mrs. McGoun joins me in kindest regards to you and Mrs. Fraser, 
 while 
 
 " I remain always, yours very sincerely, 
 
 " Thos. McGoun." 
 
 It is not too much to say that the judgment of the large military 
 circle at Secunderabad and in the Hyderabad territories, and of the 
 Madias Army, was practically unanimous as to the rectitude and 
 the satisfactory character of the settlement that General Fraser 
 had made of the differences and the heart-burnings with which the 
 Contingent had so long been distracted. But he knew, much 
 better than his friend, Captain McGoun, how "unpalatable," how 
 intolerable indeed, his reply would be found at Calcutta. Lord 
 Dalhousie, who had already objected to the " tartness" of some of 
 the General's replies, had disowned " meekness" as entering into 
 his own disposition, and had said that " sharp words might meet 
 with sharp answers", 1 was not very likely to take in good part a 
 letter which was not only " sharp" and " tart," but which put the 
 Governor-General so thoroughly in the wrong. The Eesident felt 
 that the further progress of the discussion, which the Governor- 
 General would hardly leave as it was, could not but be tempestuous, 
 and its final issue would probably depend on an appeal to the 
 Home Government. He had no more wish to enter on a pro- 
 tracted controversy of this description, than he had on a protracted 
 negotiation for the Treaty to obtain the Berars, to which he had 
 a profound aversion, but on which Lord Dalhousie had decided. 
 Everything added to his desire to have clone with Hyderabad 
 affairs. On the 20th of July 1852, he had written to his old friend, 
 Major Moore, the Director : 
 
 " Everything at Hyderabad proceeds in the old unsatisfactory way, 
 but I think I may say with truth that this is not my fault. I am 
 heartily tired of it, and ask your friend Mrs. Fraser every day to make 
 up her mind to return to England. But she always tells me that there 
 is not money enough to pay our passage." 
 
 In the very midst of the General's growing desire to retire from 
 the Residency, the money problem received a natural though 
 sorrowful solution by the death of his elder brother, General 
 Hastings Fraser, to whose private fortune, as well as to the landed 
 property of Ardachie, my father succeeded. The General almost 
 
 1 Ante, p. 336.
 
 40S RESIGNATION 
 
 immediately addressed the following brief letter to the Secretary 
 to the Government of India. 
 
 " Hyderabad, 12th November 1852. 
 " Sir, — Private affairs requiring my presence in England, I request 
 that the Government of India will be pleased to permit me to deliver 
 over charge of the Hyderabad Residency to my Assistant, Major 
 Davidson, and grant me leave of absence, preparatory to applying for 
 furlough to the Government of Fort St. George, from the date of my 
 so delivering over charge, and my resignation of this office and em- 
 barkation at Madras, which will be either in the middle of February 
 next, or at the end of that month. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, etc., 
 
 "J. S. FlUSEE." 
 
 One of the General's last acts as the head of the Hyderabad 
 
 Contingent was to ask for a better place in it for a very deserving 
 
 officer, and a special friend of his own, Captain Doria. The letter 
 
 was addressed to the Governor-General's Private Secretary, Mr. 
 
 Courtenay. 
 
 " Hyderabad, 12th November 1852. 
 
 " My dear Sir, — I wrote a public letter to Government yesterday 
 regarding Captain Commandant Roebuck's return to England on sick 
 certificate, and I have now to request that you will submit to the 
 Governor-General the accompanying copy of an application from 
 Major Briggs, Brigade Major Hyderabad Division, to be appointed 
 to the temporary command of the 8th Nizam's Infantry, vacated by 
 Captain Roebuck's departure. Major Briggs is an able and highly 
 deserving officer, and merits the Governor- General's favourable consi- 
 deration. 
 
 "If his request is complied with, the office of Brigade Major of the 
 Hyderabad Division will become temporarily vacant. The title to a 
 staff appointment of this description should be found, I think, rather 
 in the requisite qualifications than in mere seniority. If I were 
 permitted to recommend an officer upon the acknowledged ground of 
 superior ability, combined with great activity and zeal, I should men- 
 tion Captain Doria, at present employed as Superintendent of Roads. 
 He has never asked me for anything more than he has got, which'is 
 not, perhaps, the least recommendation in his favour, nor does he know 
 that I have any intention of bringing his name to the notice of the 
 Governor-General on the present occasion. If near relationship to one 
 of the most eminent men we have ever had in India could in any way 
 add to the personal claims of the officer I have now mentioned, 
 he possesses this advantage. He is the nephew of Sir Thomas
 
 AND LAST REQUEST. 409 
 
 Munro, his mother, the Marchesa de Spineto, being the sister of 
 Lady Munro. 
 
 " I have this morning sent up a letter to Government, requesting 
 that my resignation of the Hyderabad Residency may be accepted ; 
 and I beg you will be so good as to acquaint the Governor-General 
 that the private affairs in England, given as a reason for this applica- 
 tion, refer to the death of my elder and only surviving brother, General 
 Hastings Fraser. 
 
 " I remain, my dear Sir, 
 
 " Yours very sincerely, 
 " F. F. Courtenay, Esq., " J. S. Fraser. 
 
 "Private Secretary to the Governor- General, Calcutta." 
 
 The vacant Brigade Mayorship was not filled up by the appoint- 
 ment of Captain Doria, as recommended by General Fraser in 
 this last of his private communications, as Besident at Hyderabad, 
 with the Governor-General of India. 
 
 Just a fortnight before General Fraser sent in his resignation to 
 Government, the old officer, then on the Eesidency Staff, one of 
 whose recent letters to myself I have already quoted, 1 wrote the 
 following letter to his old colleague, Major Moore, the Director, 
 which fairly represents the general feeling entertained by all the 
 English officers then serving in the Hyderabad territories, who 
 were acquainted with the circumstances that had led to the un- 
 founded imputations from head-quarters against the General's 
 impartiality. 
 
 "Bolarum,'25th October 1852. 
 
 "My dear Moore, — The Governor-General's fiat has at length been 
 received on the proceedings of the 5th Cavalry. It has taken us all 
 by surpi-ise; and so much does General Fraser feel the injustice of the 
 judgment, that I shall not be astonished — unless something be said or 
 done to pacify him — if it should lead to his resignation. The Resident 
 is accused of showing the same 'party feeling' which he has condemned 
 in others, which in his official reply he designates, as if i-eally is, 'a dis- 
 honouring charge'. He has repudiated the imputation in the most 
 emphatic terms consistent with the respect due to the Government. 
 You will, of course, see the whole of the correspondence and judge for 
 yourself. Never was there so groundless a charge against a high 
 functionary. Neither the sympathies nor the antipathies of the Resi- 
 dent were with either of the parties concerned. I know it to have 
 been his constant endeavour to keep his mind free from everything like 
 
 1 Ante, p. 199.
 
 410 PRACTICAL MEN PATRONISED. 
 
 bias. I dare say you have discovered that I do not blindly concur in 
 every public act of our friend, but as a quiet observer of all that has 
 been going on, I must say that I think it would be impossible to over 
 estimate the rectitude of his official conduct throughout these unhappy 
 proceedings. I should like to see your Court do what the Governor- 
 General has not done, call for the proceedings of the Bolarum trials. 
 Our labours will then be appreciated and better understood." 
 
 I have just received, also, another letter from the same old 
 friend, an extract from which may throw a little light on the latest 
 relations between Lord Dalhousie and my father. It is dated 
 " 21st September 1884". 
 
 " I know there were differences between them with regard to their 
 policy, and I recollect the Governor-General once writing to the General 
 that if he persisted in his tone of correspondence, he should be obliged 
 to write to him in a way he would not like, — it looked very much like 
 a threat. 1 "When General Fraser was at Calcutta, staying at Govern- 
 ment House, in 1848, Lord Dalhousie remarked to some one, 'in con- 
 versation he makes me feel as if I were the Resident and he was the 
 Governor-General'. I know that to be the fact. So you see a sort of 
 antagonism sprang up early. The immediate cause of the Resident's 
 resignation was a dishonouring expression in an official military letter 
 at the close of the Cavalry Punchayuts connected with the trial of 
 Zoolficar Ali Beg and others. So much was the General hurt that he 
 said to your mother, ' Be prepared to leave in a month.' " 
 
 " I recollect when the Berar affair was finally settled how the 
 Governor-General promised his friendship and patronage to those con- 
 cerned. If then he was so pleased at winning the game he had so long 
 been engaged in, how great must have been his feelings of animosity 
 against those who had previously thwarted him. He gave the General 
 a cold shoulder because he would not lend himself to such an atrocious 
 measure, — a practical illustration of Indian political life, where the 
 officials who lend themselves as willing instruments to acts of spoliation 
 and such-like sharp practice, are promoted and rewarded, while the 
 high-minded and honest official, who will not lend himself to such 
 atrocities, is neglected and too often visited with censure. 
 
 " On returning to India in '54, your father, after passing Aden, where 
 he had seen Outram, wrote to Lord Dalhousie regarding Outrarn's 
 affairs, to which Lord Dalhousie replied in a friendly spirit, indicating 
 harmony between them in their private relations. This, I think, was 
 the last letter that passed between them." 
 
 1 Ante, p. 336.
 
 LETTER TO POTTINGER. 411 
 
 A few days before his departure from Hyderabad, the General 
 wrote as follows, in reply to a very friendly letter from Sir Henry 
 Pottinger, the Governor of Madras. 
 
 "Hyderabad, 20th December 1852. 
 
 " My dear Sir Henry, — I am greatly obliged by your letter of the 
 10th instant, and should with pleasure accept your kind invitation to 
 Government House with Mrs. Fraser and my family, had we not pro- 
 mised to take up our abode with my daughter, Mrs. Sim, who will be 
 much disappointed if we fail in our word. We are in deep mourning, 
 which would, of course, prevent our participating in any large parties; 
 and this renders our daughter's house our most suitable place of 
 residence. I propose leaving this on some day between the 1st and 10th 
 proximo, and as we are going down by slow marches, we shall probably 
 be at Madras at the end of that month, embarking on the screw-steamer 
 Matcritius about the 20th or 21st of February. 
 
 " I am glad to leave Hyderabad, for I have long been tired of the 
 part I have had to perform here. Our conduct towards the Nizam, 
 whose independence we profess it to be our intention of maintaining, 
 has been but little adapted to that end; and the course now about to be 
 pursued will, I fear, be but little creditable to the British Government. 
 
 " I quite coincide in your opinion regarding the Burmese war, and 
 though I never liked the commencement of it, for I seldom place im- 
 plicit confidence in the grievances of merchants, who are generally 
 quite as much to blame as those against whom they complain, yet once 
 commenced, it should have been conducted with vigour. It bas drawled 
 along in a most incomprehensible manner, and contributes in no degree 
 to our reputation, either in a political or military point of view. I am 
 somewhat surprised to hear you express your distaste for Indian politics 
 in general, considering how much you have distinguished yourself in this 
 department during the whole of your career. I should be sorry to learn 
 that you were about to leave Madras, if that Government were less 
 subordinate in matters of detail to the Government of India. As to 
 parties at home, I know not which appears most bent on losing its 
 character for consistency. The Derbyites seem to have a happy 
 ability for evasion ; while I cannot help agreeing with Mr. Hume that 
 Lord John Russell's address to the people at Perth savours a good deal 
 of the ad captandicm style. I think it will afford me some amusement 
 at home to attend sometimes, if I find opportunities of doing so, the 
 debates in the two Houses of Parliament. 
 
 " Believe me, my dear Sir Henry, with the highest esteem and kindest 
 regards, in which Mrs. Fraser and the Bells cordially join, 
 
 " Very sincerely yours, 
 
 " J. S. Fraser."
 
 412 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The Treaties of 1853 and 1860— Their History, Nature, and Results— Both 
 of them Compulsory and One-sided — The Burdens on the. Nizam 
 admitted to be unfair, but fastened more firmly by Treaty — Illicit 
 Advantages gained for the Honourable Company — Progressive Reforms 
 effected in the Hyderabad State. 
 
 At the end of Chapter IX of this book the conclusion was reached, 
 after a careful inquiry, that in 1853 His Highness the Nizam did 
 not really owe one single rupee to the Honourable Company ; but 
 that, on the contrary, the pecuniary balance, if rightly calculated, 
 would have been immensely in favour of the Hyderabad State. 1 
 The argument carried on so far grew naturally out of the incidents 
 of General Fraser's long tenure of the Residency, and as he con- 
 tinued after his retirement from public life to take the deepest 
 interest in Indian affairs, the story would really be left half told, 
 if I omitted to describe in terms that will fairly represent his 
 views, the transactions that immediately followed his retirement, 
 and to explain in some degree 'their character and results. 
 
 Colonel John Low arrived at the Hyderabad Eesidency, and 
 took over charge from Major Davidson, who remained as his First 
 Assistant, on the 7th of March 1853. 
 
 On the 20th of April the new Resident received his "full instruc- 
 tions" from the Government of India for his "guidance in the 
 projected negotiation" for a Treaty with the Nizam. On the 20th 
 of May a Treaty was signed and sealed by His Highness, 2 by 
 Article VI of which the Berar provinces and other districts were 
 ued "to the exclusive management of the British Resident 
 for the time being at Hyderabad, and to such other officers acting 
 under his orders as may from time to time be appointed by the 
 
 1 A nil', p. 365. 
 
 2 Nizam's Debt (418 of 1854), pp. 93, 116, 137.
 
 SUMMARY NEGOTIATIONS. 413 
 
 Government of India to the charge of those districts", — " for the 
 purpose of the regular monthly payment of the Contingent troops", 
 and " also for the payment of the interest" on the alleged debt of 
 about 50 lakhs of Hyderabad rupees, "so long as the principal of 
 that debt shall remain unpaid." 1 
 
 General Fraser's anticipations as to the Nizam " endeavouring to 
 stave off what he would regard as a great calamity and degrada- 
 tion", by " passive resistance" and " protracted negotiations", 2 were 
 completely verified. From the first introduction of the subject by 
 Colonel Low, "the Nizam expressed a very decided repugnance 
 to making any such Treaty", and said, " God forbid that I should 
 suffer such disgrace". 3 
 
 But Lord Dalhousie had the giant's strength, and used it. He 
 was determined not to have any "protracted negotiations", but to 
 have a territorial assignment under Treaty forthwith. As already 
 hinted, in his letter to General Fraser of September 16th, 1852, 
 military coercion was contemplated if the Nizam did not submit 
 at once. 4 And "if His Highness the Nizam", said Lord Dal- 
 housie, " should reject the settlement that has been proposed for 
 his benefit, and if evil should consequently befall his State, the 
 Government of India must stand acquitted of all blame towards 
 him" 5 . 
 
 "With instructions conceived in this spirit, Colonel Low brought 
 the negotiations, if they can so be called, to a speedy conclusion, 
 the moment he perceived a possibility of their being " protracted". 
 The Nizam's vain endeavours to gain time, and his counter pro- 
 posals, were cut short by an intimation that unless he at once 
 consented to sign the new Treaty, orders would be given for the 
 advance of British troops, not merely into the districts that were 
 wanted, but also into the capital. This was not done officially, or 
 openly, but in a private and familiar note addressed by the 
 Assistant-Resident, Major Davidson, to the Minister, Sooraj-ool- 
 Moolk. Colonel Low, in his despatch of the 19th of May 1853, 
 announcing that the Nizam had at last consented to sign the 
 Treaty, mentions " a note" dated the 14th of that month, which 
 was " sent in original to the Nizam by the Minister, to impress 
 
 i Nizam's Debt (418 of 1854), p. 144. 2 Ante, pp. 383, 384. . 
 
 3 Nizam's Debt, p. 117. 4 Ante, pp. 378, 37 ( J. 
 
 5 Nizam's Debt, p. 115.
 
 414 AN AFGHAN NOTE. 
 
 the mind of His Highness with the belief that further unnecessary 
 delays in settling the matter would not be permitted". 1 A careful 
 perusal of the private note to which the Resident thus briefly 
 alludes, is necessary to make its coercive efficacy fully intelligible. 
 It runs thus : — 
 
 " Hyderabad, May 14th, 1853. 
 
 " My dear Nawab, — I believe the Resident requires your attendance 
 this evening, to inform you that his negotiations with the Nizam are 
 at an end, and he applies to the Governor- General to move troops by 
 to-day's post. 
 
 "His Highness asked for four months' delay, which was refused, not 
 even in that time positively stipulating to pay the troops. Had he, 
 however, done so, this would have been refused, as contrary to the in- 
 structions of the Governor- General. 
 
 " His Highness next offered to place forty lakhs of talooks 2 in the 
 hands of Shums-ool-Oomra for the pay of the Contingent. The Resi- 
 dent said, ' No,' as he could not be assured that there would be no inter- 
 ference on the part of his Highness's Government, or his other officers ; 
 but if the talooks were made over to the Resident and Shums-ool- 
 Oomra, or any other officer of the Hyderabad Government as Commis- 
 sioners — they to have the entire management and control of these 
 districts, only furnishing accounts yearly to his Highness — he would 
 refer the propositions to Calcutta, but without the slightest expectation 
 that the Governor- General would agree to it. 
 
 " His Highness has refused to agree to the above, and therefore he 
 has lost a chance of obtaining' a remission of what was disagreeable to 
 his ideas of dignity. The terms first proposed are now renewed, and 
 with an unfriendly feeling that would, in my opinion, drive matters to 
 extremites. Indeed, I have a letter from my nephew at Poona, men- 
 tioning that the 78th Highlanders and H.M.'s 86th Regiment have 
 received orders to be in readiness to march on Hyderabad. Don't 
 suppose military operations will be confined to the Districts ; and if you 
 are a friend of his Highness, beg of him to save himself and his dignity 
 by complying at once with what the Governor-General will most 
 assuredly compel him to accede to. 
 
 " Cuth. Davidson." 
 
 The meaning of "military occupation" not being "confined to 
 the Districts", was that the city of Hyderabad would be occupied 
 by British troops. Then the Nizani and his advisers saw that he 
 had before him the choice of signing the Treaty or being dethroned. 
 
 1 Nizam's Debt (418 of 1854), pp. 132, 133. 
 
 2 Meaning land producing revenue of about £400,000 per annum.
 
 FRIENDLY COMPULSION. 415 
 
 They understood perfectly, as it was intended they should, that it 
 must come to that. The Nizam's Government was not as strong 
 in 1853, nor was Hyderabad so orderly, as they became during the 
 long administration of the Nawab Sir Salar Jung. Without 
 counting the armed men in a fortified city of 300,000 inhabitants, 
 where almost every man was armed, the City was full of those 
 " turl mlent mercenaries", whom, as they, of course, were well aware, 
 our Government was constantly urging the Nizam to disband. 
 Their -leaders would certainly have taken every advantage of 
 Mussulman fanaticism and general excitement to have one last 
 despairing struggle before they submitted to the loss of their homes 
 and of all that they possessed. Although the City could not have 
 resisted a British force for twenty-four hours, it would not have 
 been occupied without a contest. The first shot fired from the 
 walls would, so far as we can argue from the general tone and 
 temper of Lord Dalhousie's policy, have cost the Nizam his throne. 
 It would have been worse than useless for him to plead that 
 he could not control the unruly rabble of his capital. As a great 
 number of them could easily have been proved to be in His 
 Highness's pay, his conduct would probably have been stigmatised 
 as gross treachery. The "evil" foreshadowed by Lord Dalhousie 
 would then "befall his State", and "the Government of India 
 would stand acquitted of all blame". Under the influence of this 
 intimidation, of these "objurgations and threats", as Colonel David- 
 son called them, 1 the Nizam submitted, and signed the Treaty. 
 He submitted to the threat of military coercion, with its manifest 
 consequences. 
 
 The compulsion thus used on the weaker party vitiates the 
 Treaty of 1853, not only on moral grounds, but also on well 
 recognised grounds of international law, and unfavourably distin- 
 guishes it from almost every other Treaty concluded with the 
 States of the Indian Empire. It is quite true that in very many 
 instances recorded in history, and in most of our Indian cases, 
 treaties of peace between belligerents have been concluded under 
 compulsion. 
 
 But the Treaty of 1853 was a Treaty between friends and allies 
 in a time of profound peace, under circumstances which rendered 
 threats and military coercion oppressive and iniquitous. It was a 
 
 1 The Deocan (388 of 1867), p. 26.
 
 4 L6 LETTEE AND WORD. 
 
 mere question of money — the exaction of a balance of account 
 thai was, to say the least, questionable. To obtain this payment, 
 and the means of making certain future payments to a Force 
 raised by our own contrivance and kept up solely for our own 
 benefit, an assignment of territory was extorted from an Ally, the 
 integrity of whose dominions, and whose internal and external 
 security, had been guaranteed by the Treaty of 1800 for a valuable 
 consideration which we still held. Although that assignment was 
 professedly declared, throughout the negotiation, to be temporary 
 and by way of a redeemable mortgage, it was, no doubt, intended 
 by Lord Dalhousie, in accordance with the rapacious policy of that 
 period, to be permanent, and the letter of the Treaty was drafted 
 with that object in view. 
 
 With regard to the temporary nature of the assignment having 
 been declared in the negotiation of the Treaty, Colonel Low, the 
 Resident, has left no doubt upon this point in his despatch dated 
 4th May 1853, describing the most critical moment in the transac- 
 tion. "Finding", he writes, " that the Nizam's dislike to the words 
 ' in perpetuity' was extreme, and fearing that the whole negotiation 
 might fail if I insisted on that word, I announced that that was a 
 part of the scheme which my Government had allowed me the 
 liberty to alter if necessary ; and I announced formally that if His 
 Highness wished it, the districts might be made over merely for a 
 time, to maintain the Contingent as long as he might require it." 1 
 In short, from what Colonel Low said to him, the Nizam was led 
 to suppose that we fully admitted his right to call upon us to 
 abolish the Contingent at any time, if he should cease to " re- 
 quire it". 
 
 And yet, under some strange hallucination, let us charitably 
 hope, as to the omnipotence of the written letter, apart from the 
 spoken word — while the words "in perpetuity" were excluded, 
 both the Eesident and the Governor soon took upon themselves to 
 assume that the substance of perpetuity was included in the 
 Treaty of 1853. "Within a very few days after the ratification of 
 the Treaty, Colonel Low, in a letter to the Government of India, 
 dated 19th June 1853, referring to some jaghire estates in the 
 assigned province of Berar, says : — 
 
 1 Nizam's Debt (418 of 1854), p. 122.
 
 MENTAL RESERVATION. 417 
 
 " I suppose that General Fraser excluded these jaghires partly to 
 please the Minister, and partly because the General then expected that 
 the whole of the districts would then remain only a short time in our 
 hands; but, as I knew that those districts are to be permanently in our 
 hands, I thought that those jaghires should at once come under our own 
 exclusive management." 1 
 
 General Fraser " expected that the districts would remain only 
 a short time in our hands". Colonel Low, recalling and resuming 
 General Fraser's arrangements and assurances, told the Nizam, to 
 save the negotiation from failing, that " the districts might be 
 made over merely for a time", and consequently erased the words 
 "in perpetuity". Yet Colonel Low says he "knew that the 
 districts were to be permanently in our hands". Clearly, the 
 Nizam did not know it, or agree to it. 
 
 Lord Dalhousie, in his Minute of 30th May 1853, on the conclu- 
 sion of the Treaty, recognises that the Nizam "showed himself, 
 from first to last, absolutely and inflexibly resolved to refuse all 
 cession of territory in perpetuity; and that he expressed the 
 utmost reluctance even to assign districts to our management, the 
 sovereignty remaining with himself." 2 
 
 Yet, in paragraph 4 of a despatch dated November 30th, 1853, 
 from the Government of India to the Resident, desiring that all 
 the Nizam's military garrisons may be removed from the Assigned' 
 Districts, they are declared to be " assigned in perpetuity". This is 
 confirmed in his Farewell Minute reviewing his own administration, 
 dated the 28th February 1856, where Lord Dalhousie says : — " By a 
 Treaty concluded in 1853, His Highness the Nizam has assigned, 
 in perpetual government, to the Honourable East India Company, 
 the province of Berar and other districts of his State, for the 
 permanent maintenance of the Hyderabad Contingent." 3 
 
 It is not easy to compare these words with those used by 
 Colonel Low, " to save the negotiation from failing", without a sense 
 of shame. Lord Dalhousie admits the Nizam to have been 
 " inflexibly resolved against cession in perpetuity" , yet says that 
 the districts are "assigned in perpetuity" , and that we have obtained 
 " perpetual government' '. Colonel Low, during the negotiation, said 
 the districts were assigned " to maintain the Contingent as long as" 
 
 1 Nizam's Debt (418 of 1854), pp. 156, 157. 2 Ibid., p. 150. 
 
 3 Minute by the Marquis qf Dalhousie (245 of 1856), p. 7. 
 
 E E
 
 418 ALLEGED 
 
 the Nizam " m ight require it". Lord Dalhousie, after the negotiation, 
 said he had obtained "the permam nt maintenance of the Contingent". 
 
 Colonel Low says he " formally announced" that the districts 
 might be "made over merely for a time, to maintain the Contin- 
 gent as long as" tin' Nizam " might require it", because he was 
 afraid "the whole negotiation might fail". If the Nizam "in- 
 flexibly ami absolutely" objected to the words "in perpetuity", 
 much more must he have objected to the fact of " perpetuity". 
 And after his objection had been admitted before his face, — for 
 fear of complete failure, — to assume and to assert " perpetuity" 
 behind his back, was a deed without a name, legally and politically 
 a nullity, and of no real effect. Founded on intimidation, compul- 
 sion, and something worse, the Treaty of 1853 exists only by dint 
 of superior force, and has no lawful or moral validity. 
 
 There is, however, a somewhat prevalent impression, founded 
 on official statements, that in 1860 not only were magnificent 
 presents conferred upon the Nizam and his Minister, Sir Salar 
 Jung, as rewards for the invaluable support and assistance given 
 by the Hyderabad State at the height and crisis of the mutinies 
 and rebellion of 1857, but that the demands and deprivations of 
 the Treaty of 1853 were to a great extent relinquished and 
 restored by the Treaty of 1860, intended, according to its preamble, 
 to "mark the esteem in which His Highness the Nizam is held by 
 Her Majesty the Queen". By Article V of this Treaty the British 
 Government restored to the Nizam the Assigned Districts of the 
 Eaichore Doab and Nuldroog, retaining only those of Berar; by 
 Article 11 the territory of Shorapore was "ceded" to His Highness 
 in full sovereignty; and Article III "cancelled I he debt of about 
 fifty lakhs of Hyderabad rupees due by the Nizam". 1 
 
 Before proceeding to examine the more serious and weighty 
 points regarding the alleged gifts and reparations of 1860, it may 
 be mentioned that, among other rewards for good conduct and 
 gallant service during the mutinies, was a reward conferred by the 
 Viceroy in Council upon the Cavalry of the Hyderabad Contingent, 
 who had taken a brilliant part In the Central Indian Campaign, 
 and were eulogised by Sir Hugh liose (now Lord Strathnairn) as 
 " the wings of his army". To the men of the Contingent who had 
 been so employed by our Government in its hour of need, an extra 
 
 1 Aitchison's Treaties, vol. v, pp. 114. 11.0.
 
 REWARDS. 419 
 
 field allowance, or batta, of five rupees a month was granted. But 
 the Nizam had to pay it. It was taken out of the revenues of the 
 Assigned Districts. 1 
 
 With regard to the presents, amounting in value to £10,000, 
 conferred upon the Nizam, and to the value of £3,000 given to 
 Salar Jung, in July 1860, it must not be forgotten that in return 
 for them, and in conformity with old usage, presents valued at 
 £15,000 were forwarded by His Highness for the acceptance of 
 the Governor-General, which, according to established rule, were 
 consigned to the Imperial treasury. 2 
 
 The Nizam's investiture with the collar and star of the Exalted 
 Order of the Star of India, which he ought, of course, according to 
 our Western ideas, to have considered as a very high and utterly 
 unpurchasable honour, was really, owing both to religious and 
 political scruples, which ought to have been foreseen and guarded 
 against, a subject of great embarrassment and anxiety to His 
 Highness. Many seditious and abusive placards were put up in 
 the City on the occasion, denouncing the Nizam for accepting a 
 Christian order of knighthood. The cameo of Her Majesty was 
 in itself an unmentionable difficulty, Mohammedan law strictly 
 forbidding graven images. And then the Governor-General's 
 Persian interpreter, in his translation of the statutes, had, by a 
 most unlucky blunder, designated the collar, which ought to have 
 been rendered by one of several words meaning a necklace or 
 garland, a "towk", signifying a slave's collar, the distinctive badge 
 of servitude. It is a remarkable fact that the Nizam's reluctance, 
 after many painful conferences with the Eesident, gave way at 
 last on his learning that the honoured name of the Prince Consort 
 was at the head of the Order. 3 
 
 Of the alleged debt of "about fifty lakhs of Hyderabad rupees" 
 enough has been already said. 4 Its origin and true history being 
 
 1 See Appendix C. The field allowance of five rupees a month was given, 
 on his own responsibility, to the men of the Hyderabad Contingent by that 
 gallant officer Colonel (afterwards General Sir Henry) Durand, then officiating 
 as Governor-General's Agent in Central India, (see Oar Faithful Ally the 
 Nizam, p. 297). This was, on his part, a most well-judged and timely boon, 
 and it was very properly confirmed ; but the very fact of the grant being 
 made by an officer unconnected with Hyderabad, and for services to our 
 Government at such an hour of need, ought to have exempted the Nizam 
 from being made to pay it. 
 
 2 See Appendix C. 3 Ibid. 4 Chapter ix, pp. 351 to 365. 
 
 E E 2
 
 420 NO SURPLUS. 
 
 such as they have been shown to be, the account was, in fact, little 
 modified in our favour by the territorial restoration and exchanges, 
 and the relinquishment of the alleged debt under the Treaty of 
 1860 ; for these concessions were insufficient to cover the Nizam's 
 legitimate and subsequently acknowledged counter-claims of Ion- 
 standing. I do not mean to say that the Nizam derived no advan- 
 tage from that Treaty, for he thereby obtained a partial restitution 
 which was very much desired, and which could not have been 
 obtained by other means ; but I do mean to say that he did not, as 
 is commonly supposed, receive anything that can be called a 
 reward. What was given up to him was already his own, and its 
 restoration cost the Imperial Government nothing. The Districts 
 were only held in trust, and the surplus revenue was payable to 
 the Hyderabad State. Ample security was retained for the main- 
 tenance of the Contingent. The District of Shorapore, which our 
 Government claimed to "cede in full sovereignty", was a recog- 
 nised fief of Hyderabad. 
 
 Assuming, however, that the alleged debt was fairly due in 1853, 
 and that the counter-claims were inadmissible, the Nizam, under 
 Article VIII of the Treaty of 1860, "ceded to the British Govern- 
 ment, in full sovereignty, all the possessions of His Highness on 
 the left bank of the Godavery and of the river Wyne Gunga 
 above the confluence" l — lands, the fee-simple of which, including 
 valuable forests, was worth much more than the fifty lakhs of 
 Hyderabad rupees professedly remitted. 
 
 Moreover, there was in 1860 another unsettled balance of account 
 in favour of the Nizam, for which our Government, as Lord Can- 
 ning and Lord Lawrence successively acknowledged, it was very 
 difficult to frame an apology or an explanation. " The provisions 
 of the Treaty of 1853", says Mr. Aitchison, Foreign Secretary to 
 the Government of India, which required the submission of 
 annual accounts of the Assigned Districts to the Nizam, were 
 productive of much inconvenience and embarrassing discussions". 2 
 These discussions must have been embarrassing indeed. Under 
 Article VIII of the Treaty of 1853, the British Resident was bound 
 to "render true and faithful accounts to the Nizam every year of 
 the receipts and disbursements, and to make over the surplus 
 
 1 Aitchison's Treaties, vol. v, p. 116. 
 
 2 Ili'ul.. vol. v, p. 10. Sir Charles Aitchison is now Lieutenant-Governor 
 of the Punjaub.
 
 NO ACCOUNTS. 421 
 
 revenue to His Highness." No surplus revenue was paid, and no 
 accounts were rendered for seven years — hence the " embarrassing 
 discussions". " By the Treaty", wrote the Viceroy, Lord Canning, 
 in Council, on the 7th of July 1860, "we are bound to render 
 these accounts every year, and it is not creditable that this should 
 not have been done/' 1 Under the Government of Lord Lawrence, 
 in a despatch dated 13th of February 1867, "the omission to 
 furnish annual accounts" was "confessed to have been a dereliction 
 from the letter of Article VIII of the Treaty of 1853". 2 
 
 The cause of no surplus revenue being paid, though veiled by 
 the accounts being withheld, was well known to the Nizam, and 
 fully admitted by the British Eesident. It arose, in his words, from 
 extravagance of our management", contrary to verbal assurances 
 during the negotiation of the Treaty, the written provisions of 
 which were actually broken by the accounts being kept back. 
 
 " There is no doubt", wrote the Eesident, Colonel Davidson, on 
 the 6th of July 1859, "that General Low allowed the former 
 Minister, Sooraj-ool-Moolk, and the present one, Salar Jung, to 
 suppose that our management would cost about two annas in the 
 rupee, or about 12 J per cent, on the revenue", — "and I distinctly 
 remember", he continues, "its being made use of as an argument 
 to induce compliance in signing the Treaty." 3 After much 
 "embarrassing discussion" at Hyderabad, the equity of the case 
 advanced by the Nizam's Minister was in substance acknowledged. 
 The Viceroy, Lord Canning, in a despatch dated 7th July 1860, taking 
 into consideration " the expectation of the Nizam, when the Treaty 
 was signed, that the expense of managing the districts would not 
 exceed two annas in the rupee, or 12^ per cent.", and also "the 
 circumstances under which, and the objects for which, the Treaty 
 was made", declared himself "not disposed to charge the Nizam 
 for administering a country which really belongs to him, more 
 than he would himself have incurred, and more proportionately 
 than he incurs in the rest of his dominions." The Government 
 of India, therefore, agreed "to admit the excess civil expenditure 
 of past years as a set-off against the Nizam's debt of fifty lakhs 
 of Hyderabad rupees." 4 
 
 Thus the formal remission of the alleged debt in the Treaty 
 
 1 Hyderabad Assigned Districts (338 of 1867), p. 7. 
 
 * Cession of Berar (29 of 1867), p. 21. 
 
 3 Hyderabad Assigned Districts (338 of 1867), pp. 4, 5. 4 Ibid., p. 9.
 
 422 THE NIZAM'S quota 
 
 of 1860, was nothing more than a form, the documentary record 
 of "a set-off" already officially acknowledged. " It is not to be 
 wondered at", says the Resident, Colonel Davidson, " that His 
 Highness the Nizam fails to regard the remission as a sponta- 
 neous and unequivocal gift." 1 It was not in any sense, or with 
 any qualification, a gift at all. 
 
 There still remains one apologetic point in favour of the Treaties 
 of 1853 and 1860 that remains to be noticed, in order to complete 
 the argument as to their inequitable and one-sided character. 
 
 Article XII of the Treaty of 1800, providing that under certain 
 circumstances the Nizam shall furnish a force of " six thousand 
 Infantry and nine thousand Horse of His Highness's own troops" 
 to co-operate with the Subsidiary Force in time of war, it is urged 
 that by Article VII of the Treaty of 1853, the reduced Contingent 
 is accepted as an equivalent in the future for "the larger body of 
 troops", and that the Nizam is thus relieved from an onerous 
 obligation, and so far derives real advantage from the Treaty. 
 
 In the first place, it must strike one that the obligation cannot 
 have been very onerous, and that the alleged relief of 1853 cannot, 
 therefore, have been worth much, since from 1819 to 1853 the 
 Nizam was never once called upon, and could not, — as I shall 
 prove, — according to the terms of Article XII of the Treaty of 1800, 
 have been called upon, to co-operate with our Government against 
 any "power whatever". 
 
 The Treaty of 1853 itself pretty distinctly acknowledges that 
 the views of Sir James Law Lusbington, Colonel Sykes, and other 
 Directors, of Sir Charles Metcalfe, Colonel Low, Sir Frederick 
 Currie and many others, 2 as to the Contingent having been an 
 oppressive imposition kept up "for purposes of our own", before 
 1853, were correct, by stating that the Nizam's quota had previously 
 been available, under the Treaty of 1800, only "in time of war", 
 but that "the present Hyderabad Contingent" was "to be main- 
 tained at cdl times, whether in peace or war." 
 
 The truth is that, as Colonel Sykes and other Directors pointed 
 out, this Force was most unwarrantably and insidiously called "the 
 Nizam's Contingent", while it was really doing the work of the 
 
 1 Adminislrativi Report of the Hyderabad Assigned Districts for 1861-2 
 (Despatch No. 20, dated 26th June 1862), published in the London Examiner, 
 May 18th, 1867. See Appendix C. 
 
 * Ante, pp. 74, 76, 77, 247, 248, 260, 359.
 
 IN TIME OF WAR. 423 
 
 Subsidiary Force, for our benefit, at the Nizam's expense. General 
 Fraser substantially pointed out the same thing, when he said that 
 it was "the peculiar and special duty of the Subsidiary Force to 
 overawe and chastise rebels and disturbers of the peace in the 
 dominions of the Nizam"; and that "if the Contingent were viewed 
 as a Force organised in lieu" of the Nizam's quota, " it should be 
 considered as intended to assist the British Government in its ex- 
 ternal wars", rather than " to maintain the internal peace of his 
 Highness's dominions". 1 
 
 Lord Dalhousie explicitly, though doubtless unwittingly, ad- 
 mitted the unwarrantable character of this Force when he said — 
 under the vain idea that he was justifying its maintenance, — that 
 it was "reserved for the service of His Highness, and for upholding 
 his authority and interests". 2 If so, it was relieving the Subsidiary 
 Force, and was not representing the Nizam's quota for war. 
 
 But the case against the Contingent before 1853, and therefore 
 against its compulsory reconstruction in that year under Treaty, 
 is even stronger than has been shown so far. Lord Dalhousie, it 
 may be remembered, originally adopted and acted on the service- 
 able official assumption that the Contingent existed under Treaty, 
 and was a commutation of the Nizam's quota of 15,000 troops, 
 which we had "a right to demand at any moment", and that " we 
 justly construed the Treaty to mean that we were to be supplied" 
 with a "regular force" of "effective soldiers". 3 
 
 Lord Dalhousie having officially terrorised the Nizam by insisting 
 on this position, confidentially admitted his mature conviction that 
 it was untenable, 4 and, after that, it could hardly be assumed 
 again in good faith by anyone. But a few words will show that 
 the position was even more indefensible than he acknowledged or, 
 perhaps, understood. 
 
 We had not "a right", under the Treaty of 1800, "to demand" 
 fifteen thousand troops from the Nizam " at any moment". "We 
 had not even the unqualified right to call out the Nizam's quota 
 to our aid " in time of ivar". The Treaty is declared in the pre- 
 amble, and in Articles III, XVI, and XVII, to be a Treaty of 
 "general defence and protection", of "general defensive alliance"; 
 and " for the more distinct explanation of the true intent and 
 effect of this agreement", Article II declares that the British 
 Government will defend the Nizam's " rights and territories" as its 
 1 Ante, p. 245. * Ante, p. 352. 3 Ante, pp. 345, 352. * Ante, p. 360.
 
 424 ONLY IN CONJUNCTION WITH 
 
 own, against " any act of unprovoked hostility or aggression". 
 Should any such act of " hostility or aggression" be committed 
 "against either of the contracting parties", they will "proceed to 
 concert and prosecute such measures as the case" may " demand". 
 Then Article XII declares that " the contracting parties" will 
 " cultivate general relations of peace; and amity with all the 
 powers of India". But, " if a war should break out between the 
 contracting parties and any other powers whatever", then the 
 Subsidiary Force "joined" by the Nizam's fifteen thousand troops, 
 " shall be immediately put in motion for the purpose of opposing 
 the enemy." The Treaty of 1798, under which the Subsidiary 
 Force was first constituted, provided that this Force should " not 
 be used on trifling occasions, nor, like Sebundy, be stationed in 
 the country, to collect the revenues thereof." 1 These exceptions 
 as to revenue matters and " trifling occasions" were expressly left 
 out in the Treaty of 1800, under Article XVII of which it was 
 agreed that " if in future any subjects or dependents of His 
 Highness's Government, should withhold the payment of the 
 Circar's just claims upon them, the Subsidiary Force, after the 
 reality of the offence shall be duly ascertained, shall reduce all 
 such offenders to obedience." 2 
 
 The Treaty of 1800, in consideration of ample territorial 
 cessions to the British Government, was intended, in Lord Welles- 
 ley's words, to give the Nizam " complete protection and security" 
 on all "occasions", "trifling" or serious, "a general guaranty" 
 against all external aggression, and against " the refractory spirit 
 of his own tributaries and dependents". In the case of war 
 against any Indian power the Nizam was to take his fair share of 
 the burden, and to join the Subsidiary Force with his epiota. But 
 there is no provision for the Nizam's cpaota being ever called out, 
 except in conjunction with the Subsidiary Force. 
 
 In short, the Treaty of 1800 is, as appears clearly from its own 
 terms and from Lord Wellesley's comments, a Treaty of defence 
 and protection in favour of the Nizam, the British Government 
 being permanently subsidised for the purpose by a territorial 
 cession. In pursuance of this agreement the Nizam took his full 
 share of the military burden in the Mahratta wars of 1803 and 
 1818, when the operations were within his own dominions, or in 
 
 1 Aitchison's Tread™, vol. v, p. 51. 2 Ibid., p. 75.
 
 THE SUBSIDIARY FORCE. 425 
 
 contiguous territories. 1 But since 1819 there has been no war 
 against any Indian power in which it could have been consistent 
 with the Treaty of 1800, or with military convenience, for the 
 British Government to send the Hyderabad Subsidiary Force 
 against the enemy, and, under such circumstances, to have it 
 "joined" by the Nizam's quota. No one will, I presume, contend 
 that the Nizam could have been called upon to furnish 15,000 of 
 his own troops to take part in either of the Afghan wars, or in 
 the Burmese or Chinese expeditions, or even in the wars of the 
 Punjaub. If anyone should attempt such an argument, he must 
 begin by showing, first, that it would have been reasonable on 
 strategic and tactical grounds, to remove the Hyderabad Subsidiary 
 Force to the scene of hostilities ; and, secondly, that it would have 
 been justifiable to do so under the terms of the Treaty of 1800. 
 
 But it is, in fact, impossible for anyone to take up that argu- 
 ment in good faith, for Lord Dalhousie himself disavowed it. In 
 the second stage of his compulsory sequestration of the Berars, 
 when, having terrorised the Nizam as " the dust under foot " by 
 telling him that the Contingent was kept up to fulfil the obliga- 
 tions of Treaty, that weapon was quietly laid aside, and he con- 
 fidentially told his Council that there was no obligation of Treaty 
 at all, he added these words : — 
 
 " For thirty-five years the Nizam's troops could never have been 
 asked for in accordance with the spirit of the Treaty ; for within that 
 period the Nizam and the Government of India have never taken the 
 field together, yet during all that time the Contingent has been main- 
 tained at various strengths. According to the present political aspect 
 of India, it is difficult to conceive the possibility of the two Govern- 
 ments ever taking the field together. Yet no diminution of the Con- 
 tingent has been proposed." 2 
 
 In the same second stage of his operations, Lord Dalhousie 
 explicitly gave up and refuted his original contention that we 
 might rightly expect and require that the Nizam's quota should 
 consist of " effective soldiers", and therefore that we were justified 
 in "kecpiyig on foot a regular Force, paid by him and officered by us"? 
 Here is his own disproof of that pretension : — 
 
 1 See Appendix B. 2 Nizam's Debt (418 of 1854), p. 100. 
 
 * Ante, p. 352.
 
 426 NO GAIN FOB NIZAM. 
 
 "The Treaty never contemplated that the Nizam should be made to 
 raise and pay a large body of troops distinct from his own, to be placed 
 at all times, in peace and war alike, under the sole control of the 
 Government of India. 
 
 " If it be said, as I have heard it said, that His Highness's own 
 troops were rabble, 1 and that to ensure our being aided by good troops 
 when war came, we had a right to require the maintenance, under our 
 own control and training, of a smaller body during peace, I reply that 
 the Article confers no such constructive right. 
 
 " We have no right to set up any arbitrary standard of our own by 
 which the quality of those troops is to be measured, and to demand 
 that a small army should be permanently embodied and made over to 
 us by the Nizam in order that we may ensure its being kept up to our 
 peculiar standard." 2 
 
 It is wonderful to perceive how well Lord Dalhousie under- 
 stood, and how thoroughly he exposed, in secret conclave, the in- 
 justice of the burden fastened on the Nizam, but only with the 
 intention of fastening it on more firmly. 
 
 It lias thus" been made quite clear that the claim of our Govern- 
 ment to the Nizam's quota was much less important than has been 
 asserted, and that the advantage to the Nizam in being relieved 
 from this obligation, under Article VII of the Treaty of 1853, was 
 very slight and inconsiderable. 
 
 On the other hand, Lord Dalhousie, by means of the compul- 
 sory Treaty of 1853, exacted — irrespective entirely of the coveted 
 object of converting the Contingent from an ambiguous body of 
 troops, "existing on sufferance," 3 into a recognised and regularly 
 paid Force, available for our use, — two distinct advantages 
 for our Government at the Nizam's expense, one of them 
 being the illicit release from a service for which the Nizam 
 had paid. 
 
 It has already been shown that by reducing, without the Nizam's 
 consent or cognizance, the, numerical strength of the Subsidiary 
 Force, in contra vent ion of the Treaty of 1800, the Honourable 
 Company made a saving in expenditure of about two millions 
 
 1 See this very word used by himself, antr, p. 352. 
 
 2 Nizarka Debt (418 of 1854), p. LOO. 
 
 3 Aide, p. ',)(). Lord Dalhousie uses the same words. — Nizam's Debt (418 
 of 1854), p. 103.
 
 SUBSIDISED WORK SHIFTED. 427 
 
 sterling in thirty years. 1 In the Treaty of 1853 this economy 
 at the Nizam's expense was carried further, and regularly 
 recorded. Under Article II of that Treaty the actual Subsidiary 
 Force, to be " stationed within the territories of His Highness", 
 was reduced by three battalions of Infantry and one of Cavalry. 2 
 This is the first of the two advantages assumed, without excuse or 
 equivalent, on that occasion. 
 
 The second is even less defensible. It has just been pointed out 
 that in the first Subsidiary Treaty of 1798 it was stipulated that 
 the Force was " not to be used on trifling occasions", or for the 
 collection of revenue, and that in the second Subsidiary Treaty of 
 1800 this restriction was removed, and the Force was to be used if 
 any subjects or dependents of His Highness's Government should 
 withhold the payment of just claims upon them." 3 
 
 Lord Dalhousie, in his Minute of 30th of March 1853, ex- 
 plaining the proposed new Treaty, says he has " not the least 
 desire to repudiate any of the obligations of the Treaty of 
 1800, or to resile from the fulfilment of them. I desire to 
 do everything that the Treaty has bound us to do." 4 And yet 
 in the new Treaty he quietly released the British Government, 
 without any equivalent for the Nizam, or any intimation of what 
 was being done, from the chief obligation of the Treaty of 1800, 
 from the distinctive and special thing that we were "bound to do", 
 and for which the Marquis Wellesley claimed great credit. In 
 order to make a show in the new Treaty of 1853 of some proper and 
 separate functions appertaining to the Contingent, — now for the 
 first time recognised, — the old restriction of 1798 is once more 
 placed on the use of the Subsidiary Force in Article II of 
 the Treaty of 1853 ; while in Article III the special thing 
 that we were "bound to do" by the Treaty of 1800, — the 
 coercion of offenders by whom " the just claims of His Highness 
 may be resisted", — is made to devolve upon the Contingent. The 
 change thus effected will be readily understood from the simul- 
 taneous view subjoined of the passages in question from the three 
 Treaties. 
 
 1 Ante, pp. 360, 361. 2 Aitchison's Treaties, vol. v, p. 103. 
 
 8 Ante, p. 424 ; Aitchison's Treaties, vol. v, pp. 51 and 75. 
 * Nizam's Debt (418 of 1854), p. 108.
 
 428 
 
 THE TREATIES COMPARED. 
 
 Treaty of 1798. 
 Article V of Treaty of 1798, imposing 
 a restriction on the duties of the Hydera- 
 bad Subsidiary Force. 
 
 " The said Subsidiary Force will 
 at all times be ready to execute 
 services of importance, such as the 
 protection of the person of His 
 Highness, his heirs and successors, 
 and overawing and chastising all 
 rebels or exciters of disturbance in 
 the dominions of this State ; but 
 it is not to be employed on trifling 
 occasions, nor, like Sebundy, to be 
 stationed in the country to collect tlu 
 revenues.'" 
 
 Treaty of 1800. 
 
 First part of Article XY1I of Treaty of 
 1800, containing the extended duties of 
 the Subsidiary Force, with the restriction 
 of the Treaty of 179S removed. 
 
 " By the present Treaty of 
 general defensive alliance, the ties 
 of union by the blessing of God 
 are drawn so close that the friends 
 of one party will be henceforward 
 considered as the friends of the 
 other, and the enemies of the one 
 party as the enemies of the other ; 
 it is therefore hereby agreed that 
 if in fn tun the Shorapore or Gud- 
 wall Zemindars, or any other sub- 
 jects or dependents of His Highnesses 
 Govern mi nt should withhold the pay- 
 ment of the Circar'sjust claims upon 
 them, or excite rebellion or disturb- 
 ance, the Subsidiary Force, or such 
 proportion thereof as may be re- 
 quisite, after the reality of the 
 offence shall be duly ascertained, 
 shall be ready, in concert with His 
 Highness 's own troops, to reduce all 
 such offenders to obedience." 
 
 Treaty of 1853. 
 
 Part of Article II of the Treaty of 
 1853, containing the duties of the Sub- 
 sidiary Force, with the old restriction 
 from the Treaty of 1798 restored. 
 
 " The said Subsidiary Force 
 shall be employed when required 
 to execute services of importance, 
 such as protecting the person of 
 His Highness, his heirs and suc- 
 cessors, and reducing to obedience 
 all rebels and exciters of disturb- 
 ance in His Highness's dominions; 
 but it is not to be employed on 
 trifling occasions, nor, like Sebundy, 
 to be stationed in tin country to col- 
 lect revenues." 
 
 Treaty of 1853. 
 Article III of the . Treaty of 1853, 
 whereby the extended duties of the Sub- 
 sidiary Force, under Article XVII of the 
 Treaty of 1800, are transferred from 
 that Force to the Contingent. 
 
 " Whensoever the services of the 
 said Contingent may be required, 
 they shall be afforded at all times 
 to His Highness the Nizam, fully 
 and promptly throughout his whole 
 dominions; if rebellion or disturb- 
 anct shall be excited, or if the just 
 claims and authority of His Highness 
 shut I lu resisted, the said Contingent, 
 after the reality of the offence shall 
 have been duly ascertained, shall 
 be employed to reduce the offenders to 
 submission."
 
 CONDITIONAL RESTORATION. 429 
 
 No further explanation or comment is required on this peculiar 
 " fulfilment" in 1853 of the obligations of the Treaty of 1800 
 
 The taint of unjustifiable compulsion, whereby the Treaty of 
 1853 is vitiated, was decidedly not purged by the Treaty of 1860. 
 On the contrary, indications of the same arbitrary and coercive 
 spirit are to be seen in the negotiation of the latter Treaty, and 
 impair the partial reparation which it effected. 1 The Nizam having 
 agreed, in anticipation of boons to be conferred, to cede in full 
 sovereignty the lands on the left bank of the Godavery required 
 by the British Government, but objecting to give up his right to 
 have "true and faithful accounts" of the assigned revenues rendered 
 every year, was told that the cession of the lands on the Godavery 
 had been made "unconditionally"; that the Nizam could not 
 "recede from this position" ; and that the other proposals were 
 "entirely unconnected with the Godavery cession, to which the 
 Nizam had absolutely agreed". 2 
 
 As to the other proposals, for restoration to the Nizam of the 
 districts of Eaichore and Dharaseo, and for the Nizam's relin- 
 quishment of his right to "true and faithful accounts", they were 
 to be "accepted or rejected as a whole". "His Highness", it was 
 said, "can of course reject the proposals", but the Government of 
 India could not "consent to his accepting so much as is perfectly 
 agreeable to him and repudiating the rest". 3 Thus, while the ces- 
 sion of territory desired by the British Government was declared 
 to be "unconditional", the partial restoration of territory to the 
 Nizam was made absolutely conditional on his giving up his right 
 to the accounts of his Assigned Districts. And when the negotia- 
 tion had been pending for about three weeks, in consequence of 
 the Nizam objecting to give up the accounts, the Eesident requested 
 the Minister to observe that "the British Government would not 
 allow the Nizam to retract from the cession of the Godavery 
 talooks", and "strongly urged" him "to meet the Governor-Gene- 
 ral's requisition, as it will otherwise assuredly lead to an unfriendly 
 and angry feeling between the two Governments." 4 The Nizam 
 
 1 See Appendix C. 
 
 - Hyderabad Assigned Districts (338 of 1867) pp. 21, 25. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 21. 
 
 4 Hyderabad Assigned Districts (338 of 18G7), p. 30.
 
 430 COMPULSION IN 1860. 
 
 and his Minister could not fail to recall the previous use of these 
 identical words of menace, 1 and were, in short, compelled, against 
 their judgment and against their will, to give up the right, under 
 Article VIII of the Treaty of 1S53, to have "true and faithful 
 accounts" rendered. Although the Nizam was still to be entitled 
 to the surplus revenues of Berar, the surplus was to be only what 
 we chose to declare. 
 
 Though the Nizam could not retain the accounts, he kept an 
 acknowledged right to the surplus, and this was an advantage 
 which nothing but actual coercion would have induced him to 
 resign. 
 
 "1 was instructed", says the Resident, "to negotiate, so that annual 
 accounts should not be required, and that we should manage the 
 administration without any discussion as to expenditure, taking on 
 ourselves the responsibility for all loss or gain. To this the 
 Minister replied, 'that would be making them over to you, as 
 Bellary, etc.,' meaning the 'Ceded Districts', ' and they would be 
 no longer the Nizam's territory.'" 2 It is obvious that if the pos- 
 session of the Berars had been obtained without any responsibility 
 for the surplus, such possession would have been absolutely uncon- 
 ditional, and undistinguishable from annexation. The sovereignty 
 of the Nizam would have been practically destroyed. 
 
 The results of the Treaty of 1860 have proved how sound was 
 the judgment on this occasion of the Nizam and his advisers, and 
 how well founded was their unavailing objection to forego the 
 accounts of the assigned revenue. 
 
 We have seen how the "excessive" and "preposterous" charges 
 of the Contingent were very promptly cut down by Lord Dal- 
 housie when, by using the debt of his own creation as a pretext, 
 he had got securely in pawn the Nizam's Berar Provinces. In two 
 years he brought down the costof the Contingent from 38to 24 lakhs. 3 
 Hut now, under the Treaty of 1860, our Government having insisted 
 on being released from the obligation of furnishing "true and faith- 
 ful accounts" of the expenditure of the assigned revenues, the annual 
 cost of the Contingent has been run up to more than thirty-live 
 lakhs, or very near the "preposterous" and "excessive" scale of 
 
 1 Ante, p. 414. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 14. 
 
 a Ante, pp. 354, 355.
 
 UESULT OF NO ACCOUNTS. 431 
 
 1849, wliicli scandalised even Lord Dalhousie. 1 And yet if ever 
 there was a time when the stability of the Nizam's Government 
 and the welfare of his people were mainly secured, as was asserted, 
 by the Hyderabad Contingent, that time has certainly gone by. 
 By the coercive and arbitrary transactions of 1853 and 18G0, that 
 Force, which has not fired a shot since the Mutinies, has been con- 
 verted.without disguise,into what it was, under the deceptive form of 
 "(he Nizam's Army", proclaimed to be by the Marquis of Hastings, 
 •'an inexpensive addition to our strength", maintained at the Nizam's 
 cost. 
 
 Although strongly pressed during the negotiation of the Treaty 
 of 1860, the Nizam was firmly resolved against any change in 
 the peculiar tenure under which the Berar districts, still left 
 under our management, were held and administered. The 
 Government of India was desirous of placing these districts 
 under the Chief Commissioner of Nagpore, but gave way to 
 the Nizam's insurmountable opposition, "on the ground that 
 the true and complete reservation of His Highness's sovereignty 
 over the retained districts might, by his acceptance of that 
 part of the proposal, became questionable." 2 The districts of 
 Berar, therefore, were left and remain in the Eesident's charge. 
 
 The desire of the Government of India was, according to very 
 good information, to revert to Sir John Malcolm's old plan of 
 forming a Lieutenant-Governorship of Central India, to include 
 the Berars, Nagpore, the Saugor and Nerbudda territories, and all 
 the Native States now under the Governor-General's Agent at 
 Indore. The Foreign Secretary at Calcutta, Mr. (afterwards Sir 
 Cecil) Beadon, was, it was understood, to have been the first 
 Lieutenant-Governor. Fortunately, in my humble belief and 
 opinion, both for the Hyderabad State, and for the honour 
 and true interests of the Imperial Government, at an early 
 period in the negotiations a rumour became current in the 
 City, "that the Berar districts were to be incorporated with 
 the province of Nagpore"; and the Eesident reported that if 
 this point had been "pressed, all that had already been ac- 
 complished would have been nullified"." I may add that I 
 
 1 See pout, Additional Appendix, p. xxv, in regard to my efforts to prevent 
 this, as recorded by the Resident, Sir Stuart Bayley, K. C.S.I. 
 J Hyderabad Assigned Districts (338 of 1867), p. 35. 
 3 Hyderabad Assigned Districts (338 of 1867), p. If).
 
 432 MISCHIEVOUS RUMOUR. 
 
 first brought "this mischievous rumour", as Colonel Davidson 
 calls it, to his notice ; and the Resident found immediately, 
 on renewing the negotiation, that the instructions of Govern- 
 ment in this respect could not be carried out. Both the Nizam's 
 and his Minister's suspicions were roused at the proposal that 
 "the British Government should manage the Berar districts 
 by any agency thought most economical and advantageous". 
 The object was too transparent; and the Resident was assured 
 by the Minister that "it would be of no use to address his High- 
 ness" on that point. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the insurmountable objection of the 
 Hyderabad Durbar to this change was based on very good reasons. 
 If the districts of Berar had been removed from the Resident's 
 charge, and placed under the Commissioner of Nagpore, and if the 
 Nizam had foregone the accounts without any reservation as to his 
 right to the surplus, it is obvious that the sequestration would have 
 been undistinguishable from annexation, — no link of connection 
 with Hyderabad would have remained — and the sovereignty of the 
 Nizam in that region would have been practically at an end. If 
 such a complex fabric as a new Presidency, with all its vested 
 interests and special departments, had been created, the aversion 
 to break it up, or to curtail its fair proportions, would have consti- 
 tuted a permanent and irremovable obstacle to the restoration of 
 the Berar provinces to their own sovereign. 
 
 Let us now make a brief survey and estimate, by recapitulating 
 the conclusions already drawn, of the relative situation, equitably 
 and morally, of our Government and that of the Hyderabad State, 
 with reference to the Berar Provinces, retained in British manage- 
 ment under the Treaty of 1860, and originally transferred under 
 the Treaty of 1853. No cause or ground whatever existed for the 
 transfer then made, except the alleged debt of about fifty lakhs 
 claimed for the pay of the Contingent. This pecuniary claim had 
 no solid foundation. In common with several other members of 
 the Court of Directors, Colonel Sykes, M.P., expressed a strong- 
 doubt whether "a legal, equitable or moral responsability could be 
 fixed upon the Nizam for the repayment of the total advances 
 made by the British Government". 1 Sir Charles Metcalfe, as 
 
 1 The Nizam (234 of 1859), p. 11.
 
 THE NIZAM'S BALANCE. 433 
 
 Resident, and many eminent Indian Councillors and Directors, 
 acknowledged that the Contingent Force, for which the alleged 
 debt was incurred, was imposed on the Nizam through a Minister 
 set up by the British Government, and so sustained entirely for 
 British objects and interests ; that the Force also afforded us 
 extensive patronage, and only performed the contract work of the 
 Subsidiary Force — already paid for in advance by the Nizam — at 
 the Nizam's expense. Even on a fair settlement of the accounts of 
 those two Forces, a large balance ought to have been struck in 
 1853 in favour of the Nizam. 1 
 
 Then there was the ample set-off against the alleged debt, 
 arising out of the unanswerable claim of the Hyderabad State, ulti- 
 mately confessed by Lord Canning, to the Excise revenues of 
 Secunderabad and Jaulnah, wrongfully appropriated for forty 
 years to the general purposes of the Madras Government. This 
 claim was not only pressed on our attention by two of the Nizam's 
 Ministers in succession, in 1850 and 1851, 2 but also in 1852 by 
 His Highness himself personally, in direct response to a demand 
 for payment of the alleged debt to the Honourable Company. On 
 the 2nd of April 1852, in reply to a note from the Resident of the 
 18th March, pressing upon His Highness the necessity of finding 
 funds for paying the arrears and current pay of the Contingent, 
 the Nizam wrote in his own name to General Fraser, and made 
 the following observations : — 
 
 " I am perfectly certain that your representation to the Government 
 of India regarding the pay of the Contingent will be made in such a 
 manner as not to excite displeasure. Bearing in mind the friendship 
 of both Governments, it is hoped that every assistance will be afforded 
 by the Government of India to this Circar. There is no loss to the 
 Honourable Company in making advances, when urgently required by 
 way of loan, for the Contingent. Regarding the Abkarree revenue of 
 Secunderabad. which is the right of my Government, I beg you will 
 have the amount paid to the Circar in the same manner as the revenue 
 of Customs. The carrying into effect of this affair rests with you." 
 
 It is abundantly clear from the papers that have been published, 
 without going into less accessible evidence, that the Nizam Nasir- 
 ood-Dowla in 1853, and his son the Nizam Afzul-ood-Dowla, signed 
 
 1 Ante, p. 361. 2 Ante, pp. 3Gl-36f). 
 
 F F
 
 434 PERSUASIVE 
 
 and sealed the two Treaties of those years under the mingled 
 influence of compulsion and of a persuasion that the assignment of 
 their Berar Provinces was temporary and terminable. At both 
 periods compulsion and persuasion were most inconsistently com- 
 bined. 
 
 Iu his Minute of the 2nd of April 1853, Sir Frederick Currie 
 said we had " no authority under treaty" for having " organised 
 this costly army in the Nizam's name, and imposed this incubus 
 upon the revenues of his State." 1 Lord Dalhousie admitted in his 
 Minutes of 1852 and 1853 that the imposition of this burden on 
 the Nizam was not justified by any Treaty ; but, nevertheless, at 
 the severest crisis of the Nizam's financial embarrassment in 1851, 
 caused by this unwarrantable imposition, he had written directly 
 to the Nizam, instructing him in threatening terms that the effi- 
 cient maintenance of the Contingent was a duty imposed on him 
 by Treaty. It was only in consequence of this inaccurate declara- 
 tion that the Nizam submitted to the maintenance of the Force, 
 while nothing less than a threat of the immediate military occupa- 
 tion of his capital, implying his dethronement, sufficed to enforce 
 the territorial assignment ; and even with all these misrepresenta- 
 tions and menaces, the assignment was eventually extorted from 
 the Nizam — not in the complete form of a cession or permanent 
 assignment, originally projected by Lord Dalhousie, but only by 
 way of temporary security, or, in the words of Colonel Low, our 
 duly accredited representative, — " merely for a time, to maintain 
 the Contingent as long as he" (the Nizam) " might require it." 
 
 In the transactions of 1860, characterised, as has been shown, by 
 a decided spirit of arbitrary compulsion, the same persuasive de- 
 clarations were made, which, if they covered — as appears but too 
 certain with regard to the words of 1853 — a reserved intention of 
 permanent sequestration, 2 must be classed among those declara- 
 tions of small ingenuity and questionable validity, which " keep 
 the word of promise to the ear, to break it to the hope". The 
 Government of India, during the negotiation of the new Treaty, 
 emphatically declared, in a letter dated the 5th of September 1860, 
 that it would " hold this territory, as it has hitherto held the 
 whole of the Assigned Districts, not in sovereignty, but in trust 
 
 1 Nizam's Debt (418 of 1854), p. 141. * Ante, p. 417.
 
 DECLARATIONS. 435 
 
 for His Highness, so long as the Contingent is kept up and no 
 longer," and that " tke alienation of this portion of the dominions 
 of His Highness is temporary only, and for a special purpose" 
 (the pay of the Contingent) , " conducive chiefly to the security of 
 the Hyderabad State, and to the preservation of tranquillity 
 throughout its limits," 1 — for which objects, it must not be for- 
 gotten, the Subsidiary Force at Secunderabad had been provided 
 and amply subsidised under the Treaty of 1800. In another pas- 
 sage of the same despatch it was observed, that " whenever the dis- 
 tricts in question are restored to the Nizam, His Highness will derive 
 all the future benefit that may possibly arise from their improve- 
 ment while under the management of British officers." And the 
 Nizam was assured, in the same despatch, that the Berar Districts 
 " would still form an integral part of His Highness's dominions, 
 and would be restored to him entire, whenever it should seem fit 
 to the two Governments to terminate the engagement under which 
 the Contingent was kept up." 2 
 
 Reassuring and hopeful as these declarations must have appeared 
 at the time to the Nizam's councillors, it cannot have escaped their 
 notice that the last one quoted was less favourable to their wishes 
 than the formal announcement of Colonel Low in 1853. " Fearing 
 the whole negotiation might fail", he told the Nizam, on the part 
 of our Government, that " the districts might be made over merely 
 for a time, to maintain the Contingent as long as he" (the Nizam) 
 " might require it." In 1860, the restoration of the districts and 
 the maintenance of the Contingent were said to depend on an 
 agreement of " the two Governments", which obviously meant on the 
 will of the stronger of the two ; and as that had been the state of 
 affairs throughout the existence of the Contingent, there would 
 probably have been little to be gained by arguing that point in 
 1860. At both periods, as Colonel Davidson, the Resident, said, 
 the Nizam and his Minister felt that they were being " forced into 
 the acceptation of arrangements that they did not desire", under 
 "a system of coercion which had for many years caused them 
 great pecuniary embarrassment". Colonel Davidson had wit- 
 nessed, he continued, " the objurgations and threats" that made 
 the Nizam acquiesce, in 1853, " to proposals similar to those now 
 
 1 Hyderabad Assigned Districts (338 of 1867), p. 20. 3 Ibid., p. 21. 
 
 F F 2
 
 436 CLAIMS CRIED DOWN. 
 
 submitted to his successor for acceptance", and he was quite sure 
 thai "the son had inherited al] his father's aversion" to them. 1 
 
 Basing their appeal on the distinct understanding with Colonel 
 Low, that the districts were only made over "temporarily" — 
 "merely for a time", "as long as the Nizam might require" the 
 Contingent — the two successive Nizams, and the co-Regents and 
 Ministers, during the minority of the reigning Prince, have made 
 numerous a] (plications for the restitution of the Berars, offering 
 other securities of undoubted sufficiency, for the performance of 
 any engagements, and the payment of any charges that might, 
 after fair consideration, be imposed on the Hyderabad State. 
 
 It has, indeed, pleased some persons and some parties con- 
 nected with local interests, both in Berar and at the capital of 
 Hyderabad, to cry down the reforms of the late Sir Salar Jung at 
 every possible opportunity within the last two or three years, 
 partly through the ordinary channels of public business, partly 
 through the press — as in the recent case of Mr. Gorst, M.P., re- 
 ferred to in the Preface. It may be as well, therefore, to give a 
 little evidence, chiefly drawn from the Resident's Reports, a source 
 not always biassed in favour of the Native Government, that 
 there really has been, as I maintain, a steady and progressive 
 improvement in the administration of the Nizam's dominions for 
 the last thirty years, commencing, in fact, from the disappearance 
 from public life of the Maharajah Chundoo Lall. I have already 
 said that although most of the Nawab Sooraj-ool-Moolk's plans, 
 made out with the counsel and concurrence of General Fraser, 
 were obstructed, and rendered imperfect or abortive, for want of 
 timely and firm support as recommended ; it may fairly be said 
 that the measures of reform carried out by Sir Salar Jung, in 
 quieter times, and with a larger and more cordial support from our 
 authorities, were constructed on the lines laid down by his uncle 
 and my father, and placed by them on record. 2 In Sooraj-ool 
 Moolk's time great progress was made in breaking down the power 
 of the Arabs, in dispersing and punishing bands of plunderers, and 
 in establishing good order on the roads and in the most remote 
 districts. A small commencement was also made under the 
 ministry of Sooraj-ool-Moolk in that work of withdrawing districts 
 
 1 Hyderabad Assigned Districts (338 of 1867), p. 26. 
 
 2 Ante, pp. 238, 280.
 
 THE STIMULUS OF PAIN. 437 
 
 from the hands of Aral) jemadars and other military chieftains, to 
 whom they were assigned for the pay of troops, which was the. 
 foundation of Sir Salar Jung's financial and administrative suc- 
 cess. 
 
 In 1845, also, Sooraj-ool-Moolk, not without meeting with much 
 opposition, effected very important and beneficial changes for the 
 better in the judicial administration. He gave the judges of the 
 Dewannee Court increased powers, and abolished the practice of 
 mutilating malefactors, which, in conformity with the letter of 
 Mussulman criminal law, had hitherto prevailed, substituting im- 
 prisonment for various terms. 
 
 But undoubtedly there was one unforeseen benefit to the Hyder- 
 abad State and people from the sequestration of the Berar Pro- 
 vinces in 1853, in the great stimulus that was thereby given to 
 reform and to economy. The severe mortification arising from 
 that territorial distraint had a salutary effect on the Nizam himself, 
 and even on the unrecognised and irregular counsellors that had so 
 long misled his judgment, and restrained to a considerable extent 
 those jealous intrigues that had constantly hampered Salar Jung's 
 immediate predecessor. At first, more especially, he was allowed 
 to have his own way, and being possessed, beyond all question, of 
 greater capacity and a higher standard of duty than any previous 
 Dewan, and receiving more decidedly and signally the countenance 
 and support of our Government than any Dewan since Chundoo 
 Lall, he worked wonders in a very brief period. A fair notion of 
 the general principles by which Sir Salar Jung was guided in his 
 long-continued career of administrative reform, and of his anxiety 
 to deserve the confidence of the British Government, may be 
 gathered from a letter written by him to Sir George Yule, soon 
 after that distinguished gentleman had entered on his duties as 
 Eesident at Hyderabad. The "statement" Sir Salar Jung mentions 
 is a detailed explanation of the progress made up to that time 
 with much statistical and financial information in tabular form. 
 
 " Hyderabad, 16th July 1863. 
 " My deak Mr. Yule, — I have the pleasure to send herewith for your 
 perasal a statement which I have had drawn up. My real object in it 
 is to lay before you the past and present condition, as well as the future 
 prospects of this Government.
 
 4:;S SALAR JUNG 
 
 "The prospective measures, however, are but slightly touched upon, 
 and I shall be glad to be favoured with your opinion on the propriety 
 of those measures. When the time arrives for giving effect to them, 
 they shall be submitted again in all their details for your opinion and 
 approval. Some of the measures referred to will require a long time 
 before they can be adopted. I trust it will be understood that 1 depre- 
 cate any comparison between this and more regular and well-established 
 forms of Government. All that I am at present chiefly anxious to 
 show you is the present state of the Government, as contrasted with 
 its condition under former administrations, and to let you see that the 
 evils and difficulties I had to contend against were greater than might 
 be generally supposed. 
 
 ' ; 1 am very anxious to be guided by your advice. It appears to me 
 that there are two points essential to be observed in the construction of 
 any new measures for this Government. The first thing is, that 
 nothing should be done in violation of the precepts of Mohammedan 
 law ; and the second, that no innovation on the rules and customs of 
 the people should be unnecessarily or suddenly made ; as many such 
 changes, though not apparently difficult of introduction, would cause 
 excitement and dissatisfaction among all classes of the community. 
 Such changes as are necessary should be gradually introduced. 
 
 " I would solicit as a favour that you will not hesitate to point out 
 any errors and faults, if you think I have gone wrong ; and if doubts 
 occur in regard to any measures or proceedings of mine, that you will 
 call upon me for explanation, without which it is very likely an idea 
 different from that intended may be formed, and then kindly make me 
 acquainted with the opinion at which you arrive. It is certain that neither 
 I, nor any Minister of this Government, can undertake any large 
 measure with success without the approval of the Resident and the 
 British Government. It is a wise principle, even among private indi- 
 viduals, to consult friends when an undertaking of any importance 
 is in view, but the necessity is greater in the case of those charged 
 with the administration of a country. The Dewan of this State cannot 
 do better than consult the Resident, whose knowledge and experience 
 exceed anything to be met with among the natives of this country. 
 
 " We can look for counsel and support only to the British Govern- 
 ment, and no measure is likely to succeed if that counsel and support 
 are withheld. We also naturally look for the approbation of some one 
 whom we respect and value; and there is no one outside our country 
 to whom we can look up except the British Government. 
 
 " With reference to His Highness' s views, which you know is a very 
 delicate subject with me, 1 can at least say with confidence that he 
 really has the improvement of his country at heart, is desirous of 
 a good reputation at home .and abroad, and wishes to see justice dis-
 
 TO SIR GEORGE YULE. 439 
 
 pensed to all, and that he may not go wrong in any decisions he 
 personally has to take. 
 
 " With regard to the condition and character of the people of this 
 country generally, so far as my own experience goes, and as the 
 Residency records will show, they are not badly off or discontented, 
 and they are quiet and harmless, though some classes are undoubtedly 
 given to idle boasting. All that they require is that they shall be left 
 in the enjoyment of their old-established customs and usages, any dis- 
 ruption of which is sure to be felt by them as hurtful. Any compulsory 
 change opposed to their feelings makes them regard His Highness with 
 something like contempt; and when His Highness is lowered in the 
 eyes of his people, he is powerless to effect any good. And when His 
 Highness is powerless, disorder may at any time begin to prevail in 
 the country, and His Highness will be blamed for the results. 
 
 " In conclusion, I trust I shall be pardoned if I say a few words in 
 regard to myself. I beg you to believe that I do not retain my present 
 office from any consideration of personal dignity or profit. My only 
 object and desire is to be of service to my Government, and with this 
 view, and in accordance with the British Government, to introduce 
 such measures and plans as shall eventually and substantially benefit 
 the State, and obtain for me a good reputation. If unable to do so, I 
 would not wish to remain in office a moment longer. 
 
 " Believe me, very sincerejy yours, 
 
 " Salar Jung." 
 
 With no Resident did Sir Salar Jung work with more cordial 
 harmony than with Sir George Yule, and from none did he receive 
 more wise counsel, more constant support, or more ample acknow- 
 ledgments of his administrative success. 
 
 Passing over the testimony of the Residents in the earlier stage 
 of Sir Salar Jung's administration, our first appeal shall be made 
 to Sir Richard Temple, who, when Resident at Hyderabad in 1867, 
 wrote as follows, in a despatch dated 16th August 1867 : — 
 
 " In the Deccan, of late years, the constitution, system, and prin- 
 ciples of the Nizam's civil government are really excellent : this much is 
 certain. That the result must be more or less beneficial to the country 
 is hardly to be doubted. Whether full effect is given to the intentions 
 of His Highness's Government, throughout the Deccan, I cannot yet 
 Bay ; but independent testimony is constantly reaching me to the effect 
 of great improvement being perceptible." 1 
 
 1 Papers, British and Native Administration (108 of 1869), p. 69.
 
 440 TESTIMONY 
 
 In the annual Return of Moral and Material Progress for 1867-8 
 compiled at the India Office, it is said: 
 
 " The vigorous efforts made towards reform have now placed the 
 financial credit of the Nizam's Government on a satisfactory footing ; 
 it enjoys the confidence of the moneyed class, and it can now raise money 
 at very moderate rates of interest, instead of the usurious charges of 
 former days." 1 
 
 With regard to the assessment of land revenue, it is said that 
 'pains have been taken more and more to render the annual 
 settlements equitable and moderate" : and that "all classes, high 
 and low, connected with land or with trade, continue to nourish". 2 
 The judicial institutions have undergone the process of being 
 entirely remodelled ; and in the annual Return of Moral and 
 Material Progress for 1869, the following reference is made to the 
 new class of Magistrates and Judges, who are gradually replacing 
 throughout the country the hereditary and separate jurisdictions, 
 which are still maintained in some great nobles' estates. 
 
 "All these officers are well educated, though all have not done well ; 
 several had originally received a training in one or other of the British 
 Provinces. Many discharged their duties with more or less of efficiency; 
 and some have by their firmness and uprightness brought credit to 
 
 their department."" 
 
 • 
 
 In his report as Eesident for 1869-70, Mr. C. B. Saunders thus 
 warmly testified to the great improvement that had taken place in 
 the administration of the Nizam's Dominions in the previous 
 twenty years : — 
 
 " It is hardly too much to say that the Hyderabad with which I first 
 became acquainted in 1860, was to the Hyderabad which was described, 
 for example, in the despatches of my predecessor of 1820, Sir Charles 
 (afterwards Lord) Metcalfe, as the England of the present day is to 
 the England of the Stuarts, — a result essentially due, as Government 
 is aware, to the beneficent administration and sound policy of the 
 present Minister, Sir Salar Jung, and to the support afforded to him 
 by my predecessors in office. Not only was the public treasury full, 
 but the annual income of the State exceeded the annual expenditure by 
 about eight lakhs of rupees, while the credit of the Government stood 
 
 1 Moral and Material Progress of India, 18(37-8, p. 113. 
 
 -' Ibid., p. 114. 3 Ibid., 1869, p. 117.
 
 OF THE RESIDENTS. 441 
 
 proportionately high. Owing cliiefly to the abolition of the baneful 
 system of former times, by which the collection of the revenue was 
 [armed out to contractors, disturbances in the interior of the country 
 li.nd become rare. The Hyderabad Contingent had not fired a shot, ex- 
 cept on its own parade-grounds, since the suppression of the mutinies. 
 
 " In no respect does the recent administration of His Highness's 
 country conti'ast more favoui'ably with the state of things prevailing 
 twenty years ago than in regard to revenue matters. 
 
 " The police has been put on a satisfactory footing ; and life and 
 property are only slightly more insecure in His Highness's territory 
 than in many parts of the country subject to our administration." 
 
 At present there is no reason to suppose that life and property 
 are in the least more insecure in the Nizam's dominions than in 
 any other part of the Indian Empire. In every respect, and in 
 every quarter, improvement has been visibly progressive. In 
 January 1880, after an inspection of the public offices at Aurun- 
 gabad, the Eesident, Sir Richard Meade, wrote a letter to the 
 Nawab Sir Salar Jung, in "which, as will be seen from the following- 
 extracts, he highly commended the district administration. 
 
 "Now that I understand", he said, "we have finished all that your 
 Excellency wished me to see in connection with the affairs here, I 
 think I may assure you in this way of the very great gratification that 
 has been afforded me by this opportunity of observing their condition 
 and woi'king. 
 
 " The work and records of the Survey Department appeared to me 
 to be admirable, and to leave nothing to be desired ; and the care that 
 has been bestowed on everything connected with this Department was 
 very striking. 
 
 " The Settlement operations are, of course, quite distinct from the 
 Survey work, but I gathered that they are being conducted with 
 equal care." 
 
 In the beginning of 1882, the Eesident, Sir Stuart Bayley, went 
 carefully and closely into an elaborate plan for certain reforms in 
 the organisation of almost every department of State, communi- 
 cated by the Minister for his information, and for the benefit of 
 his advice, and the Eesident gave to all the details of this plan his 
 cordial approbation. 
 
 Authentic statistics, among which may be mentioned those 
 collected by the Imperial Famine Commission, which visited the
 
 442 WITH EQUAL STEPS. 
 
 Nizam's capital in IS 78, show a remarkable improvement in the 
 condition of the agricultural population in the Hyderabad State 
 since the accession to power of the late Sir Salar Jung. At the 
 present day the condition of the cultivators of the soil in the 
 Nizam's territories will compare very favourably with almost 
 any provinces under British rule. 1 They are not heavily taxed, 
 the assessments being very generally much in the ryot's favour. 
 They have never been compelled to contribute to an income-tax, a 
 licence- tax, or any other of those new imposts and cesses with 
 which inventive ingenuity has harassed the people and stimu- 
 lated disaffection. No land is ever sold for arrears of revenue, 
 or in satisfaction of a court decree ; and thus no land in the 
 Nizam's Dominions has passed into the hands of money-lenders 
 and soucars, as has occurred to such a disastrous and alarming 
 extent in other parts of British India, and with a view to check 
 which unpopular and impolitic disturbance of social relations, 
 Mr. Hope's Deccan Kyots' Bill was brought forward. 
 
 If the Berar Districts have prospered, as they undoubtedly have, 
 under British management, the other provinces of the Hyderabad 
 State which have remained under the direct rule of the Nizam, 
 have prospered in at least an equal degree. If tested by the spon- 
 taneous growth of land revenue, due simply to increased cultiva- 
 tion, by orderly conduct and absence of crime among the inhabi- 
 tants, and by the general evidence of their well-being and con- 
 tentment, the Provinces ruled by the Hyderabad ministry have 
 made quite as marked an advance as those under the Berar 
 Commission. This advance is, to say the least, quite as remarkable 
 in the Eaichore and Dharaseo districts, restored to the Nizam's 
 direct rule by the Treaty of 1860, as in any of the districts 
 retained under the control of the British Resident. 
 
 1 See, also, ante, pp. 79, 87.
 
 443 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Departure from Hyderabad — Return to England — No Redress from Court 
 of Directors — Letter to Major Moore — Letter from Mr. John Sullivan 
 — Return to India — Letters from the Rajah of Travancore and from 
 Sir Mark Cubbon — Home again — Death of Mrs. Fraser — Letter from 
 the Rajah of Mysore — Petition against the annexation of Mysore — 
 Letters to Major Evans Bell— Blindness — Consulted as to a reward for 
 Salar Jung — Death — Concluding Remarks on General Fraser's character 
 and counsels. 
 
 After fifty-two years' constant performance of duty in offices of 
 the highest importance and responsibility, interrupted by only four 
 months' absence on leave, General Fraser embarked at Madras in 
 February 1853 on board one of the P. and 0. steamers, on his way 
 to Southampton by the overland route, without one word of com- 
 pliment or thanks or valedictory recognition of his long and faithful 
 service by the Government of India, either published in the 
 Gazette or addressed to himself personally. 
 
 It is very remarkable that his old friend, General Sir Mark 
 Cubbon, was afterwards treated in exactly the same fashion, and 
 on very similar provocation. In 1861, Sir Mark Cubbon, after 
 sixty years' continued service in India, and after having success- 
 fully conducted for twenty-five years the administration of Mysore, 
 was allowed to go home by the Government of Lord Canning 
 without any acknowledgment whatever of his distinguished and 
 honourable career. Parties in England and India were bent on the 
 annexation of Mysore, and General Cubbon was opposed to it. 
 He had made no secret of his aversion to that iniquitous and 
 impolitic project.. His high reputation and great experience would 
 have made his opposition formidable at home, and his influence 
 was, therefore, to be diminished, if possible, by letting him leave 
 India without notice, apparently under a cloud. In his case the 
 ungracious disregard was, in every sense, of no effect or conse- 
 quence, for Sir Mark Cubbon died at Suez in April 1861, on his 
 way to England. His reputation has assuredly not suffered.
 
 444 HONOURABLE DISAPPOINTMENT. 
 
 The displeasure of Lord Dalhousie sat very lightly on my father, 
 who was not only conscious of the rectitude, and convinced of the 
 judicial accuracy, with which he had disposed of every detail in 
 the Aurungabad and Bolarum controversy, which formed the 
 immediate and most evident cause of his resignation, but was under 
 a very confident impression, when lie left India, that, as soon as 
 the papers reached home, their " honourable masters", the Court of 
 Directors, would judge between the Governor-General and himself, 
 and that he would obtain complete exoneration from blame, and 
 relief from that injurious imputation of "party spirit", which had 
 stung him to the quick. 
 
 Although he retired from India without any official acknow- 
 ledgment of his public services, my father did not leave Hyder- 
 abad without many cordial and touching proofs of the high esti- 
 mation in which he was held by all classes of the community, 
 English and Indian — by the officers and men of the Subsidiary 
 Force and of the Contingent, and by the dignitaries and function- 
 aries of the Hyderabad State, from the Nawabs Shums-ool-Oomra 
 and Sooraj-ool-Moolk down to others of quite a humble position. 
 The Minister assured my father that when the Nizam was informed 
 that General Eraser was going to leave Hyderabad, His Highness 
 " cried like a child". 
 
 Returning to England after an absence of more than half a 
 century, my father's first impressions and earliest experiences of 
 the world of home-life, from which he had so long been exiled, 
 were not agreeable to his feelings, physically or morally. The 
 climate struck him as less genial and more gloomy than what he 
 recollected it to be. He was unquestionably disappointed with 
 the reception officially given to the cases connected with his 
 retirement. General Fraser had quite failed to appreciate the full 
 force of Lord Dalhousie's pre-eminent influence in the Court 
 of Directors, in the Board of Control, in both Houses of Parlia- 
 ment, and in both our great political parties, when he expected 
 that he would obtain justice and redress from the Home Govern- 
 ment. The Governor-General was then supposed to be carrying 
 on, with brilliant success and popular enthusiasm, his grand policy 
 of the internal consolidation of British India, its territorial aggran- 
 disement, and the acquisition of revenue and treasure, by the 
 annexation of protected States and the extinction of friendly
 
 DELUSIVE EXULTATION. 445 
 
 dynasties. Those who, at home and in India, like my lather, like 
 the Honble. Mountstuart Elphinstone, Sir Henry Lawrence, General 
 Sir John Low, General John Briggs, the present Earl of Albemarle, 
 Sir Erskine Perry, Mr. John Dickinson, and others in and out of 
 Parliament, saw and predicted that the annexation policy was 
 weakening both the military and moral strength of the Empire, 
 were few and far between, and were generally set down as old- 
 fashioned and Orientalised sentimentalists. The Marquis of Dal- 
 housie had such well-founded confidence in unlimited support 
 from the Ministry and a large majority in the Court of Directors, 
 that in 1854 he annexed the allied State of Nagpore, and confiscated 
 the real and personal property of the reigning family, without even 
 a reference to the home authorities. He had impressed " the 
 Court" and "the Board", even before the full collection of papers 
 had been transmitted for their information, with a belief that the 
 settlement of the long-vexed question of the Contingent and of 
 the constant pecuniary pressure on the Nizam, was equally bene- 
 ficial to His Highness and to ourselves, and that our possession of 
 the Berar provinces was a point gained for us of great commercial 
 as well as political value. Lord Dalhousie's exultation over this 
 matter, and his opinion of the effect it ought to produce to his credit, 
 were so great, that in his Farewell Minute reviewing his own 
 administration, he put down the gross revenues of the Assigned 
 Provinces, charged with the cost of the Contingent (although the 
 sovereignty and the surplus alike belonged to the Nizam), as a 
 clear addition to the revenues of British India. " By the several 
 territorial acquisitions just enumerated", he says, " a revenue of not 
 less than (£4,000,000) four millions sterling has been added to the 
 annual income of the Indian Empire : — 
 
 Punjaub 
 
 . 
 
 £1,500,000 
 
 Pegu (1856) 
 
 . 
 
 270,000 
 
 Nagpore (less 
 
 tribute) . 
 
 410,000 
 
 Oude . 
 
 . 
 
 1,450,000 
 
 Sattara . 
 
 . 
 
 150,000 
 
 Jhansie. 
 
 . 
 
 50,000 
 
 Hyderabad 
 
 • 
 
 500,000 
 
 
 £4,330,000' 
 
 1 Minute by the Marquis of Dalhouxie (245 of 1856), paragraph 19, page 7
 
 446 NO REDRESS 
 
 This was not a time when even the least doubt as to the 
 Govenor-General's infallibility, or any check on his onward pro- 
 gress, would have been considered admissible or endurable by the 
 authorities in Leadenhall Street and Cannon Eow to whom 
 he was nominally subordinate. The differences between the late 
 Eesident at Hyderabad and the triumphant Governor-General were 
 simply passed over, almost without notice, entirely without criti- 
 cism, as little more than matters of routine, of small public import- 
 ance or consequence. When it became evident that no redress or 
 special acknowledgment of his good services was to be expected, 
 under the actual circumstances of the day, from the Home Govern- 
 ment, there can be no doubt that my father and his personal 
 friends — those who knew and understood how his long labours at 
 Hyderabad had been misinterpreted and perverted — were hurt and 
 indignant, The following letter to his old friend, Major Moore, 
 will give a fair notion of what his feelings were at this period. 
 
 " Portledge House. 19th March 1854. 
 
 " My dear Moore, — I had the pleasure of receiving your letter of 
 the 15th on Friday last, but the Post Office arrangements in this part 
 of the country, and the fact of there being no delivery of letters in 
 London on Sunday, rendered it useless for me to reply to you until 
 this day. 
 
 " Tou suggest to me to write something regarding the proceedings of 
 the Court of Directors. But it is so much opposed to the bent of my 
 disposition to write anything anonymously, that I have never yet done 
 so in the course of my life. I do not wish you to infer that I consider 
 there would be anything immoi-al or unworthy in doing so, but only 
 that it would be repugnant to my feelings, and inconsistent with a self- 
 imposed rule which has always withheld me from acting in public life 
 in any way except openly, in my own name, and with all that responsi- 
 bility which such conduct necessarily involves. I have certainly but 
 little reason to entertain any sentiments of respect or gratitude towards 
 the Court of Directors, for they have been but little grateful to me for 
 the unintermitting labours of a life spent in their service, and have 
 shown but little sense of what was due to the character of one who has 
 long held the highest offices in India, when they permitted, and sanc- 
 tioned by their silence, that false and injurious imputation of the 
 Government of India regarding certain official acts of mine, which, if 
 true, would have dishonoured and degraded me, but which, not being 
 true, can only degrade and dishonour the Government itself. Those
 
 FROM " THE COURT". 447 
 
 who could have attributed to me a private and partial motive, or have 
 supposed that I was ever biassed by a concealed or selfish feeling in any 
 one act of my public life, have either betrayed an entire ignorance of 
 the whole antecedents of my official career in India, or have formed an 
 erroneous judgment of my principles from some utter misrepresen- 
 tation. 
 
 " I wish you to understand that if I have refrained from commenting 
 on the proceedings of the Court of Directors, and the many errors 
 with which they are chargeable — which would be an easy task, without 
 the aid of much talent or labour — I have been withheld by no motive of 
 either love or fear, but simply from the reason already stated, and 
 because I now wish to cease from all connection with the Court of 
 either a friendly or hostile nature. I shall always, as a matter of course, 
 be prepared to discharge any duty which it is competent to them to 
 impose upon me, and which comes within the obligations of my commis- 
 sion ; but the day is now past when any duty would be performed with 
 that zeal which always animated me up to the period when the local 
 Government of India falsely accused me, and when the Honourable 
 Court of Directors abandoned me, and failed to vindicate the insult I 
 had received. 
 
 " Your recent exclusion from the Direction will never discredit you 
 in the estimation of those by whom your character, your abilities, and 
 your aptitude for business are known, since it will be obvious to them 
 that such an event could have been the result only of a preconcerted 
 party scheme. That the result has proved so much opposed to your habits 
 of active occupation, and at the same time so prejudicial to the interests 
 of India, no one can regret more sincerely than I do. But I do not 
 think you will long stand alone in your present position, for the debates 
 in Parliament plainly enough show that the recently granted renewal 
 of the Charter is but a temporary expedient, preparatory to a transfer 
 of the Indian administration to Her Majesty's Government. 
 
 " I hope to be able to leave England in the beginning of May, as 
 three or four parties have already indicated a wish, though nothing yet 
 has been decided, to take the remainder of my lease of Portledge 
 House. 
 
 "My only object in moving is to exchange a climate which I much 
 dislike for one to which I am very partial, and to which I have been so 
 long habituated. 
 
 " Believe me, my dear Moore, ever yours sincerely, 
 
 "J. S. Fraser." 
 
 Major Moore had ineffectually dissuaded my father from his 
 intended return to India ; and a remonstrance reached him also
 
 448 OLD JOHN SULLIVAN. 
 
 from another old friend, Mr. John Sullivan, who, having entered 
 the Madras Civil Service in 1801, rose through the various grada- 
 tions to he a Member of Council, and retired in 1841. At home 
 he became an active member of the Court of Proprietors, and pub- 
 lished many hooks and pamphlets, always advocating a liberal and 
 equitable policy alike towards the allied Princes and the British 
 subjects of India. 1 In 1842 he math' a powerful appeal before the 
 Court of Proprietors in favour of employing the Natives more ex- 
 tensively in the government of their own country. 
 
 "Upton, Slough, May 23rd, 1854 
 " My dear Fraser, — I have long been anxious to write to you, but 
 it was only yesterday that I got your direction from W. M cLeod. I 
 heard with great regret that you had determined to return to India. 
 Surely this is a hasty resolve. You have not even set your foot on the 
 Continent, and it would really be almost sinful if you were to retire 
 to your nook at Cuddalore, without having at least taken a glance at 
 all that is to be seen on the other side of the Channel. You really 
 have not even made a fair trial of English life, and life on the 
 Continent is likely to be found by you much pleasanter, because more 
 in unison with our Indian habits, than the ways here are. I had intended 
 to have written you a long sermon on the subject, but am interrupted. 
 Is there any chance of your coming up to town ¥ 
 
 " I send you three copies of a letter I sent to Lord Aberdeen some 
 months ago, and which I have now printed. 2 It gives the story of 
 the last, or rather the latest, of our aggressions, for Lord Dalhousie's 
 earth-hunger is insatiable. He will not leave Prince or Chief in India, 
 if he has his way. Under his rule great progress has been made in 
 bringing on a state of things in which, when realised, the Governor- 
 General will represent the Monarchy ; the European officers, the aris- 
 tocracy ; and the Natives, reduced to a dead level, the democracy. 
 
 " The papers relating to the negotiations with the Nizam for the 
 cession of territory in lieu of debt, are printing, and will soon be before 
 Parliament. 3 I was glad to read the following passage in Tucker's 
 Memorials : — 
 
 1 Letter to Sir John Cam ilobliouse on the Native States of India, 1850 ; 
 The Koli-'i-Noor, to whom does it belong? 1850; Are toe hound by our Treaties' 
 A Plea for the Princes of India, 1853 ; Letter to the Earl of Aberdeen on the 
 Confiscation of Berar, 1854, etc., etc. 
 
 - Are we bound by our Treaties f A Letter to the lit. Hon. the Earl of 
 Aberdeen on the Confiscation of Nagpore (W. H. Allen & Co.), 1854. 
 
 3 The Blue Book so often quoted in this volume, Nizam's Debt, (418 
 of 1854).
 
 HENRY ST. GEORGE TUCKER. 449 
 
 " ' It may be clearly shown that the financial difficulties of the 
 Nizam's Government have been produced mainly by the British autho- 
 rities, who have compelled him to maintain an expensive military 
 force, contrary to Treaty, for our own purposes, and not with any 
 view to His Highness' s interest or wishes.' 
 
 " With our kind regards, most truly yours, 
 
 " J. Sullivan." 
 
 As Chairman of the Court of Directors, Mr. Tucker had written 
 to Lord Dalhousie on the 24th April 1848 : — "Towards the Nizam 
 we stand in a different relation ; and there must be a strong case 
 to justify our interference with His Highness, except for the pur- 
 pose of ameliorating his condition, and rendering him an act of 
 tardy justice, by relieving him from a military charge, imposed 
 upon him for our own purposes, without any regard to the obliga- 
 tions of the Treaty. I trust that this military force may be dis- 
 pensed with by and by, as the most easy means of restoring his 
 finances." 1 
 
 Soon after the General's arrival at Madras he received the fol- 
 lowing autograph letter from the Rajah of Travancore : — 
 
 " Palace, Trevandrum, 7th October 1855. 
 
 " My dear General, — 1 am happy to learn from the Madras prints 
 that you have returned from Europe. I am truly rejoiced to welcome 
 to India again an old and sincere friend of ourselves and of Travan- 
 core. I hope that yourself and your family are in the enjoyment of 
 health and happiness. Having spent the best part of your life in 
 tropical regions, I doubted very much if the exceeding cold climate of 
 England would prove congenial to your constitution. I suppose that 
 one, at least, of the reasons that prevailed with you to leave Europe was 
 that the climate did not agree with your health. I shall be very glad 
 to hear from you the first time you are at leisure. I should like to 
 know what members of your family have accompanied you, and where 
 it is your intention to reside. I am glad that your return to India 
 brings a visit between us within the limits of possibility. 
 
 " I am thankful to be able to state that myself and all the rest of the 
 family are in the enjoyment of our usual good health. General Cullen, 
 our Resident, is also doing quite as well as ever. 
 
 " As you take so sincere and warm an interest in all that relates to 
 our happiness, I cannot deny myself the pleasure of giving you a piece 
 of domestic news, at which I am sure you will feel quite as much joy 
 
 any of us. There is now a fair prospect of an addition to our family 
 
 1 Kaye's Life of Henry St. George Tucker, 1854, p. 58G. 
 
 G G
 
 450 RAJAH OF TRAVANCORE. 
 
 in the course of a couple of months, by my only niece. 1 Our prayers 
 were Long offered to the Almighty for such a favour, and we look for- 
 ward with sanguine hope to His grace for its consummation. 
 
 "I have to acknowledge the receipt of your kind letter to me dated 
 the 18th of August 1853, from England. I could not say this ere this, 
 because, at first, my occupation allowed but little time to spare, and 
 then I began to have reports of your intended return to India, and 
 hence I thought I had better wait. 
 
 " Hoping to have the pleasure of hearing early from you, and happy 
 in being able to offer you again my best regards, with such a compa- 
 ratively small distance between us, 
 
 " I am, my dear General, 
 
 " Your sincere friend, 
 
 " Martanda Vurmah, K. S. Rajah. 
 
 "P.S. The two extra initials, which you will find in this attached 
 to my signature, are the abbreviations of the title ' Koola Shakhura'. 
 The free use thereof I am only entitled to make after wearing the 
 crown of my ancestors, which ceremony, I am happy to say, has been 
 celebrated on the 5th of July last, with all the prescribed festivities 
 usual on that occasion. 
 
 " M. V., K. S. R, 
 
 " To General J. S. Fraser, etc., etc., etc." 
 
 My father did not make any long journeys or excursions during 
 his visit to India in 1854 and 1855. He passed nearly the whole 
 of his time either at Madras or at Cuddalore, a place much asso- 
 ciated with his recollections of both his parents, and which had 
 been his own head-quarters for several years when he was British 
 Commissioner and Agent for the Foreign Settlements. He did 
 not revisit Hyderabad. Before he left England, and since, there 
 had been some rumours and, as he understood, some prospects, of 
 his 1 icing nominated to a high military command — which, how- 
 ever, came to nothing eventually — and it is to this that General 
 Cubbon alludes in a letter which he wrote from his retreat in a 
 hill-fort near Bangalore, a short time before General Fraser finally 
 left India. 
 
 " Nundydroog, 7th May 1855. 
 "My dear FRASER, — I have the pleasure to enclose a letter from 
 the Rajah of Mysore. You will be glad to hear that he is getting on 
 quietly] and feels more at ease than the people about him would allow 
 
 1 The succession in the Travancore family is through females only.
 
 SECOND RETURN HOME. 451 
 
 some years ago. Indeed, if lie would only retrench his expenditure, 
 and pay off his debts, there would be nothing more to desire. 
 
 " We heard that you had been proposed for the Madras command, 
 and great was the disappointment of the army when the project failed. 
 I am not, however, prepared to believe in the story of the Duke of 
 Wellington's memorandum, 1 because it is well known that he pressed 
 that command on Sir Thomas Dallas. But it is not material whether 
 such a memorandum exists or not, for the public voice will make itself 
 heard, and insist on justice ; and I am glad, therefore, you are going 
 home, to be at hand when the next vacancy happens, which is expected 
 about the end of this year. I do not by any means despair of having 
 the pleasure of seeing you again in this country. 
 
 " Pray offer my best respects to Mrs. Fraser, and believe me, 
 
 " Yours very sincerely, 
 
 "M. CUBBON." 
 
 The immediate cause of my father's second return to England 
 was the failing health of my mother. I do not think he ever 
 became quite reconciled to the English climate, and it was pro- 
 bably from that cause that he changed his place of residence very 
 often, taking a new house nearly every two years. In all other 
 respects he lived a very .quiet and almost a retired life, going very 
 little into society beyond the circle of his own family and a few 
 old friends. He continued to be a great reader, especially of works 
 of science, and was very fond of frequenting institutions and shops 
 where astronomical and scientific instruments could be seen and 
 examined. He took the deepest and most lively interest in all 
 that was going on, at home and abroad, particularly in India, and 
 it need hardly be said that the outbreak and progress of the 
 Mutinies and Kebellion of 1857-8 were watched and followed by 
 him with close and painful attention. He offered his services to 
 the Government during the height of the Mutinies, being then in 
 wonderful health and strength for his age, and Lord Derby, in 
 replying to the General, mentioned that Lord Ellenborough, to 
 whom the papers were sent, spoke of him as "a most distinguished 
 and talented officer". He wrote and received many letters about 
 this time; old friends, both English and Native, at Hyderabad and 
 
 1 It was reported that the Duke had left a memorandum in the War 
 Office advising that no Company's officer should ever be made Commander- 
 in-Chief in India, or at either of the Presidencies. 
 
 G G 2
 
 152 LETTERS FROM 
 
 other places, being among his correspondents ; but his papers after 
 his return home, from being no longer of official importance, ami 
 partly, no doubt, from his failing sight, were not kept in perfect 
 order, or carefully preserved, ami the records become scanty as he 
 advanced in years. With the exception of tin's letter from the 
 Rajah of Mysore, I find nothing of any consequence remaining from 
 the correspondence of this period. 
 
 " Palace, Mysore, 6th February 1858. 
 
 "My dear Sir, — I had the pleasure of receiving your letter of the 
 1st of December last, through Sir Mark Cubbon, aud besides the plea- 
 sure the sight of your handwriting afforded me after a period of many 
 months, I was also gratified with the expressions of friendship therein 
 accorded me. 
 
 " It is gratifying to observe that the great rebellion in this country, 
 alluded to in your letter, is now assuming a more settled aspect. The 
 dark clouds that had gathered round the North- Western Provinces are 
 gradually dispersing, and the seditious movers in this rebellion are 
 being apprehended in every village and town, and dealt with retri- 
 butively. My own country, I am happy to say, has continued free 
 from contamination, and I am quite certain that this happy circum- 
 stance is owing to the wise and judicious measures adopted by Sir 
 Mark Cubbon. I will not at present dwell at greater length on the 
 harrowing scenes of cruelty and blood which this rebellion has caused, 
 nor on the sacrifice of the lives of many of England's best and bravest 
 officers in suppressing it, but I shall merely state that as my welfare 
 and happiness are bound up in the success and power of the British 
 Government, so has it been my desire to regard and support that 
 Government as my best friend and benefactor. 
 
 " I am much obliged to you for your kind inquiries regarding my 
 health, which, I regret to say, is not so good as could be wished, owing 
 probably to the infirmities of age which are fast stealing upon me. I 
 have now entered my sixty-fourth year, and it is not possible at this 
 advanced age to enjoy uninterrupted health. As a change, I propose 
 going into the country to Nunjengode and Chamrajnuggur for a few 
 weeks, and to start from hence in a day or two ; and should it prove 
 beneficial, I may prolong my stay in those parts. 
 
 " Time has wrought great changes in my family. I am sorry to say 
 that some of the ladies of my zenana who were acquainted with Mrs. 
 Fraser are dead. I have now but four grandchildren alive out of a 
 large family of children and grandchildren. 
 
 " Be so good as to make my best regards acceptable to Mrs. Fraser, 
 whose welfare I always have at heart ; and I hope you will never fail to
 
 THE RAJAH OF MYSORE. -too 
 
 gratify me with a few occasional lines giving me the news of yourself 
 and of Mrs. Fraser and of your children. 
 " With sincere best wishes, 
 
 " I remain, dear Sir, 
 
 " Yours sincerely, 
 (Signed in Canarese) " Mysore Kishen Raj Wadiyar, 
 
 " Rajah of Mysore." 
 
 In March 1860 the greatest of all possible afflictions fell upon 
 my father in my mother's death, at the comparatively early age of 
 fifty. The Maharajah of Mysore, in the following letter, alludes 
 to a letter of condolence of earlier date : — 
 
 " Palace, Mysore, 16th September 1861. 
 
 " My dear Sir, — After a long time I had the pleasure of receiving 
 your letter of the 25th of July, and was gratified to hear that you were 
 in good health. 
 
 "From the circumstance of your not having acknowledged the letter 
 I wrote to you immediately on the death of my much lamented friend, 
 Mrs. Fraser, being communicated to me, as also the one I sent you by 
 my Durbar Surgeon, Mr. Campbell, I conclude you have not yet 
 received them. I trust, however, that when you next write I shall 
 have the pleasure to hear that they have safely arrived. 
 
 " I have not words to express how greatly my feelings were shocked 
 when the news of General Cubbon's death was announced to me. In 
 him I have lost a valued friend and well-wisher, and the public service 
 one of its most honourable members. 
 
 " In regard to the administration of my country, which General 
 Cubbon made over to Mr. Saunders, the present Officiating Com- 
 missioner, before his departure from Mysore, and the office of Judicial 
 Commissioner to Major Dohbs, I have nothing to add but that its 
 affairs are conducted on the same broad principles of government as 
 were introduced and matured by General Cubbon. 
 
 " Circumstances having rendered it necessary that my country should 
 now be restored to me, I have applied to Lord Canning for its restora- 
 tion, and am anxiously looking forward to my request being complied 
 with. 
 
 " Doctor Campbell, who is now in England, will either send or call 
 on you with my letter. According to royal etiquette which obtains 
 among the Princes of this country, I have forwarded by that gentle- 
 man, with the permission of the Governor- General, some jewellery for 
 Her Majesty's acceptance, in token of my respectful recognition of Her 
 Majesty's assumption of this country, and trust it will meet with Her 
 gracious reception.
 
 454 PROPOSED ANNEXATION 
 
 " I am truly grateful to you for your expressions of regard, and also 
 for the interest you take in my welfare. I am glad to observe that 
 neither time nor distance has abated the fervour of your friendship 
 for me. 
 
 " I regret to hear that you are leading a secluded life, and that you 
 take no active share in what is going on in the political world, a cir- 
 cumstance which I can only ascribe to the great loss you have sus- 
 tained ; but you will pardon me for saying that it is incompatible with 
 the high character and great fame you have acquired in this country, 
 to allow your feelings to be so swayed by this event. 
 
 " I am glad to say that my family and grandchildren are in good 
 health. With every good wish for your health and happiness, 
 " Believe me to remain, my dear Sir, 
 
 " Yours very sincerely, 
 (Signed in Canarese) " Mysore Kishen Raj Wadiyar, 
 
 " Rajah of Mysore." 
 
 It may be remembered that only two years after the management 
 of the Mysore country had been assumed by the Governor - 
 General, Lord William Bentinck, General Fraser, who had been 
 Resident at Mysore, expressed in a letter to Sir Frederick Adam, 
 the Governor of Madras, his doubts as to " our treatment of that 
 weak, but good-natured and kind-hearted man", the Rajah, and 
 his conviction that "the permanent assumption of any portion of 
 his country would be a stain upon our good faith and national 
 character". In that letter, moreover, he briefly but justly 
 summed up the true origin and cause of our supersession of the 
 Rajah. " Our system of non-interference, or at least our abstin- 
 ence from regular and well-considered guidance in his youth, did 
 the mischief, and then we pounced upon the prey which our policy 
 had driven into the toils." 1 In writing to Major Stokes, the Resi- 
 dent at Mysore, in 1830, the General assumed as the right course — 
 though with no assurance as to its being taken — that " we should, 
 at no distant period, restore the Rajah to power". 2 
 
 Many years had now elapsed since he expressed these opinions, 
 but he had seen no reason to change them, while his aversion to 
 the policy of annexation, and to any isolated measure calculated 
 to weaken the moral supremacy of the Imperial Power in India, 
 was much strengthened by the incidents and evident lessons of 
 
 1 Ante, p. 28. - Ante, p. 94.
 
 OF MYSORE. 455 
 
 1857. He was prepared, therefore, to receive with satisfaction and 
 sympathy the news that an effort was being made by a small party 
 of members of both Houses of Parliament and some old Indians 
 to save the tributary State of Mysore from extinction at the 
 demise of his old friend, the Rajah, a step upon which the 
 Government of India was avowedly determined. In 1865 the 
 fate of Mysore was trembling in the balance, when a book was 
 published by Major Evans Bell, clearing away a mass of misrepre- 
 sentations, and recommending the policy which was eventually 
 ordered by the Home Government to be carried out in every par- 
 ticular — the maintenance of the Mysore State and the gradual 
 restoration of Native agency in its administration. General 
 Eraser thus acknowledged receiving a copy of this book, sent to 
 him by the author. 
 
 " Parklmrst, 11th July 1865. 
 "My dear Sir, — I beg you will accept my best thanks for the book 
 you have been so kind as to send me, 1 conveying a clear and distinct 
 view of the case of the Rajah of Mysore. Your arguments in this 
 matter are exhaustive and impregnable, and such as I would fain hope 
 must be absolutely convincing to every impartial and honourable mind. 
 But God knows what may happen with the many evil influences and 
 selfish piejudgments arrayed against you. Much will now depend on 
 the ability of the members who are to bring the case before Par- 
 liament. 
 
 " Believe me, my dear Sir, yours faithfully, 
 
 " J. S. Fraser." 
 
 The case was not actually brought before Parliament that year, 
 except in one or two questions, which received no positive or final 
 answer ; but in the next Session a deputation, introduced by Sir 
 Henry Eawlinson, Sir Edward Colebrooke, and other members of 
 the House of Commons, waited on Lord Cranborne, (now the 
 Marquis of Salisbury) then Secretary of State for India, to urge 
 upon him a reconsideration of the whole case, more particularly as 
 modified by the Rajah's adoption of an infant kinsman as his son 
 and heir. In August 1866, a petition bearing the signatures of 
 many retired Indian officials of high repute, was presented to the 
 House of Commons, by Mr. John Stuart Mill, M.P. for West- 
 minster, praying that " your Honourable House will take such 
 
 1 Th" Mysore Reversion (Triibner, 1865).
 
 456 LETTERS 
 
 steps as may seem in your wisdom most efficacious for ensuring, 
 with tlic least possible delay, the re-establishment of a Native 
 Government in the tributary State of Mysore, with every possible 
 security for British interests, and for the prosperity and happiness 
 of the people of the country." General Fraser joined with his old 
 brother officers of the Madras Army, General Sir John Low, and 
 < reneral John Briggs, in signing this petition, having consented to 
 do so in the following letter. 
 
 " Parkhurst, 13th July 1866. 
 '■ My dear Sir, — Having been always of the very decided opinion that 
 our annexation of Mysore would be at once a most unjust and a most 
 impolitic measure, I can have no hesitation in requesting you to be so 
 good as to add my name to the more influential signatures that may 
 be affixed to the Petition you are proposing to address to the House of 
 Commons. 
 
 " I sincerely wish it all the success due to the intrinsic merits of the 
 cause it pleads, and to the able advocacy with which you are generously 
 endeavouring to support it. 
 
 " I am, my dear Sir, yours faithfully, 
 
 " J. S. Fraser. 
 " Major Evans Bell, etc., etc." 
 
 A gradual failure of sight reduced more and more, in the latter 
 years of my father's life, his capacity for occupying himself with 
 books and correspondence, and rendered him very dependent on 
 the ministrations of those around him. One of the last letters 
 written with his own hand was addressed to the same gentleman 
 whose well-directed exertions on behalf of the Rajah and State of 
 Mysore we have just seen him encouraging and supporting. 
 
 And here I cannot refrain from expressing my belief that if 
 ever our statesmen, without distinction of party, succeed in giving 
 the true stamp of Empire to our policy in India, and in rallying 
 all races and classes in cheerful allegiance to Her Majesty's Crown, 
 it will be by proceeding on the lines that have been so clearly 
 pointed out by Major Evans Bell, and by adhering to the doctrines 
 that he has constantly preached. I know that I am not alone in 
 feeling bow much I am indebted to him for the light he has 
 thrown on the historical course, on the right principles, and on the 
 best securities of our Imperial supremacy; but few can have 
 had the opportunity that has fallen to me of knowing under
 
 TO MAJOR EVANS BELL. 457 
 
 what difficulty and discouragement he lias carried on the war for 
 more than twenty years against the contradictions, the contracted 
 views, the brilliant and barren professions of those who hold, 
 under every advantage, the high official platform. Few of those 
 in India who have profited, or are likely to profit, by his work, 
 can be aware, as I am, under what sacrifices, and even privations, 
 it has been carried on, and how it is curtailed and confined by 
 material deficiencies. 
 
 In the next letter, called forth by the receipt of another of 
 Major Bell's books, General Fraser may be said to have recorded 
 his final protest against both of Lord Dalhousie's imputations — 
 that of " ambitious greed" in his plan of reform for the Nizam's 
 administration, and that of " party spirit" in the command of the 
 Contingent, to which I think my father was alluding in the last 
 sentence of this letter. 
 
 " Twickenham Park, loth August 1868. 
 
 " Dear Sir, — I have had the pleasure to receive your note, and 
 accept with thankfulness the copy of your work on Indian Policy. 1 I 
 have no doubt I shall be greatly interested in it, as I have already been 
 with your former works on the subject of India. I shall now only 
 notice an observation that I see on the 73rd page of your book, which 
 has some reference to myself. 
 
 " It is quite true that I submitted to Lord Dalhousie the suggestion 
 therein alluded to, with regard to a proposal for our assuming the 
 entire but temporary management of the Nizam's country. His Lord- 
 ship dissented from this "without giving me any special reasons for 
 doing so, and I now learn for the first time, from your book, what his 
 reasons were. One of them appears to have been that the Nizam's 
 assent to such a proposal would never have been voluntarily given, 
 coupled with an insinuation that such suggestions as that I had made 
 proceeded ' in too many instances from the promptings of ambitious 
 greed'. 
 
 " With regard to the first of those objections, I had much better 
 means of judging how far my suggestion would have been adopted by 
 the Nizam than Lord Dalhousie possessed ; and if I had not been 
 thoroughly sure of the ground on which I stood, and of the strong pro- 
 bability of success, the suggestion never would have been made. The 
 Nizam was on very friendly terms with me, and the Dewan owed his 
 office entirely and exclusively to myself, and would not, I was per- 
 suaded, in any way counteract my wishes. Under these circumstances, 
 
 1 Retrospects and Prospects of Indian Policy (Triibner and Co., 18G8).
 
 458 loud dalhousie's 
 
 there was no sufficient reason to doubt our obtaining 1 the Nizam's con- 
 sent, until his friendly feelings were alienated, if not from myself, at 
 leasl from the British Government, by the harsh and imperious lan- 
 gnage in which Lord Dalhousie thought proper to address His Highness 
 in a direct despatch. 
 
 • As to Lord Dalhousie's remark about ' ambitious greed', I had, at 
 all events, not contemplated any prolonged exercise of the functions of 
 sovereignty at Hyderabad, such as we have exercised in Mysore for 
 thirty years, since I intended, in our agreement with the Nizam on this 
 subject, that the tenure ot our control over his country should positively 
 be limited to the maximum of five years, within which period I felt 
 quite assured that the Nizam's debt to us would be repaid, and such 
 administrative reforms effected as would then enable us to divest our- 
 selves of our temporary power, without any probability of a recurrence 
 of those evils from which we should have rescued the Nizam, and 
 especially from what he so much dreaded and abhorred, the loss, per- 
 haps to be permanent, of Berar, the finest part of his dominions. 
 
 " Various evils existed in the Nizam's country, which I had long- 
 most strongly urged the Supreme Government to insist upon having 
 repressed by more energy and determination on the part of the Nizam 
 than he was willing to exert, but I was persistently baffled in these 
 attempts by Lord Dalhousie. His real motives for this conduct I 
 never could divine, and I could only attribute it to his imperious and 
 self-willed temper, which, even in matters of mere opinion and sug- 
 gestion, could bear no rival near its throne. 
 
 " Excuse the lengthened egotism of this note. I sensibly feel the 
 injustice of that imputation which would fix upon me the glaring fault, 
 I may say crime, of having been actuated by base, sordid, and dis- 
 honourable motives in the conduct and discharge of a public duty. 
 
 " Most truly yours, 
 
 "J. S. Fraser." 
 
 The evidence contained in this volume, more especially in 
 Chapters \ and \i. has given ample materials for a judgment 
 on the question whether there was more of "ambitious greed" in 
 the policy towards the Hyderabad State recommended by General 
 Fraser, or in that devised and carried out by Lord Dalhousie, and 
 no more need be said on that subject. 
 
 I should like, however, to explain that my only object in the 
 stricture^ on Lord Dalhousie's policy and procedure into which J 
 have been led, has been that of relieving my father's memory from 
 the imputations of "ambitious greed" and " party spirit", and from
 
 POLICY OR INSTRUCTIONS. 459 
 
 all participation in the compulsory assignment of the Berar Pro- 
 vinces under the form of a Treaty. It is impossible for me to 
 have ever had any personal feeling against Lord Dalhousie, to 
 whom I am indebted for that first appointment on the Staff, which 
 is always the most difficult step to obtain in India. 
 
 I may add that although I cannot see the way to acquit Lord 
 Dalhousie and others of having wrongfully kept back from the 
 Nizam the explanation and acknowledgment that was due to him, 
 of the serious misstatement in their original demand for the main- 
 tenance of the so-called Contingent as being based on " the obliga- 
 tions of a Treat//', when they had satisfied themselves regarding 
 their error, 1 it would be very unfair to blame Lord Dalhousie as 
 being the author of that misstatement. He found it accepted, 
 embodied in the very name of " the Hyderabad Contingent" 
 officially given to that Force, 2 and so represented in several Par- 
 liamentary Blue Books. 3 Misled by this assumption, he pitched 
 his demands in so high a tone, and with such a menacing accom- 
 paniment, that it may well have subsequently seemed difficult for 
 him to lower the claim or to relax its terms, without losing dignity 
 and surrendering the whole position. 
 
 Moreover, it has been stated, on what is understood to be very 
 good authority, that in his general policy of acquiring territory 
 and revenue from the allied States — under the delusive notion that 
 the Empire would be consolidated, and its military strength 
 increased — Lord Dalhousie was not really acting on his own 
 initiative, but on instructions from the Liberal Cabinet and a con- 
 clave of Whig patriarchs held at the Marquis of Lansdowne's 
 house, Bo wood. 
 
 There is another great public object which I hope may to some 
 extent be advanced by the publication of this book, though I have 
 chiefly dwelt upon it in the Additional Appendix — the formation 
 and maintenance at a high standard of Silladar Cavalry on the 
 system that long prevailed in the Hyderabad Contingent. I have 
 not thought it expedient to go so fully into the subject in this 
 
 1 Ante, pp. 345, 352, 360, 3G8, 3G'J, 423. 
 
 2 Ante, p. 359. 
 
 3 See e.g., Third Report of Lords' Select Committee (627, n of 1853), 
 Appendix, pp. 121 and 143. Hyderabad "hound to maintain a Contingent 
 Force", the number of troops given, " commanded by British officers, and 
 available, under Treaties, to the British Government"
 
 460 CLAIMS FOB COMPENSATION. 
 
 volume as may be necessary hereafter, but I trust I have said 
 enough to indicate the necessity of caution, and the want of a 
 careful inquiry. 1 1 do not hesitate to say that the innovations in 
 matters of regimental discipline and duties of parade and fatigue, 
 imposed of late years on the troopers, have not tended to bring 
 into the ranks the same class as formerly; while the restrictions 
 and prohibitions regarding the tenure and sale of Assamees have 
 not merely approached very closely to that arbitrary curtailment 
 of the soldier's emoluments which, especially in India, has been 
 the frequent cause of mutiny, but have amounted to a deteriora- 
 tion and confiscation of property that has operated most cruelly on 
 the finest military class in India. An Assamee, or the ownership 
 of a horse, was worth, according to a computation made when Sir 
 George Yule was Resident, fully 1,200 rupees — it would have 
 fetched that price if sold by auction. Under the operation of the 
 new rules, more severely applied than was ever intended, and 
 subsequently cancelled by order of the Government of India, for 
 reducing the number of horses held by individual Silladars, the 
 price has not been allowed to settle itself by the value as ascer- 
 tained by private sale or auction, but was locally, and thereby 
 removing responsibility on the part of commanding officers, authori- 
 tatively limited to a certain sum, 450 Government rupees, causing a 
 very heavy loss to those who have purchased or inherited this 
 description of property. The Government has, however, not 
 approved of this. The cases of thirty -five forfeited Assamees 
 specially reported to Government on behalf of officers and men of 
 the Hyderabad Cavalry, recommended to have a larger compensa- 
 tion awarded them, have been sent to the General Commanding the 
 Contingent for inquiry and report ; but the inquiry drags in a 
 vexatious manner, the cause of delay being very generally attri- 
 buted to the fact that if these thirty-five appellants receive any 
 redress, there are at least seven hundred and fifty other equally 
 strong cases for compensation that would at once be preferred. 
 The settlement of these cases on anything like equitable terms 
 would cost something like three and a half lakhs of rupees (about 
 £30,000). But let anyone conversant with the ordinary prejudices 
 and feelings, not merely of the Hyderabad Cavalry, but of any 
 nation or tribe, with regard to property or privilege, try to fathom 
 
 1 Additional Appendix, p. xxiii.
 
 GOOD INFLUENCE LOWEEED. 461 
 
 the depth of the rancour and heart-burning that must arise from 
 such an interference with vested rights and long-established 
 
 possessions. 1 
 
 The question of individual Native officers and Silladars in the 
 Hyderabad Cavalry possessing a large number of Assamees was 
 one upon which General Fraser was called upon to give an opinion 
 a very short time before he left the Residency. In the letter from 
 the Government of India, dated 17th of September 1852, com- 
 menting on the trials of Zoolficar Ali Beg and others, 2 it was held 
 that the " extent of property" in Assamees held by the Rissaldar 
 was " objectionable", and the Resident was requested to suggest 
 "measures for its reduction". In his reply to this part of the 
 letter, dated the 29th October 1852, the General wrote as follows : — 
 
 " It is possible that some inconvenience may be found to exist from 
 any individual having so large a number of Assamees in a Regiment 
 as to operate to the entire or even partial exclusion of others from a 
 similar priviiege ; but as a general principle, I am disposed to think 
 that the possession of large property of this kind by the Native officers 
 of the Cavalry is a decided advantage rather than otherwise. 
 
 " It gives them an importance, an influence, and an elevated station 
 in the Army, which it is desirable they should possess ; and it forms, 
 no doubt, a bond of attachment to the Government they serve which 
 would elsewhere be sought for in vain. It is this which contributes in 
 a great measure to give that high tone and character to the Nizam's 
 Cavalry, which render it probably superior to any other Irregular 
 Cavalry in India." 
 
 In consequence, I presume, of this opinion, and of others to the 
 same effect given at the same time, no change in this direction 
 was made by the Government of Lord Dalhousie, or by any 
 authority, civil or military, until the period referred to in the 
 Additional Appendix. The results, though not as yet irremedi- 
 able, have been, in my opinion, most mischievous, lowering the 
 " high tone", and " character" of the Force, which General Fraser 
 eulogised, and repelling the best class of recruits, besides, as 
 already said, injuring the property and prospects of some of the 
 finest soldiers. As remarked by me at page ii, Additional Ap- 
 
 1 Before applying for furlough on this last occasion of my being in a 
 position to avail myself of leave, I recorded my views for communication to 
 Government on two occasions on this subject, and those reports remain on 
 the records of my office, where I placed them by desire of the Resident. 
 
 2 Ante, pp. 398, 399.
 
 462 INJURIOUS CHANGES. 
 
 pendix, the Government of [ndia have endeavoured to set matters 
 right; but these orders are not being fully acted up to. My 
 farewell record explains how. This is the report referred to in 
 pages xxiv and xxv of the Additional Appendix, and foot-note on 
 previous page. 
 
 In consequence of the strong opinion given by General Fraser, 
 as the last fruit, it may be said, of his fourteen years' experience 
 and command of "the Nizam's Army", — as it was usually called 
 at Hyderabad until the changes of 1853 — Lord Dalhousie took no 
 steps to reduce the number of Assamees held by single officers 
 and troopers, and the Silladaree system was hardly at all tampered 
 with until about 1875 ; x since when those inroads on the vested 
 rights and valued possessions of the whole class and community 
 from which the Hyderabad Cavalry used to be recruited, have 
 been suggested and partially carried into effect, and in consequence 
 there are two systems prevailing now. Against those encroachments 
 and inroads I have always protested, and given all the resistance 
 m my power, officially and officiously, in season and out of season, 
 and I shall always continue to do so. 
 
 When the Officer Commanding the Hyderabad Contingent 
 adopted the unusual course of submitting his views directly to the 
 Government of India, and of charging a previous Resident, and 
 some other local officials, with neglect of his recommendations, I 
 felt myself bound, as stated fully in the Additional Appendix, to 
 enter the lists on behalf of my late Chief, General Sir Richard 
 Meade. As to my being competent and justified in entering on 
 such a contest, I would refer to Sir Stuart Bayley's remarks in the 
 Additional Appendix, page xL 
 
 My opposition neither springs merely from feelings of friendly 
 regard for the interests of old comrades with whom I have lived 
 and served, in the field and in quarters, nor from feelings of conser- 
 vative regard for property recognised by law and by ancient custom, 
 hut rather, and mainly, from considerations that are at once military 
 and political. In all arms of the Indian service, but more espe- 
 cially in the Cavalry arm, a cheerful spirit of confidence and attach- 
 ment in the men towards their English officers and the Government 
 they serve is an essential element in their value and efficiency. 
 The growth and establishment of such a spirit among the large body 
 of Hyderabad troops was well secured, as General Fraser urged in 
 
 1 Sec Additional Appendix, pp. vi to xxvi.
 
 REWARD IMPOSSIBLE. 463 
 
 the letter just quoted, by the presence among themselves of a select 
 and influential class, chiefly composed of Native officers, with a 
 large stake in the service, constituting a pledge for their loyalty 
 and good conduct. This class is attacked and injured by the 
 innovations I deprecate ; and a sense of wrong and loss — loss of 
 property and loss of social position — is a bad basis for discipline 
 and loyalty. The innovations in the Silladaree system I look upon 
 as a thoroughly false move, both on military and political grounds, 
 and I am very sure that it ought at once to be checked and 
 rectified in the interests of the Empire. 
 
 If ever the dreams attributed to some Russian statesmen and 
 soldiers are in any degree realised, by an invasion of India, 
 whether it be led or only instigated by Eussia, we may rely on it 
 that a great part will be played by, or will be allotted to, large 
 bodies of the Irregular horsemen which Central Asia can furnish in 
 almost endless numbers. What Light Cavalry have we in India 
 to meet these formidable hordes ? Without fully answering that 
 question here, I will only say that our numbers are at present 
 very insufficient. 
 
 In the case of the Hyderabad Contingent Cavalry, the Indian 
 Government has recognised the injustice done the soldiers, and has 
 issued orders to remedy some of the evils I complain of ; but it is 
 against local authorities I have had to contend, and have more 
 recently contended. 1 
 
 General Fraser was, I know, occasionally consulted on Indian 
 affairs after his retirement, both by Members of the Indian Council, 
 with many of whom he was personally acquainted, and by the 
 Secretaries of State, but I find very few letters relating to such 
 matters among his papers. Almost the only question of any 
 interest regarding which there is any record was a statement of 
 his views, given at the request of Mr. Vernon Smith, afterwards 
 Lord Lyveden, in 1860, as to the most feasible and acceptable 
 mode of rewarding the Nawab Salar Jung for his invaluable 
 services during the rebellion of 1857-8. But, as he said to his 
 friend Mr. Willoughby, afterwards Sir J. 1'. Willoughby, Bart., of 
 the Secretary of State's Council, his advice was for the most part 
 negative and inconclusive. " I must not forget," he wrote, " to 
 express a hope that you received the copy of my letter to Mr. 
 
 1 See explanation in connection with my remarks on this subject 
 Additional Appendix, pp. lxxii and lxxiii.
 
 464 IMPERIAL CO-OPERATION. 
 
 Vernon Smith, which I sent to yon just before I left London. It 
 was on the subject of a reward to be given to Salar Jung, for his 
 <4<>«k1 and faithful conduct to us during the Mutiny, regarding 
 which Mr. Vernon Smith had requested me to give my opinion. 
 I am aware, however, that it can have been of little or no use to 
 him or to yon, as it rather tended to exhibit the difficulty of sug- 
 gesting a suitable mode in which to recognise his services than to 
 remove that difficulty, and point out a reward which would be 
 substantia] and unexceptionable." 
 
 I was in England on leave in the summer of the year of my 
 father's death, when I found ( lencral Fraser, notwithstanding his 
 great age, and the total blindness by which he was then afflicted, 
 apparently in good health and spirits, and giving us no special 
 cause for anxiety on his account. One of the last things he said 
 to me was to beg me to stay at Hyderabad, and so far as lay 
 within my power and the scope of my duties, to watch over the 
 welfare and independence of the Nizam's sovereignty, for there, he 
 said, was the centre and strength of the Empire. 
 
 He died on the 22nd August 1869, having then entered on his 
 eighty-sixth year. 
 
 I cannot trust myself, nor would it, perhaps, be a becoming 
 effort on my part, to say all that I think and feel as to the 
 character of my father. He was a man of scrupulous integrity 
 and unsullied honour, firm and faithful in all trials, and generous 
 to a degree. After fifty years of lucrative employment he carried 
 nothing with him on his retirement from India beyond his military 
 pension and the value of his personal property in the Kesidency 
 at Hyderabad, and as this work shows, the esteem of numerous 
 persons of high distinction, both European and Native. 
 
 My father never, to the last clay of his life, departed from the 
 strong opinions he had formed and expressed at a very early date, 
 as to the real "community of interests" between the Hyderabad 
 State, — "situated in the heart of India", and "exercising a consider- 
 able moral influence over the Mussulman population in our own 
 dominions", — "and the British Government". 1 In conjunction with 
 his views as to the advisability of at once promoting reforms iu 
 the Nizam's Government and preserving its internal independence, 
 — which was, indeed, his policy with regard to all the allied States 
 
 1 Ante, p. 62.
 
 OF STATES AND RACES. 465 
 
 — ho always entertained the desire to see a more close union, on 
 more equal terms, of Englishmen and Indians in the great work of 
 Government In 1840, it may be remembered, when he made 
 arrangements for an investigation into the Wahabee conspiracy, 
 and formed a joint Committee for that purpose of European 
 officers and Native gentlemen, he mentioned as one of the advan- 
 tages he expected from that measure, that we "should exhibit upon 
 a small scale, what I think it is highly desirable we should begin 
 to do on a more extensive one, a wish to see brought prominently 
 forward and employed in honourable office, and united with us in 
 our councils and deliberations, men of rank and respectability 
 among the Mohammedans." 1 
 
 This was the aim he had before him in his various endeavours to 
 have Mr. Dighton, Captain Meadows Taylor, Captain Bullock, and 
 others, employed in the Nizam's administration. It is true that, in 
 consequence, as has been abundantly made manifest in the pre- 
 ceding pages, of the lack of interest and support vouchsafed by 
 the Government of India, his plans were only partially successful, 
 but his counsels and his efforts have left a lesson which may be 
 usefully studied and learned. I may add, that almost the last de- 
 spatch he wrote to the Government of India, dated December 20th, 
 1852, conveyed the proposal of an arrangement made between 
 himself and the Minister, Sooraj-ool-Moolk, as a last plan to save 
 the Nizam from having to assign the Berar Provinces, whereby "the 
 talooks of Deodroog and others in the Eaichore district were to be 
 placed under the superintendence of Captain Meadows Taylor", 
 already administering successfully Shorapore for the Nizam, with 
 a view to regularly meeting the current pay of the Contingent and 
 interest on the arrears. But Lord Dalhousie had alread} T deter- 
 mined on having the Berars with a Treaty ; he had directed the 
 Resident to "abstain from pressing" for payment of the debt,' 2 and 
 the reply from Government simply postponed the consideration of 
 all such matters "till Colonel Low shall have assumed charge of 
 the Residency". . What then followed we know. 
 
 My father wished Englishmen and Natives to co-operate under 
 the influence of the same generous pride and honourable ambition, 
 and with a common path open before him. I can testify from my 
 own experience to the useful services, during the Ministry of Sir 
 
 1 Ante, p. 62. ' 2 Anlr, p. 375. 
 
 II H
 
 466 REPARATION AXU PROGRESS, 
 
 r 
 
 Salar Jung, of the late Rajah Cundasamy, and of a gentleman of 
 Persian descent, still living, Sooltan Mohammed — the former 
 having been a recognised vakeel, passing between the Residency 
 and the several centres of executive power in the city. I may 
 add that Sooltan Mohammed was always selected by the 
 Nawab to be the mihmandar, or personal conductor, for sport- 
 ing purposes especially, of his English friends, of distinguished 
 visitors who came to the Hyderabad country with introductions 
 from Government, or of myself when accompanied by friends 
 on my own private invitation and account. If I have taken 
 my full share of the good work of ridding the country of 
 wild animals, I feel that I owe very much to the good offices of 
 my excellent friend, Sooltan Mohammed. My father neither wished 
 to Orientalise Englishmen nor to Europeanise Indians, but, if I may 
 be allowed to coin a word, to Imperialise both races. In this 
 respect his convictions and his counsels were identical with those 
 of the late Nawab Salar Jung, as expressed in the letter to myself 
 of 11th December 1874, which will be found further on in fac- 
 simile form. "I like to be a Liberal", said the great Mussulman 
 statesman, "as far as the improvement of the people and advance- 
 ment of public life are concerned ; but I assure you I like to be a 
 perfect Conservative when the question of national usages and 
 customs comes forward, if they do not interfere in any improve- 
 ment as above mentioned. So I think I can have the sympathies 
 of botli parties." 1 
 
 To the sympathies of both great parties I appeal for a just 
 policy of reparation and of progress, not only for the Hyderabad 
 State, but for the British Empire in India. If this book should 
 have any good effect in that direction, my efforts for the vindica- 
 tion of my father's memory will not have been in vain. 
 
 1 Lithographed Letter, facing p. xxvi of Additional Appendix.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 (A.) 
 
 LETTERS OF COUNT DU PUY. 
 
 (Page 22.) 
 
 These letters are, perhaps, worth preserving, on account of their 
 • piaint and intensely French style; and, also, as showing the tact 
 and good feeling with which the English Commandant and Com- 
 missioner must have performed his difficult duties. 
 
 "A Sen Excellence le tres Honorable Hugh Elliot. 
 
 " Pondichery, le Mercredi, 4 Decembre 1816. 
 
 " Monsieur le Gouverneur, — Ce n'est pas sans emotion que je viens 
 vous raconter qu'aujourd'hui nofcre ceremonie de reprise de possession, 
 et de retablissement du pavilion francais s'est faite avec toute la 
 decence et la dignite possibles. Le ciel le plus serein semblait nous 
 proteger; un sentiment de fraternite electrisait tous les Anglais et 
 Francais qui se trouvaient a Pondich ery : on se rapprochait ; on s'em- 
 brassait, et sans interprete, tout le monde s'entendait. 
 
 "Votre representant, Monsieur le Capitaine Fraser, qui est reelle- 
 ment un homme tres distingue, a fait jusqu'a ce jour les honneurs 
 Britanniques avec noblesse et avec grace, commesi vous l'aviez inspire ; 
 et a ce matin, au milieu d'une immense population, bruit des canons 
 et des acclamations universelles, apres un discours plein de sensibilize 
 et d'eloquence naturelle, il a resigne les pouvoirs qu'il tenait de votre 
 Excellence comme Commandant provisoire. II les a resignes avec le 
 meme empi'essement qu'il aurait pu mettre a prendre possession d'une 
 place nouvelle. 
 
 " Le pavilion anglais a cesse de flotter ; et de suite on y a substitue 
 le pavilion francais. 
 
 " Plusieurs personnes ont essaye de dire des cboses convenables : et 
 partout on a entendu l'expression de la reconnaisance des Francais qui 
 
 H H 2
 
 468 APPENDIX. 
 
 habitaient ces contrees, et qui, grace a la bienveillance de votre 
 Gouvernernent, ont recu des consolations proportionnees a leurs infor- 
 tunes, et ont joui, pendant la guerre, de toutes les douceurs delapaix. 
 •' M. le Capitaine Fraser en a communique successivement les resolu- 
 tions prises par votre Excellence en conseil. Elles m'ont paru toujours 
 dictees par le desir d'obliger mon Souverain et ma nation. Je n'y ai 
 done trouve que matiere u de nouveaux remerciments pour le tres 
 Honorable Gouverneur et pour Messieurs du Conseil. 
 
 " Je suis avec la plus haute consideration, 
 
 " De votre Excellence, 
 " Le tres bumble et tres obeissant serviteur, 
 
 " Le Cte. Du Put. 
 
 •' M. Dayotme prie d'etre son interprete, et cela ne m'est pas difficile, 
 puisqu'il partage mes sentiments pour vous." 
 
 " Pondicbery, le 3 Janvier 1820. 
 
 "Monsieur et cher Voisin, — Je suis furieux contre votre mo destie 
 qui veut vous faire croire qu'on ne vous estime, et qu'on ne vous aime, 
 qu'en proportion des services que vous pouvez rendre. Apprenez que 
 mes sentiments pour vous n'ont besoin ni de sel, ni de tabac, ni de 
 balances pour etre bien fondes ! 
 
 " On vous aime sans assaisonnement et pour vous meme. 
 
 " C'est aussi comme cela que je veux etre aime, si non, non. 
 
 " Le Cte. Du Puy. 
 " Presentez, s'il vous plait, mes hommages a vos dames." 
 
 "Pondicbery, le 23 Fevrier 1820. 
 " Mon aimable Voisin, — Je devrais vous faire une petite querelle 
 pour avoir evite dc traverser la bonne ville de Pondicbery en vous 
 rendant a Madras, mais vous avez eu sans doute quelquc motif plausible, 
 et je ne dois pas vous condamner sans vous avoir entendu. Si je n'etais 
 ici seul a mon poste vous auriez deja rec^u ma visite cbcz madame votre 
 mere, que tous nos habitants considerent comme une dame de Pondicbery, 
 dont ils honorent les vertus. Hier M. Leschenaut a renouvelle ma 
 tentation d'aller vous voir, lorsqu'il est venu m'apprendre son projet 
 de voyage — et le meme motif m'a retenu. Je dois me feliciter de ma 
 discretion, puisque cette nuit il a pris fantaisic a nos jardiniers de Bethel 
 de deserter dans quelqu'une de vos olidees, 1 pour faire niche a M. 
 Kaucheur. Cette fugue n'a ete que particllc, parcequc j'ai mis en cam- 
 pagne toute noti'e armee de pions, Cipahis, etc., etc. Qu'eut on dit, 
 
 1 Holidays !
 
 APPENDIX. 469 
 
 si Mons. le Gouverneur etait aller dormir paisiblenient a, Godelour, 
 quand on s'agitait ici ? II faut done, bongre malgre, rester a son 
 poste. 
 
 " Mons. Leschenaut vous racontera surement les doleances de l'ile 
 Maurice au sujet d'une epidemie qu'on suppose y avoir ete introduite 
 par la Topaze a son retour de Manille. L'ile de Bourbon s'est hatee 
 de prendre les mesurcs les plus severes pour empecher la communication. 
 II est presumable que cette maladie est notre cholera morbus avec 
 quelque modifications ; cependant il est possible qui ce soit un fleau 
 d'uu autre genre. Je vais en attendant soumettre les batiments qui 
 viendront de ces iles a une visite de medecin, meme a une petite qna- 
 rantaine, s'ils out des malades a bord ; mais quel sera l'effet de pareilles 
 mesures, si votre Gouvernment n'en ordonne pas de pareilles ? car vous 
 etes les grands seigneurs de la cote, et par consequent vous ofFrez bien 
 plus de moyens de communications que nous. Croyez-vous qu'il y ait 
 lieu de provoquer a, le sujet l'attention du Gouverneur de Madras, qui 
 peut avoir recu quelques renseignements de Mons. son confrere de 
 l'ile Maurice ? 
 
 "Adieu, mon amiable voisin, je vous salue un peu plus pro- 
 fondement qu'autrefois, puisque vous etes Monsieur le Major. Si votre 
 embonpoint augmente avec vos dignites, nous vous appellerons gros 
 Major. En attendant je vous embrasse. 
 
 "Le Comtb Du Put." 
 
 (B.) 
 
 THE NIZAM'S MILITAEY CO-OPERATION. 
 
 {Page 247.) 
 
 As so much has frequently been said in disparagement of the 
 discipline and equipment of the troops furnished by the Nizam for 
 co-operation with our forces, in our critical struggle with Tippoo 
 and with the Mahrattas, it is only fair to state that when war was 
 declared against Tippoo .Sultan, 1790, our Subsidiary Force of two 
 battalions of Sepoys, with six guns manned by Europeans, sent in 
 accordance with Treaty to Hyderabad to strengthen the Nizam's 
 army, was found " to be in so unmilitary and imperfect a condition 
 as to be entirely unfit for service in the field". The Nizam brought 
 the matter at once to the notice of the Governor-General, who 
 lost no time in expressing, through a letter to the Resident, dated
 
 470 APPENDIX. 
 
 June 17tlt, 1700, his regret at the incliiciency of the Subsidiary 
 i . ami admitting that " His Bighness had good reason to com- 
 plain of a failure on the pari of the Company's Government in 
 affording lli^ Highness the support which he is entitled to by 
 v as well as by repeated promises." The Resident was 
 directed to assure the Nizam that " the Governor-General would 
 call the authorities at Madras to a most rigorous account of their 
 misconduct, and would take the earliest opportunity to replace the 
 force unfit for service with other troops complete in numbers and 
 perfect in discipline." 
 
 Notwithstanding the difficulties caused by the weakness of the 
 aid supplied from Madras under Treaty, and at his cost, the Nizam 
 " put his own troops in motion, and created much alarm and 
 embarrassment to Tippoo", thus rendering to Lord Cornwallis, as 
 he stated in a letter to the Prince of Wales, dated August 14th, 
 1 790, valuable aid at a most critical time. In the campaign which 
 ended in the Partition Treaty of Seringapatam in 1702, besides a 
 portion of his army which acted independently of the force under 
 the Governor-General's own command, and which attacked and 
 captured three of Tippoo's most important fortresses, the Nizam 
 sent a body of more than 10,000 Cavalry, under the command of 
 his own son, Secunder Jah, who afterwards succeeded to the 
 throne, which gave adequate strength to Lord Cornwallis in that 
 very arm in which his force was most deficient. 
 
 Lord Cornwallis, in a despatch to the Secret Committee of the 
 Court of Directors, dated May 2, 1792, expressed his high sense of 
 " the valuable and ready aid rendered by His Highness's Army 
 against the common enemy, which had a material influence in 
 producing the rapid and successful termination of the war."' 
 
 In the final war against Tippoo Sultan, which ended in his 
 death dming the storming of Seringapatam on the 4th of May 1799, 
 besides the Subsidiary Force of 6,500 men in the Nizam's pay, 
 7,000 Infantry and 10,000 of the best Cavalry in the service of 
 the Hyderabad State, joined the British Army under Lord Harris, 
 and formed its left wing, under Colonel Arthur Wellesley, after- 
 wards Duke of Wellington, on which fell the brunt of the lighting 
 in the battle of Malavelly. Without the aid of the Nizam's Cavalry 
 in convoying supplies of grain, the siege of Seringapatam could 
 not have been carried on at all.
 
 APPENDIX. 471 
 
 Lord Wellesley states, in a despatch to the Secret Committee 
 dated 12th April 1804, that the first intelligence reached him 
 " through a loyal communication forwarded by the Nizam's Agent 
 in attendance on Scindia", early in 1803, that a hostile confederacy 
 against the Company's Government was being organised by 
 Scindia, Holkar and the Eajah of Nagpore. The forces under 
 General Sir Arthur Wellesley and General Stevenson — the latter 
 of whom had the Subsidiary Force under his command — during the 
 campaign of Assay e and Argaum, were supported by " 6,000* dis- 
 ciplined Infantry of the Nizam's Army, and 9,000 Cavalry, under 
 leaders of approved valour and attachment to their Sovereign." 1 
 The English Commanders spoke highly of the aid given by the 
 Nizam's troops in their operations. 
 
 General Arthur Wellesley, in his report on the battle of Argaum 
 to the Governor-General, dated 30th November 1803, says : — 
 " I have also to inform your Excellency that the Mogul " 
 (Nizam's) " Cavalry under Salabut Khan, and the Mysore Cavalry 
 under Bistnapa Pundit, distinguished themselves. The former 
 took a standard from Scindia's troops." 2 
 
 Very strong and clear testimony, in a short compass, as to the 
 great assistance given by the military force of the Nizam during 
 the second Mahratta, or Pindarree war, from 1817 to 1819, will be 
 found in the following extracts of a letter from the Resident at 
 Hyderabad, Mr. (afterwards Sir Henry) Russell, to the Governor- 
 General, the Marcpais of Hastings, dated 28th December 1817. 
 
 " The Contingent provided by the Nizam's Government to serve 
 with our armies, independently of the troops employed in local duties 
 connected with the general advancement of the Service, consists of the 
 following corps : — 
 
 Infantry. 
 Four Berar Battalions, with Artillery, under Major 
 
 Pitman ...... 3,368 
 
 Captain Hare's Brigade, with Artillery . . 3,157 
 
 Mohammed Salabut Khan's regular Brigade, with 
 
 Artillery, under Captain Lyne . . . 1,900 
 
 7,425 
 
 1 Official Notes, published in London, 1803. 
 
 2 Duke of Wellington's Despatches (1852), vol. ii, p.
 
 472 APPENDIX. 
 
 Brought forward .... 7,425 
 
 Cavalry. 
 Reformed Horse, under Captain Davis . 4,000 
 
 Jaghiredar Horse, under Mohammed Salabut 
 
 Khan ..... 2,000 
 
 6,000 
 
 Total . \ 13,425 
 
 " This force," the Resident observes, "is hardly inferior, even in its 
 numerical strength, to the Contingent which the Nizam is bound by 
 Treat}' to provide, and it is of a description much more efficient for our 
 purpose, and much more expensive to His Highness's Government, 
 than a larger Contingent would be if composed of troops of the quality 
 contemplated when the Treaty was drawn up. Of the two kinds, the 
 Infantry are the better troops ; but the Horse, besides increasing our 
 ranks, serve at the same time to diminish those of the enemy. The 
 Auxiliary Horse at Poona, under Captain Swanston and Captain 
 Spiller, have shown the fidelity and exertions of which troops of that 
 description are capable. Brigadier-Genei'al Doveton speaks highly of 
 the Nizam's Reformed Horse under Captain Pedlar in the affair of the 
 16th at Nagpore, and the whole of them are said to be eager to be 
 employed against the Mahrattas, and to talk of revenge for the battle 
 of Kurdla. 
 
 " Rajah Chundoo Lall has also furnished for the service of the 1st 
 and 2nd Divisions of the Army, 270 camels, a very expensive equip- 
 ment in this part of India." 
 
 Sir Henry Eussell also observes, in a latter dated Hyderabad, 
 December 31, 1817, to Major Agnew, Political Agent with 
 General Sir Thomas Hislop's army, that "the whole of the 
 Nizam's disposable force — indeed, the only Infantry that he has 
 that is efficient — is attached to the different divisions of our 
 Army." 
 
 In further illustration of the Nizam's military a Hairs, and of the 
 difficulty the Home Government has so constantly found in getting 
 its instructions, and even its orders, carried out in India, an 
 example may be given in the following extract from a Political 
 letter to Bengal, from the Court of Qirectors, dated 21st January 
 1824, paragraph 80 : — 
 
 " As it affects the Native States, it appears to us to be humiliating 
 and gulling in the extreme. The proceeding of appointing European 
 officers fco the command of corps raised and maintained hy Princes, 
 whom we have not, as yet at least, professed to treat as dependent,
 
 APPENDIX. 473 
 
 must bo felt as a fresh inroad on their remains of independence ; as an 
 exclusion of the higher class of Natives from the places of power, trust, 
 and emolument, which they have hitherto held, and of which it is both 
 cruel and unjust to deprive them ; and as indicative of further designs 
 on our part which we assuredly do not entertain, and which it is very 
 undesirable to have imputed to us." 
 
 Here is another extract of the same significance : — 
 
 " The authorities in England have been opposed to the policy of this 
 species of interference in the internal arrangements of our Native 
 Allies, and the system is only tolerated from the difficulties which 
 oppose a sudden alteration. It is in the contemplation of the Local 
 Government gradually to reduce the number of European officers to be 
 employed with this description of Force, in which case there will be a 
 proportionate reduction of expense." 1 
 
 Of course, nothing was done, and the expense was not reduced. 
 
 (C.) 
 "CLAIMS OF THE NIZAM." 
 
 The pamphlet with this title, published by me in 1867, com- 
 mences with a historical sketch of the Hyderabad State and 
 our relations with it, the substance of which already appears in 
 this volume. It will be sufficient, therefore, to quote here only 
 that portion of it discussing the questions treated in Chapter XI. 
 
 " The narrative may now pass on to the comparatively remote period 
 of 1845, by which time the Nizam's financial position — inevitably com- 
 plicated by enforced extravagance in military outlay — again became a 
 subject of solicitude at Calcutta. During a decade or so, His Highness 
 had continued to enhance a long-standing claim upon our confidence 
 and goodwill by steadfast adherence to English interests, effectually 
 quelling all malcontent disposition in his subjects to take advantage of 
 the strains and perplexities which beset us in that troublous time. 
 Throughout our Afghan, Gwalior, and Punjaub jeopardies, the Nizam's 
 unwavering example and active influence were ever on our side, and 
 could hardly have been more emphatically manifest in the tented field. 
 
 1 Papers on the Affairs of Hyderabad sent by Lord Ellenborough to the Duke 
 of Wellington, with a Note dated 10/7/ April 1830 : Duke of Wellington's 
 Despatches and Correspondence (1877), vol. vi, p. 551.
 
 474 APPENDIX. 
 
 Special credil may also be chained for the alacrity with which (not- 
 withstanding the implication of a brother) IIi> Bighness promoted the 
 detection and defeat of the Wahabee conspiracy, in '3 ( J, which, at first 
 ostensibly local, turned out to be part of a ramified confederacy for 
 overthn w of the British power. Nor should it be left unnoted that 
 his specific right, under the Treaty of 1790, to equal division of con- 
 quests, was distinctly ignored in (lie non-partition of Kurnool. 
 
 " The chronicle of the Nizam from '45 to '53 is little more than a 
 register of official correspondence between the Governor- General and 
 the Resident, General Fraser, who hail succeeded Colonel Stewart in 
 '38. As already outlined, it was mainly taken up with remonstrance 
 from headquarters, regarding outstanding arrears and default in the 
 pay of the Contingent, not untempered, however, with candid allow- 
 ance tor its excessive costliness, which, indeed, was palpably condemned 
 in immediately subsequent reduction. For no sooner had we acquired 
 in 1853 the long-coveted security for discharge of an oppressively 
 enforced obligation, than we commenced a downward course in 
 military outlay, ending in a descent to 24 lakhs per annum, against 
 the 10 which had been previously exacted through more than thirty- 
 three years of unbroken peace ; and, as the adequacy of the so l-educed 
 Force to any emergency was more than sufficiently tested under the 
 terrible strain of the Mutiny, it is simply matter of plain, demonstrable 
 account that the Nizam had been needlessly and wrongfully burdened 
 with the sum of those thirty-three years' excess, or, in round numbers, 
 £5,280,< 00. Nor less carefully suppressed, we may be sure, was the 
 enormous set-off which may be equitably claimed by the Nizam in 
 respect of a steady increase of patronage by nominations to the pre- 
 posterous staff of the Contingent ; although it must not be forgotten, 
 injustice to Lord Dalhousie, that under his administration the abuse 
 was materially abated. His Highness, in short, appears to have been 
 treated (through the medium of smooth official periphrasis) as if he 
 had been a fraudulent unthrift, rather than the practically passive 
 instrument of an ally's exorbitant behests.' 
 
 "The history of the negotiations, terminating in an assignment of 
 Berar, by the Treaty of 1853, is still involved in obscurity, which may 
 be, more or less, dispelled by the expected Parliamentary return. But 
 an abrupt change oi the Residency, in the resignation of General Fraser, 
 with other indications, is not unsuiru'estivc of demands in excess of the 
 ultimate mortgage of the district. Guerillas of party warfare have 
 been known to call it a session; and the unscrupulous hardihood might 
 be traceable to a foregone conclusion which the Calcutta Foreign Office 
 could not cheerfully abandon. It is, at any rate, sufficiently clear that 
 Lord Dalhousie's intemperate hint to die Nizam (which was elicited in 
 the House of Commons; that British power "as 'able to crush him at
 
 APPENDIX. 475 
 
 its will, is not inconsistent with a stringency of original design in 
 advance of the actual result. In fact, a cession of territory in perpe- 
 tuity was proposed ; but, as the substitution of an assignment, and 
 ratification of it by Treaty, were the work of 'a little month', the over- 
 ture may be regarded as a pro formd experiment upon approved long- 
 suffering. By this Treaty, concluded the 21st of May 1853, the Nizam 
 assigned, in trust to the British Government, Berar and the border dis- 
 tricts down to Sholapore, with the Doab between the Kistna and 
 Raichore, the Honourable Company (little dreaming of impending dis- 
 solution) agreed to maintain, out of His Highness's revenues, an 
 Auxiliary Force of not less than 5,000 Infantry, 2,000 Cavalry, aiuhfour 
 batteries of Artillery, entitled the Hyderabad Contingent. 
 
 " Faithful accounts of receipts and expenditure, yearly, were expli- 
 citly promised, together with regular payment to the Nizam of any 
 surplus revenue. He was also released from liability to further levy 
 in time of war, and from immediate payment of the debt. Now, the 
 charge upon the princely revenue, in respect of the Contingent, was 
 gradually reduced, as heretofore stated, to 24 lakhs; and 8 lakhs (or four 
 annas per rupee) was subsequently pronounced by Lord Canning to be 
 an ample proportion for civil management. It has, by the way, been 
 publicly asserted, and never denied, that two annas (per rupee coL 
 lected) was the understanding with which the Nizam made over his 
 possessions in 1853, and that such excess of expenditure between 1853 
 and 1860 was accepted by him as a set-off' against the debt of 50 lakhs, 
 ostensibly due by His Highness, for liquidation of which we held the 
 Berar districts in trust ; or, in other words, the majestic surrender of 
 the bond in 1860 was, in point of fact, illusory. But, accepting the 
 double haul in 1860 as justifiable, the surplus revenue due, under 
 Treaty, to the Nizam should now be yearly at least 18 lakhs. Of this 
 enormous sum (multiplied, that is, by the gradual increase in inter- 
 vening years from 32 lakhs to 50) not a single rupee, down to the 
 close of last year, had found its way to his treasury. The civil 
 management, in fact, has been so over-zealous to ratify its distinctive 
 epithet, in unbounded civility to the nominees of patronage, that the 
 permissive clauses of the Treaty have been practically strained into 
 absorption of the gross revenue. This, too, in presence of Lord Can- 
 ning's recorded admission that the Nizam ought not to be charged 
 more for administration than the cost of his own provinces, or of those 
 under British rule. To these direct results of the assignment of Berar 
 must be added an incidental injustice which materially and permanently 
 aggravated the drain upon a burdened revenue. On assuming the 
 territory, we indiscriminately dismissed the Native officials, replacing 
 them with appointments of our own. Many of the families thus 
 pitilessly ejected had a traditional (quasi hereditary) claim upon the
 
 476 APPENDIX. 
 
 local magistracy and collectorships ; and they were consequently, 
 together with still needier dependents, thrown upon the State, whose 
 pensioners (at the capital) many of them remain to this day, a horde of 
 embarrassing idlers. 
 
 "Close upon the ratification of this Treaty — the signing of which is 
 said to have broken his heart — followed the death of the Minister 
 Sooraj-ool-Moolk, who was immediately succeeded by his nephew, 
 Salar -lung, the presenl upright and enlightened premier adviser of the 
 Nizam. Of the importance of his services, alike to his master and to 
 England — (specially daring the mutiny — a chronicler of the period 
 can hardly write too warmly. Combining with a chivalrous spirit, and 
 a rare cultivation in tin' arts and learning of many countries beyond 
 his own, that aptitude for politics and administration which marks a 
 born leader of his fellow men, this genuine Asiatic worthy is probably 
 destined, if spared, to regenerate and uplift his country, as he has 
 already approved himself her preserver from internal dissension and 
 from irretrievable financial disorder. The value, too, of a character so 
 high-toned and exemplary, in guiding and elevating the aims of other 
 Native Ministers, is not to be lightly estimated. Next after the health 
 of the Nizam, should certainly stand that of his true Excellency, 
 Salar Jung, as an element of vital import to the State and its foreign 
 lelations. 
 
 " The appointment of Colonel Davidson to the Residency, in April 
 1857, and the death of Nasir-ood Dowlah in the following May, are the 
 next events of importance ; and, with the accession of Afzul-ood- Dowlah, 
 the reigning Nizam, arrives the eve of the great mutiny. 
 
 " With the incidents of that terrible ordeal this recital is not specially 
 concerned, beyond such as illustrate the steadfast, invaluable fidelity of 
 the Nizam and his excellent Minister, together with the signal services 
 of the Hyderabad Contingent — a supremely fortunate combination 
 which, steadying the Deccan on the one hand and despatching swift 
 succour northward on the other, was probably the salvation of British 
 India. The Contingent, we learn, was first launched against the 
 fortress of Dhar,*which by forced marches they reached just after the 
 escape of the rebel garrison, but in time to follow in pursuit. This 
 rapid movement and essential service is reasonably alleged as a, claim 
 (still unsatisfied J upon the Dhar booty; especially as it was followed 
 up by the speedy and signal success of overtaking the fugitives, en 
 /■on/, fco Neemuch, and capturing a battery of eight guns (that of Mahid- 
 porc) which would otherwise have served the mutineers. This timely 
 arrest certainly prevented a second Cawnporc tragedy at Neemuch, 
 and probably — in crippling the rebel forces at a critical juncture — 
 materially affected the ultimate issue of the war. For the successful 
 result of this, their initiative (known as the action at Rawul), the
 
 APPENDIX. 477 
 
 Nizam's Cavalry were ordered an extra (or batta) of live rupees a 
 month to each man during the remainder of field service; and it is 
 nothing short of humiliating to have to add that, with a symmetrical 
 coolness peculiar to that sultry clime, the discharge of this impulsive 
 obligation was left to the pliable Nizam. In their junction with Sir 
 Hugh Rose at Saugor,and in assisting to force the pass of Muddenpore — 
 at the capture of Talbeit and fall of Jhansi— at the decisive action of 
 Koonch, gained under the fiercest strength of a tropical sun — and in a 
 final demonstration against Tantia Topee ; — in each and all were the 
 efficiency and resistless dash of the Contingent conspicuously dis- 
 played. 1 Nor are these brilliant latter-day services without a worthy 
 counterpart in others, long anterior, of their predecessors in the 
 Mahratta war. Those exploits, as well as earlier successes against 
 Tippoo, were duly rewarded by division of acquired territory, in con- 
 formity with the Treaty of 1 790 ; but in the results of the mutiny, as 
 in the already noted case of Kurnool, the effect of that uncancelled 
 compact may be looked for in vain — a contrast deplorably suggestive 
 of greed elated by secui'ity. 
 
 " The incidents available to exemplify the Nizam's fidelity — which, 
 in many ways, appears to have been sorely tried — are generally signifi- 
 cant of utmost alacrity, zealously seconded by his Minister (who, inter 
 alia, secured for us the devotion of the Arab mercenaries, in arrest of 
 mutineers and otherwise), to anticipate and crush the seething disaffec- 
 tion of the mob by condign punishment of ringleaders. This earnest 
 of thorough goodwill was specially afforded in preconcerted measures 2 
 for defence of the Residency, when attacked (on the memorable 17th 
 of July) by a band of Rohilla insurgents, one of whose leaders was 
 shot dead dui'ing the repulse, while the other — Moulavi Alla-oo-deen — 
 was immediately accommodated with a free passage to one of the 
 Andaman islands, where, it is satisfactory to add, he remains. It is, 
 moreover, on record that Colonel Davidson, with laudable vigilance, 
 caused the Nizam to be narrowly watched, and so ascertained that 
 emissaries had vainly endeavoured to shake his inflexible allegiance. 
 
 " The loyal devotion of His Highness was finally displayed in ready 
 consent, during the mutiny, to a counterpoise of suspected danger from 
 the Sepoys at Secunderabad, by material addition to the British Force. 
 
 1 In connection with this memorable campaign may be quoted the testi- 
 mony borne by an evidently well-informed writer ("Anti-Annexation") on 
 the Army of India, in the Daily News of the 25th of December ultimo, who 
 cordially singles out Colonel Abbott, of the Contingent, as a consummate 
 handler of Irregular Cavalry, with reference to possible employment of such 
 force in the East of Europe. 
 
 2 Under the able command of Colonel Briggs, on the Staff of the Residency, 
 and for many years employed in the Contingent Service.
 
 • i 8 A.PPENDIX. 
 
 The persona] and instrumental aid of the Nizam throughout this direst 
 of trials is as clearly and completely evident as the relief of Lucknow, 
 or the dethronement of the Greal Mogul. How it was recognised — or, 
 rather, how rewarded — is the remaining point for attention. 
 
 "The usual preliminary conviction that something must be done 
 appears to have been arrived at with moderate expedition. So early as 
 March L858, Colonel Davidson recommended that rewards should be 
 conferred upon the Nizam, and upon certain memhers of his Court, in 
 recognition of recent services ; and the Governor-General took no more 
 than eleven months for action upon this timely hint. 
 
 "In July 1860, the promise was at last fulfilled by formal presenta- 
 tion of English manufactured articles, amounting in value to a lakh of 
 rupees, or £10,000. To the Nizam's uncle, and to his Minister, Salar 
 Jung, £3,000 each, in the like medium, accompanied in the latter case 
 by the Governor General's expi'ess recognition of " his ability, courage, 
 and firmness", and by the cordial thanks of the Government. Other 
 functionaries also were proportionately gratified. It must not, however, 
 be forgotten that, in return (satis superque) for the £10,000 worth of 
 gifts to himself, His Highness forwarded, for the acceptance of the 
 Governor- General, pi'esents valued at £15,000, which are 'quietly 
 inumed' in the Imperial Treasury, against future indulgence in impul- 
 sive generosity to other serviceable connections. The substantial return 
 for value received in fidelity and active support was & formal remission 
 of the old debt (whose circumstances are fresh in the reader's recollec- 
 tion) of fifty lakhs, together with surrender of Dharaseo and Raichore 
 — a fragment of the security assigned in 1853 — and transfer of Shora- 
 pore, which, by rebellion of the late Rajah, had nominally reverted to 
 the British Government. Nominally only, because that sumesthan, or 
 principality, was a recognised fief of Hyderabad, and we had no valid 
 claim to the lapse thus ostentatiously made over to its rightful owner. 
 Of the Exalted Order of the Star of India,, with which His Highness 
 was invested in the following November, the less, perhaps, said the 
 better, as the gift was not only prohibited by a cardinal tenet of his 
 faith, but obnoxious to Native feeling and prejudices, affording a mis- 
 chievous handle for scurrilous placards and other signs of disaffection. 1 
 
 " Prima facie, this was a. liberal, not to say lavish, arrangement; but 
 the bencvolent-iinele aspect of the affair wholly disappears under-exami- 
 nation of the supplemental Treaty concluded in the same year. For it 
 imperatively exacted a cession of territory on the left hank of the 
 
 1 The delay of this investiture wis attributable to reluctance on the part 
 of the Nizam, which, notwithstanding religious and political reasons "of 
 strong prevailment" he finally yielded on learning that tin honoured name 
 of the late Prince Consort was at the head of the Order.
 
 APPENDIX. 470 
 
 Godavery, worth (reckoning woodland and forest) at least the half- 
 million professedly relinquished in remission of the whole debt, which, 
 however, was really taken out — as formally admitted by Lord Canning 
 — in the extra two annas per rupee for civil management, as agreed in 
 1853. We, therefore, de facto, remitted with one hand, and gripped an 
 equivalent with the other ; while the restitution of Dharaseo and 
 Raichore left us secured (for Contingent and for Civil management) to 
 the extent of thirty-two lakhs, with so much of calculated margin that 
 British management (including manipulation of the surplus) has since 
 raised it to little short of fifty. That the Berar Commissioners are, in 
 effect, instrumental to a scheme and policy of injustice, nowise detracts 
 from the marked ability with which they have administered this 
 vast seed-field, and the substantial improvement which they have 
 produced ; in which connection may be appositely cited an emphatic 
 recognition in the Bombay Times of the co-operative efforts of the 
 late Resident, Sir George Yule — one of the few Civilians who are 
 thoroughly qualified, by peculiar aptitude and length of service, for 
 any post (not excluding the highest) in India. In the preliminary 
 negotiations, moreover, we tried hard — so hard, indeed, that the Nizam 
 was on the point of throwing them up in disgust — to obtain the power 
 of managing Berar through whatsoever agency we might please to 
 select ; and, although this experiment was discreetly abandoned (partly, 
 it has been stated, in default of a supple agent), his consent was 
 ultimately extorted, not without undignified higgling, to administration 
 by our Resident at Hyderabad, without audit, and with elastic latitude 
 in expenditure. 
 
 " It is thus apparent that, from first to last, a retrospect of our rela- 
 tions with the Nizam should be carefully avoided by resolute sticklers 
 for the perfection of British rule. Few chapters of its history, it is to 
 be hoped, are so calculated to tax either the credulity of devotees, or 
 the versatile audacity of hirelings. Nor are significant indications far 
 to seek that its already sinister look will be seriously smirched by the 
 Parliamentary return in store for them. The omission, for instance, of 
 Colonel Davidson's 'political section', or review, in his published 
 despatch for 1861-62, looks very like the suppression broadly insinuated 
 (nor yet denied) in the Times of India, of the 3rd of April 1866, and is 
 scarcely accountable on other surmise, inasmuch as the hiatus is peculiar 
 to that year. The obvious inference is that an honest review of recent 
 policy may have proved unpalatable, and that it was quietly pigeon- 
 holed with other dead men's tales. 1 There is at least as valid reason 
 
 1 An accidental delay in preparation of these pages for the press has 
 opportunely reserved them for signal confirmation of the surmise, in a 
 recently published letter — disclosing an abstract of the missing section — 
 for which the reader is now referred to page 481.
 
 480 APPENDIX. 
 
 to suppose that daylight would be deprecated in the case of a long 
 correspondence which must have preceded the final arrangement of 
 
 1860; for it is notorious thai the Resident was so little disposed to 
 effectuate the original scheme (of managing the district ab txtyra) that, 
 before he was himself aware of the Government design, it had reached 
 the ears of the Nizam. It is, therefore, we repeat, not at all improbable 
 that the treatment which our faithful Ally has endured within the last 
 twenty years will be voted uglier and shabbier still before it is quite 
 done with. His claim, to be sure, is strong enough, without fishing tor 
 shabbiness below the surface; for the salient case of Berar is, ab initio, 
 redolent of that taint. The district fell to him in 1804, as his due share 
 of Mahratta spoil, under the convention of 1790; and to take it back, 
 in trepidation for usurious arrears, was assuredly the reverse of hand- 
 some. But, waiving a charge not likely to smite the corporate con- 
 science of diplomacy, it must be finally reiterated that the claim so 
 pressed upon the Nizam is, in equity, fundamentally bad and untenable. 
 The Contingent which we forced him to maintain — in an excess of 
 strength and costliness, on our own subsequent showing, as forty to 
 twenty-four — expressly contemplated a time of war; whereas it had 
 been maintained at our instance, and kept at our call, through no less 
 than thirty-three peaceful years at the time (1853) of our exacting 
 security for the arrears it had inevitably entailed. 
 
 "Not wishing to bring down upon this iteration the robust expletive 
 associated with Prince Hal's, the writer forbears to retrace the man- 
 oeuvring duplicity of 18G0, and the intervening encroachment upon the 
 terms of that stringent bargain, which have just been treated in detail. 
 Enough, it appears to him, has been cited to fix the Government of 
 India — down to last summer at least — with systematic one-sided reci- 
 procity, and with quasi-chronic disregard of Treaty obligations which 
 are patent and unrepealed. Self-condemned, indeed, for retention of 
 Berar stands the India Office, in Lord Halifax's official acknowledgment 
 of the Bhootan Treaty. ' The existence', he remarks, ' of a strong 
 Government in the neighbouring States, and the prosperity of their 
 subjects, are among the best securities for the permanent peace of our 
 frontiers. To deprive the Government of a contiguous country of the 
 means of enforcing its authority over its chiefs and functionaries, and of 
 compelling them to execute the engagements which it has entered into 
 for the maintenance of the peace and security of our country, can in no 
 case be sound policy. In this view it would not be advisable to impair 
 the resources of the Bhootan State.' Substituting Hyderabad for 
 Bhootan, this utterance of abstract wisdom may be fairly claimed as 
 distinctly and logically tending to the restitution of Berar; for, while 
 no candid judge of the situation can doubt that, plus that fair district,
 
 APPENDIX. 481 
 
 tho Nizam would easily satisfy our claim for a Contingent at the reduced 
 rate, it is still more certain that our hold of it weakens his executive 
 power and grievously impairs his resources. 1 To infer the effect of 
 adherence to such treatment on the Native populations, and on the 
 policy and temper of their chiefs, is more easy than pleasant — less 
 pleasant still to confront the future which, in default of prompt and 
 ungrudging redress, it is providing for our Indian Empire. The day 
 may be nearer at hand than is now discernible to complacent acqui- 
 escence in the system, (unless stirred by the salutary portent of a new 
 order of Indian Secretaries), when the nobles and gentry of England 
 may find themselves vainly repenting of indifference to the wrongs and 
 plaints of a landed aristocracy at least as ancient as their own. 
 
 " In the hope that he has moderately succeeded in the primary aim 
 to be readable, the writer now commends to reflection, and, wherever 
 possible, to active sympathy, the monitory lesson of this ' abstract and 
 brief chronicle,' with the rebuke of misused authority which it too 
 plainly implies. In urging the appeal, he is sensible of present dis- 
 advantage in an attitude of patient expectancy which the world is 
 too ready to ignore, and in prediction of dangers less urgent, ostensibly, 
 than such as are sufficient for the day. He will not, however, despair 
 of English opinion, once fairly informed and aroused, as inadequate 
 and helpless to insure for the weak that measure of justice which, in 
 view of a menacing background, its organs are eager to concede. If 
 full-blooded Swagger, ever the first to come, must needs be first served 
 at the counter of a nation of shopkeepers, it is now, he submits, full 
 time that the patient abiding of the meek be remorsefully beckoned to 
 the front for long overdue attention." 
 
 From The Examiner, May 18th, 1867. 
 THE INDIAN DILEMMA. 
 « S IR; — I find myself, unexpectedly, at liberty to fortify the case of 
 the Nizam of Hyderabad (which you kindly enabled me to plead, in a 
 letter under this head, on the 2nd of March), with a full confirmation 
 of the hint quoted from the Times of India, viz. — that Colonel David- 
 son's Administrative Report for 1862 was purposely curtailed at head- 
 quarters of its 'political section', or summary of recent Calcutta 
 policy. In fact, I am released from intended reservation of the iden- 
 tical document by opportune issue of the enclosed printed letter from a 
 
 1 Which, nevertheless, do not deter His Highness from munificent support 
 of English educational plans at Hyderabad, or from the extra strain of 
 20,000 mouths fed during the famine. 
 
 I I
 
 482 APPENDIX. 
 
 native gentleman to Sir Henry Rawlinson, which, yon will perceive, 
 to some extent anticipates the expected Parliamentary return, and 
 leaves no motive for awaiting it. Referring to the ostensible reward 
 (in 1860) of the Nizam's services, he states that ' Colonel Davidson 
 remarked, in the political section of his Report for the year 18G2, that 
 the restoration of two of the assigned districts was no reward for 
 his valuable services, nor was the retention of his other districts by 
 any means justifiable; but the Calcutta Foreign Office suppresses this 
 section. y 
 
 " The writer, sir, has presumably seen one of the few unmutilated 
 copies of the despatch in question, which rumour has long declared to 
 be extant. One, at any rate, has found its way to these fingers ; and, 
 if you can oblige me with requisite space, I will no longer delay to 
 notify (in substance) this remarkably frank and suggestive digest of 
 our dealings with the Nizam, which the Indian Government forbore or 
 omitted to publish with the remainder of the Report — the death of 
 Colonel Davidson, observe, having intervened, and the tenour of the 
 missing (thirty) paragraphs being as adverse and damaging as might 
 consist with official decorum. 
 
 " The section (vii) in question, of the report, No. 26, dated Hyder- 
 abad, 27th June 1862, is devoted to a review of the Treaty of 1860, 
 and its bearings upon British interests. Glancing a! the unscrupulous 
 discontent of certain ' public writers' with our non-acquisition of 
 Berar in perpetuity — which he dismissed as simply regardless of right — 
 Colonel Davidson proceeded to point out that the inducements offered 
 to the Nizam for surrender of his fairest province were inadequate and 
 (by implication) illusory. Relinquishing Raichore and Dahraseo, wo 
 received in exchange a sufficient guaranty for all our claims under the 
 Treaty of 1853 which assigned those districts; and — having obtained 
 such security — we had no pretext for retaining them. We, moreover, 
 received, in perpetuity, a district on the left bank of the Godavery, of 
 considerable intrinsic value, and specially important as commanding 
 the hydraulic works on that river. The additional transfer of Shorapore, 
 he maintained, was mere restitution of what did not belong to us — of a 
 principality formerly annexed to Hyderabad by the Treaty of 1817, 
 and none of our interventions (which are recited in detail) had impaired 
 the Nizam's sovereign rights over the territory ; while from any claim 
 to forfeiture, by rebellion of the tributary Rajah in 1857, we were 
 clearly barred by the same Treaty. 
 
 " Of the old debt of fifty lakhs, which the compact formerly annulled, 
 Colonel Davidson observed that it was distinctly repudiated by the 
 present Nizam, as it had been by his father, on the ground of counter- 
 claims, or set-off, which, they complained, had not been recognised nor 
 refuted. It was, therefore, not to be wondered at that our Ally failed
 
 APPENDIX. 483 
 
 to regard the liberality of the Government in cancelling a disputed 
 debt, as spontaneous and unequivocal remission. 
 
 " Finally, he called to remembrance — in terms which the coming 
 light may show to have been calmly ironic — that such restoration and 
 remission were designed in recognition of his Highness's services 
 during the revolt of 1857-8, quietly adding that to have alluded at such 
 a time to the most remote possibility of coercion for obtaining that 
 which he was so resolutely bent on withholding, was not, of course, to 
 be thought of. 
 
 " The significance of this paragraph might easily be heightened, and 
 the papers called for by Sir Fitzroy Kelly will fully prove that coercion 
 (after mutineers had ceased from troubling) was not absolutely 
 unthought of; but, in presence of the dominant topic which just now 
 engrosses political columns, I must not further presume upon your 
 approved indulgence. 
 
 " I am, etc., 
 
 "May 6, 1867. " Exul."
 
 ADDITIONAL APPENDIX. 
 
 After completing the main portion of my labours in connection 
 with this work, it occurs to me that there are some points which T 
 have either passed over or not laid sufficient stress upon, and which, 
 therefore, may now appropriately be summarised and added here. 
 
 When I first joined my appointment at Hyderabad as one of 
 the Political Assistants, I was, to some extent, familiar with the 
 history of the Eesiclency, owing to my having been so much there 
 while my father was in office, and again afterwards when Colonel 
 Cuthbert Davidson succeeded him as Ptesident, for I married the 
 latter's niece, Miss Catherine Jane Davidson, of Cantray in Inver- 
 ness-shire, and eventually became Colonel Davidson's Assistant. 
 
 I joined the Nizam's Cavalry (as it was then called) in 1853, 
 the year in which the Districts were assigned to the British 
 Government, and I accompanied the Force which proceeded to 
 take possession of the Raichore Doab. With the Hyderabad Con- 
 tingent I remained until the termination of the mutiny in 1858, 
 when 1 was transferred to the Court of Hyderabad, in consequence 
 of a letter from the Resident, who, after recording my services 
 during the late campaign in Central India, informed the Govern- 
 ment of India that he had reason to know that my connection 1 
 with the Residency would be acceptable to the Hyderabad Durbar. 
 My services with the Contingent enabled me to obtain a thorough 
 knowledge of the class of gentlemen with whom I should hereafter 
 associate, because numerous relatives of our soldiers were friends 
 and companions of H.H. the Nizam and his Nobles. In those 
 days men of position and family eagerly sought service in our 
 ranks. Since then, however,' these soldiers, of whom what has 
 been written is mostly favourable, have suffered (as recorded by 
 a Resident of Hyderabad recently) " gross injustice at the hands 
 of some officers", and what I shall state hereafter in regard to 
 irregularities still going on, will, I trust, convince the Govern- 
 
 1 See post, p. xxxvii.
 
 11 APPENDIX. 
 
 ment that their orders are not being fully acted up to. The 
 instructions of Government arc highly creditable and proper, but 
 their orders are not properly executed. The General officers 
 sent to command the Contingent are gallant soldiers, and, doubt- 
 less, for command in the Regular Army they are eminently 
 qualified. Trained, however, under the regular system, they 
 are disposed to change one they can little understand or appre- 
 ciate. The Hyderabad Contingent being a Political Force, 
 there are considerations in that State Department which require 
 to be duly weighed before any new system is introduced ; and 
 some of the remarks I feel bound to make will show that for 
 years past much of my time has been occupied in the endeavour 
 to guard the ancient Hyderabad Cavalry system from innovations 
 or alterations proposed by military authorities sent to us from 
 Bengal. To enable the readers of this work to understand the 
 difference of the two systems, i.e., Hyderabad and Bengal, I append 
 the following note. 
 
 THE HYDERABAD CAVALRY AND ITS SILLADAREE 
 
 SYSTEM. 
 
 In 1853 the Nizam's Army was transferred to the British 
 Government by a Treaty concluded in that year, when the Hyder- 
 abad Districts, now known as the Berars, were assigned to the 
 British Government for the support and maintenance of the Force 
 now termed the Hyderabad Contingent, composed of four regi- 
 ments of Cavalry, four Batteries of Artillery, and six regiments of 
 Infantry. This Force, it was arranged, was to be under the control 
 of the Resident as hitherto, its organisation remaining on the 
 Irregular system, as a local Force. So the Contingent under the 
 British Government did not lose its peculiar features as they 
 existed prior to the transfer. The scale of Establishments was 
 revised at that time with a view to retrenchment, but the several 
 regulations governing the interior economy and discipline remained 
 the same. The Hyderabad Cavalry was organised on the Silla- 
 daree system ; i.e., any member of the Force had the privilege, if 
 a man of property, of owning a number of Horse Assamees, i.e., 
 horses, wi tli the right of nominating soldiers, called " Bargheers", 
 to ride them, drawing from Government a fixed allowance for each
 
 APPENDIX. ill 
 
 horse, feeding and maintaining tliem and riders. This principle 
 existed at the time of transfer ; no change was contemplated at that 
 time, nor was any suggested until many years after. It enabled 
 the Government to maintain a body of efficient Cavalry without 
 incurring expense or risk in purchase of horses ; and, by the 
 simple arrangement of a monthly payment per head, they were 
 relieved of any necessity of caring for the regular supply of 
 remounts, and saved the heavy expense of keeping up large 
 establishments for that purpose. On the other hand, the military 
 classes of the country, having money to invest, find suitable 
 employment for it and for themselves on objects which are con- 
 genial to their tastes, and at the same time produce a profitable 
 return on their outlay. The soldier who thus invests his money 
 throws his whole interests, both personal and pecuniary, in the 
 balance with the Government he serves ; renders himself a loyal, 
 useful, and trustworthy retainer, and removes himself from the 
 temptation to join the evil- disposed, who, having no such property 
 or interest at stake, might abandon their standard in time of 
 peril, or during a crisis such as the Indian Mutiny of 1857-58. 
 
 Irregular Cavalry can be organised on two different systems, 
 viz., the " Silladaree", as with the Hyderabad Contingent, and the 
 " Khudaspa", as in the Bengal Army. 
 
 The " Silladaree" system admits of a soldier being the owner of 
 more than one horse in a Cavalry Eegiment, and having the right 
 of nomination of the troopers, or riders of his extra horse or horses 
 these riders being approved as efficient soldiers like himself. 
 
 The " Khudaspa" system permits a soldier to become the owner 
 of the horse he rides, and of no more. 
 
 From my previous writings it will be perceived that, so far as 
 Hyderabad is concerned, I am in favour of the former system 
 in preference to the latter, and for many reasons. Among other 
 arguments in favour of the single horse and trooper proprietorship, 
 it is advanced that such a soldier rides his own horse, and, therefore, 
 takes an additional interest in its well-being, spends more money 
 on its food, and is careful to maintain at all times its good condition ; 
 on the other hand, an impression exists that a trooper, or rider, of 
 another man's horse cannot be expected to devote so much care and 
 attention to the animal he rides, and, therefore, that the " Khu- 
 daspa", or single-horse system, should succeed better than the other. 
 
 a 2
 
 IV APPENDIX. 
 
 This impression, however, in my opinion, is fallacious, as the 
 care and condition of their horses is a matter of discipline which 
 all Irregular Cavalry officers have been able to insist upon and 
 maintain. The idea, no doubt, may be traced to the fact that 
 British officers coming from England, with knowledge of their own 
 Cavalry, and notions as regards organisation and discipline, expect 
 to find something of the same sort in Native Irregulars. But 
 experience has shown, and will show, that Indian circumstances, 
 climatic influences, and natural proclivities of the Indian soldier. 
 demand a special and different treatment, and everything that 
 suits a British trooper will not answer with him. Keeping this in 
 mind, it will not be hard to prove some of the erroneous impres- 
 sions held in favour of the " Khudaspa" system. 
 
 In the first place, in regiments organised on that principle, the 
 burden of procuring Cavalry recruits is placed on the commanding 
 officer, who sends out recruiting parties, and these of course procure 
 recruits without capital, or such as are obliged to borrow for 
 appearance' sake. Such a recruit has to commence his soldier's 
 life with a debt of 400 rupees and more. A portion of this is a 
 private loan, the rest being advanced by a Government fund which 
 exists for this purpose. Then this impecunious trooper has to pay 
 instalments towards liquidation of his debt in two or more different 
 places, and he finds that he has actually to starve himself to enable 
 him to meet the demands on his small monthly allowance. These 
 are the liabilities he incurs, out of thirty-five Hyderabad rupees 
 (equal to thirty Government rupees) per month : — 
 
 E. A. p. 
 
 Subscription to Government Fund . .300 
 
 towards Horsekeeper's pay .300 
 
 „ Forge Fund . .080 
 
 Bheestee (Water) . 10 
 
 „ „ Forage . . .300 
 
 ,, ,, Grain for Horse and 
 
 Pony . . .940 
 Extras 10 
 
 Instalment of Government Debt 
 Uniform and Accoutrements 
 Balance for Food and Private Debt 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 G 
 
 
 
 
 (for 4 years) 
 
 
 
 35
 
 APPENDIX. V 
 
 It will be seen from this account that a recruit has only six 
 rupees per mensem left him for his own nourishment for a period of 
 four years, and although after that long probation he obtains twelve 
 rupees for his own personal use, yet the hardships he has borne mean- 
 while, are poorly compensated for by this relief, which is generally 
 lessened by his having to maintain a family of his own. In this 
 position he is not a bit better off than the " Bargheer", who gets 
 his pay clear of all encumbrances, while he has not had the pull 
 of four years' privations. The " Khudaspa", pinched by these priva- 
 tions, only lacks the opportunity to starve his horse instead of him- 
 self. He is known not to allow any chance of doing so to slip by, 
 and this necessitates vigilant supervision on the part of Squad 
 Duffedars (non-commissioned officers) when the horse of a " single 
 proprietor" is getting his food. The " Khudaspa", moreover, is so 
 surrounded by restrictions in regard to the treatment of his horse, 
 as well as the "Syce" and pony towards whose keep he contributes, 
 that he has already become aware that his " ownership" of the 
 horse he rides is practically a myth. He finds, under present 
 regulations, that, although he has contributed, or is doing so, 
 towards the price of his horse, he has actually no power to use it, 
 or the pony, or the "Syce", in any other way than that ordered by 
 his superior officer. He is not consulted in the purchase of a 
 horse suitable to himself, but he is simply allotted one, which he 
 must groom and keep in condition, and which he must resign at 
 the will of his superior officers. Here, again, he is no better off in 
 any respect than a " Bargheer", or trooper, who rides another pro- 
 prietor's horse, and who, without depositing 400 rupees, enjoys no 
 less advantages than the single-horse proprietor. 
 
 A man in possession of 400 rupees will not offer himself as a 
 recruit for the Cavalry unless his relations are already in the corps, 
 the simple reason being that he, as an outsider, will gain less by 
 investing that sum in the regiment than out of it. The case is 
 different with a man offering himself for the position of Silladar, 
 or owner of more horses than one. He himself secures at once a 
 respectable position in the corps, commands the prospect of rising 
 to a commission, and not only finds employment for the investment 
 of his money, but also secures a reasonable income, owing to the 
 feasibility of working his " Pagah", or number of horses, with 
 greater economy. These are certainly singular advantages to him-
 
 VI APPENDIX. 
 
 self, but in them also will be found a corresponding profit and 
 advantage to Government. We not only secure the services of a 
 respectable and perhaps powerful retainer, but also assure ourselves 
 of the loyalty of his party, the troopers of his horses being generally 
 his own relations and friends. A Silladar, in fact, possesses a 
 direct, personal, social, and influential heavy stake on the side of 
 the Government he serves — a stake of such importance as to render 
 him, his family and troopers, more loyal to the State in troublous 
 times ; while the single-horse owner has, perhaps, his 400 rupees, 
 accumulated under privations, and no other interest, in the Govern- 
 ment or its concerns. In proof of this, read the history of the 
 Silladars of Hyderabad during the mutiny, and compare it with 
 what happened in Bengal. 
 
 Here I tender my thanks to my former chiefs, C. B. Saunders, 
 Esq., C.B., Sir Richard Meade, K.C.S.I., and Sir S. Bayley, K.C.S.I., 
 for their uniform courtesy to me while filling the office of their 
 adviser. 
 
 When Mr. Saunders was Eesident in 1875, proposals were first 
 submitted in view to disturbing the existing organisation of the 
 Hyderabad Cavalry, and they commenced officially by the General 
 Commanding the Contingent submitting to the Eesident an order, 
 which he proposed to issue to the Force, providing for the sale of 
 horses belonging to pensioners or outsiders not in the service, and 
 restricting future proprietorship to ten horses only ; present Silladars 
 of any number of horses not to be interfered with, so long as they 
 remained in the service. To this the Resident replied, that the 
 absorption of outside Silladars by degrees might be sanctioned, and 
 meet with his approval, but restriction of a Silladar to ten horses 
 only would change the ■ character of service in the Contingent 
 Cavalry, the more so when taken in conjunction with minor reforms 
 already introduced and carried out by the General. These regiments 
 of Hyderabad, he said, had stood the test of the Mutiny, and, 
 although prepared for improvements, the Resident declared that the 
 most mature consideration was necessary before any radical change 
 was introduced into the system. On the whole, he thought it best 
 to take the orders of theGovernment of India on this matter; but 
 before doing so, would like to know whether the changes now pro- 
 posed by the General, together with those already made, embraced all 
 the reforms he intended to recommend ; or whether, for example, he
 
 APPENDIX. Vll 
 
 desired an increase in the number of European officers; also, what 
 pay he would assign to the Native Adjutant created by him, and 
 whether a corresponding reduction should be made in that of the 
 Eissaldar-Maj or. 
 
 Upon this the Brigadier-General, on 26th May 1875, submitted 
 a Memorandum, embodying his proposals of reform in the Hydera- 
 bad Contingent. The most important measures contained therein 
 were an increase to the number of European officers in Cavalry and 
 Infantry, and the very gradual extinction of the Silladaree system 
 in the Cavalry. In regard to the latter, he observed that the old 
 Bengal Irregular Cavalry was constituted precisely as the Contin- 
 gent Cavalry now is, on the Silladaree system, which it was found 
 necessary to abolish, and the aim of his present proposal was to do 
 carefully and very gradually for the Contingent Cavalry what 
 has been done with so much advantage for the sister service. 
 Bespecting the increase of British officers, he considered it indis- 
 pensably necessary. In his memorandum, the General shows how 
 very weak every regiment and battery is in officers, not sufficient, 
 in fact, to take the field in any case ; and, as against the idea that 
 because the Contingent has got on very well with its present com- 
 plement of officers, and needs no more, he urges that the good 
 services of these regiments in subsequent engagements were 
 attributable to the increased number of British officers attached to 
 them, and to the efficient leading of the latter. Further, he adds, in 
 the old fighting days there was a British officer to every two com- 
 panies, besides the Commanding Officer and Staff; moreover, there 
 were four Brigadiers and their Staff Officers. 
 
 In concluding this part of his subject, he urges that the increase 
 of officers is so important, that if the increased expenditure should 
 be an obstacle to its being carried out, he would urge a reduction 
 in the strength of the whole Force, in order to meet it. 
 
 Coming to the subject of the Silladaree system, the Brigadier- 
 General declares that, whatever its merits may have been, its 
 usefulness has passed away. The present Silladars have no 
 claims on Government for services in the field, but are chiefly 
 speculators, pocketing the profits of the soldiers. It was owing to 
 them that the prices of " Assamees " have been inflated 200 per 
 cent., and the controlling power is in their hands. To show that 
 Native officers have too much power and influence under this
 
 Till APPENDIX. 
 
 system, he quotes a General, who wrote twelve years before: "I 
 know of a case where an officer holds sixty Assamees, who actually, 
 in 1857, decided whether his regiment was to go on service or not. 
 It is true he used his power entirely for the advantage of the State, 
 and has always shown himself a loyal and deserving servant of 
 Government, but I cannot believe that it is either safe or advisable 
 to trust so much in the fidelity of any Native." (Note. — The italics 
 are mine, as proving what I said above.) 
 
 " The above description", adds the Brigadier-General, " will 
 answer to existing circumstances. The Native officer is alive, 
 possesses more Assamees, and more influence than he did when 
 those words were written." From paragraph 4 to No. 15 the 
 General gives his reasons for recommending the gradual abolition 
 of the Silladaree system. Among these are, " that it is disadvan- 
 tageous to the interests of Government and unjust to the soldier. 
 The latter does not get his pay nor give any loyalty to the State. 
 Bargheers, or troopers, are dissatisfied and inefficient. A Bar- 
 gheer cannot become the owner of a horse because he has no 
 money." 
 
 It is needless to point out that under this system the tie 
 between man and horse, so essential in all Cavalry, does not, 
 cannot, exist. " Let vested rights", he says, " remain untouched ; 
 existing Silladars should be permitted to retain their Assamees 
 while they remain in the service — not afterwards. The extinction 
 of this system would be very gradual ; it would occupy many years. 
 But the measure, however gradually brought into operation, would 
 infuse heart and hope into the troopers, who now feel that their 
 career is without prospect." 
 
 The remainder of this Memorandum is taken up with minor 
 subjects of detail, or interior economy of requirements, abolition 
 of Native bankers, introduction of Bengal accounts, deposit and 
 other funds, winding up with composition of regiments, in which 
 the General recommends an increased number of other classes 
 than Mohammedans, and is strongly in favour of the Sikh element, 
 as being a fine race of fighting men. 
 
 The Resident at Hyderabad answered the General's communi- 
 cation and Memorandum on 10th June 1875, and informed him 
 he would submit the whole correspondence, after printing, to the 
 Government of India, and requested him to hold in reserve all
 
 APPENDIX. IX 
 
 further measures, involving considerable or important changes in 
 the constitution of the Force, or in the interior economy and 
 discipline of its regiments, which might commit the Government 
 to any particular line of policy before its orders were received. 
 
 It will be seen from the above Memorandum that the Brigadier- 
 General, a Bengal officer, condemns a system which he knows 
 little about, beyond that it has stood the test of time and rebellion, 
 and proposes to introduce in its stead one that has done neither. 
 The tendency of Bengal officers in those days was to suppose that 
 all the institutions and organisations in their Presidency must be 
 superior to those of others ; and even the rude and startling lesson 
 of the Mutiny did not altogether remove this idea, for here we 
 find a Bengal officer, some years after, recommending*the abolition 
 of a military organisation which he admits proved itself loyal and 
 useful to the State, in favour of a Bengal one, which^was the very 
 reverse. Such a proposal, in itself, is sufficiently*condenmatory, 
 and in submitting it, with the General's Memorandum, to the 
 Governor-General, Mr. Saunders' opinions and expositions of the 
 objectionable proposals are both elaborate and crushing. 
 
 Before going to it, however, I will give one more proof within 
 my own knowledge of the loyalty and faithfulness of the Hyderabad 
 Cavalry, under the Silladaree system, in the Mutiny in 1857-58. 
 At that time there was stationed at a small cantonment, Lingasoo- 
 goor, 200 miles from Hyderabad, a small detachment of Cavalry, 
 consisting of one Native officer and twenty-five troopers, in addition 
 to a regiment of Infantry and two guns. Every soldier of all arms 
 was a native of the North of India, where rebellion was then raging. 
 Sedition was rife in and around the little station, and armed rebels 
 were gathering together on the frontiers. The Native officer of 
 Cavalry and many of his men came from Delhi, where their 
 families were shut up, for it was then besieged. The total number 
 of English officers at that station was five, while the Natives 
 probably numbered 2,000. Knowing that the Eorce would probably 
 have to take the field, the chief military and civil officers called 
 a council of war, inviting all the Native officers of all arms to 
 attend. Every man not on duty came. The Council was addressed 
 by the civil officer, also a military man, who informed them of 
 the latest news from Bengal ; also that the Chief of a neighbouring 
 State was about to join the rebels, and the Commanding Officer
 
 X APPENDIX. 
 
 would shortly call for their services to fight the enemies of the 
 State. Were they and their men ready, at all hazards, and in 
 spite of all temptations, to support the cause of the Government 
 they served ? Every officer present rose and placed the hilt of his 
 sword in the hand of each European officer in turn, and the 
 Native ( lavalry officer said " Inshallah ! we are ready." A few 
 days after, the Cavalry accompanied the guns on service under 
 one English officer only, and behaved as well in the field as they 
 did in camp. Not one word of discontent or rebellion was heard, 
 and those soldiers were faithful and true under the most trying 
 circumstances that can be conceived. 
 
 On the 3rd July 1875, Mr. Saunders commences his despatch 
 by remarking that the General had not been long in command 
 before he introduced one or two changes in the Cavalry branch 
 without reference to the Eesident, and shortly afterwards began to 
 carry out a complete boulevcrsement of the old system in the 
 Hyderabad Cavalry. Hence he interfered, and requested no 
 further changes should be made pending orders from Government. 
 Changes in interior economy of Cavalry Regiments, made on the 
 General's own responsibility, will be referred to afterwards for the 
 Governor-General's information, but for the present it is sufficient 
 to discuss the Memorandum. The Eesident proceeds to take 
 the General's reasons for abolition of the Silladaree system one 
 by one, as he cannot allow an old system to be abolished without 
 explaining its nature and objects. He denies that the usefulness 
 of the Silladaree system has passed away, and quotes despatches 
 of General J. S. Fraser, "an officer of rare political sagacity, as 
 well as extensive military experience", showing his high opinion 
 of the Nizam's Cavalry under that system, and deprecating any 
 changes therein. Again General Fraser, in another despatch, says, 
 " The Nizam's Cavalry is of a peculiar character, and is, I believe, 
 considered as the best of its kind in India." 
 
 As regards " discipline", under the Silladaree system, it may be 
 admitted not to be such as the General approves; but that sort 
 which is required for Regular troops is not necessary or judicious 
 with irregular Cavalry, into which the more respectable of the 
 warlike classes of India would not enlist under a European system 
 of discipline. The General's next objection is that the Silladaree 
 system places too much power in the hands of Native officers.
 
 APPENDIX. XI 
 
 Mr. Saunders remarks that it was made a special object to create 
 in these regiments posts as Native officers in the prime of life, — 
 posts which, from their duties and responsibilities, officers of 
 ability and character might occupy with pride and satisfaction to 
 themselves ; and the Eesident believes that this system has resulted 
 in developing an exceptionally high stamp of Native troop com- 
 mander. He quotes authorities to show that under a Silladaree 
 system there is no difficulty in recruiting, as these regiments were 
 maintained to absorb the military material abounding 'in the State, 
 and not to import it from elsewhere. Such charges as " obstruc- 
 tion to efficiency" and " failure before the enemy", the Eesident 
 remarks, he had never heard before, and meets them at once by 
 quotations from official despatches of Sir Hugh Eose (now Lord 
 Strathnairn), who states that the Hyderabad Cavalry showed 
 admirable steadiness under fire, and thanks the Eesident most 
 cordially for " having allowed me to have the command of a large 
 portion of your Force, which owes so much of its efficiency to the 
 excellent organisation you introduced. I shall always remember 
 the never-failing goodwill which its officers and men displayed 
 towards myself, and the good service which they did to the cause 
 of my Queen and country." Eecords like these may be allowed to 
 speak for themselves. It seems past dispute that the Contingent 
 is now amply competent to perforin all the duties devolving on it, 
 in connection with the primary object of its formation, viz., the 
 defence of the Nizam's own country. It is also on record that on 
 the only occasions of its being employed in the field against the 
 enemies of India, its conduct earned for it the praise and admira- 
 tion of its Generals. " Therefore", says Mr. Saunders, " I really do 
 not see any necessity, or even reasonable grounds, why the reorga- 
 nisation of the Hyderabad Cavalry should be undertaken at the 
 sacrifice of all those political and other advantages which cluster 
 round the present system." He objects strongly to the proposal 
 that Silladars should be made to dispose of their "Assamees" on 
 leaving the service, and quotes the instance of one of the finest 
 officers of Cavalry, " Ahmed Buksh Khan", whose son, in the same 
 regiment, according to natural hereditary right, and the will of his 
 father, succeeds to his troops, and horses, and horsemen, in the 
 same manner as the knights of old. 
 
 Now, as regards the changes introduced in Cavalry arrangements
 
 Xll APPENDIX. 
 
 by the General, one was to order every Silladar or Bargheer 
 
 to groom his own horse. In India, where Native grooms are always 
 kept, it is unnecessary for a trooper to groom his horse, but in the 
 Nizam's Cavalry it was a condition of his service that he was not 
 to do so. Tins change not only caused the greatest vexation to all 
 Native troopers, but it really was the thin end of a wedge intended 
 to upset the system, root and branch. Tt had the immediate effect 
 of making many Bargheers throw up our service, send in their 
 resignations, and seek employment in other quarters, and Sir Salar 
 Jung told the Resident that men were applying to enter his 
 Cavalry. Other changes, such as cutting down the usual leave for 
 Mohammedan festivals, importing saddles from Cawftpur (Bengal 
 again), and putting the men under stoppages to pay for them, as 
 well as for certain alterations in the Horse Lines, were quite 
 enough to bring about among the Native Irregular troopers what 
 is known as a " mistake", but would more properly be translated 
 an dmeute, which more recently actually occurred in one regiment. 
 
 Thus, Mr. Saunders laid before the Viceroy all that could be 
 said, from his view, in favour of the old system, and did not attempt 
 to disguise his appreciation of an organisation established by some 
 of the most distinguished of his predecessors. At the same time, 
 from a military point of view, he can offer no positive opinion as 
 to whether the General's scheme of reorganisation should be set 
 aside, or adopted. All he requests is, if the Silladaree system is to 
 be retained, that such general instructions should be laid down by 
 H.E. in Council as will obviate the risk of its being impaired from 
 time to time by regimental commanders who may happen to con- 
 demn it ; on the other hand, if reorganisation is to proceed, he 
 trusts that the Silladaree system may not be abolished gradually, 
 but at once, in accordance with proposals which he will make for 
 suitable compensation in money, or otherwise, to every Native 
 officer or soldier now in the Force, who cannot be made to fit into 
 a place under the General's system, without present or future 
 depreciation of his property, the lowering of his self-respect, or even 
 the violation of his national or reasonable prejudices. 
 
 On 10th October 1875, the Government of India requested a 
 further and fuller report on the several points mooted ; and before 
 this matter went further, Mr. Saunders had left Hyderabad and 
 was succeeded by Sir Richard Meade, who possessed special
 
 APPENDIX. Xlll 
 
 qualifications to report on this matter, as he had himself served 
 both under the " Pagah" (or Silladaree) and " Khudaspa" systems. 
 
 On the 19th February 1876 3 Sir Richard Meade submits his 
 report. He first wants to know if the Government deem it proper 
 and desirable that the Hyderabad Cavalry should be assimilated in 
 organisation and discipline to the Regular Army, as that is the 
 General's intention. He assumes that the character of the Con- 
 tingent as a local force, specially kept up for service within 
 Hyderabad limits, and neither available for, nor liable to, employ- 
 ment beyond them, except in the contingency described in Treaty 
 of 1853, is not open to doubt or question. He then states, seriatim, 
 all the measures of reform proposed by the General, which have 
 already been given above by Mr. Saunders, and in the Memorandum, 
 and expresses his opinion on each. From his own experience in 
 Gwalior under a similar organisation and the same number of 
 officers as in the Hyderabad Contingent, he can only say that the 
 former was, in all essential respects, efficient for the duties required 
 of it, or that could be required of the Hyderabad Contingent within 
 the Nizam's territories, and he cannot endorse the General's view, 
 that an increase of European officers is absolutely necessary. If 
 a reduction in strength of the Force is clearly required to ren- 
 der it efficient, the saving should be applied to decrease its general 
 cost, and not to increase its officers. 
 
 Regarding the General's poor opinion of the Native officers 
 of the Contingent, Sir E. Meade's knowledge in other parts leads 
 him to believe that, with careful training and selection, a fair pro- 
 portion would be found fitted to meet every requirement, and he 
 does not concur in the opinion that Native officers are so useless 
 and valueless as the General considers them to be. He is not 
 prepared to condemn the Silladaree system absolutely. It was that 
 originally and universally in force in our Irregular Horse, in 
 which, as in the Contingent up to late years, it answered, on the 
 whole, fairly for a long period. We were compelled to have recourse 
 to it to some extent, when forced to raise a new army during the 
 Mutiny, and may have to do so again, if any such convulsion 
 recurs. 
 
 Sir R. Meade shares the opinion that an attempted extinction 
 of this system will involve a serious interference with the rights of 
 property which have been acquired in a duly recognised and sane-
 
 xiv APPENDIX. 
 
 tioned state of things, and justice demands that such rights should 
 not he injured ; and he thinks it will only be possible to bring about 
 the change desired by the General very gradually, and, for the 
 present, to but a partial extent. He then suggests a number of 
 rules which might be adopted with advantage without injustice to 
 existing interests. These consist chiefly of all the minor matters 
 of detail mentioned in the General's "Memorandum", nearly 
 all, however, tending to assimilation with the Regular Army. After 
 making careful inquiry into the value and price paid for "Assamee" 
 in the Hyderabad ( lavalry of late years, it was found to have fallen 
 to about the worth of a horse and equipment, while in the Nizam's 
 Irregular Horse each Assamee was worth Rs. 1,000, from which it 
 maybe assumed that the changes already introduced into the Con- 
 tingent are unsuited to and unpopular with the military classes of 
 the Deccan, who formerly filled its ranks. The General wdshes 
 the Cavalry Regiments to consist of three squadrons : one of Deccan 
 or Rajputana Mohammedans, one of N.W.P. Mohammedans, and 
 one of Sikhs. Sir R. Meade does not agree, but is of opinion that 
 they should, as far as possible, be recruited from the Deccan, and 
 Southern and Central India ; nor does he approve of the General's 
 proposal for annual camps of exercise for Contingent troops. 
 
 Subsequently, Government issued its orders on this subject, and 
 I here append the rules which were conveyed to the General Com- 
 manding to be carried out in the Cavalry Regiments. 
 
 Rules regarding sale and 'purchase of Assamees in the Hyderabad 
 
 Contingent Cavalry Regiments ,taken from letter No. 6, dated 19th 
 
 February 1876, from the Resident at Hyderabad, f<i the Secretary 
 
 to the Government of India, Military Department. 
 
 " 1. Silladars now in the Service will not be l-equired to induce the 
 
 number of their assaraees now held by them; but no Silladar will, in 
 
 future, be allowed to acquire by purchase or otherwise, except in the 
 
 case hereinafter mentioned, more than (10) ten assamees, including those 
 
 previously possessed by him. 
 
 " 2. Where a Silladar is already the holder of (5) five or more assamees, 
 he will not be at liberty to add to that number without the special per- 
 mission of his Commanding Officer. 
 
 " 3. If, on the demise of a Silladar, the heir to his estate is serving 
 in fche regiment, and the assamees held by the deceased become the pro- 
 perty of such heir, lie shall be allowed to inherit them without reference 
 to the above limitations.
 
 APPENDIX. XV 
 
 " 4. If the beir of a deceased Silladar is not serving in the regiment, 
 or is not at once entertained in it, the deceased's assamees will be sold.* 
 
 " 5. Dismissal from the Service, or transfer of a Silladar to another 
 corps, will involve the sale of his assamees, unless in the latter case they 
 are transferred with bim. 
 
 " 6. No person of any class or description, not serving in a regiment, 
 will be permitted to hold assamees in such regiment ; and all assamees 
 now held in contravention of tbis rule will be gradually sold off with 
 as mucb consideration as possible for the interests of the holders. 
 
 " 7. To enable Commanding Officers to aid deserving Bargheers, who 
 desire to become Khudaspahs, by purchasing for them assamees offered 
 for sale, or available therefor, under the foregoing rule, an advance of 
 a maximum sum not exceeding Rs. (10,000) ten thousand will be 
 authorised for each Corps for tins purpose." 
 
 These were the only orders sanctioned by Government, and it 
 was expected that they would have been generously carried out in 
 the spirit in which they were conceived ; but this was not the case. 
 So determined was the General to substitute single proprietor 
 system for the Silladaree, that he left no means untried to gain this 
 point ; and, on his departure from Hyderabad in 1881, he addressed 
 Government direct, and commented on the late Resident's military 
 administration. This letter was forwarded of course to Hydera- 
 bad for report ; and, from the voluminous correspondence which 
 followed, my readers will understand that for a second time I was 
 overwhelmed with work in preparing memoranda for the new 
 Resident's consideration. The General told the Government 
 he had appealed in vain to the Eesident for consideration and 
 justice to be shown to the Bargheer class ; and having been 
 appointed by the Viceroy for the purpose of reforming the Contin- 
 gent (this is not confirmed by official documents), he thinks 
 it his duty to bring the whole matter under Government con- 
 sideration before surrendering his command. Now, it will be 
 seen from this that the General's advocacy has been in favour 
 of one class of persons as against another, instead of a larger and 
 more comprehensive support of a Bengal military system, as against 
 one which, in my opinion, is not only superior, but far better 
 
 * It has been arranged, however, that in the event of an heir to such 
 property showing promise of becoming a good soldier, he being a minor at 
 the time, that the estate be held in trust until he join the ranks.
 
 XVI APPENDIX. 
 
 adapted to Hyderabad and its Cavalry. In support of this view, 
 and at the request (see extract entered hereafter) of Sir S. Bayley, 
 then Resident 1 , I drew up a Memorandum embodying once more all 
 the opinions I originally held, hold now, and will continue to hold 
 on this matter. 
 
 Memorandum by Colonel' Hastings Fraser, Military Secretary to the 
 Resident at Hyderabad. 
 " When the question of the Silladari system was first mooted, I placed 
 my views on the subject before the Resident, Mr. Saunders, who 
 generally accepted them, and subsequent events proved that they were 
 not entirely at variance with the orders which were issued to the Force 
 after approval by the Government of India. 
 
 " I have, notwithstanding all that has been urged against this 
 system, continued to hold the same opinion, and am still fully convinced 
 that the requirements of the times neither demand nor justify changes' 
 being made in the Silladari system of the Hyderabad Contingent 
 Cavalry without giving full compensation to Silladai-s, should it be 
 proposed to take their assamees from them at a valuation ; but I sin- 
 cerety trust that I may show cause why it will be a better policy to 
 encourage the retention of our old system, rather than destroy it. 
 
 " The constitution of the Contingent Cavalry is peculiar, and differs in 
 so many ways from that of the Regular Army, that exceptional 
 measures, in which usages of the Force have not been lost sight of, 
 are always deemed necessary for the administration of the Contingent 
 Cavalry. 
 
 " Unlike other regiments raised in times of emergency, and made up 
 of men of all classes and nationalities, and, in some cases, disbanded 
 when no longer required, the Contingent Cavalry is a kind of terri- 
 torial regiment (a scheme the Secretary of State for War is now 
 introducing into the British service), whose interests are confined to 
 the country to which they belong, and from the military class of which 
 they are to be recruited. 
 
 " These regiments were formed from small parties or squadrons 
 maintained, and invariably commanded, by the chiefs and nobility of 
 the country, who eventually settled down and became Silladars in the 
 newly-formed regiments, the men of which were already equipped, and 
 were good riders probably from their youth. All that Government 
 had to do was to place a European officer in command of each regi- 
 ment, who had simply to teach his men how to manoeuvre according 
 to the English mode of drill ; the Silladar, or, as he was first designated, 
 the Native Commandant, having the equipment of the men entirely in 
 bis own hands. 
 
 1 See his letter, jwat, p. xl.
 
 APPENDIX. . XV11 
 
 " Doubtless the original cost of an assamee was moderate, compared 
 with its market price in after years; but this enhanced value was 
 not due, as is generally supposed, to a spirit of speculation, but to a 
 desire on the part of wealthy Mohammedan gentlemen to obtain a 
 footing in this popular branch of the Service, whereby they not only 
 added to their own dignity, receiving a fair income for their money 
 (which their religion forbids them to put out to interest), but also 
 acquired the means of giving employment to such of their relatives 
 and friends as were anxious to become ' Gentleman troopers,' a term 
 then applied to the rider of a horse. 
 
 " As the original Silladars or founders of the regiments died, or 
 retired, the number of assamees were gradually increased, either by dis- 
 tribution among the Silladar's relatives, or by sale ; and so keen was 
 the contest to obtain assamees, that native gentlemen vied with each 
 ■other, regardless of cost, for the coveted position of Silladar, little 
 dreaming that it would ever be proposed that their prescriptive rights 
 ' should be interfered with. Up to the present time this has not been 
 permitted by Government. 
 
 " Such is a brief outline of the assamee system, which always worked 
 well, and was not only approved of by commanding officers generally, 
 but strongly supported by successive Residents, whose orders on this 
 subject are still on record. Extracts are to be found at pages 5 and 12 
 of a letter addressed to Government by Mr. Saunders, a former Resi- 
 dent, No. 70, dated 3rd July 1875. 
 
 " Although these opinions were offered many years ago, I nevertheless 
 heartily re-echo the sentiments therein expressed, both with regard to 
 the assamees, and the position of the Native officers ; and from my long 
 experience in the Contingent Cavalry, having served with it both in 
 quarters and in the field, and in the administration of the Force, I have 
 no hesitation in saying that the assamee system was and is the best for 
 the Contingent Cavalry ; it has never failed, although often put to severe 
 tests on service. The Hyderabad Contingent was in the field and in 
 Scindia's country when the Gwalior Contingent failed us, and subse- 
 quently the Hyderabad Contingent attacked and dispersed the Mahid- 
 pur local force, and captured from them their battery of Artillery and 
 siege guns, having made two double marches of forty miles each to 
 enable them to accomplish this end. 
 
 " No serious charge, that I am aware of, was ever brought against 
 the assamee system of the Contingent Cavalry. The attacks that have 
 been made on it from time to time were initiated by officers, fresh from 
 •commanding companies and troops of the line, who, apparently, could 
 not be reconciled to the peculiar system which gave the Native officers 
 ■of the Contingent much greater influence over the men than that exer- 
 cised by Native officers of the Regular Regiments. 
 
 b
 
 Vlll APPENDIX. 
 
 " "When I consider the efforts that are now being made by Government 
 to raise the tone and position of Native officers of the Regular Army, 
 by entering their names in the Army List, insisting upon their per- 
 forming the duties of company officers, refusing to promote the old 
 stamp of men, and offering direct commissions to Native gentlemen, I 
 cannot refrain from saying that the ' cat's-paw ' argument formerly 
 brought to bear against the Silladar system (but in reality directed 
 against the influence commanded by Native officers over their men) 
 must, I think, in these days redound to the credit of the Contingent 
 authorities, who have for seventy years maintained a system which 
 required that Native officers should perform their legitimate duties as 
 troop officers, and which system has at length been recognised by 
 Government, and introduced into the armies of the three Presidencies. 
 " A system that has for so long a period induced Native gentlemen 
 to enter our Cavalry Regiments is, I venture to think, worthy of some 
 consideration, and it is my firm conviction that with the abolition of 
 the assamees will also go the class of men that Government is now so 
 anxious to induce to enter the Regular Army. 
 
 " Moreover, I do not think that under the Treaty obligations of 1853 
 we are justified in applying hard-and-fast rules so detrimental to the 
 interest of the Silladars, and, in an indirect manner, compelling them 
 to sell their assamees at one-half, and sometimes one-third, of their 
 former selling value. 
 
 " This interference with the rights of the Silladars has, as was re- 
 ported to Government by Mr. Saunders, been much canvassed by the 
 men themselves, and is often made a subject of discussion by the 
 people of the city of Hyderabad; and the general opinion is, especially 
 among the relatives and friends of those Silladars who have inherited 
 assamis which were originally conferred on their ancestors by the 
 Nizam, that the British Government is not entitled to sequester them. 
 The men of the Cavalry, while zealous in the performance of their 
 duty, and loyal to the Government they serve, nevertheless tenaciously 
 cling to what they consider their inherited rights and privileges, and 
 look with suspicion and distrust on the introduction of any scheme 
 that may tend to vitiate these rights and privileges, as was the case 
 recently in the 4th Regiment Cavalry when a new system was 
 introduced. If, regardless of the inherited rights of the Cavalry 
 Silladars, it is intended that the Khudaspa system should be introduced 
 into the Contingent, I trust it may not be carried out in the hasty 
 manner as has been done in the 3rd Cavalry. I would propose that 
 the Government orders of 1876 be strictly adhered to, and should any 
 assamees lapse, full compensation be paid to the heirs, at the rate esti- 
 mated when Sir George Yule was Resident, viz., Rs. 1,200. I allude 
 to this estimate because I not only consider it equitable, but the
 
 APPENDIX. XIX 
 
 Silladars cannot then complain at being called on to relinquish their 
 assamees; whereas any estimate based on the realisation of sales that 
 have taken place in recent years would not give satisfactory results, as 
 it is well known that not only has a certain amount of coercion been 
 brought to bear upon such sales, but that fair bidding has in many 
 instances been discouraged by officers favourable to the new system. 
 A Silladar in the 4th Cavalry petitioned the late Resident to the effect 
 that he had been turned out of the Service for no fault of his, but 
 merely on his having been declared physically unfit, and on his wishing 
 to devise his assamees to his brother, who was serving in the regiment, 
 he was not permitted to do so. On inquiry, the petitioner's statement 
 was found to be true. A special invaliding committee pronounced the 
 man perfectly fit for further service, and Sir R. Meade ordered his 
 reinstatement, and the restoration to him of his assamees, and any loss 
 arising from the transaction should be borne by the officer who had 
 acted contrary to the orders of 1876. 
 
 " It is urged that putting up an assamee to auction leads to those 
 acquiring this property incurring debt. This may have been the case 
 formerly, when Native bankers were allowed to establish themselves in 
 the bazaars of the regiments. This is prohibited now, and all bids 
 hereafter will be made by men who have saved money for this pur- 
 pose, and who, if Mohammedans, cannot otherwise invest their 
 savings. 
 
 " Sir S. Bayley proposes to let the system authorised in 1876, and 
 recently republished in Resident's General Orders, have a trial for two 
 years. During this period it will be amply proved whether, in fixing 
 the price of the assamee at Rs. 1,200, we have over-estimated the 
 amount. 
 
 " Scarcely any change of importance can in these days be made with- 
 out in some way inflicting hardship on some parties, and as, in such 
 cases, the minority usually have to suffer, so our Silladars, who, though 
 small in number, are great in influence, will be the sufferers if we 
 persist in forcing the Khudaspa system on them. I doubt the policy 
 of even purchasing such a change. 
 
 " The Khudaspa system, if really the best, as is so often asserted, 
 will of itself take root and flourish without any care or attention on 
 our part. All that we have, in my humble opinion, to do is to re- 
 cognise both systems, and to leave them to stand or fall by their own 
 merits. There must be no restriction placed on Silladars purchasing 
 assamees to the extent allowed by the regulations. 
 
 " My note would be incomplete were I to allow the statements of 
 Generals Wright and Gough against the Silladar system to pass 
 without noticing some of the reasons they assign for condemning our 
 present system. They argue that it is opposed to the maintenance of 
 
 b 2
 
 XX APPENDIX. 
 
 discipline, as they consider it a failure, or rather that it tends to main- 
 tain a rough organisation and a loose discipline. 
 
 "Assuming for a moment that these defects belong to, and exist 
 with, that system, I have only to point out that it has been demon- 
 strated beyond question thai they have not been instrumental in lessen- 
 ing the martial qualities and efficiency in the field of the Force. Sir 
 Hugh Rose's record, as inserted at page 12 of Mr. Saunders' letter, 
 already quoted, is proof that the Hyderabad Contingent Cavalry 
 proved its efficiency from its state of organisation, and that the system 
 tended to produce results which afforded complete satisfaction to those 
 who had an opportunity of forming a judgment, not theoretically, but 
 practically. 
 
 " Generals Wright and Gough urge a system that they have been 
 accustomed to. If they see defects in practice in working the Hyde- 
 rabad Cavalry system, they can be, and perhaps ought to be, remedied, 
 but without necessitating a change in the system itself, which, in 
 principle, has served its object well in the past, affording, as it surely 
 did, a means of living to the respectable and high-spirited military 
 classes of the Deccan. 
 
 " It is asserted that the old system did not provide for grooming horses 
 by their riders, and therefore stable duties were neglected. Now it must 
 be admitted that this has nothing to do with the principle of the 
 Silladari system itself. This concerns merely the practice obtaining 
 in the Hyderabad Cavalry. Originally it was not contemplated that a 
 Cavalry soldier was to groom his horse, while a liberal allowance granted 
 by Government for its maintenance provided for the employment of a 
 syce for that purpose. 
 
 '' I do not say that a soldier of the Hyderabad Cavalry will hesitate 
 to groom the horse he has ridden, when separated by necessity or by 
 duty from his attendant, the syce. I am aware, from personal know- 
 ledge, that the contrary is the case. 
 
 " An officer does not groom his horse, and this does not detract 
 from his efficiency as a soldier. So also a Cavalry trooper, on whose 
 horse a syce is employed, was never expected to groom it, to render 
 him more efficient than he otherwise would have been. Stable duties 
 might rather be superintended by the Cavalry soldier, and his efficiency 
 be thus established without wounding his feelings, as there is no doubt 
 that the work is looked down upon as menial by those of the Contin- 
 gent Cavalry who seemingly have acquiesced in its introduction. I 
 Biake the above statement from a knowledge of the number of men 
 who have left the Service, and are leaving it, as soon as they have 
 served sufficiently long for their pensions, and accepting service in the 
 Reformed and other Troops of His Highness the Nizam's Government. 
 The average service of the men who have this year been pensioned in
 
 APPENDIX. xxi 
 
 the Cavalry Regiment at Bolarum, near Hyderabad, is only 23 years 
 and some days. They carry with them their pension of 3£ Govern- 
 ment rupees, and Commandants of regiments in the Nizam's service 
 readily entertain these men. 
 
 " Again, it has been asserted that the Silladar system leads to rough 
 organisation and loose discipline, as a Silladar owning two or more 
 horses may come under the command of his own bargheer. Now this 
 latter phase has been rendered impossible by the rule that every non- 
 commissioned officer is to be a Silladar. 
 
 " In this manner I say that every defect in practice that may crop 
 up can be remedied by rules which need not interfere with the principle 
 of the Silladari system ; and now I would state my arguments in 
 favour of the retention of the system which has proved successful 
 hitherto. Before doing so, I will notice one more point in General Wright's 
 letter, addressed direct to the Government of India, in the margin of 
 paragraph 11 of the second enclosure of which there appears a petition 
 addressed to him by the Bargheers of the 4th Cavalry, praying to be 
 made Khudaspa. Small blame to their wishing to acquire assamees 
 at a third of the price originally paid by the Silladars. Three of our 
 regiments of Cavalry, the 1st, 2nd, and 4th, have still a number of 
 pagahs existing in them, as the officers commanding these corps have 
 rightly interpreted the orders issued in 1876, and have not hastily 
 adopted the views of the General Officer lately commanding the 
 Contingent. 
 
 " To pursue my arguments now. First, in the good faith of the 
 British Government, many a family of wealth and position changed 
 service from under the Nizam to the British, under promises made to 
 them by the Native Government that their privileges would be respected 
 by the Government to whom they were transferred. In 1828, 1 and on 
 several subsequent occasions, the Resident directed in General Orders 
 and in correspondence that their privileges were not to be interfered 
 with. Again, in 18(54, in 1876, and in 1881, orders have been pro- 
 
 1 " This was on the occasion of the outbreak of a mutiny in the 3rd 
 Cavalry, in which the Commanding Officer was cut down on parade by a few 
 of his own mutinous men, and which was chiefly caused by the arbitrary 
 introduction of certain measures of a harsh nature, some of which were 
 similar to those recently introduced by General Wright. 
 
 " An extract regarding this case, and the orders thereon by the Honorable 
 the Court of Directors, will be found at pages 22 and 23 of Mr. Saunders' 
 letter No. 79, dated 3rd July 1875, and Brigadier-General Wright's attention 
 was drawn in October 1878 to the Resident's General Order issued at the 
 time, directing the utmost freedom to be allowed to Silladars in the disposal 
 of their assamees, and he was informed that the order was still in force, and 
 should bo strictly adhered to."
 
 XX11 AITKM'IX. 
 
 mulgated, placing the Silladari system on a basis tending to afford 
 Silladars security, and it would be a breach of faitli now if those rules 
 are set aside. 
 
 " The question naturally arises, What have our Silladars done that 
 their annihilation is proposed ? Have they given offence ? Have 
 they failed in duty? Have they behaved badly before the enemy? 
 'No', the answer comes; 'but their existence is incompatible with 
 discipline, and they hold power which rightly belongs to the European 
 Commissioned officers.' I say rules can be framed that can remove all 
 power from the Silladar, and that without either affecting his purse, or 
 that of the Nizam's Government, and also without interfering with the 
 Silladari system of the Hyderabad Cavalry. 
 
 " The changes proposed tend again to require the presence of addi- 
 tional "commissioned (British) officers with corps, in direct infringe- 
 ment of the Treaty of 1853, which required our administration of the 
 Force on economical principles, and a few years saw the charges 
 reduced from 40 to 24 lakhs yearly. Another consideration is, if the 
 assamees are taken over at the full value, the Government itself will 
 become a grand Silladar of the Hyderabad Cavalry, and they will 
 become the great owners of the extra horses of the present Silladars 
 at a heavy cost, which will considerably lessen the surplus revenue the 
 Nizam is entitled to. We are already, by furnishing new arms to the 
 Contingent, adding considerably to the charges, and any further addi- 
 tional expenditure will naturally affect the surplus. 
 
 " Any change of system, I fear, will have the effect of removing 
 gradually, if not quickly, those men and the sons of those men upon 
 whom we relied in 1857. In the 3rd Cavalry, the most influential 
 Silladar is leaving, and he is removing his sons from the Service. In 
 the place of the old class, mercenaries from Hindustan have been 
 freely invited to enter the ranks, contrary to the orders of Govern- 
 ment. I feel confident that many of those coming from the north are 
 the sons and relatives of the mutineers of 1857. 
 
 " The Silladar's right to nominate his own Bargheer is allowed with 
 reluctance, although more than once the attention of General Officers 
 has been called to the subject. 
 
 " A foot-note at page 17 of Mr. Saunders' letter, already referred to, 
 mentions his intention of requiring the Brigadier- General Commanding 
 the Hyderabad Contingent to submit, for the Resident's information, 
 copies of all important orders issued by him to the Hyderabad Con- 
 tingent, as was done formerly. This is the practice observed in the 
 Punjab Force, and I Avould strongly recommend its adoption in the 
 Hyderabad Contingent. [This order has now been issued.] 
 
 " If the Silladari system, as it now is, be allowed to continue, and if
 
 APPENDIX. XX111 
 
 the defects are pointed out, arising from the pursuance of our old 
 practice, I feel I can submit subsidiary rules that will remove such 
 defects without in any way touching the privileges pecuniarily of the 
 present Silladars and their heirs. 
 
 " I have in the foregoing endeavoured to avoid any of the points 
 taken up by former Residents, and have consequently confined myself 
 to an expression of my opinion as to what 1, from long experience, 
 consider necessary for the Contingent Cavalry. 
 
 " Hastings Eraser, Colonel, 
 
 " Military Secretary. 
 " Hyderabad Residency, 
 
 " 2nd August 1881." 
 
 As I was aware that many months must elapse before this.corre- 
 spondence would be disposed of, and having observed for some time 
 past that the Resident's orders were being set aside, thereby creat- 
 ing ill-feeling,a mutiny having taken place in one regimentj obtained 
 Sir S. Bayley's permission to reissue the orders of 1876, and to 
 require strict adherence to them. Needless to add, that this pro- 
 duced more letters from the General Commanding the Force, 
 who found fault with the wording of some rules being different from 
 those of 1876 ; but this was explained, and the orders remained in 
 force. An attempt was made to have the order cancelled, but it 
 was too late, and, moreover, I informed the Resident that it was 
 no fresh order, but only that of 1876 reiterated. In the Confidential 
 Department I communicated my reasons for taking the action I 
 found it necessary to adopt on that occasion. In August 1882, the 
 Governor-General of India in Council addressed the Resident at 
 Hyderabad, conveying his orders upon a report submitted by the 
 General Commanding, on the question of the necessity for compensa- 
 tion to Silladars of the Hyderabad Cavalry, on account of depre- 
 ciation in value of their assamees, and on the future arrangements 
 to be made for the maintenance of the Silladaree system as originally 
 existing in the Contingent. I regret to say that the compensation 
 had not been granted prior to my departure. 
 
 I append an extract from that letter, which settles this matter 
 up to the date above-named; and I may here mention that reference 
 is made in this work to the difference between General Fraser and 
 Lord Dalhousie in connection with this same subject, and the order 
 here given is quite in accord with my father's views.
 
 xxiv ajppendix. 
 
 (Extract.) 
 
 •• I. The proposals of Sir Charles Gough for the extinction of the 
 Silladari system, as supported by Sir Stuart Bayley, appear to be as 
 follows : — 
 
 "I. — That the privileges conferred iu 1876 be restricted to 
 
 Silladars who were such previous to 25th April 1876. 
 "II. — Men enlisted since, or who have become Silladars since the 
 25th April 1876, not to be allowed to hold any bargheer 
 assamees unless already in possession of them. 
 "III. — Each man to provide himself with horse, pony, ami 
 appointments, paying Rs. 500. 
 
 " 5. The Governor-General in Council is not prepared to accept these 
 proposals unreservedly, as they appear to amount to restricting the rules 
 of 1876 retrospectively to those Silladars who were then in the Service, 
 and fixing a minimum horse price at Rs. 500 for the future. 
 
 " The rulesof 1876, sanctioned by the Government of India,were framed 
 to get rid of the abuse of the Silladari system ; and were republished in 
 1881 in the General Orders of the Hyderabad Residency, No. 139 of the 
 16th June 1881. These rules contain no hint of such a limitation as is 
 now proposed by Sir Charles Gough, and the Government of India 
 consider that they must be held to apply to all those who have entered 
 the Hyderabad Contingent Cavalry since 1876, and that they must be 
 strictly maintained without any deviation from them until further 
 orders. 
 
 " 6. I am therefore to request that the proposals of Sir Charles Gough 
 for the future, as approved by Sir Stuart Bayley, may be clearly for- 
 mulated, and that a date may be proposed for their introduction if 
 approved by the Government of India, it being distinctly understood 
 that they will not in any way apply to any persons who have entered 
 the Cavalry of the Hyderabad Contingent up to the date which may be 
 fixed." 
 
 The orders now issued arose out of correspondence which passed 
 prior to the advent of Sir S. Bay ley's successor to the post of Resident 
 at Hyderabad. The Civilian who relieved him was followed again 
 by another n on -military officer, making in the whole three in suc- 
 cession who had to consider these important military matters. 
 During the latter end of the year 1883 I found it necessary to sub- 
 mit again a confidential paper in regard to proceedings of some 
 officers in the Force, whose acts tended to subvert the principles of 
 the rules laid down by the Government. To render futile such 
 interference in future, I proposed to lay down subsidiary rules.
 
 APPENDIX. XXV 
 
 1 reiterated my desire, a second time, to have my views placed 
 before the Government. I now applied for fitrlough. This I am 
 at present enjoying. It will extend to the 20th January 1885, 
 when I obtain my Colonel's allowances. I must revert now to pro- 
 ceedings at Hyderabad after Sir S. Bayley's departure. 
 
 Sir S. Bayley was succeeded by Mr. W. B. Jones, who was Chief 
 Commissioner of Berar, a post for which he was eminently fit, and as> 
 he is now filling the office of Chief Commissioner of Nagpur, his 
 talents for civil administration find a fair field for their exercise. 
 His health failed him at Hyderabad, and he begged for transfer on 
 Mr. Morris's departure. Mr. Jones was of kindly disposition, and 
 his hospitality proverbial. During the short period he remained at 
 Hyderabad two events of importance occurred, viz., the death, first, 
 of Sir Salar Jung, and the loan proposed to be borrowed in 
 England for the Chanda Railway. Soon after he assumed office, 
 under the encouragement given me by Sir S. Bayley, who, in a 
 letter to Government in the Financial Department, dated 13th 
 July 1882, says, at para. 8 : " I can safely say that Colonel Hastings 
 Fraser has on several occasions brought to my notice innovations 
 tending to increased expenditure, which an external Audit Depart- 
 ment, with only the somewhat indefinite code of local rules to guide 
 it, would probably have failed to check"; thus commending me for 
 watchful attention in view to saving expenditure; so that the Berar 
 surplus revenue might not be lessened. I drew up a Memorandum, 
 which I submitted to Mr. Jones for eventual report to Government, 
 as the surplus was considerably lessened yearly by what I consi- 
 dered a too frequent change in the armaments of the Contingent 
 Force. In that Memorandum I show that from 1871-73 new- 
 smooth-bore muskets were supplied, costing Bs. 1.19.900, and so 
 soon after as 1875 a change was made, and Enfield rifles supplied 
 to Infantry, costing a sum of Bs. 1.42.600. This was completed in 
 1878 ; and a year later, when our troops were ordered to be in readi- 
 ness for field service, they Avere hurriedly armed with Sniders, the 
 former arms being found unfit for active service. Now the whole 
 Force nearly is armed with Sniders, which cost Bs. 3.90.000 ; of this 
 amount one lakh was for Cavalry carbines, the cost of which hitherto 
 was borne by Silladars, and not paid out of State revenue. Arms 
 are supposed to last for twelve years. Another loss was the breaking 
 up and destroying of old stores and arms instead of returning them
 
 XXVI APPENDIX. 
 
 to the Nizam's Government. I pointed out then that our true 
 1 Mil icv is to make fast friends of the Native Princes of India, by 
 every means in our power, and to show more confidence in them as 
 the best of our allies in time of war. I indicated the great strides 
 that Russia was making in the East, having in twenty-three years 
 annexed about 1,224,000 square miles, and declared we ought to 
 consider how we are to act when we find Russia one fine morning 
 knocking at our gates for admission. I heard no more in regard to 
 this paper, but members of the Press in England will notice that 
 what I anticipated at that time has taken place — that Paissia under- 
 stands the use she can make of her irregular hordes ; and it is with 
 a special view to having troops capable of meeting such levies that 
 I advocate the retention of our Irregular Forces, and that the Native 
 States should be encouraged to improve them. Anyone acquainted 
 with India must be aware that should Paissia invade India (I am 
 not one of those who believe that this is her object, and am of 
 opinion that diplomacy may bring about an understanding that she 
 will rest contented with wdiat she has acquired) it would be in her 
 power to slip her Irregulars to plunder the country while her 
 Regular Army advances to be met by ours. But where are our 
 Irregulars to meet hers ? They require no tents or commissariat. 
 From October to the following rains the country is covered with 
 crops, and in whichever direction the Irregulars move, food exists 
 in abundance for them. Lord Strathnairn declares, in his letter to 
 the Ptesident, that our horse were " the wings of his operations". 
 
 That I have always felt sympathy for the Nizam's Government 
 and its soldiers is known to many, and I insert here a letter which, 
 at that time, I desired might be considered confidential, as I was on 
 the point of returning to India to be employed again, I hoped, in the 
 Political Department, and which I wrote to Sir Stafford Northcote 
 by permission of the Secretary of State for India (1860). I beg atten- 
 tion to it, as, from my remarks therein, it will be seen how highly 
 I esteemed the late Sir Salar -Jung. It is a pleasure to me to 
 publish a private letter from him, as showing his personal feelings 
 towards and regard for me also. [See lithographed letter.] 
 
 " Sir,- — I have now the grateful honour to offer for consideration the 
 views of British policy towards Hyderabad, which you have been pleased 
 to invite, through Mr. W. S. Northcote's obliging note of the 21st ult., 
 in reply to my proposal to submit them, and I beg leave to assure you
 
 
 
 
 
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 APPENDIX. XXV1L 
 
 that the opportunity thus kindly afforded is embraced with singular 
 satisfaction. For having steadfastly adhered, with maturing conviction, 
 to the Conservative principles derived from my father, General Eraser, 
 and from the late Colonel Davidson, I am, indeed, happy to have to 
 vindicate them before the distinguished upholder of justice to Mysore, 
 from attacks upon like-minded policy which they have for several years 
 sustained from journals in the advei'se interest. Nor can I feel other 
 than encouraged by the precedent of a wise and generous dealing with 
 the claims of the Rajah in attempting to elucidate the Nizam's. 
 
 "The starting-pnintfor a clear understanding of our position at Hydera- 
 bad must be at least as remote as the period (1820-25) of Sir Charles 
 Metcalfe's Residency, when he prevailed with the Nizam, Secunder Jah, 
 to sanction administration of his territory, and collection of its revenue, 
 by European District Supei'intendents, as set forth in a work (p. 232) 
 which I published in 1865, called Our Faithful Ally : The Nizam, and 
 two copies of which are herewith forwarded for the honour of your 
 acceptance. 
 
 "Down to the demise of that Sovereign, the reform thus initiated was 
 attended with excellent results, in suppression of disorder and develop- 
 ment of resources ; but its circumstances Were not favourable to per- 
 manence. The persuasive influence of Sir Charles was, practically, 
 compulsion of a weak Prince, connived at by a Minister (Chundoo Lall) 
 who cared for nothing but retention of a lucrative position, and who 
 unscrupulously bartered the independence of his master for the personal 
 support of our Residents. In fact, this creature's corrupt subservience 
 to the official rapacity of the time was a primary and abiding cause of 
 the embarrassments which have beset the dynasty. Through such 
 means and motives, relatives and friends from England were readily 
 hoisted into the Nizam's service, entailing an annual extra — as shown in 
 the recent Parliamentary return 1 — of thirteen lakhs upon the charge of 
 the Contingent. It is not surprising that Nasir-oo-Dowlah, the late 
 Nizam, on accession in 1829, hastened to mark his sense of an obviously 
 degrading attitude, in the only feasible direction, by formally requesting 
 immediate withdrawal of the English supervisors. To this impulsive 
 requisition Lord William Bentinck, on a principle of non-interference, 
 did not hesitate to accede. 
 
 " You are generally aware, Sir, no doubt, of the extent to which the 
 Nizams — before even this date — had been burdened and drained by 
 excessive military expenditure, and by consequent financial straits. I 
 need hardly remind you how the covenanted equipment (in 1800) of 
 Native troops, to the extent of 9,000 horse and 6,000 infantry, was 
 
 1 "East India (Deccan), No. 338 — to which I beg to be understood as 
 hereafter referring --at page 27, paragraph 11."
 
 xxvm APPENDIX. 
 
 gradually swollen to a force whose "extravagant costliness" was dis- 
 tinctly admitted (as hereafter quoted) by Lord Dalhousie, and which 
 was less gradually reduced from the enormous annual outlay of forty 
 lakhs to about twenty-four, so soon as we assumed control of it. A pro- 
 minent result of this oppressive impost may be recalled, in the enforced 
 surrender by Secunder Jah of an annual tribute from the Northern 
 Circars of seven lakhs, which he had to alienate (in perpetuity) for little 
 more than half of its real value, or, to be pi'ecise, 1.16.66.66G rupees, ' 
 thus losing, for temporary relief, an income which, properly husbanded, 
 would have gone far to extricate him. Nor should it be overlooked that 
 the heaviest claim (a substantial trifle of 78.70.670 rupees) was that 
 of Messrs. Palmer and Co., of Hyderabad, whose advances had twice 
 over been legalised by the British Government. For further particulars 
 of Hyderabad indebtedness, I would refer you to a published pamph- 
 let by a Native gentleman, Mr. Poorooshottum, whose averments 
 will be found sustained in more than one despatch of Colonel Davidson 
 in the same (338) Return. 
 
 "My father (then Colonel Fraser) was appointed to the Residency in 
 1838. Making himself thoroughly acquainted with the causes of a 
 chronic deficit whose harassing effects (in arrears of pay, etc.) were 
 constantly pressed upon his attention, he conceived the idea of reverting 
 to the system abruptly repealed in 1829 — that of placing specified dis- 
 tricts under the improving management of English superintendents until 
 the Nizam should be free from debt. The General's aim and intention 
 were strictly and honourably limited. Of holding beyond the projected 
 release from financial difficulties he never dreamed ; and when he became 
 aware of a settled purpose at headquarters of assuming such districts 
 on terms repugnant to his sense of right, he quietly resigned his post. 
 This, Sir, is the head and front of an offending which free (or mercenary) 
 lances have repeatedly assailed, but which he would never stoop to vin- 
 dicate. A son's anxiety, however, not to lose the advantage of this 
 opportunity, may, I think, reckon upon kindly sympathy. 
 
 " Not presuming to speculate upon the change of design which finally 
 determined my father's course, I can affirm (upon letters in my posses- 
 sion) that, at one time, Lord Dalhousie's intention was to regard the 
 contemplated districts in the light of a mortgage; and from the same 
 source I derive a strong belief that had his Lordship lived he would 
 have counselled restitution of them, for I find him declaring as follows : 
 ' My own opinion of the affairs of that kingdom' ( Hyderabad) ' remains 
 as it was when I had the pleasure of conferring with you. Full 
 examination of past representations, and of despatches up to the present 
 time' (October 13, 1848) ' compels me to feel that the state of the coun- 
 try from any supposed oppression or misrule is not such as to warrant 
 an interference by the British Government at present. I remain of
 
 APPENDIX. xxix 
 
 opinion that an interference will become necessary; but I think that the 
 ■necessity will be brought about by a financial catastrophe, and not by 
 any popular outbreak, or by any disorganisation of the Army, such as it 
 is, or of the administration of the Government in the provinces, such as 
 it is. ^Vhile 1 am not one of those who regard the Contingent Force as 
 an oppression and an injustice, I yet think that we do not stand free of 
 blame in respect of the footing on which we have maintained it ; and 
 whenever the Nizam shall manifest a sincere wish to enter into an 
 amendment of his administration, I shall be ready, on the part of the 
 Government of India, to meet his endeavours to reduce the expenditure 
 of his kingdom by entering on the consideration of the means of diminish- 
 ing the extravagant costliness of this Force and its appendages.' Sub- 
 sequently, when Lord Dalhousie had determined upon interfering, with 
 a view to freeing the Nizam of his difficulties, he remarked, in another 
 letter : — ' It would not be expedient yet to make the announcement 
 definitively to the Minister. Its necessity, however, at an early period 
 appears so probable, that I beg to have confidentially your views on the 
 particular district which may be most conveniently mortgaged, as it were, 
 for this purpose.' Again, his Lordship declaims: — ' I will rigidly act up 
 to the requirements of the Treaty with him. I will give him aid and 
 advice. I will effectually take care that, if he chooses to ruin himself, 
 in spite of aid and advice, he shall not disturb the peace of British ter- 
 ritory, or either injure or play with British interests. But I will not 
 contravene the Treaty on the pretence of protecting the Nizam ; and I 
 disavow the doctrine of our having any moral or political obligation to 
 take the Government of his country into our own hands, merely because 
 he mismanages his own affairs. And I recognise no mission entrusted 
 to us to regenerate independent Indian States, merely because they are 
 misgoverned.' 
 
 " It may be remarked that the foregoing admission of an internal 
 quietude not warranting interference was made shortly before the Pun- 
 jaub and Oude annexations, and that the peace of Hyderabad was there- 
 after disturbed by an influx of dispersed ruffianism from those countries 
 The Nizam himself very neatly and pertinently disclaimed responsibility 
 for the unwelcome novelty, in reply to a remonstrance from General 
 Low, upon the ominous presence of so many Rohillahs and Afghans in 
 the country. ' How many miles,' quoth His Highness, ' do they pass 
 through British territory before they get into mine ? Why do you let 
 them come?' The retort was justified by events. While our admini- 
 stration somehow issued in widespread rebellion, the Nizam not only 
 kept his kingdom quiet, but could afford — as testified by Colonel David- 
 son, p. 16, par. 18 — to lend us the assistance of his Contingent, and to 
 defray the extra allowance which their auxiliary service entailed. 
 
 " The carrying out of Lord Dalhousie's ultimate decision devolved, of
 
 XXX APPENDIX. 
 
 course, upon my father's successor ; but I know — and it is corroborated 
 by ;t statemeni in one of Colonel Davidson's despatches, p. 4, par. 7 — 
 that the Nizam and his Minister fully understood two annas in the rupee 
 to be the fixed charge for management of the assigned districts. This 
 proportion was, in L860, declared by Lord Canning to be limited to four 
 annas, which, although ostensibly an arbitrary duplication of the original 
 agreement, was fairly based upon the average cost of British districts. 
 Of a settlement thus formal and authentic, it might have been predicted, 
 without abject credulity, that one more double (or eight annas) would 
 prove the extreme of official hardihood; but reference to last year's 
 Administrative Report will prove indisputably that, to secure a payment 
 of twenty-four lakhs to the Contingent, we have actually squared Lord 
 Canning's revise by spending upwards of sixteen annas. No wonder, 
 and little credit, that six clear years rolled by before a single rupee of 
 the stipulated surplus revenue was transferred to the Nizam's treasury. 
 
 " I would here crave indulgence for digressing to rectify a distortion 
 by the Friend of India of a passage (p. 28, par. 15) in Colonel David- 
 son's despatch, No. 91, upon which that journal has ventured with 
 characteristic acrimony. It is within my knowledge, Sir, that the 
 Colonel in that sentence intended to convey to the Government that 
 the Natives of the assigned districts were delighted at being restored to 
 the old dominion, although fear was at first afloat that the leases 
 granted under British management might be set aside. Speedily 
 reassured by a proclamation from the Minister that our administration 
 would not be materially changed, they hailed with unqualified satis- 
 faction the policy which had restored them to the Nizam. For this 
 assurance I have the voucher of Colonel Davidson's autograph marginal 
 note — one of many which I took at his instigation. Indeed, I was 
 always advised and encouraged by him, during the many years of our 
 close official intercourse, to examine fully all records of our relations 
 with the Court and country ; and it was thus that I acquired the mate- 
 rials for my historical narrative, which I have translated into Hindu- 
 stanee also, for publication on my return to India, intended in next 
 January. I fondly imagined (begging excuse of a little egoism) that in 
 drawing up that narrative I was doing the Government a service; but, 
 having been superseded by a civilian at Hyderabad, I am forced to 
 conclude that the effort was not appreciated by the dominant influence, 
 and that zealous study of political duties by a soldier is in temporary 
 disfavour. I trust, however, that, having so qualified myself, after no 
 ; in my original profession, I may obtain employment 
 again in that branch of the Service. But it is more than time, I fear, 
 to revert to my subject. 
 
 "Of the feeling of the Hyderabad Government upon Berar, and our 
 retention of it, there can be no doubt whatever. It has been, I may
 
 APPENDIX. xxxi 
 
 say, categorically elicited in the enclosed answers (marked B) to a series 
 of questions which I have not been able to find, but which may be 
 readily collected from the replies. That the restoration of Berar would 
 materially strengthen the hands of the present upright and able 
 Minister — both for the good of his country and to other promotion of 
 English interests — I am fully convinced. Sir Salar Jung has already 
 to contend with a quasi- hereditary stain of presumptive British leaning. 
 His uncle, and predecessor in the office, is universally held to have 
 broken his heart over the treaty assigning Berar ; and every suggestion 
 from the relative of the chief instrument in that detested transfer is 
 received with suspicion. Salar Jung is essentially our friend, and I 
 cannot refrain from deferentially submitting that to him — in the event 
 of our relinquishing Berar — should be conceded the grace of announcing 
 the restoration to the Nizam, so that His Highness may be made to feel 
 how mainly he owes the boon to the conduct and sagacity of his Minister. 
 I do not hesitate to avow that my admiration of the latter in his public 
 capacity, and for his multiform service in the Mutiny, is enhanced by 
 personal regard. As young contemporaries, we were long associated in 
 both sport and study ; and I have the gratification of enclosing a copy 
 of a letter which I received from him on leaving Hyderabad, and which, 
 coupled with the address from a middle-class body which I did myself 
 the honour of forwarding for your perusal,- may serve to show that 
 my discharge of official duties at this Court conciliated a tolerably wide 
 range of goodwill. The private friendship thus agreeably testified has 
 frequently enabled me to make the most of a subordinate diplomatic 
 position by tendering advice in the direction of economy and adminis- 
 trative reform, which, I humbly conceive, has not been wholly wasted. 
 Such, at any rate, was the earnest aim of my work at Hyderabad, 
 which, under a less anti-military reyime, I would be happy enough to 
 resume. 
 
 " In conclusion, Sir, I heartily hope to convince you, by this state- 
 ment, that restitution of Berar would be at once just and politic; 
 though I indulge the hope that considerations so really identical are no 
 longer to be systematically sundered in the management of Indian 
 affairs. Having shown that the ideas and overtures preliminary to the 
 treaty of '53 tended and pointed to eventual restoration, I confidently 
 reaffirm that, the debt being formally cancelled in 1860, we had no 
 right, in opposition to the expi^essed wish of their rightful lord, to retain 
 the assigned districts ; and that the implied wrong has been flagrantly 
 aggravated by subsequent absorption, year after year, of the stipulated 
 surplus in food for official patronage. That restitution of them would 
 materially strengthen the hands of the Minister, I have already urged ; 
 and I may add that in the training of his family he has conscientiously 
 prepared for active utilisation of the new field and career in this
 
 XXXll APPENDIX. 
 
 direction for which lie so ardently longs. He has, moreover, inspired 
 the native landowners with emulation of a wholesome example; and 
 many of the nobles are, I know, already learning to manage and admin- 
 ister their districts in an improve 1 Fashion. In one case, T have been 
 the medium of supplying a Native gentleman (a Talooqdar, in charge 
 under one of the Nizam's relations) with a complete set of instruments 
 for land survey. But the proportions and import of this question are, 
 believe me, not limited within the borders of Hyderabad. All India — 
 or native llindostan — knows that in this case a revenue administered 
 in trust has been forcibly retained. Without dwelling upon the sure 
 effects of such a conviction upon a temper so shrewdly tested, I will 
 simply declare that I cannot over-estimate the beneficial influence 
 throughout the peninsula which might be exerted by a simple act of 
 justice and redress in restoring Berar to the Nizam. 
 
 " In the accompanying papers, Sir, I lay before you all the docu- 
 mentary evidence of Native views and feeling at present within my 
 reach ; but I must ask that they be regarded as confidential, and that 
 no reference to this private communication be made, should you here- 
 after extend to the Nizam a conciliatory policy so happily begun with 
 Mysore. I am most happy, I repeat, in the opportunity of placing 
 them in your hands, finally commending the Minister's Memorandum, 
 once more, to your especial consideration. Inquiry on the spot — the 
 sooner and more searching the better — will fully sustain his assurance 
 that he could easily pay the Contingent at the reduced rate, and 
 effectually promote the happiness and contentment of his own people 
 with the surplus which official patronage annually arrests on what I 
 have shown to be its legal and equitable road." 
 
 (B.) 
 
 " 1. Were Berar restored to the Nizam, it would be administered on 
 the same plan as it is now under the British Government, just as the 
 other restored districts are. The roads and other public works would 
 be attended to in common with those in other parts of the country, and 
 as circumstances and the state of trade required; but the surplus funds, 
 now devoted to the improvement of Berar exclusively, would be avail- 
 able for the general improvement of His Highness's territory. 
 
 "2. This is a question I might be excused from answering; but it 
 appears to me, as the British Government prefer spending all the surplus 
 revenue in the improvement of Berar, instead of paying it to the Nizam 
 as the Treaty engagement requires, that if Berar be absorbed in British 
 tei'ritory, its revenues would be included in the general revenue of 
 India, and money would be expended for improvements in Berar, only 
 in proportion to other districts of the British tei'ritory. 
 
 " 3. Of course every effort would be made to carry on the Adminis-
 
 APPENDIX. ' XXX111 
 
 tration for the improvement of cultivation and well-being of the ryots. 
 Probably schools and other public institutions would not at once be 
 established, as extravagance and consequent embarrassment must be 
 avoided, but everything that is necessary would be gradually introduced. 
 
 " 4. The Contingent was kept up on a very expensive scale, when 
 cash payments were required from the Nizam. Had this force been at 
 the present reduced strength, there would have been no difficulty in 
 meeting the demand and avoiding the embarrassment which resulted 
 in the assignment. The Nizam could now easily and readily meet the 
 demand, on account of the Contingent as now constituted, if the districts 
 were restored. 
 
 "5. You might recollect I told you that I was endeavouring to 
 establish the Administration on distinct and settled rules and regula- 
 tions, so that my successor may have a plan ready to his hand, and he 
 would be under the necessity, for his own credit's sake, to carry on the 
 Administration on my plan, or otherwise improve it." 
 
 After ray departure from India, an article appeared, copied in the 
 local paper, and extracted from the Bombay Gazette in March, 
 recording a portion of my career in India, and I give it here for 
 the purpose of showing that the outside public were cognisant of 
 my efforts to prevent injustice being done. 
 
 " This officer, the Military Secretary to the British Resident at 
 Hyderabad, who has just proceeded to Europe on his well-earned 
 furlough, is the eldest son of the late General J. S. Fraser, the Resident 
 at Hyderabad from 1838 to 1853. Born on 30th October 1829, and 
 educated at Kensington Grammar School, Colonel Hastings Fraser 
 obtained his first commission, Ensign, in 1847, in which year he made 
 his first acquaintance with Hyderabad, where he arrived in order to 
 join his father. At Mulkapoor he was met by two squadrons of 
 Cavalry, consisting of a hundred men, commanded by a Munsubdar of 
 high rank, by order of the Nizam Naseer-ood-Dowlah, whose directions 
 were that they should escort young Fraser to his destination. This 
 escort he headed on arrival at Hyderabad. He joined the 37th Grena- 
 diers at Secunderabad, which regiment he afterwards left for the 46th 
 Madras Native Infantry at Jubbulpore. It was during his connection 
 with this regiment that Lieutenant Fraser was entrusted with the 
 honour of escorting the Governor-General's Agent in the Saugor and 
 Nerbudda districts, an opportunity which maybe said to have afforded 
 him his first experience of political life in India. In 1853, young 
 Fraser quitted the 46th Madras Native Infantry to join H.H. the 
 Nizam's Cavalry, now part of the Hyderabad Contingent. In 1859 
 he obtained his Captaincy, and it was during his association with the 
 
 c
 
 XXIV APPENDIX. 
 
 Nizam's Cavalry that young Fraser first gained experience of actual 
 engagement in the field. According to the Madras A rmy List, he was 
 actively employed from July 1857 to January 1859 with the Cavalry 
 brigade of the Hyderabad Contingent, and accompanied the Field Force 
 under Colonel W. Orr to Mhow in October 1857, coercing en route the 
 refractoiy Zemindars of Peepliah and Raghooghur. He joined the 
 Bombay column before Dhar in October, and was present with the 4th 
 Cavalry Hyderabad Contingent on the 12th November at Rawul, when 
 the Mahidpoor mutineers were, after forced marches, overtaken, several 
 hundreds slain, and a complete battery, including siege guns, etc., 
 captured ; specially mentioned for conspicuous gallantry on the occa- 
 sion — vide letter from the Resident at Hyderabad, No. 1-329, of 28th 
 November 1857; was appointed Staff Officer to the Contingent. Pre- 
 sent with the Malwa Field Force under Sir James Stuart, K.C.B., at 
 the battle of Mundisoor ; on 21st, 22nd, 23rd, and 24th November was 
 thanked by Colonel Orr (in G.G.O. No. 183a of 29th January 1858) ; 
 served in the action in forcing the pass of Dhamonee by the Contingent 
 troops under Colonel Orr, C.B. ; joined the Central India Field Force 
 under His Excellency Sir Hugh Rose, Gr.C.B. Present at the action 
 of Muddenpoor and in the pursuit, when a considerable number of 
 mutineers were cut up. Thanked by Sir Hugh Rose in G.G.O. No. 110 
 of 1858. Joined the operations against Tal Behat under Colonel Orr, 
 C.B. Was present before Jhansi from the 20th March to 15th April, 
 and commanded during the greater part of the day the 3rd Cavalry 
 Hyderabad Contingent at the battle of Betwah. Thanked for his con- 
 duct at Jhansi in G.G.O. No. 174 of 1858. Was specially mentioned 
 by Sir Hugh Rose as follows : — ' Lieutenant Fraser, Staff Officer of the 
 Hyderabad Contingent, gallantly killing three of the enemy at the 
 genei'al action of the Betwah.' Was in the action at Koonch ; noticed 
 by Colonel Orr, C.B. (G.G.O. No. 324 of 1858). Was in the action at 
 Bilowah. Thanked for services in G.G.O. No. 310 of 1858. Was in 
 the operations against Gwalior. Brought specially to notice by Sir 
 Hugh Rose ' for unwearied zeal and good service during the whole of 
 the campaign in Central India — vide G.G.O. No. 321 of 1859. Thanked 
 by Colonel Orr for his gallantry before the enemy (medal and clasp for 
 Central India).' In addition to all this, we are indebted to the Bombay 
 Gazette for further interesting details connected with the illustrious and 
 honourable career of the gallant officer who forms the subject of this 
 review. Previous to the Mutiny, Lieutenant Fraser, we learn, elicited 
 the warm acknowledgment of tlie Resident at Hyderabad for the rapid 
 march which he made with a squadron of Cavalry, and the dash with 
 which he captured some Arabs, who could only be got at through 
 a trap door, through which he entered at the head of a dismounted 
 party of his horsemen, and compelled the Arabs to lay down their
 
 APPENDIX. XXXV 
 
 arms. Notwithstanding the gallantry displayed, by Lieutenant Fraser 
 on the above occasion, and the conspicuous services he rendered in 
 Central India, however, the Horse Guards ignored the recommendation 
 which had been forwarded to them that he should, on obtaining his 
 Captaincy, receive a Brevet Majority. On his return from Central 
 India, Lieutenant Fraser, at the recommendation of the late Colonel 
 Davidson, then Resident at Hyderabad, with the cordial approval of 
 the Nizam's Durbar, was transferred to the Hyderabad Residency as 
 Second Assistant Resident, and from Brigadier Hill's farewell order 
 on Lieutenant Fraser's departure from his military field of employment, 
 we cannot but be convinced of the estimation in which he was held 
 whilst in the Contingent. The last clause of that order ran as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 " ' Brigadier Hill is gratified at the interest Lieutenant Fraser has 
 evinced in a branch of the Service in which he has served with so much 
 credit to himself, and for the peculiar duties of which he is so well 
 qualified.' 
 
 "We are now told of an episode which forms a part of the history of 
 Hyderabad. It is one which, but for the forethought and cool daring 
 of Lieutenant Fraser, might have led to most disastrous results. The 
 story is this. At a Durbar held in the Nizam's palace, at which 
 Colonel Davidson, then Resident, was present, a Rohilla, Jehangeer 
 Khan, fired a shot in the courtyard, by which one of the Minister's 
 attendants was hit in the leg. This was followed by a tremendous 
 hustling. Jehangeer Khan then drew his sword. The Staff, with the 
 exception of Lieutenant (now Colonel) Hastings Fraser, withdrew 
 towards the Nizam's garden. Lieutenant Fraser, at the sight of Jehan- 
 geer with the drawn sword, unsheathed his sword, and bounded 
 between the parties, ready for action if the man attempted to proceed 
 further. Fortunately, there was no need for this, as the man did not 
 relish a contest with the colossal figure before him, and he was taken 
 prisoner. Lieutenant H. Fraser was highly commended for his judg- 
 ment in not having cut down the ruffian — not a difficult thing for one 
 who is accredited with having killed over fifty mutineers during the 
 then recent campaign, and with having had a hand-to-hand encounter 
 with three of them at once at the battle of the Betwa (vide list of 
 services). Had Lieutenant Fraser cut the man down, the man's 
 friends or co-religionists might have joined in the melee, and raised the 
 ire of the whole Mohammedan population in sympathy with the would-be 
 assassin. From this period to 1866 Captain Fraser remained in 
 Hyderabad, occasionally acting, on Colonel Davidson's recommendation 
 to Government, as First Assistant Resident ; and we are glad to find 
 that the expectations the Resident had of the capabilities of the gallant 
 Captain were realised, and that on the lapse of a year he was able to 
 
 c2
 
 XXXVI AJPPENDIX. 
 
 report that ' Captain Hastings Fraser throughout the year had con- 
 ducted the duties of First Assistant Resident in a most efficient, indus- 
 trious, and able manner'. We learn from Sir R. Temple's commen- 
 dation of the gallant Captain that he had not confined his work as 
 First Assistant Resident to the ordinary routine of civil, military, and 
 magisterial duties, but that he was the first to introduce sanitary 
 arrangements, accompanied with such improvements in the roads and 
 buildings at the place, that they elicited the praise of even Sir R. Temple 
 whilst Resident at Hyderabad. Says Sir Richard : — ' Mr. Temple 
 cannot close this Minute without placing on record his own satisfaction 
 at the present condition of the bazaars. Tn point of cleanliness and 
 general appearance they are not inferior to any that he has seen in 
 other parts of India, and the signs of recent improvements are every- 
 where apparent. This he believes to be due, in the first instance, to 
 the interest and attention which Captain Hastings Fraser, the Assistant 
 Resident, devoted to the subject.' Besides his various duties and 
 attention to the public welfare of the inhabitants, he founded a school 
 at Hyderabad for native youths, and raised a clock tower. During 
 the eight years Captain Fraser occupied the magisterial chair, it is 
 calculated that he tried over 15,000 cases, with only three appeals 
 against him. After nearly twenty years of duty in India, Captain 
 Fraser availed himself of the leave he was entitled to, and pi'oceeded 
 to England. Whilst here his opinion on the vexed question, then 
 before Parliament, of the non-payment to the Nizam's Government of 
 the surplus revenue of the Berars was invited, with the happy result 
 that the Nizam's Government has ever since had this revenue paid to 
 them. In 1866 Captain Fraser published Our Faithful Ally the Nizam. 
 In 1858 Major Fraser returned to Hyderabad, and was, strange to 
 relate, not appointed to the post of First Assistant Resident, but to 
 that of Military Secretary. Que (Liable done allait-il faire clans cette galere ? 
 Considering Major Fraser's qualifications and aptitude for political 
 work, the question may well be asked. We find Major Hastings 
 Fraser during the past fifteen years occupying the post of Military 
 Secretary, or rather, our contemporary says, if the truth be spoken 
 that of a Political in honourable exile. Without referring to the impor- 
 tant questions connected with the Hyderabad Contingent which came 
 under his consideration, and whose cause he vindicated, to the stand he 
 made on behalf of the soldiers who followed him in Central India in 1857 
 for the suppression of the Mutiny, subjects well known to a large circle of 
 his friends, and engraven in the grateful memories of the receivers of 
 the benefits of his disinterested advocacy, we may, however, mention 
 that the gallant Colonel, who is just returning to Europe, all through 
 the convulsions which have lately throbbed through Hyderabad, has 
 kept neutral, and retained the respect of all the contending parties '■>
 
 APPENDIX. XXXV11 
 
 nay, more, he has received invitations from the most opposite parties 
 to bring his extended experience of Hyderabad affairs to bear on the 
 administration of this country." 
 
 In regard to the political situation at Hyderabad, after the death 
 of the eminent statesman who for so many years conducted the 
 Administration, I wish to say a few words, since my name has been 
 freely mentioned in connection with affairs at this period. That I 
 possessed the esteem of all the high nobles at the Hyderabad 
 Durbar, as well as that of several British Residents at Hyderabad, 
 their letters to me amply confirm. 
 
 " To G. F. Edmonstone, Esq., Secretary to the Government of India, 
 Foreign Department, with His Excellency the Governor- General, 
 
 Allahabad. 
 
 " (Political Department.) 
 
 " Sir, — With reference to the notification, dated 27th October 1858, 
 No. 4,118, in which Captain Campbell is permitted to resign his 
 appointment of Second Assistant to the Resident at Hyderabad, should 
 the Right Honourable the Governor- General not have already made 
 any arrangement to fill this vacancy, I have the honour to request you 
 will do me the favour to submit for his Lordship's favourable considera- 
 tion the name of Lieutenant Hastings Fraser, of the 46th Regiment 
 M.N.I. , and at present second in command of the 4th Cavalry, Hyder- 
 abad Contingent. 
 
 " 2. Lieutenant Fraser served with the Hyderabad Contingent during 
 the whole of the late campaign in Central India, and held the post of 
 Staff Officer under Major William Orr, who has frequently brought to 
 my notice the good services performed by him in that capacity. His 
 name has also been mentioned in terms of high praise in several of the 
 despatches which I have submitted to his Lordship in connection with 
 the campaign. 
 
 " 3. Lieutenant Fraser has passed the examination in Hindustani 
 required to qualify him for the Staff. He is very conciliatory in his 
 bearing towards, and liked by, the Natives ; and I have reason to know 
 that his connection with the Residency would be acceptable to the 
 Hyderabad Durbar. 
 
 " I have, etc., 
 
 " (Signed) C. Davidson, Resident. 
 " Hyderabad Residency, 14th December 1858."
 
 XXXV111 APPENDIX. 
 
 " Ootacamund, Sth November 1873. 
 " My dear Fraser, — Pray excuse my keeping your papers so long. 
 I have been, and am, very busy. I can only say that most, if not all, 
 contained in these documents, is known to the Commander-in-Chief, 
 and he would, I am sure, be very glad to give you distinction. As 
 vacancies occur, etc., we are called to send in the names of officers 
 for C.B., and last year I mentioned your name pretty freely. Ton 
 have every chance of a C.B., but for a long time you cannot expect 
 the good-service pension. This old officers get, who have served long, 
 and done their duty, slow and rapid, as they best could. It is not a 
 reward for field service merely. I wish I had met you at Hyderabad 
 last year. Hope we may meet some day soon. 
 
 " Yonrs sincerely, 
 
 " Rob. C. Stewart." 
 
 " Sereenuggar, November 27th, 1874. 
 " My dear Colonel Fraser, — I would not have you 'Bubbur Jung', 1 
 but ' Bubbur- ool-Moolk', 2 as we are about the same age, and should 
 have corresponding titles of rank. 3 
 
 " Yours very sincerely, 
 
 " Salar Jung." 
 
 " Hyderabad, 31st March 1875. 
 " My dear Colonel Fraser,— It affords me much pleasure to think 
 that this meeting has been the happy means of strengthening a friend- 
 ship that has existed between our house and yours for so many years ; 
 and while feeling very proud of the exceeding kind manner in which 
 you have written of my nephew, I must say that he is delighted at the 
 happy result of this meeting, and has written to me acknowledging the 
 many obligations he is under to you, and saying how grateful he is for 
 all the kindness you have shown him. 
 
 " Yours very sincerely, 
 
 " Shums-ool-Oomrah, Amir-i-Kubbir." 
 
 " The Residency, Hyderabad, 20th January 1878. 
 " My dear Fraser,— You have probably heard of the row which took 
 place at the railway station some days ago, in which the African Guard 
 
 1 Lion in Battle. 2 Lion of the Country. 
 
 3 This is inserted to show the kindly feeling entertained towards me by 
 the Minister of the State. If these Eastern titles were recognised in the 
 West, this title, the third grade at the Xizam's Court, would be equivalent 
 to that of Earl.
 
 APPENDIX. XXXIX 
 
 were concerned. I have arranged with the Minister for an inquiry 
 being made into the affair by a Court composed of an officer of the 
 Residency and an official of H.H.'s Government. 
 
 " As it is desirable that the officer I nominate to this duty shall be of 
 mark and experience, to carry due weight with him, I should like you 
 to undertake the job, as I am sure you will be able to carry it out better 
 than any of the other officers available for it, and I shall be much 
 obliged by your doing so. 
 
 " R. Meade." 
 
 Extract from a letter from His Highness the Nizam's Minister to the 
 Resident at Hyderabad, dated 18th February 1878. 
 
 " May I beg that you will kindly convey to Colonel Fraser my 
 cordial appreciation, on behalf of this Government, of the patient and 
 exhaustive manner in which he has, conjointly with Molvee Mooshtak 
 Hoossain, conducted the inquiry "' 
 
 Extract of a letter from the First Assistant Resident, Hyderabad, to 
 
 Colonel Hastings Fraser, Military Secretary to the Resident, 
 
 Hyderabad, No. 5,879-P., dated 22nd February 1878. 
 
 " 4. In forwarding for your information the accompanying extract 
 from a letter from Sir Salar Jung, I am to express Sir R. Meade's 
 entire concurrence in the remarks therein contained, and to convey to 
 you his own acknowledgments and thanks for the patient and able 
 manner in which you have conducted this inquiry." 
 
 " Madras, 16th February 1878. 
 
 "Dear Colonel Fraser, — I have read over to the Commander-in- 
 Chief the papers you sent me, and which I now return. 
 
 " Sir Neville Chamberlain desires me to inform you that your field 
 services have already been the subject of His Excellency's consideration 
 before recommending officers in the annual return for the C.B. Your 
 name has been sent in with two or three others quite recently. 
 
 " You are, of course, aware that the Commander-in-Chief is unable 
 
 1 Instituted in the matter of an affray which occurred at the Hyderabad 
 Railway Station, between the Railway Police and a party of H.H. the 
 Nizam's African Cavalry Guards.
 
 xl APPENDIX. 
 
 to bring into consideration your Political service when weighing your 
 Army service against that of other officers of this Army. 
 
 " Believe me, truly yours, 
 
 "F. Jebb, Adjt.-Genl. 
 "To Cjlonel Hastings Fraser, Military Secretary, 
 Hyderabad Residency." 
 
 " 23rd February 1881. 
 " My deae Colonel Fraser, — Allow me to offer you my thanks for 
 your note of the 20th current, condoling with me on the sad loss I have 
 sustained. I trust the long friendship existing between yourself and 
 my late brother may exist afresh between ourselves. 
 
 " I am, with kind regards, • 
 
 " Tours very sincerely, 
 
 " BUSHIR-OOD-DOWLAH." 
 
 " The Residency, Hyderabad, 25th July 1881. 
 
 " My dear Colonel, — I came to a decision in the matter of the 
 Silladari system with great hesitation and reluctance. I should like 
 the Government of India to hear what there is to be said for retaining 
 things as they are, or rather as they were intended to be by Meade's 
 notes of '76. It occurs to me that you may like to have your views 
 represented ; and though I don't think your note, in its present form, 
 would quite do (the object being mainly to controvert Wright's views), 
 I shall be very glad to append to my letter a note by you on the subject, 
 which, without repeating what is said in Saunders' letter, should show 
 the arguments in favour of keeping things as they are. I would add a 
 paragraph to my draft, saying, ' I have had great hesitation in coming 
 to a conclusion on a subject which is entirely new to me, and with 
 which not only am I unfitted to deal, but concerning which such expe- 
 rienced officers as the Brigadier- General Commanding the Contingent 
 and the Military Secretary, Hyderabad, take the most diametrically 
 opposite views. That the Government of India may have clearly before 
 them both sides of the question, I append a note on the subject by the 
 Military Secretary, Colonel Hastings Fraser, whose long connection 
 with the Contingent, extending over a period of twenty-four years, 
 entitles his views in favour of the* retention of the Silladari system to 
 the fullest consideration.' 
 
 " Yours sincerely, 
 
 " S. C. Bayley."
 
 APPENDIX. xli 
 
 " Hyderabad, December 21st, 1881. 
 " Mt dear Colonel Fraser, — I am extremely obliged to you for 
 your kind sympathising letter, and I hope that the friendship which 
 always existed between you and my father will now exist between us. 
 
 " Igbal-oo-dowlah." 
 
 " Hyderabad, February 7th, 1883. 
 " aIy dear Colonel Fraser, — I am much obliged to you for your 
 kind letter, but am sorry to hear that you contemplate leaving Hyder- 
 abad ; the more especially as there has been always so strong a friend- 
 ship between my father and yourself. You do not say in your letter 
 when you leave this, but I hope I may have the pleasure of seeing you 
 before you go. 
 
 " Believe me, dear Colonel Fraser, 
 
 " Tours sincerely, 
 
 " VlKAR-UL-OOMRA." 
 
 " Residency, 8th February 1883. 
 1 "My dear Colonel Fraser, — I am glad that you go to visit the 
 Amir-i-Kabir ; but will you, before going, come in here for a minute, 
 for I want you to make for me an inquiry from the Amir-i-Kabir, 
 which I can best explain verbally ? 
 
 "W. B. Jones." 
 
 " Hyderabad, 4th June 1883. 
 " My dear Colonel Fraser, — I am glad to learn your stay in this 
 country will still extend to a few years. 
 
 " Believe me, yours very sincerely, 
 
 "R. Narinddr Bahadur, Peshcar." 
 
 '.' June 11th, 1883. 
 " My dear Colonel Fraser, — Allow me to welcome back to Hyder- 
 abad one of the oldest friends of my father. I was very glad to 
 receive your kind note, and the nice basket of apples you sent me. 
 Instead of troubling you to call on me, I propose doing myself the 
 pleasure of calling myself, if you will be good enough to let me know 
 when I may do so. 
 
 " I remain, yours very truly, 
 
 " Mir Laik All"
 
 xlii APPENDIX. 
 
 " 13th July 1883. 
 " Mt dear Colonel Fraser, — It is with much concern that I have 
 learnt from the newspapei'S that you have at last made up your mind 
 to retire from the Service, because, after your eminent father, there 
 was no other officer who was so intimately acquainted with the ante- 
 cedents of our family, as well as of the Hyderabad State ; and since 
 the elders of our house passed away, I have always looked upon you, in 
 times of difficulty, as an old friend of the family, to resort to for advice 
 and consolation ; but this stay also I see we are to be deprived of. 
 However, I trust that you will, after recruiting your health, soon return 
 to India, and be able to secure a suitable appointment under this 
 Government, where I do not doubt, by your long experience and 
 knowledge, combined with your genial disposition and good nature, 
 you will be an ornament — more than anyone we may hope to secure. 
 
 " I earnestly trust you will prefer this to any other private enter- 
 prise. 
 
 " With kind regards, believe me, 
 
 " Yours very sincerely, 
 
 " Shumsool-oomrah, Amir-i-Kubbir." 
 
 " 22nd October 1883. 
 " My dear Colonel Fraser, — I cannot allow you to leave Hyderabad 
 without expressing my very sincere regret at your departure, after an 
 honourable and distinguished career of more than a quarter of a 
 century, during which time you have endeared yourself to, and gained 
 the esteem of, all the old families in Hyderabad. Your long and varied 
 experience has enabled you on many occasions to give sound, whole- 
 some, and kindly advice to those who have required it ; and your 
 departure will be a personal loss to most of us, who have looked upon 
 you as a true and intimate friend and well wisher of this State, as well 
 as of the people of Hyderabad. I wish you a pleasant journey to your 
 native land, and trust your absence will not be a permanent one. 1 can 
 only say, in any case, you will always live in our hearts. 
 " With kindest regards and best wishes, 
 
 " 1 remain, yours very sincerely, 
 
 " BUSHIR-OOD-DOWLAH. 
 
 " P.S. — I write with my own hand to say that, when once you are 
 pensioned, and obtain permission from the Bi"itish Government to 
 serve our Government, I shall be the first to welcome you here. 
 
 "B. D."
 
 appendix. xliii 
 
 " Hyderabad, Deccan, 23rd October 1883. 
 " My dear Colonel Fraser, — I regret to learn that your term of 
 office is drawing to a close, and that you are about to leave us, prepa- 
 ratory to terminating your official career in India. I need hardly say that 
 your father's name, and your own long service in this State, will always 
 keep your memory alive in Hyderabad ; and if, like General Briggs, 
 you should elect to spend your well-earned years of rest in this country, 
 no one will rejoice more than myself. 
 
 " Tours truly, 
 
 " Mir Laik All" 
 
 " 14th January 1884. 
 " My dear Colonel Fraser, — With reference to the letter 1 wrote to 
 you before you went to England, I wish you to understand that should 
 you make up your mind to return to Hyderabad, I will gladly encourage 
 your coming here, and joining the Administration in some manner. 
 
 " Yours very truly, 
 
 " Salar Jung." 
 
 " Hyderabad, February 18th, 1884. 
 " My dear Colonel Fraser, — I am sorry to learn that you are con- 
 templating leaving Hyderabad, but I hope that your absence will be a 
 short one. In fact, I trust that for many years to come I may continue 
 to enjoy the intimacy of friendship, which has existed between us 
 so long. 
 
 " Tours truly, 
 
 " VlKAR-OOL-OoMRA." 
 
 Mr. Jones was still Resident at that Court, and lie frequently 
 came to my house, or called me to the Residency, to converse on 
 subjects then under consideration. Several letters also passed 
 between us, and in one I told him that public opinion, as brought 
 to my notice by one officer in particular, Syed Mahdi Ali, the head 
 of the Eevenue Board, which was confirmed from other sources, 
 pointed to the late Minister's son as fit to be employed in the 
 Administration. He replied that he would not forget the Minister's 
 son in the arrangements to be made. 
 
 In March 1883 my health failed, and under doctor's advice I 
 proceeded to Australia, where I was kept regularly informed of 
 passing events at the Nizam's Durbar. A letter which the Senior 
 Administrator, the Peshcar, had written, to be forwarded to me in 
 Australia, was handed to me on my return. In it he prays me
 
 xliv APPENDIX. 
 
 to assist him by interviewing Lord Eipon at Simla on return. This, 
 of course, it was not in my power to do ; hut as the several subjects 
 mentioned by him form much of the history of that time, I shall 
 notice them when I place my other work before the public, 
 although for sufficient reasons I withhold these documents for 
 the present. The late Minister, Sir Salar Jung, had informed 
 others, as well as myself, that he did not intend to consider the Bail- 
 way Loan again until the Nrzam came of age. Doubtless he felt that 
 the acceptance of it would be pleasing to certain parties. As he 
 remarked to me, " I have got into the mouth of a snake, but I 
 will wriggle out again." On the 15th November 1882, only two 
 months and a half before he died, he wrote thus : — 
 
 " I much thank you for the kind wishes you express for the 
 prosperity of H.H.'s dominions in connection with your remarks 
 regarding Mr. Abdul Huq and the Kailway business, but I was 
 sorry that I did not feel justified in accepting the proposals made 
 through him. The liabilities and risks were so much greater than 
 I had ever contemplated when I sent Mr. Abdul Huq home, that 
 I could not during the last years of H.H.'s minority commit the 
 State to such heavy and possibly embarrassing engagements. 
 Abdul Huq, however, no doubt did his best to obtain the most 
 favourable terms he could, and worked with much energy and 
 bil ity." 
 
 Again, in the month of January 1883, Salar Jung said some- 
 thing to the same effect to General Briggs, my predecessor in 
 office, who resides at Bolarum, the head-quarters of the Contingent. 
 This officer told me, however, that he was not quite sure what 
 loan the Minister referred to ; but as the Chanda Loan was the 
 only one then under consideration, I conclude it referred to the 
 Railway. Besides, Salar Jung directed his Vakeel 1 to inform me 
 he had withdrawn from it, and I have his Vakeel's letter to that 
 effect. This was only a few days before he died, and on the 3rd 
 February 1883, only five days before his death, in conversation 
 with me, he assured me that he would not take it up, confirming 
 thereby the message he had sent only a few days before. 
 
 On my return to Hyderabad from Australia, the Senior Admin- 
 istrator's Vakeels were constantly with me; and in regard to 
 this loan, I have abundance of letters proving that one and all 
 objected to it, with the exception of the Amir-i-Kabir Khoorshed 
 
 1 Agent.
 
 APPENDIX. xlv 
 
 Jah Bahadur, who consistently supported it. Friends of mine were 
 inquiring as to whether I would advise their investing. With such 
 absolute proof in my possession of unwillingness on the part of the 
 majority of Government to see this loan eventually arranged, and 
 the way in which the Press were pitting me against the other 
 Residency officials, I telegraphed to England, and suggested to my 
 friends to hold aloof. 
 
 One Indian journal, through some misunderstanding, actually 
 gave me as an authority for a statement that this Chanda Loan 
 transaction was forced upon the Hyderabad Durbar by official 
 pressure. I did not make that statement ; but in answering an 
 inquiry from the Resident as to its appearance in the Calcutta 
 Statesman, I explained that the Special Correspondent who inter- 
 viewed me at the period of the Nizam's Installation was aware of 
 much that had come under my notice. I could not, therefore, 
 contradict certain statements made by him, thus seeming, perhaps, 
 to acquiesce in them, which afforded some grounds for his writing 
 as he did ; but at the same time I told the Resident that in the 
 event of the Viceroy speaking to me, I could enlighten him in 
 Hyderabad affairs. 
 
 My views as to the form of Government which Sir S. Bayley 
 and Mr. Jones had intended should be adopted at Hyderabad, are 
 in accord with those expressed by Busheer-ood-Dowlah in a letter 
 he wrote to England in connection with this Chanda Railway 
 Loan, returning at once certain memoranda and Articles of Asso- 
 ciation of a Company being raised for that Railway, " in case it 
 might be thought he committed himself to approval (by retaining 
 them over a single post) of any portion of such documents, or of 
 an agreement entered into by Sirdar Diler Jung, 1 and giving his 
 reasons for this course. As one of the Members of Council of 
 Regency, which consists of the five highest nobles in the State, he 
 strongly opposed the scheme, as also did the son of Sir Salar Jung ; 
 and H.H. the Nizam was never consulted ; and the two former 
 officially recorded protests against it. The only two members of 
 this Council from whom a quasi-consent was obtained are not 
 sufficiently acquainted with English to understand the Agreement, 
 and both repudiate any responsibility for the guarantee of thirty- 
 two lakhs of rupees by Hyderabad. It is only necessary to state 
 1 A title then recently conferred on Mr. Abdul Huq.
 
 xlvi APPENDIX. 
 
 that in the prospectus of the Company the investing public are 
 told that surveys, sections, plans, and estimates of costs of the 
 lines are complete ; whereas for eighty miles no survey has been 
 made, and the cost cannot be guessed at, much less calculated." 
 
 At this period the Peshcar and myself were on the best of terms, 
 but subsequently we had little intercourse. On another subject 
 in connection with the Nawab Busheer-ood-Dowlah I say a few 
 words, as I had something to do with it. It was a matter of pre- 
 cedence at Court. This Nawab claimed precedence over his 
 cousin, the Amir-i-Kabir. This matter had been decided, I 
 understand, by the late Minister in favour of the Nawab. The 
 Eesident, Mr. Jones, sent me to arrange for this gentleman con- 
 ducting him to the Durbar, as the senior member of the family 
 after Salar Jung's death. This the etiquette of the Durbar requires. 
 Subsequently the Nawab found, on Mr. Jones's departure, that 
 the Peshcar was unwilling to conform to what had been settled. 
 He remonstrated, and hoped I might be referred to. I drew 
 up a report of what occurred. After submitting it I left for 
 England. This was shortly before the Installation. The Nawab 
 had informed me that, in the event of justice not being done to 
 him, he intended to appeal to the Viceroy, and refer the latter to 
 me. Of the efforts made by me to bring about a reconciliation 
 between these rival families, and to enlighten Government in 
 regard to the matter of supposed bribery by the late Amir-i- 
 Kabir, I have numerous letters. His private secretary, Mr. Sha- 
 poorjee Cheenoy, came to me by permission of the Eesident, and 
 I drew up a report, which Sir Eichard Meade was pleased to 
 term "a valuable one". The story in connection with this will 
 form an interesting chapter in my new work. Mr. Shapoorjee 
 was truly faithful to his master's interest in this matter. 
 
 In conclusion, I attach, though it was never published, as intended, 
 in England, an account I drew up at the installation of His High- 
 ness the Nizam. It calls attention to my hopefulness that His 
 Highness will prove a credit to the brothers, Colonel John and 
 Captain Claude Clerk, who, with efficient tutors under their orders, 
 superintend the young Chief's education. Captain C. Clerk is still 
 with the Nizam, occupying a post which it was once contemplated 
 1 should occupy had Captain Clerk desired to leave. No better 
 officer could be found than the one who now fills it, and I trust he
 
 APPENDIX. Xlvii 
 
 may long enjoy the privilege of advising las young charge. In 
 regard to my succeeding to the place had a vacancy occurred, I 
 shall have much to say hereafter. From my report on Busheer-ood- 
 Dowlah's appeal, when it is published, the public will learn my 
 opinion of both Captain C. Clerk and Major Gough's abilities to 
 advise those under whom they occupy the position of Secretary. 
 
 The Minister, Salar Jung, also, I consider fortunate in having at 
 hand a servant so faithful to the family as Mr. Syed Hoossein 
 Belfframi. 
 
 THE INSTALLATION" OF HIS HIGHNESS THE NIZAM 
 OF HYDERABAD. 
 
 Never has Hyderabad seen such stirring times, or been treated to 
 such a variety of interesting, I might say exciting, events, as now. 
 Scarcely had we gotten over the hurry and bustle attending the pre- 
 parations for the reception of the young Nizam on his return from 
 Calcutta, the erection of triumphal arches, the illumination of the city 
 and its suburbs, and the preparation of addresses that were never read 
 then comes the news of the installation of the Nizam, received with 
 manifestations of joy by the public. Parties are again divided, and 
 speculate most widely as to who is to be the first Dewan under the 
 new regime, and the ludicrous efforts made by rival cliques to trot forth 
 their special candidate for the Dewanship in the pages of the local 
 papers, are extremely amusing ; then the commotion caused by the 
 appeai'ance amongst us of the Calcutta Statesman, with its remarks on 
 the Residency officials ; and last, though by no means the least unin- 
 teresting (as here, again, if rumour can be relied on, rival cliques are 
 concerned), we have the great libel case in which Mr. Seymour Keay 
 is suing for damages. 
 
 I must not, however, anticipate events, but commence in due form 
 by reminding your readers that the country over which the young Prince 
 will be shortly placed, and which is commonly known as the Nizam's 
 Dominions, is a hilly tract of land, about 1,800 feet above the level of 
 the sea, bounded on the north by the district of Khandesh and the river 
 Taptee, on the south by the Toongbuddra and the Kistna, on the east 
 by the Wurdah and the Godavery, and on the west by the districts 
 Dharwar, Sbolapoor, and Ahmednugger, and said to cover an area of 
 97,837 square miles ; having a population of 9,845,594 souls, or 112 to 
 each square mile, of whom 925,929 are Mohammedans ; and a revenue 
 of Rupees 2,87,90,200, all told.
 
 xlviii APPENDIX. 
 
 Hyderabad is the largest Native State in India, and is divided into 
 four great provinces, viz., Hyderabad, Aurangabad, Bidur, and Berar 
 or Hyderabad Assigned Districts, the three former being under the direct 
 control of the Native Government, while the latter is under the Govern- 
 ment of India, administered by the Resident, who exercises the powers 
 of a local Government. The capital, Hyderabad, is a large city, walled 
 on all sides, covering an area of more than two square miles ; it has no 
 less than thirteen gateways, and is separated from the Residency by the 
 Moosi river, which is spanned by three substantial stone bridges, one 
 being called the Oliphant Bridge, it having been planned and erected by 
 Colonel Oliphant, Madras Engineers, formerly in command of the Corps 
 of Engineers, Nizam's Army, and who as Ensign held the post of Field 
 Engineer at the reduction of the Fort Nowah. The Colonel's son, M. 
 S. Olipbant, for some time held the appointment of Private Secretary 
 to His Excellency the late Sir Salar Jung, until compelled to resign by 
 the Government of India. 
 
 As a fair description of the Residency, the City, and other places of 
 interest will be found in Murray's Handbook of the Madras Presidency 
 (second edition), pp. 356 to 408, I need not here enter into these 
 details, but shall pass on to what will be more interesting to your 
 readers. 
 
 Hyderabad is not only the most conservative city in India, but to 
 the stranger would appear the most barbai^ous, owing to the tenacity 
 with which it clings to the habits and customs of days gone by. Here, 
 every individual, from the highest to the lowest, is armed, not with one 
 weapon only, but with a number of various kinds, from a dagger to a 
 double-edged sword, and a pistol to a blunderbuss ; for, according to 
 traditions, a warrior is only fit for battle when he has his " Panch 
 Hatyar" (five arms) complete, and as each individual makes it a point 
 of duty to show off to the best advantage, the pomp and show, I might 
 say swagger, here seen will scarcely be met with in any other part of 
 India. It is nothing strange here to see an ordinary Moonshee, in the 
 receipt, perhaps, of from fifty to a hundred rupees a month, conveyed 
 to his work in a nicely painted palanquin, having in his wake one man 
 with his sword, another with his hookah, a third with his shoes or pandan; 
 while the attendants of a Jagheerdar and others must consist of at least 
 a dozen or so of Arabs or Rohillas, some running in front, some behind, 
 with the horsekeeper hanging on to the tail of his master's horse ; while 
 the dignity of the many nobles and petty chiefs that abound in the city 
 of Hyderabad is maintained by their keeping up such a number of armed 
 men as they consider necessary to make their rank and station as great 
 as possible in the eyes of the public. 
 
 Yet with all this pomp and ceremony, and in spite of the dirty, 
 ragged gangs of armed Rohillas, Arabs and others, and the motley troops
 
 APPENDIX. xlix 
 
 of shaggy horsemen who enliven the narrow streets of this ancient city, 
 the confusion caused by the blocking up of narrow lanes by elephants, 
 camels, palanquins, etc., the roar and the hubbub of its every-day life, 
 and the haughty swagger of the young dandies, who delight to show off 
 their various-coloured robes, and to strut about with long, streaming 
 puggries, and shoes, generally red, about one-third shorter than their 
 feet, and into which they can just manage to stick the tips of their toes, 
 Hyderabad is not the ruffianly place that many suppose it to be, and 
 this a visitor will soon find out, if he only cares to remain long enough 
 with some friend in Chudderghat, where he will see scores of Europeans 
 and Eurasians daily going to their various occupations in all parts of 
 the city, into the remotest parts of which " Tommy Atkins" also finds his 
 way whenever he has a cur to palm off on some rich Native for some 
 fancy price. 
 
 When the father of the young Nizam, Afzul-ud-Dowla, was placed 
 upon the Musnad in the year 1857, he first left his residence at nine 
 o'clock in the morning, seated on the largest elephant that could be 
 obtained, and proceeded in great state towards the Palace, surrounded 
 by nobles in their Oriental splendour, and guarded by a whole army 
 of troops, chiefly Infantry, and he had no sooner entered the chief gate 
 of the Palace, than, according to custom, a buffalo was brought forth 
 and sacrificed across his path. On the arrival of the Resident (Colonel 
 Davidson) with his Staff, His Highness was led to the Musnad by 
 the senior member of the Shums-ul-umra family (who adopted as 
 his heirs the Nawabs Motasham-ood-Dowla and Busheer-ood-Dowla; but 
 the former died not long ago, and that branch of the family is now 
 represented by the Nawab Busheer-ood-Dowla) and Salar Jung, who 
 each held one of his hands. The Resident then addressed His Highness, 
 congratulating him on his accession to the thi'one of his forefathers. 
 After the presentation of Nuzzar, which followed soon after, the cere- 
 mony was closed with the slaughter of two sheep in the adjoining 
 court. 
 
 The dynasty of the Nizam began in the year 1712, and His Highness, 
 Meer Mahboob AH Khan, is the ninth in succession. He was born 
 on 17th August 1866, and, while still under three years, was proclaimed 
 successor to his father, the late Nizam Afzul-ud-Dowla, who died at 
 Hyderabad on the 26th February 1869, at the early age of forty-three 
 years. The infant Prince was placed on the Musnad by the Minister 
 and the Nawab Shums-ul-umra, the formal ceremony of his installa- 
 tion taking place on the 6th March 1869, when the Resident, C. B. 
 Saunders, Esq., C.B., attended by his Staff and a number of military 
 officers from Secunderabad, proceeded to the Palace, where the Minister, 
 Nobles, and the principal Sirdars had assembled. After the usual saluta- 
 tions, the procession moved into the interior court, when it was met by 
 
 d
 
 1 APPENDIX. 
 
 the young Prince, who was borne in the arms of his nurse. Taking 
 the little fellow's hand, the kindly Resident led him towards the, 
 Musnad, and after a few congratulatory remarks, to which the late Sir 
 Salar Jung replied on behalf of His Highness, the Resident and his 
 Staff left the Palace, all seemingly well pleased at the successful termi- 
 nation of the ceremony. 
 
 Of the young Prince's early days there is little to be said further 
 than that, until the year 1875, when his education commenced with tutors 
 placed under the control of Captain Clerk, appointed Guardian, he was 
 left entirely to the care of his grandmother and mother. The late 
 Nizam having lost three sons, he was, it is stated, persuaded by a Fakir 
 whom he had consulted, not to set his eyes upon his last born, lest some 
 evil should befall him, and to this precaution on the father's part is 
 attributed by some the life of the son. Strange as it may appear to 
 people in England unacquainted with the manners and customs of 
 Orientals, that a ruler so powerful as the Nizam of Hyderabad should 
 restrain himself from seeing the face of his only surviving child at the 
 mere bidding of a holy man, yet it is nevertheless the fact ; notwith- 
 standing all the civilising influences of British administration, the Fakir 
 continues to hold his own, and is still the oracle to whom those in 
 distress resort. 
 
 The first Guardian to the young Nizam was Captain John Clerk, 
 late of the Rifle Brigade, and now Colonel and Equerry to H.R.H. 
 the Duke of Edinburgh, who arrived in Hyderabad in 1875. Owing, 
 however, to the sudden death from cholera of Mrs. Clerk, he resigned 
 his appointment, and was succeeded by his brother, Captain C. Clerk, 
 who arrived in Hyderabad in November 187G, and is still in attendance 
 on His Highness, and will, no doubt, be remembered when the Prince 
 comes into power. During the period between 1877 and 1881 His 
 Highness's education and training have been carried on with activity 
 and earnestness, and " considering the difficulties and prejudices to 
 be overcome, the progress made is most satisfactory", His Highness 
 having now acquired a fair px^actical knowledge of Persian and English. 
 The young Nizam has "strongly developed that taste for manly sports 
 and exercises for which all his ancestors were noted in their youth. 
 He is very fond of cricket and tent-pegging, in which latter 
 he excels ; and those who have been associated with the young 
 Prince in educational and social affairs, speak in the highest possible 
 terms of his amiability and desire to please" ; and as regards his 
 preparation for administrative work, His Highness has for some 
 time past been studying, under Captain Clerk's advice, a precis 
 of the revenue, financial and general work of the State, drawn 
 up for his use; and during his tour to Raichore, Goolburga, and 
 Aurangabad, His Highness has had opportunities of inspecting the
 
 APPENDIX. 11 
 
 various Departments, the working of which was carefully explained to 
 him ; and the " intelligent interest" that he manifested in all that was 
 placed before him augurs well for his future career as a ruler of the 
 State. Captain Clerk met with some opposition, on which I may 
 comment hereafter. 
 
 On the occasion of the young Prince having been declared heir 
 to the throne, a Regency, consisting of the late Sir Salar Jung and the 
 Ameer-i-Kabeer, was formed for the administration of the affairs of 
 the State, and for the purpose of the training of the young Nizam. 
 At the time when the Regency was established, Busheer-ood-Dowlah, a 
 nephew of the Ameer-i-Kabeer, and now his heir, was appointed 
 Minister of Justice. 
 
 His Highness the Nizam is now enjoying excellent health and 
 strength," and is more lively than he has been for a long time past. 
 His Highness, as may probably be remembered, was prevented through 
 ill-health from being present with the Native Princes and Nobles 
 assembled in Bombay in the year 1875 to welcome His Royal High- 
 ness the Prince of Wales to Iudia ; and although fears were enter- 
 tained that the same cause would prevent his being present at the 
 great Durbar, held at Delhi, on the occasion of the proclamation 
 of the assumption by our gracious Queen of the title of Empress of 
 India, yet, with great care and attention, he was, to the credit of 
 Captain Clerk, not only able to be present at the great assemblage, 
 but to return to his people, if not better, at least in no worse state of 
 health than he left them. 
 
 His Highness was to have left Hyderabad for England in April last, 
 accompanied by a large suite of the Hyderabad nobility ; but, owing to 
 the melancholy event that deprived Hyderabad of its guiding hand, 
 and the Nizam of a wise counsellor, who was suddenly summoned to 
 journey in a direction we all must go sooner or later, His Highness's 
 visit to Europe had to be postponed. 
 
 It is generally believed that during His Highness's recent visit to 
 Calcutta the Viceroy endeavoured to impi-ess upon him the necessity 
 for, and the benefit he would derive from, such a visit, but all will 
 admit that he must not be coerced into going. 
 
 His Highness and suite, while en route to Hyderabad from Calcutta, 
 whither he had proceeded on the 17th December, stopped at Gool- 
 burga for the purpose of laying the foundation-stone of a cotton mill, 
 about to be erected at that place by a company of entei*prising Native 
 gentlemen. There was great demonstration at the station and along 
 the whole route to the town, which was nicely decorated. The follow- 
 ing afternoon, 10th January, 4 p.m., His Highness arrived at the site 
 of the new mill, where he was received by the Chairman and Directors, 
 and conducted to a raised dais in the centre of a neatly constructed 
 
 d2
 
 lii APPENDIX. 
 
 pandal (canopy), surrounded at various distances by triumphal arches, 
 bearing, among other mottoes and banners of welcome, " May progress 
 be the motto of this State", " May thy Ministers be true and loyal." 
 
 After a few words from the Chairman, Director of the Company, 
 giving a summaiy of the history of the origin of the factory, His 
 Highness replied — " Mr. Chairman, Ameers, ladies and gentlemen, — 
 It gives me, I assure you, great pleasure that I was able to accept the 
 invitation given me a short time ago that I should lay the first stone 
 of this mill at Goolburga. It will, when finished, as you are doubt- 
 less aware, be the second mill that has been constructed in the 
 Hyderabad State. Some two years ago I visited, with His Excellency 
 the late Sir Salar Jung, the cotton mills at Hyderabad, and I was 
 much interested with all that was shown me there on the occasion of 
 my visit. I need hardly say that I entirely concur in the views 
 expressed in regard to industries and enterprises in my dominions by 
 His Excellency the late lamented Nawab Sir Salar Jung, and to which 
 you have very justly alluded in the address made to this assembled 
 company. The development of the resources of my country will soon 
 claim my closest attention, because I feel sure that the prosperity and 
 happiness of my subjects will result therefrom ; and this being the case, 
 I take, and shall continue to take, the deepest interest in the enterprise 
 now being undertaken. I have great pleasure in according my consent 
 to your request that you shall call this mill the 'Goolburga Mahboob 
 Shahi Mill Company, Limited', sincerely hoping that the mill will 
 prove a financial success. I will now proceed to perform the pleasing 
 duty of making use of this beautiful trowel, by laying the first stone 
 of the Goolburga Mahboob Shahi Cotton Mill Company, Limited." 
 
 The Nizam then proceeded to a separate pandal, where the stone was 
 suspended, covered with a cloth bearing the words " Faith, Hope, and 
 Charity". A bottle containing some coins and papers having been depo- 
 sited in a place prepared for it, the Nizam was presented with a handsome 
 gold trowel, with which he proceeded to lay the stone ; and no sooner 
 had he declared the stone to be properly set, than he was covered with 
 a shower of flowers, which, by some ingenious contrivance, was made to 
 fall from the ceiling of the pandal, and at the same time to unveih the 
 stone. 
 
 Goolburga, it should be remembered, is a large city with a popu- 
 lation of about forty thousand souls, nearly two-thirds of whom ai*e 
 Hindoos, and the remainder Mohammedans. It is the head station of 
 the district, and is garrisoned by a regiment of Cavalry, a little under 
 300 strong, and a few companies of Infantry of His Highness the 
 Nizam's Reformed Troop's. Goolbui'ga has always been noted for its 
 mosques, shrines, and saints, and its Mohammedan inhabitants for their 
 turbulent character. Three years ago a serious outbreak occurred here,
 
 APPENDIX. liii 
 
 followed some time after by a rising of the convicts of the central jail, 
 numbers of whom eventually made good their escape. The erection, 
 therefore, of a cotton mill at such a place augurs well for the future 
 welfare of the people, who, it is hoped, will soon learn to beat their 
 swords into ploughshares. 
 
 The young Nizam returned to Hyderabad by special train on the 
 morning of the 1 1th January, and was received with greater demon- 
 strations of joy than had previously been accorded him on any of the 
 former occasions of his return to his capital. The approach of the 
 train was announced by the boom of the guns stationed on the Red 
 Hills, about half-a-mile from the station, and was soon followed by a 
 salute from the Mud Battery at Sec underabad, about five miles off; and 
 as the train glided into the station, the guard of honour from the 
 Reformed Troops presented arms, while the Cavalry band, which was 
 in attendance, played " God save the Queen." His Highness, who 
 seemed fatigued, went at once to his carriage and drove off towards 
 the city, escorted by a troop of the African Cavalry. The Palace of 
 the Nizam is about two miles from the railway station, the route to 
 which was lined on both sides with troops, behind whom were dense 
 crowds of men, women, and children, decked in their best gaily- coloured 
 clothes, all anxious to get a glimpse at, and to make their salaams to, 
 their youthful Padishah, who was received throughout the whole route 
 with demonstrations of great joy. 
 
 The shops and dwelling-houses, which had been previously white- 
 washed, were nicely decorated with flowers, evergreens, and various 
 coloured designs, while a goodly array of different-coloured flags, banners, 
 mottoes, etc., floated in the air ; the streets were hedged with foliage, 
 palms, and other plants ; and no pains had, apparently, been spared to 
 show off the bridges, city gates, and the principal buildings to the 
 best advantage. Certain localities had been assigned to the different 
 Departments of the Nizam's service, viz., Revenue, Education, Military, 
 Municipal and Public Works, each of which had its magnificent triumphal 
 arch done up in such a manner as to represent the Department to which 
 it belonged, and much praise is due to all concerned for the taste and 
 skill with which these elegant and stately structures had been erected 
 and decorated. In the evening such a blaze of lights shone forth as 
 Hyderabad had never before witnessed. Public buildings as well as 
 private dwelling-houses, whether of the rich or poor, in and out of the 
 city, were illuminated according to the means of the people, and pre- 
 sented such a scene of dazzling beauty that the young Nizam was 
 induced to mount his elephant at about 9 p.m., and visit some of the 
 principal places in the city. 
 
 Owing to the present unhealthy state of Chudderghat, the Resident 
 was compelled to remove to his summer residence at Bolarum, the head-
 
 llV APPENDIX. 
 
 quarter station of the Hyderabad Contingent, about eleven miles from 
 Clradderghat. Here the Resident and his Assistants are up to their 
 eyes in business, arranging accommodation for the large company of 
 distinguished visitors that are now beginning to pour into the place. 
 His Excellency the Viceroy, the Marchioness of Ripon, the Governors 
 of Madras and Bombay, the Commanders-in-Chief, Sir Donald Stewart, 
 Sir Frederick Roberts, and General the Honble. Arthur Hardin ge, with 
 their various Staffs, estimated at about 100, will reside at Bolarum 
 in such houses and tents as can be provided. The Residency and its 
 compound are to be lighted; and, judging from the great preparations 
 that are being so rapidly pushed on, great doings are expected. 
 
 Although no official programme has yet been published, it is generally 
 believed that the Viceroy will hold a levee for the European officers 
 on the morning of the 4th ; after which, visits will be exchanged by 
 His Highness the Nizam, followed by a grand state ball in the evening. 
 The 5th will be devoted to the real business of the Installation, and the 
 Nizam will entertain the Viceroy at a state banquet on the Gth. There 
 will be a grand review of all the troops in garrison, followed by a banquet 
 in the evening to the Nizam at the Bolarum Mess, while the afternoon 
 of each day will be taken up with racing and all kinds of sports. 
 
 In the account of the laying of the foundation stone of the new 
 cotton mills at Goolburga, by His Highness the Nizam, it will be 
 remembered that His Highness stated, " The development of the 
 resources of my country will soon claim my closest attention, because 
 I feel sure that the prosperity and happiness of my subjects will result 
 therefrom ; and this being the case, I take, and shall continue to take, 
 the deepest interest in the enterprise now being undertaken." 
 
 I little then thought that the youthful Prince would soon demon- 
 strate that these were not mere formal expressions, to be forgotten 
 almost as soon as uttered. His Highness, with a view to set an example 
 to his Nobles and wealthy subjects, and to convince all of the interest 
 he takes in the development of industrial institutions in his country, 
 sent the other clay for the share-book of the Goolburga Mahboob Shahi 
 Mills, and put his name down for fifty shares in the company. This 
 spontaneous act was much talked of in the city, as indicating the 
 liberal and considerate spirit which will characterise the future admin- 
 istration of His Highness, which is happily so soon to commence. 
 
 In consequence of the rapid movements of His Excellency the 
 Viceroy en route to Hyderabad, the ceremony of the Nizam proceeding 
 to the boundary of his territory to receive and conduct His Excellency 
 through his dominions was dispensed with, and in lieu thereof a depu- 
 tation, consisting of Major Trevor, First Assistant Resident, Colonel 
 Dobbs, Judicial Superintendent of Railways, and two principal officers 
 of the Hyderabad State, proceeded to Raichore, where it met His Excel- 
 lency and accompanied him to Hyderabad.
 
 APPENDIX. lv 
 
 The special train containing His Excellency the Viceroy, the Mar- 
 chioness of Ripon and suite, arrived at Hyderabad at 4.30p.m. (2nd Feb.). 
 The near approach of the train was announced by a Royal salute of 
 thirty-one guns, fired from the Red Hills by a Reformed Troop Battery, 
 and His Highness the Nizam arrived at the station just in time to shake 
 hands with the Resident, Colonel Hastings Fraser, Military Secretary, 
 and some of the principal officers. When the train steamed into the 
 station the guard of honour from the Reformed Troops presented arms, 
 and the band played "God save the Queen". His Excellency, on alight- 
 ing from his saloon carriage, which bad been sent round from Calcutta 
 to Madras, was received by the young Nizam, the Resident, the principal 
 officers of the Hyderabad State, the Major-General Commanding the 
 Hyderabad Subsidiary Force, and the Brigadier-General Commanding 
 the Hyderabad Contingent ; and while the ceremony was proceeding, a 
 shower of flowers was made to fall upon the party from the roof of a 
 neatly constructed pandal. Such of the Nobles as had accompanied the 
 Nizam to Calcutta came forward and shook hands with Lord Ripon, 
 while the Nawab Busheer-ood-Dowlah, who had had to remain behind 
 to conduct the affairs of the State, and the other Nobles who had not 
 been to Calcutta, were introduced to His Excellency by His Highness 
 the Nizam. 
 
 In addition to the officers already referred to, there were present on 
 the railway platform all Staff Officers of the garrison not on duty, includ- 
 ing Volunteer officers, and the few Reformed Troop officers who were 
 considered eligible to be present on such occasions ; and what with the 
 grandeur of the decorations, the glittering robes of various-coloured 
 satins and velvets with which the principal Nobles, about twenty in all, 
 were attired, the different-coloured uniforms of the officers, set off with 
 gold and silver lace, the scene on the platform was extremely grand, 
 several fair views of which have, I believe, been obtained by the enter- 
 prising photographers, Molkenteller and Brothers. 
 
 Although all officers of the garrison, from the three cantonments of 
 Bolarum, Trimulgherry, and Secundei'abad, were ordered to be present, 
 admission to the platform was by ticket issued by the Resident, while 
 admission to the railway enclosure was by ticket issued by the manager 
 of the railway, and it is no doubt due to the precautions taken by those 
 entrusted with the management that everything went off so well, without 
 that crush and confusion which usually attends such gatherings. 
 
 The formal ceremony concluded, the Viceroy was escorted to his 
 carriage by His Highness the Nizam and the Resident, when the Vice- 
 regal party left the station, escorted by a detachment of the 14th 
 Hussars, and saluted by a guard of honour, which had been drawn up 
 outside the station. Lord and Lady Ripon, the Foreign Secretary, and 
 the Resident, occupied the first carriage, which was driven by two Royal
 
 lvi APPENDIX. 
 
 Horse Artillerymen in full dress ; then followed the carriages of the 
 members of the Viceroy's Staff, general Staff, regimental and depart- 
 mental officers, and after an interval of a few seconds came the carriages 
 of His Highness the Nizam, escorted by his African Cavalry guard, 
 behind which followed carriages of the Native Nobles and Chiefs, each 
 attended by small detachments of mounted men. 
 
 On arrival at the Civil Club, which ends the road to the railway 
 station, the Nizam turned to the right, and proceeded along the Resi- 
 dency road to the City, followed by his Nobles, except two of the prin- 
 cipal officers of the State, who had been directed to accompany the 
 Viceroy. From the same point, viz., the Civil Club, the head of the 
 Viceregal train turned to the left and passed through Chudderghat, 
 over the Hussain Saugar Tank bund to Secunderabad. After stopping 
 a short time at the Assembly Rooms to exchange horses, the cortege 
 proceeded by the One Tree Hill through the Military Cantonment of 
 Trimulgherry to the Bolarum Residency, where it arrived at 7 p.m. 
 
 From the Hyderabad Railway Station to Secunderabad the entire 
 route was lined with the Nizam's Reformed Troops, who saluted the 
 Viceroy as he passed along. Similarly, from Secunderabad to Trim- 
 ulgherry the road was kept by the Madras Native Infantry and the 
 Secunderabad Police, while the road from Trimulgherry to Bolarum 
 was held by the troops of the Hyderabad Contingent. As His Excel- 
 lency passed through Secunderabad, a Royal salute of thirty-one guns 
 was fired by the Royal Artillery from the Mud Battery, and a similar 
 salute was fired by the Hyderabad Contingent Battery at Bolarum, 
 where His Excellency was received by a guard of honour, with band 
 and colours from the 21st Scotch Fusiliers. 
 
 Regarding the decorations, there is not much to say, extending as 
 they did from the Residency to Secunderabad, over a distance of more 
 than four miles, and again from the Residency to the Nizam's Palace. 
 Nearly two miles too much had apparently been attempted. Had the 
 same material and labour, or I should say money (for Government had 
 to pay for all), been confined to a more limited space, doubtless the 
 effect would have been much better. Throughout the route above- 
 mentioned various-coloured flags, banners, streamers, etc., hung from 
 lines stretched along both sides of the roads, supported at intervals of 
 about fifty yards by long bamboo poles bound round with different- 
 coloured cloth, looking something like long barber's-poles, tipped off with 
 star and crescent, which seemed to figure everywhere, no device or 
 motto being, apparently, complete without it. Across the road, at various 
 places, were stretched different-coloured strips of cloth, bearing the 
 mottoes, "Long live His Highness", "God bless the Country", "A 
 right Royal welcome we give theo", "Long live the Nizam", "Welcome 
 to the Viceroy", " God bless our Empress", " Health, Wealth, and
 
 APPENDIX. lvii 
 
 Prosperity", "Long may His Highness reign", "God bless the Empress 
 of India", "Long Life and Happiness", " Rich and Poor welcome thee" 
 "Welcome", etc., etc., as also some few in Persian character. 
 
 Along the Secunderabad route there were six triumphal arches, and 
 long the City road three ; and as these are almost identical with the 
 arches already alluded to, they may be passed by with the remark that 
 for artistic skill the military outstepped all others, more particularly 
 when it is considered that the cost of its erection was entirely borne by 
 the officers of the Reformed Troops. The other arches were erected at 
 the expense of Government. Great credit is due to Major Neville and 
 the officers under his command, who, as a rule, do not draw one-third 
 of the salaries drawn by the other officers of the Nizam's Government. 
 If the loyalty of the people is to be judged by outward demonstration, 
 then indeed we have seen it at this place. Mr. Wilkinson's stately 
 mansion, which was nicely decorated, was the first on the list. 
 
 On Monday, 4th February 1884, at 10 p.m., was held what is termed 
 the "ceremony of Mizaj Pursi"; that is, four of the principal officers 
 of H.H. the Nizam's State proceeded with due ceremony to Bolarum 
 to inquire after His Excellency's health. These officers were received 
 by the Military Secretary, the officer on special duty in the Foreign 
 Department, and one of His Excellency's Aides-de-Camp, and, after the 
 usual formalities had been gone through, were dismissed by the officer 
 on special duty in the Foreign Department presenting attar and pan. 
 
 At 11 a.m. the same day, the Nizam, attended by nine of the prin- 
 cipal Nobles and officers of State, paid what is termed a private visit to 
 His Excellency at Bolarum. The Military Secretary to the Viceroy, 
 the officer on special duty in the Foreign Department, and one of His 
 Excellency's Aides-de-Camp, proceeded at 8 a.m. to Hyderabad, and 
 escorted His Highness the Nizam to the Viceregal residence. On the 
 arrival at Bolarum the Nizam was received, on alighting from his 
 carriage, by the Resident and an Aide- de-Camp of the Viceroy, and 
 conducted to the verandah, where he was met by the Foreign Secretary, 
 who conducted the Nizam to His Excellency's presence. The Viceroy, 
 receiving the Nizam at the edge of the carpet, conducted him to a seat 
 at his right hand; and on the right of the Nizam were seated the 
 Resident, the Ministers, Nobles and officers in attendance on His 
 Highness, according to their rank. On the left of the Viceroy sat the 
 Foreign Secretary, the Major-General Commanding the Hyderabad 
 Subsidiary Force, the Brigadier- General Commanding the Hyderabad 
 Contingent, the Private and Military Secretaries to the Viceroy, the 
 officer on special duty in the Foreign Department, and the Military 
 Staff. After a short conversation, the Native Ministers and Nobles who 
 had accompanied the Nizam were presented to His Excellency by the 
 Resident, each of whom presented a nuzzar of five gold mohars, which
 
 lviii APPENDIX. 
 
 was merely touched by the Viceroy and remitted. The ceremony was 
 brought to a close by the Viceroy offering attar and pan to the Nizam. 
 The Foreign Secretary offered attar and pan to the four principal 
 Ministers and Nobles, and the officer on special duty in the Foreign 
 Department to the others. 
 
 His Highness, who was escorted to and from Bolarum by his own 
 Cavalry, was received with a salute of twenty-one guns, fired by No. 3 
 Battery, Hyderabad Contingent, and a guard of honour from a British 
 regiment. The Contingent band was in attendance, and played during the 
 interview, and the Contingent Cavalry lined the road leading to the 
 Residency. The same formalities attended His Highness's departure, 
 and salutes were fired at Secunderabad as His Highness passed through 
 the station. 
 
 At 2.45 p.m. the same day, a deputation, consisting of the four prin- 
 cipal officers of the Hyderabad State, waited on the Viceroy at Bolarum 
 for the purpose of conducting* His Excellency to the Nizam's Palace. 
 His Excellency left Bolarum at 3 p.m., under a royal salute from the 
 guns of the Contingent Battery. He was escorted by a wing of the 14th 
 Hussars and a wing of the Contingent Cavalry, and was attended by 
 his Private and Military Secretaries, his personal Staff, the Foreign 
 Secretary, the Major-General Commanding Hyderabad Subsidiary Force, 
 and the Brigadier- General Commanding Hyderabad Contingent, with 
 their respective Staffs. On arrival at the Palace at 4.30 p.m., His 
 Excellency was received on alighting from his carriage by the Nizam 
 and the Resident, and conducted to the Durbar Hall, where he occupied 
 a seat on the right of the Nizam; to the right of his Excellency sat the 
 Foreign Secretary, the Major- General Commanding Hyderabad Sub- 
 sidiary Force, the Brigadier-General Commanding Hyderabad Contin- 
 gent, and His Excellency's Private and Military Secretaries and personal 
 Staff; while on the left of the Nizam were seated the Resident, and beyond 
 him the Ministers, Nobles, and officers in attendance on His Highness, 
 according to rank. After a short conversation, the Ministers, Nobles, 
 and officers of the State were presented to His Excellency by the 
 Resident, each of whom presented a nuzzar of five gold mohurs, which 
 His Excellency touched and remitted. The ceremony of the lvt urn 
 visit was brought to a close by the Nizam presenting attar and pan to 
 His Excellency, to the Foreign Secretary, and to the Resident, and the 
 principal officers of the State to the other British officers present. His 
 Excellency was then conducted to his carriage by the Nizam and the 
 Resident, and left under a royal salute of twenty-one guns by the Nizam's 
 Artillery ; the road leading to the city was lined by the Nizam's troops, 
 and a guard of honour, which was drawn up in front of the Nizam's 
 Palace, saluted His Excellency on arrival and departure. 
 
 His Excellency closed the day by a levee, which was held at Bolarum
 
 APPENDIX. Hx 
 
 at 9.30 p.m., and was attended by all officers, Civil and Military, a few 
 non-official Europeans, and a number of Native gentlemen. The levee 
 closed by the presentation to His Excellency of the Native officers in 
 garrison by their commanding officers. 
 
 The 5th February 1884 will ever be remembered as a red-letter day 
 in the annals of the Hyderabad State, not only on account of the instal- 
 lation of the youthful Prince, Mir Mahboob Ali Khan, but as the first 
 instance on record of a Viceroy and Governor- General having visited 
 Hyderabad. At the first dawn of day Hyderabad seemed to have sud- 
 denly sprung into a lively state of activity ; everywhere the roads were 
 being swept and watered, the last finishing touches were given to some 
 of the decorations, mounted orderlies hurrying along, and troops of all 
 kinds moving in different directions to take up the various positions 
 assigned to them along the city and Chudderghat roads; and scarcely 
 had these time to take up their positions, when carriages of all kinds, 
 from the usual rat-like pony trap to the swell turn-out of the city 
 Nawab, came streaming into Hyderabad, and ceased only a few minutes 
 before the time fixed for the Viceregal cortege to arrive. 
 
 His Excellency left Bolarum under a Royal salute, fired by the Con- 
 tingent Battery at 9 a.m., accompanied by a deputation of the four 
 principal officers of the Hyderabad State, the Foreign Secretary, the 
 Private and Military Secretaires, the officer on special duty in the 
 Foreign Department and personal Staff, the Major-General Command- 
 ing Hyderabad Subsidiary Force, and the Brigadier-General Command- 
 ing Hyderabad Contingent, with their Staffs. The Viceroy was escorted 
 by a wing of the 14th Hussars and a Battery of Royal Horse- 
 Artillery. The handsome dress of the men and their soldier-like bearing 
 added much to the grandeur of the procession. The road from the 
 Bolarum Residency to the City, upwards of fourteen miles, was lined by 
 British, Native, Contingent, and Nizam's troops, behind which were 
 gathered crowds of people anxious to see the Lord Sahib as he passed 
 by. Here and there His Excellency was cheered by the people, but 
 their demonstration was so feeble that their voices were almost lost in 
 the noise created by the horses' hoofs and the rattle of the guns. 
 
 Their Excellencies the Governor of Madras and the Commander-in- 
 Chief in India, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Madras Army, who 
 had preceded the Viceroy, arrived at the Palace a little after ten o'clock, 
 where they were received with the honours due to their rank, and 
 escorted to the seats allotted to them, on the immediate left of the 
 Viceroy, by the First Assistant Resident and the Military Secretary. 
 All Civil and Military officers invited to attend, the Nobles and 
 Ministers of the State, and other persons specially invited, were 
 requested to be seated in the Durbar Hall half-an-hour before the 
 arrival of His Excellency the Viceroy.
 
 lx APPENDIX. 
 
 His Excellency arrived at the Palace at 10.30 a.m., and was received 
 by a guard of honour, with band and colours, from the Nizam's troops ; 
 and as he alighted from his carriage he was received by the Nizam, 
 the Resident, and the four Ministers and principal officers of the State. 
 A procession was then formed, and moved towards the Durbar Hall in 
 the following order : — 
 
 The officer on special duty in the Foreign Department. 
 
 The Foreign Secretary. The Resident. 
 
 His Excellency the Viceroy's His Highness the Nizam's Staff. 
 
 Staff. His Highness the Nizam. 
 
 His Excellency the Viceroy. The Brigadier-General Command- 
 The Major-General Commanding ing Hyderabad Contingent 
 
 the Subsidiary Staff. Staff. 
 
 On the pi^ocession entering the Durbar Hall, a second guard of 
 honour, stationed within the quadrangle, presented arms, and the band 
 played the National Anthem, and a Royal salute of thirty-one guns was 
 fired in honour of His Excellency, on whose approach all present arose 
 to their feet, and remained standing until His Excellency took his seat. 
 
 That part of the Palace in which the ceremony of Installation was 
 held is called the Durbar Hall, at the extreme end of which a chair had 
 been erected, over which was a beautiful canopy covered with embroi- 
 dered cloth, and supported by four handsome silver poles ornamented 
 with gilt scroll work. On the dais, which was covered with yellow 
 velvet carpets, were placed two chairs of state, one representing the 
 Musnud ; and in front of the dais were placed two chairs, one for His 
 Excellency the Viceroy, and the other for the Nizam, while on either 
 side were arranged, along the whole length of the hall, chairs for all 
 invited to attend. There were fully two hundred persons present, 
 about twenty-five of whom were ladies ; and what with the variously- 
 coloured uniforms of the officers — scarlet, blue, green, French grey, 
 drab, dark grey, etc. — the heavily embroidered coats of the Politicals, 
 and the gorgeous dresses of the Ministers, Nobles, and other Native 
 gentlemen, attired as they were in gold-brocaded coats of satins and 
 velvets of green, purple, and other colours, the scene was grand beyond 
 description. 
 
 On entering the Durbar Hall, His Excellency took his seat in front 
 of the dais, and His Highness the Nizam on his right. On His Ex- 
 cellency's left were seated the Foreign Secretary and the other British 
 officers and guests present, while to the right of the Nizam were seated 
 the Resident at Hyderabad and the Ministers, and Nobles and officers 
 of the State, according to rank. After all had been seated, His 
 Excellency the Viceroy and Governor- General rose and addressed the 
 Nizam as follows : —
 
 APPENDIX. lxi 
 
 " I can assure Your Highness that it affords me great gratification to 
 be able to be present here to-day in order to discharge, in the name 
 and on behalf of the Queen and Empress of India, the duty of declaring 
 Tour Highness to be invested with full powers for the administration 
 of your State. When I learnt from Your Highness a few weeks ago 
 that you had a great wish that I should come to Hyderabad for this 
 purpose, I felt a strong desire to comply with your request, in which I 
 saw a proof of your Highness's attachment to the British Government 
 and of your confidence in the strength and sincerity of its friendship. 
 
 "I am, I believe, the first Viceroy or Governor- General who has 
 ever visited Hyderabad, and my presence on this occasion is a mark 
 not only of the close and intimate ties which unite the Ruler of this 
 Great State to the Government of the Queen-Empress, but also of Her 
 Majesty's deep interest in the welfare of the Nizam. 
 
 " During the long years of your minority, Your Highness and your 
 people enjoyed a singular advantage in having at the head of the 
 Administration of the State one of the foremost statesmen of India — a 
 man who, by his high intelligence, his varied capacity, and his devotion 
 to Your Highness's interests, was able amidst all the difficulties of a 
 minority to conduct the Government of the State with a success which 
 entitles him to the grateful remembrance both of Your Highness and 
 of the Goverment of India. Sir Salar Jung, during Your Highness's 
 youth, had done much to reform the Administration in many ways, to 
 improve the revenue system, and to give increased security to life and 
 property, and at the moment of death he was contemplating further 
 measures of improvement. It had been my hope that when Your 
 Highness came of age he would have been at hand to aid you with his 
 long experience, and to serve you with his well-tried zeal ; but it has 
 pleased God to oi'dain otherwise, and to take him from your side at the 
 very moment when, in some respects, you must stand in need of such 
 assistance as he could have given to you, and his absence from among 
 us casts a shade even over the brilliant ceremonies and heartfelt 
 rejoicings of this auspicious day. But his work survives him. I trust 
 that Your Highness's Ministers will ever make it a guiding object of 
 their administration to preserve and to extend that work. 
 
 " I have now a few words of practical advice to offer to you. Look 
 to your finances — disordered finances are the ruin of States. It is so 
 everywhere. It is very specially so in India. Carelessness and extrava- 
 gance in financial matters mean, first, heavy taxation and the gradual 
 impoverishment and ruin of the people, and then loans with increasing 
 interest and final bankruptcy. Reasonable economy, just aid, and equal 
 taxation, mean ever-increasing prosperity and expanding wealth. 
 A good revenue system is the foundation of good government in India,, 
 and without it the Prince is embarrassed and the people miserable.
 
 lxii APPENDIX. 
 
 Again I earnestly trust that Your Highness will keep a strict watch 
 over the honest and equal administration of justice ; that the judicial 
 officers of a State should be pure, above the taint of suspicion, and 
 courageous — above the influence of fear, secures for a ruler the grati- 
 tude of his subjects and the admiration of his neighbours. Pure jus- 
 tice is the brightest jewel that can adorn a coronet. Let it ever shine 
 forth on yours. 
 
 " Your Highness has before you a great and arduous task. You are 
 the ruler of some ten millions of men ; their welfare will henceforth 
 depend greatly upon you, upon your wisdom, your industry, and your 
 self-denial. Let me entreat you not to look with vain satisfaction 
 upon the outward shows of power, upon the wealth and splendour by 
 which you will be surrounded — upon the submission and often the 
 flattery which will meet you on every hand. Your territories are exten- 
 sive, their revenues great, their population numerous ; but let none of 
 these things be your pride. You are young, and will be pressed upon 
 many sides by the temptations to which } r outh is especially exposed; but 
 never let them gain the mastery over you : you have nobler aims to 
 follow and greater deeds to do. If you would make for yourself a 
 name among the Princes of India, you can only win it in the days in 
 which we live, by the justice of your Government, and by the acknow- 
 ledged prosperity of your people. That people's loyalty to your honour 
 and to yourself is manifest and unquestioned ; it rests with you to pre- 
 serve it, and, as years go on, to deepen it into the most precious pos- 
 session of a ruler, the unfeigned love of his subjects. The care of 
 those subjects has not been entrusted to yon by God that you may 
 make them the instrument of your pleasure or your pride. He has 
 given them into your care that you may rule and guide them for His 
 glory and their welfare. In their well-being you will find your truest 
 happiness, in their contentment your best security. Set before you no 
 lesser aim ; be satisfied with no meaner fame ; but as you look back 
 over the roll of your ancestors, and recall, the annals of your House, 
 let it be your ambition that when you, too, shall be gathered to 
 your fathers, men should say of you, ' He left his people the better for 
 his rule.' 
 
 " And in this great work, difficult and trying as it will often be, I can 
 promise you the constant support and never-failing assistance of the 
 Government of the Queen-Empress. The single object of the British 
 Government in regard to this or any other Native State is that it should 
 be prosperous and well governed. So far as we can aid you to promote 
 that end you may ever command our help. The maintenance of the 
 Native States of India is a cardinal point of English policy in these 
 days, and the existence of these States is, in true judgment, of the 
 greatest advantage to English interests. That your Government should
 
 APPENDIX. lxiii 
 
 be strong and orderly, that your finances should be well managed, and 
 your taxation justly raised, and that your nobles should be faithful and 
 your people contented, is, as I well know, the earnest wish" of the Sove- 
 reign whom I represent here to-day. She will watch your career with 
 a strong and unfailing interest ; do not disappoint her hopes. 
 
 " And now, my friend, in whom I shall ever feel a deep personal 
 interest, it only remains for me to place you in that musnud, and to 
 express my earnest hope that it may please God to bless and guide 
 you, and to make your reign prosperous and your rule just and honour- 
 able, so that the fair promise of this day may not be blighted, and that 
 future generations of your grateful people may recall the date of your 
 Installation as the commencement of a bright era in the history of 
 the State." 
 
 The address having been translated by Mr. Durand, the Foreign 
 Secretary, His Excellency took the Nizam by the hand and conducted 
 him to the chair of state on the dais, and, addressing him by his full 
 titles of His Highness Asaf-Jah, Muzaffur-rd-Mumalik, Nizam-ul- 
 Mulk, Nizam- ul-Dowlak, Nawab Mir Mahboob Ali Khan, Bahadur, 
 Futeh Jung, declared him invested with the full powers of Administra- 
 tion. The band played the National Anthem, and salutes of twenty- 
 one guns were fired by the batteries at Hyderabad, Secunderabad, and 
 Bolarum, in honour of the Nizam. All present having now resumed 
 their seats, the Viceroy's Khillat was brought in and conferred on the 
 Nizam, after which Khillats for the four principal officers of the State 
 were brought in and conferred on Nawab Salar Jung, Rajah Narrindur 
 Peshcar, and Nawab Shums-ool-Oomra, — Nawab Busheer-ood-Dowlah, 
 the other principal officer, not being able to attend, owing to indisposi- 
 tion, and his Khillat was, therefore, forwarded to him. The Nizam 
 then rose and acknowledged the Viceroy's address as follows : — 
 
 " Your Excellency, it gives me the greatest pleasure to be able to 
 offer Your Excellency a very hearty welcome to Hyderabad. It would 
 have been to me and all my people a matter of much regret and disap- 
 pointment if the occasion of my Installation had not been graced by 
 Your Excellency's presence. I am sure we owe this honour to Your 
 Excellency's well-known solicitude for the welfare of this State, as well 
 as to Your Excellency's personal kindness to myself, of which I have 
 recently received proof, which I shall never forget. I assure Your 
 Excellency that I am deeply sensible of both. 
 
 " I hope Your Excellency will accept my warmest thanks for having 
 incurred the trouble and fatigue of a long journey in order to honour 
 me on the present occasion. The event augurs well for my future 
 Government, and I accept it joyfully as a first token of the amiable and 
 kind relations which have always subsisted between the British Govern- 
 ment and my predecessors in this State.
 
 lxiv APPENDIX. 
 
 " The advice which Your Excellency has been kind enough to offer 
 me, I accept with the greatest sincerity. I shall ever endeavour, in all 
 matters that concern the prospects and prosperity of this State, to con- 
 sult the wishes of Your Excellency and of the Government of which 
 Your Excellency is the honoured head. I am sure that in doing so I 
 shall be consulting the best interests of myself and of my subjects. 
 
 " I hope Your Excellency will take an early opportunity of con- 
 veying to Her Majesty the Queen-Empress of India the sentiments of 
 friendship and respect which I entertain towards the Imperial name." 
 
 On concluding his address, the Nizam and all present resumed then- 
 seats, when their Excellencies the Governor of Madras, the Commander- 
 in-Chief in India, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Madras Army 
 advanced in succession, and offered their congratulations to His 
 Highness the Nizam. Attar and pan having been distributed, the 
 Viceroy and the Nizam left the Durbar Hall, in the same order of pro- 
 cession as they had entered, and the ceremonies observed on the 
 arrival of His Excellency were repeated on his departure from the 
 Palace. 
 
 In order to avoid the fatigue of a long drive back to Bolarum in the 
 heat of the day, arrangements had been made for the entertainment of 
 His Excellency and suite at the Chudderghat Residency, but owing to 
 a fatal case of cholera having occurred at the Residency a few hours 
 before the Installation, His Excellency drove to Major Neville's, the 
 Commander of His Highness the Nizam's troops, where he remained 
 the whole of the afternoon, until he left in the evening for the state 
 banquet. 
 
 The sudden death of Mr. Peake, Assistant Superintendent of Tele- 
 graphs, cast a gloom over the place, and his loss is much felt by all in 
 the Department, especially among the young signallers, with whom he 
 was a great favourite, and ever ready to assist them in time of trouble 
 or distress. At 2 a.m., when past all hope of recovery, the Residency 
 surgeon asked him if he had any message he wished to convey to any 
 person. "Yes", said the dying man, " tell Mr. Gordon that the arrange- 
 ments for which I came here are complete and in working order." 
 
 Of the banquet that was given this evening in the Nizam's Palace, 
 it may be mentioned that about 400 persons were present, a large 
 number of whom sat down to dinner. A beautiful gold service, that 
 had been purchased for this occasion many years ago by the late Sir 
 Salar Jung, through his Agents, Messrs. Rogers, Rock and Co., of 
 Friday Street, London, was for the first time displayed to-night, and 
 was admired by all who saw it, as well as the beautiful furniture which 
 the late Minister had had prepared under his own supervision when he 
 visited England in 187G. A magnificent stuffed tiger, presented to 
 His Highness by me, and set up by the late Henry Ward ofVere-
 
 APPENDIX. lxv 
 
 street was rnucli admired also. In proposing the health of His Highness 
 the Nizam, His Excellency the Viceroy said : — 
 
 " Ladies and Gentlemen, I have a toast to propose to you which will 
 not need more than a few words from me to recommend it to your 
 acceptance. The occasion is not one for making speeches, and the 
 toast that I have to offer to you is one which I am sure will meet with 
 a cordial reception from you, for I am about to ask you to drink to the 
 health of His Highness the Nizam. It is not only that we may ex- 
 press our thanks to His Highness for the princely and magnificent 
 hospitality with which he has entertained us this evening, but it is far 
 more that we may take this' opportunity of assuring him how heartily 
 we pray that it may please God to grant him a long life and prosper- 
 ous and happy reign, and that that personal government which he 
 has taken upon himself to-day may be as successful as I am confident 
 we all desire it should be." 
 
 The toast was drunk with cheers, after which the Nizam briefly 
 returned thanks, and proposed the health of Their Excellencies the Vice- 
 roy and Lady Ripon. 
 
 The Viceroy then replied as follows : — " Your Highness, I am very 
 grateful to you for having proposed my health -and that of Lady Ripon 
 upon this occasion. As I said to Your Highness this morning in 
 Durbar, it has been to me a source of very great pleasure to be able 
 to be here upon an occasion of such great historical interest, because 
 it is the first occasion upon which Her Majesty's representative has 
 visited Hyderabad, and also because of the interesting event which 
 has occurred to-day, in respect to which we all entertain a deep and 
 earnest desire that Your Highness's reign, thus begun, may be con- 
 tinued prosperously to the end. I can assure Your Highness that so 
 long as I hold this office which I now fill, it will be my constant desire 
 to afford to you and to your Government every help and assistance in 
 my power, and I am quite sure that you will receive from the Resident 
 here, Mr. Cordery, the best advice and the most constant support both 
 to Your Highness and your Government. I greatly regret that Lady 
 Ripon is not able to be present to-night. Unfortunately, she met with 
 a slight accident two days ago, which, although not of a serious cha- 
 racter, has prevented her accompanyiug me. I should regret her 
 absence under any circumstances, but I regret it the more for her sake, 
 because she has lost one of the most beautiful sights which it has ever 
 been my good fortune to witness." 
 
 From Secunderabad to the City the road was kept by the Nizam's 
 troops, who, from the early hour of 6 p.m. until after the return of the 
 Viceroy at about 12 o'clock, remained on duty. 
 
 The illuminations of the last two nights, it is said, have surpassed 
 anything of the kind ever before seen in Hyderabad. At the first 
 
 e
 
 lxVl APPENDIX. 
 
 sight the scene looked brilliantly grand; bat as soon as the eyo 
 became accustomed to the glare of so many lights, there appeared a 
 sameness about all the illuminations, varying only according to the 
 number of the lights used, which, of course, depended upon the 
 liberality of the people; and while there were many who spared no 
 expense, there were some well-paid officials who tried to shuffle 
 through the business with the expenditure of a few paltry bottles of 
 oil. The house of Mr. Wilkinson, Director Public Works Department, 
 was, as usual, beautifully illuminated, and a great number of lights 
 shone from the houses of the " Enam Commissioner" and the Super- 
 intending Surgeon, and the Padree Sahib had lights ruuning up to the 
 top of the church steeple. 
 
 The grand old Hussain Saugor tank looked its best on Tuesday 
 night, bonfires having been lighted round its shore, and electric 
 lights shining out the whole length of the Bund ; between each bonfire 
 were suspended numerous lamps of various colours, so that the border 
 of the tank, some miles in circumference, was one girdle of fires and 
 lights of all colours, shapes, and sizes. The steamer Lady Meade, and 
 a few other boats, were prettily lighted up, every available rock in the 
 tank was made use of for some kind of decorative work, and in the 
 centre were about two hundred tiny craft floating about and casting 
 the l'ays of their various-coloured lamps on the surface of the water. 
 
 The Bund of this magnificent tank connects Chudderghat with 
 Secunderabad ; it is about two miles in length, the top forming an 
 excellent road, wide enough for three carriages to pass abreast, and it 
 is much frequented in the evening by ladies and gentlemen from both 
 stations, who enjoy the cool, refreshing breeze wafted over this exten- 
 sive sheet of water, which covers an area of many miles. This tank 
 supplies Secunderabad with water, and irrigates a great extent of 
 paddy ground in the vicinity of Hyderabad. On its waters float a small 
 steamer and several boats, which are frequently used by pleasure 
 parties. The st earner Lady Meade is the gift of a Hyderabad noble- 
 man, who generously placed it on the lake for the use of the public. 
 The cost of original construction of the bund is said to have been 
 2,54,636 rupees ; it has recently undergone extensive repairs and 
 alterations, which have probably cost a good deal of money. The 
 works are of a permanent kind, and were superintended by Mr. 
 Heenan, a zealous ami energetic engineer, serving under the Govern- 
 ment of H.H. the Nizam.
 
 APPENDIX. lxvii 
 
 ADDRESS TO THE VICEROY. 
 Two deputations waited on His Excellency the Viceroy and Gover- 
 nor-General of India, at the Bolarum Residency, at twelve noon yester- 
 day, for the purpose of presenting His Excellency with addresses of 
 welcome. The first one, which was called in punctually at twelve 
 o'clock, consisted of all the different members of the Native com- 
 munity. Mr. Ramchendra Pillay, pleader, read the Address, printed on 
 parchment, with a blue border, and which ran thus : — 
 
 " THE ADDRESS OP THE NATIVE COMMUNITY. 
 
 " Mat it please Your Excellency, — We, the undersigned Native 
 residents of the Cantonment of Secunderabad, crave leave to approach 
 Your Excellency, and to offer on behalf of the whole Native community 
 of this place a loyal and cordial welcome to your Lordship and the 
 Marchioness of Ripon. We consider ourselves especially fortunate in 
 being honoured with a Viceregal visit, an event unprecedented in the 
 annals of the capital of the Deccan, and we embrace this opportunity 
 of recording our high sense of esteem for Your Lordship's wise rule ; 
 and it behoves us, as devoted and loyal subjects of our beloved and 
 gracious Sovereign, the Queen-Empress, to express our deep feelings of 
 joy and thankfulness on such an auspicious occasion. In the discharge 
 of the important and onerous duties appertaining to your exalted posi- 
 tion, Your Lordship has visited many towns and cities more prosperous 
 and with greater advantages in many respects than are possessed by 
 this Cantonment ; but, in the warmth of our attachment to and regard 
 for the person and throne of our kind and loving Sovereign, whom 
 Your Lordship so worthily represents, we yield to no other community 
 in British India, and we are, therefore, naturally proud and much 
 delighted at the visit amongst us of Your Lordship and Lady Ripon. 
 
 " We take this opportunity to submit for Your Lordship's considera- 
 tion, that while we have many things to be grateful for, the want of a 
 proper supply of wholesome water is grievously felt by all — Native 
 and European, rich and poor — and we regret to state that the incon- 
 venience and hardship felt alike by all classes, are simply inexpressible, 
 and a successful water project would therefore be an incalculable and 
 everlasting boon to this town. The efforts of the Cantonment and 
 Municipal Committees in connection with this subject have produced 
 no favourable results, and we would, therefore, earnestly solicit Your 
 Lordship's attention to this matter. 
 
 " Secondly, the civil population of this Cantonment is rapidly increas- 
 ing and becoming more enlightened under the benign British rule, and 
 consequently a Municipal Committee, similar to those in other places 
 in British India, but subject to necessary and local modifications, is a 
 
 c2
 
 l.wiii APPENDIX. 
 
 great desideratum. We have a Committee ot Meer Mohallas, or prin- 
 cipal residents of a locality, elected by the Cantonment Magistrate, who 
 is its President, but it is merely an echo of the voice of the Cantonment 
 Committee, existing onty in name. 
 
 " Thirdly, the Cantonment Magistrate, with his multifarious duties, 
 including that of Secretary to the Cantonment Committee, is also 
 Judge of the Civil Court, with unlimited jurisdiction. It is conse- 
 quently too much to expect such an oilier, despite all his intelligence 
 and honesty, to go through the almost Herculean task imposed on him 
 with satisfaction to himself. We would, therefore, respectfully suggest 
 the advisability of separating the civil jurisdiction from the criminal, 
 and nominating a distinct judge for each. The same suggestion also 
 applies to the British Resident at Hyderabad as the local High Court; 
 and the appointment of a judicial assistant, with similar powers, as is 
 the case in other Native States, will be hailed with great delight and 
 gratitude. In making the above remarks, we beg to be distinctly un- 
 derstood that we do not mean to cast the slightest reflection either on 
 our energetic Cantonment Magistrate or our popular Resident, whose 
 respective abilities are too well known to need any special reference. 
 
 " In Your Lordship we recognise a fitting i-epresentative of the 
 Empress of India, who, with a singleness of purpose, has inaugurated 
 a policy which has endeared you to the hearts of your Native subjects, 
 as exempliticd by the universal entreaty that Her Most Gracious 
 .Majesty may be pleased to grant an extension. 
 
 " With such noble examples of self-sacrifice and righteousness, and 
 all the virtues that ennoble a statesman and Governor before him, it is 
 our earnest hope that the young Nizam, whom Tour Excellency has 
 lately installed on the throne of his ancestors, may, by the help of Pro- 
 vidence, prove mindful of the welfare of the millions of his subjects. 
 
 "Thanking Your Excellency for the courtesy and kindness with 
 which you have condescended to hear our humble address of welcome, 
 and soliciting the favour of Your Lordship to convey our respects to 
 Lady Ripon for the honour she lias done to this country and its people 
 by her visit, and with prayers to God that He may grant you and Lady 
 Ripon a long life, prosperity, and perfect health." 
 
 And, at its conclusion, the address, enclosed in a casket, manufactured 
 by Messrs. Orr and Sons, of Madras, on which was engraved a suitable 
 inscription, was placed before HE. the Viceroy, who received the 
 deputation seated, with Mi-. Cordery, the Resident, on his right hand, 
 and his three Secretaries. Lord Ripon then called in the deputation of 
 the Mohammedan community, when Mr. Shumshuddeen, Assistant Can- 
 tonment Magistrate read an address, and placed it on a silver tray and 
 handed it to His Excellency. It ran as follows: —
 
 APPENDIX. lxix 
 
 "THE ADDEESS OF THE MOHAMMEDAN COMMUNITY. 
 
 " May it please Your Lordship, — We, the representatives of tl.e 
 Mohammedan community of Secunderabad, beg to tender to Your Excel- 
 lency our hearty congratulations on your safe arrival in Hyderabad, 
 and we hope that the result of your visit here will be to give additional 
 strength to the friendly feeling which has so long and happily sub- 
 sisted between the British Government in India and His Highness the 
 Nizam. 
 
 " It is with feelings of the greatest joy that the Mohammedans of this 
 part of the Deccan respectfully approach to greet and welcome Your 
 Lordship, and to express their heartfelt gratitude for the kindness 
 evinced by Your Excellency towards His Highness the Nizam of 
 Hyderabad in honouring the auspicious occasion of His Highness's 
 installation to his hereditary masnud with your illustrious presence, an 
 honour of which not only the whole of the Mohammedan community, but 
 His Highness the Nizam himself and his nobles, should justly feel 
 proud. 
 
 " Since Your Lordship's assuming the regime of this vast country 
 of India in 1880, we have, with feelings of delight, read, through the 
 medium of the public press, Your Lordship's excellent sentiments anent 
 bettering the condition of our country, and we feel certain that Your 
 Excellency is devoted to the interest of India and its people, and 
 specially to the social and political improvement of the Mohammedans, 
 who, from causes beyond their own control, have been losing ground 
 with other races in social and political position, and that under Your 
 Excellency's Government they will regain it. 
 
 " Among the several memorable public works accomplished by Your 
 Excellency, we note the repeal of the Vernacular Press Act, the 
 encouragement given to Indian trade, and the Education Commission, 
 from the proceedings of the last of which we learn that Your Excel- 
 lency has acted up to what was expressed in reply to a memorial 
 referring to an Education despatch of 1854) presented to Your Lord- 
 ship in 1880 when about to leave England ; that the despatch lays 
 down clearly and forcibly the broad lines of the true Educational 
 policy for India; and that upon those lines it has been Your Lord- 
 ship's intention to work, and we thus clearly observe Your ship's Lord 
 sympathy and anxious desire to promote the extension of elementary 
 education among the poorer classes of our countrymen. 
 
 " In Your Lordship, India has found a benefactor whose enlightened 
 policy has entitled him to the glorious distinction of being the most 
 upright and impartial ruler it has ever seen. We can never forget, nor 
 should India ever be unmindful of the great services Your Excellency
 
 Ixx APPENDIX. 
 
 has rendered for the public good, maintaining your high office undi- 
 minished in its powers, utility, and dignity. Of the admirable manner 
 in which Your Lordship has administered the extensive territories 
 committed to your charge, it is sufficient to say that Your Excellency's 
 name will go down to posterity as one whose career will bear a 
 favourable comparison with those of the most illustrious representatives 
 of India of Her Majesty the Queen-Empress, and we trust that a 
 gracious Providence may enable Your Lordship long to enjoy the well- 
 earned fame." 
 
 Mr. Siraj-nl-Hasun then stepped forward, and explained to His 
 Excellency that, as he was not well acquainted with English, he had 
 given the purport of the address in Urdu verse, and asked His Excel- 
 lency to accept it, which was accordingly done. 
 
 His Excellency then rose and addressed the deputation of the 
 various classes in words more or less to this effect: — 
 
 It gave him much pleasure to hear the feelings of loyalty, which 
 they had just expressed, towards the British Government, and he 
 would be glad to convey their sentiments to Her Majesty. He was 
 gratified at the welcome they had given him personally, and also as 
 Her Majesty's representative. He had no doubt they expressed the 
 genuine feelings of the residents of the Cantonment of Secunderabad, 
 and he was, therefore, much delighted at the expressions of loyalty 
 and welcome. They had touched upon three points in their address, 
 which he admitted were very important and entitled to his careful 
 consideration ; but the information they afforded him was of necessity 
 so limited, that he was not in a position to give an opinion. He would 
 therefore, leave it in the hands of his friend, Mr. Cordery, who, after 
 carefully investigating it, would forward his views to the Viceroy for 
 favourable consideration. He was much obliged to them for the good 
 wishes expressed on his and Lady Ripon's behalf, who, he was sorry to 
 say, was unable to be present on that pleasant occasion, owing to a 
 slight indisposition. In conclusion, he thanked them for the valuable 
 casket with which they had presented him. The design was both 
 original and displayed great taste, more so than any other he had yet 
 received. 
 
 To the address by the Mohammedans, His Excellency replied some- 
 what to this effect : — " Gentlemen, indeed I have much pleasure in 
 accepting this address on behalf of the Mohammedan community of 
 the Secunderabad cantonment. I am astonished at the loyalty of the 
 Mohammedans, and glad to see it. It has been a source of pleasure 
 to me in that I have had the pleasing task of placing, with my own 
 hands, H.H. the Nizam on his hereditary throne, and I can assure 
 you I will ever take a deep interest in him and his subjects. I assure 
 you, gentlemen, it lies entirely in your own hands to educate your
 
 APPENDIX. lx.X 
 
 people, and I hope that you who are educated will take an interest and 
 exert yourselves in this matter. I can assui'e you, I am always ready 
 to support the Mohammedan community." 
 
 In answer to the address in Urdu, written in verse, and especially 
 presented by Mr. Syed Siraj-ul-Hasun, Police and Railway Secretary to 
 H.H. the Nizam's Government, His Excellency said that he was very 
 much obliged to Mr. Syed Siraj-ul-Hasun for the address ; that he was 
 unable to reply to it, as His Excellency was not acquainted with Urdu, 
 but that he would not fail to have it translated for his information 
 later on. 
 
 H.E. THE VICEROY'S DEPARTURE. 
 
 His Excellency the Viceroy and Governor- General of India, having 
 accomplished the mission upon which he visited Hyderabad, and its 
 concomitant observances, arrived at the Secunderabad Railway Station 
 at half-past two yesterday afternoon, on his return to Bengal, accom- 
 panied by Lady Ripon and their suite, escorted by a squadron of the 
 14th Hussars, and a squadron of the Hyderabad Contingent. The 
 Viceregal party left the Bolarum Residency at a quarter to two ; and 
 during its progress through the military lines, salutes were fired and 
 other demonstrations made of loyalty and attachment to the British 
 Crown and the honour due to its representative. On His Excellency's 
 approaching the railway station the guard of honour, furnished by the 
 24th Native Infantry, presented arms, and on his reaching the platform 
 the same compliment was paid by a guard of honour of the Middlesex 
 Regiment, each being supplemented by the first part of the National 
 Anthem by their respective bands. To meet His Excellency there was 
 on the platform a select gathering of the principal officers and notables 
 of this station and of Hyderabad, including H.H. the Nizam, accom- 
 panied by the Minister the Peshcar, Shums-ool-Oomrah, Busher-oo- 
 Dowlah, and Vicar-ool-Oomrah, the Resident and Staff, the Major- 
 General Commanding Hydei'abad Subsidiary Force and Staff, the 
 Brigadier- General Commanding Hyderabad Contingent and Staff, the 
 commanding officers of the corps in cantonment, and a few departmental 
 and regimental officers, with most of whom in turn His Excellency and 
 her Ladyship shook hands, exchanged compliments, and conversed 
 freely and affably. They remained on the platform for the space of 
 twenty minutes or more, bowing in graceful recognition of the respect 
 paid to them in the doffing of caps and hats by the spectators as their 
 Excellencies passed to and fro. The Secunderabad station and its 
 appended buildings, and the quarters of the railway officials within the 
 premises, were gaily festooned and decorated. The station especially 
 presented an air of gaiety without garishness. The management of
 
 Lxxii APPENDIX. 
 
 the vai'ious flags and devices, the judicious blending of colours, and 
 the neatness with which they were disposed, commanded particular 
 notice and elicited much commendation. It evinced taste and skill, 
 and must have cost much labour. As their Excellencies entered the 
 archway they were greeted with a shower of small bouquets and single 
 flowers falling from the roof, which caused some surprise to their 
 Excellencies and others. Her Ladyship pronounced the contrivance to 
 be unique, and the effects one of the prettiest she had ever seen. The 
 floor of the archway was carpeted, and the space thence to the car- 
 riages covered with red floor-cloth. It is to be regretted it did not 
 occur to those who so well superintended the decorations that appeared 
 so complete, to put up also an awning from the archway to the car- 
 riage, as the sun at that hour was powerful. As the train got into 
 motion, the Royal Artillery, who were on the other side of the line> 
 fired a salute of thirty-one guns ; and, ere it was over, the sound of 
 locomotion produced by the vehicles which conveyed away Lord and 
 Lady Ripon had died away in the distance. 
 
 With reference to my remark at page xv, that General Wright 
 communicated to the Resident his impression that he had been 
 appointed to the command by the Viceroy for the purpose of 
 reforming the Contingent, "but that this was not confirmed by 
 official documents", I wish it to be clearly understood that I have 
 not the slightest doubt that General Wright really entertained 
 that impression. There can be no question that General Wright 
 is an admirable soldier, indefatigable in every way to promote 
 what appears to him to be for the benefit of those over whom 
 he exercises command, but too much in favour of the regula- 
 tions and traditions of the Bengal Army, in which he was 
 trained, to appreciate the political and social conditions on which 
 the Silladari system was founded, conditions which still exist, and 
 the existence of which makes any tampering with that system and 
 its vested interests most unadvisable and most dangerous. 
 
 The Resident, Sir Richard Meade, ascertained at an interview 
 with the Viceroy, Lord Nortlibrook, that General Wright had 
 misunderstood his instructions, and this was confirmed by General 
 Sir Henry Norman and by the Military Secretary, Colonel Earle. 
 
 Again, I remarked in my Memorandum, submitted to Sir Stuart 
 Day ley (page xxi, footnote), that some of the Orders issued by the
 
 appendix. lxxiii 
 
 General were similar to those which resulted in two officers of the 
 Cavalry Division being cut clown on parade in 1S2S, and which, I 
 may add, brought down upon the Resident a rebuke and a warning 
 from the Court of Directors, dated 15th April 1829, in the follow- 
 ing terms : — 
 
 "We cannot hold the Resident, , entirely blameless. 
 
 It certainly reflects no credit on the principal British functionary 
 in the Nizam's country that proceedings, which have led to such 
 serious results, should have been taking place under his official 
 authority for a considerable length of time without his interference. 
 Certain allowances are undoubtedly to be made for the situation 
 
 of , who, as a Civil Servant, naturally reposed greater 
 
 confidence in the long experience and tried character of Lieut.- 
 Colonel Davies than in his own judgment ; and believed that 
 officer's assurances that the new regimental arrangements con- 
 tained nothing offensive or injurious to the men. The event has 
 proved, however, that such implicit reliance is not safe ; and the 
 Resident, as the representative of the British Government, was 
 both entitled and bound to exercise a surveillance over all the 
 acts of British officers in the Nizam's Service, whether civil or 
 military." 
 
 In recalling the fatal occurrences of 1828, and the judgment 
 passed upon them by the Home Government, I have not the 
 slightest intention of suggesting that General Wright was either 
 of a harsh or of a rash temperament as Commandant of a Force ; 
 but I have always wished, in my capacity of military adviser to 
 the Resident, and wish now, to point out that the Resident is the 
 responsible officer who is bound to guard against anything occur- 
 ring, whether it be an innovation or not, calculated to injure or to 
 irritate soldiers of a special class and of rare quality, such as those 
 of the Hyderabad Cavalry formerly were. I was, therefore, com- 
 pelled to state forcibly my apprehension of bad consequences, 
 sooner or later, if the Resident did not interfere. I had, subse- 
 quently, good grounds for anxiety in the conduct of two troops of 
 one of our Regiments which, in my opinion, as well as in that of 
 others competent to judge, had been drawn into insubordination. 
 When, later on, in 1882, a Regiment of Infantry, or a large part of it, 
 misbehaved, I considered it high time to prevent a similar censure 
 to that of 1829 coming down upon the Civilian Residents under
 
 lxxiv APPENDIX. 
 
 whom I had lately been called upon to serve, to submit what may 
 be termed an indictment reviewing what had occurred. 
 
 The recognition given by Sir Stuart Bayley to the efforts that I 
 had made to keep down the expenditure in connection with the 
 Contingent was very encouraging to me, and proves more strongly 
 than ever what I have always maintained, that everything con- 
 nected with the Contingent should be carefully considered on 
 broad principles of political equity, and not committed to the 
 routine of any Department. 
 
 In conclusion, I wish to call attention to the fact that from the 
 year 1866, when my letter written to the Secretary of State for 
 India at his desire 1 (as also one I addressed to the President of the 
 Board of Control, the Eight Honble. Henry J. Baillie, which will 
 appear in a subsequent publication) resulted in my views receiving 
 attention and being adopted, I have consistently adhered to my 
 then formed resolution not to allow any consideration of 
 incurring ill-will to deter me from pointing out, from time to 
 time, innovations or interference, whether connected with the 
 Hyderabad Contingent in the Military Department, or with 
 changes in connection with the Force which, as local Auditor- 
 General, I regulated. The acceptance of my views in almost every 
 instance is an abiding reward to me for my former successful 
 labour. 
 
 1 Ante, p. xxvi.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Abkaree, or Excise revenue, of Se- 
 cunderabad and Jaulna — appro- 
 priated by the British Government 
 to its own purposes, but claimed by 
 the Nizam in 1850, 1851, and 1852, 
 348, 361 to 365, and 433 ; claim 
 admitted by Lord Canning 365. 
 
 Adam, Sir Frederick, Governor of 
 Madras, appoints Colonel Fraser 
 to proceed against Coorg, 23 ; 
 letters on Coorg and Mysore affairs, 
 25, 26, 27 ; letters to him from 
 Colonel Fraser, 28, 29, 30. 
 
 Aitchison, Mr., now Sir Charles U., 
 Foreign Secretary at Calcutta, 420. 
 
 Arabs, irregular mercenaries in the 
 service of the Nizam and of chief- 
 tains in his country, 42, 261, 294, 
 344, 345 ; their good conduct 
 during the Mutinies, 239, 477. 
 
 Armstrong, Edward, Captain, af 
 ter wards General of the Madras 
 Army, his letters from Kurnool, 
 56, 58 ; letter to him, 160. 
 
 Army, Nizam's. See Contingent. 
 
 Assamee, right of a Silladar to own a 
 horse in aCavalryRegiment, 395,460 
 to 462, and Additional Appendix. 
 
 Assigned Districts. See Berar 
 Provinces. 
 
 Auckland, George Frederick, Earl 
 of, Governor-General, letter to 
 him, 41 to 53 ; letter from him, 
 53 ; urges Colonel Stewart, the 
 Resident, to get districts assigned 
 for pay of Contingent, 89 ; his 
 policy with regard to the Contin- 
 gent and the Nizam's administra- 
 tion, 122; gives General Fraser 
 carte blanche to deal with mutiny, 
 129 ; thanks General Fraser for 
 putting down mutiny, 139, 140. 
 
 Badamee, a fort in the Sholapore 
 district, seized by insurgent Arabs, 
 116; recaptured, 117, 119. 
 
 Bal Mookund, one of the Nizam's 
 courtiers and counsellors, 164, 317. 
 
 Bala Pershad, Rajah, son of Ma- 
 haraja Chundoo Lall, 173, 174. 
 
 Balfour, Surgeon-General Edward, 
 of the Madras Army, a corres- 
 pondent of General Fraser, 242. 
 
 Bank, projected at Hyderabad, 389 ; 
 wrecked by Lord Dalhousie's pro- 
 hibition, 390. 
 
 Bargheer, a trooper who rides a 
 horse belonging to a Silladar, Ad- 
 ditional Appendix. 
 
 Beatson, Brigadier W. F., of the 
 Nizam's Contingent, 327 ; his pro- 
 posal to send Nizam's Cavalry to 
 the Cape, 335, 336, 337. 
 
 Bell, Major Evans, letters to him 
 from General J. S. Fraser, 455, 456, 
 457. 
 
 Berar Provinces, the, selected with 
 other districts as territorial security 
 for alleged debt, 305 ; demanded 
 345, 346 ; General Fraser's instruc- 
 tions for their temporary manage- 
 ment, 370 to 372 ; their sequestra- 
 tion under Treaty a work of com- 
 pulsion, 414 to 417 ; assigned for 
 temporary management, 416 ; a 
 permanent hold unwarrantably 
 assumed, 417, 418 ; surplus and 
 accounts withheld in contraven- 
 tion of Treaty, 341, 420, 430, 431. 
 
 Blundell, Colonel, C.B., commands 
 detachment of Subsidiary Force 
 sent against Goolburga, 284. 
 
 Carpenter, Charles, of the Madras 
 Civil Service, brother-in-law of
 
 l.YXY 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 James Stuart Fraser, arid brother- 
 in-law of Sir Walter Scott, 6 ; 
 letters to him from Scott, 7 to 17. 
 
 CAVALRY, Hyderabad Contingent, its 
 origin, G6 ; reformed in 1816, 71 . 
 pi'oposed for service at the Cape, 
 335, 336, 337 ; dissensions in 5th 
 Regiment at Aurungabad, 350 ; 
 trials of Zoolficar Ali Beg and 
 others, 393 to 404 ; injudicious in- 
 novations in constitution and dis- 
 cipline, 460, and Additional Ap- 
 pendix. 
 
 Ciit'ndoo Lall, Maharajah, the 
 Nizam's Dewan Peshcar or Minis- 
 ter, 35, 40, 42, 44, 48 ; his personal 
 appearance, 79 ; " devoted " to 
 British interests, 86 ; the great ob- 
 stacle to reform, 114 ; his removal 
 advisable, 122 to 125 ; his jealousy 
 and underhand opposition, 157, 
 158, 212; tenders resignation, 183, 
 184 ; complains of General Fraser 
 and Captain Malcolm, 196 ; his 
 mysterious remittances to Cal- 
 cutta, 197, 198, 199,307 ; his death, 
 206 ; never actually invested with 
 rank of Dewan, 210 ; always im- 
 pressed on the Nizam's mind that 
 he must maintain the Contingent, 
 315, 369, 387, 388. 
 
 Clerk, Sir George Russell, G.C.S.I., 
 242. 
 
 Coisun, Due De, 292, 303. 
 
 Contingent, Hyderabad, or Ni- 
 zam's Army, co-operates at Kur- 
 nool, 56 ; its origin and history, 65 
 to 77 ; not justified by provision 
 of any Treaty, 76, 77, 90, 248 ; 
 does the work of the Subsidiary 
 Force, 91, 260, 352, 3(31 ; aversion 
 of the Nizam to its maintenance, 
 89, 90, 94, 165 ; exists only "on 
 sufferance", 90 ; Resident's autho- 
 rity over it complete, 128 ; never 
 takes the field without inquiry, 
 208 ; Chundoo Lall complains of 
 its increased expenses, 165, 172 ; 
 kept " up for our purposes, not 
 the Nizam's", 248, 260 ; Sir J. L. 
 Lushington suggests its disband- 
 ment, 248 ; Colonel Low recom- 
 mends its reduction, 248 to 
 255 ; Lord Dalhousie admits it 
 to be "unfairly large and too 
 expensive", 258 ; acknowledges 
 its " extravagant costliness", 269 ; 
 
 its services withheld from the 
 Nizam, 260 ; Sir Frederick Currie 
 calls it " a costly incubus", 434 ; the 
 special obligations of the Treaty 
 of 1800 shifted to the Contingent 
 by the Treaty of 1853, 427, 428 ; 
 its cost cut down after the Treaty 
 of 1853, 355 ; but swelled up again 
 when the obligation of accounts 
 was removed, 430. 
 
 Coorg, Colonel J. S. Fraser appointed 
 Political Agent with Force, 23 ; 
 Rajah deposed and deported, 25 ; 
 Commissioner and Commandant in 
 Coorg, 27 ; the Coorgas put down 
 a rebellion, 29. 
 
 CuBBON, General Sir Mark, Commis- 
 sioner of Mysore, letters to him ; 
 148, 293 ; was allowed to leave 
 India without any compliment or 
 thanks, 443 ; letter from him, 450. 
 
 Cundasamy, Rajah, his good services, 
 465. 
 
 Currie, Mr., afterwards Sir Frede- 
 rick, Secretary to the Government 
 of India, letter from him, 203 ; 
 calls the Contingent a "costly 
 army", organised with " no autho- 
 rity under Treaty", and " an incu- 
 bus on the State", 434. 
 
 Dalhousie, Earl, afterwards Mar- 
 quis of, Governor-General, his 
 arrival, 230, 231 ; interview with 
 Mr. Dighton, 244 ; with Colonel 
 Low, 256 ; letter from him, " the 
 Nizam must go to the dogs his own 
 way", 267, 268 ; difference between 
 his views and General Fraser's, 
 270, -J 71, 272, 273, 342, 343, 344; 
 letters from him, 277, 282, 283, 
 286, 291, " recognises no mission to 
 regenerate Indian States" ; letters 
 from him, 294, 298, 299, 302, 303, 
 318, 320, 326, 336 ; " sharp words 
 are likely to receive sharp answers", 
 337, 348, 350 ; stigmatises General 
 Fraser's policy as " ambitious 
 greed", 342 ; admits " extravagant 
 costliness'' of Contingent, but will 
 not " reduce a man", 352, 353 ; 
 " very willing" to reduce, but does 
 not do it, 354, 355 ; rejects the 
 Nizam's claim to Sccundcrabad 
 Excise, 364 ; letter from him, 367 ; 
 ilincts General Fraser to "abstain 
 from pressing" for payment, 375 ;
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Ixxvii 
 
 letter explaining that he has de- 
 cided on having territory under 
 Treaty, 375 to 380 ; prohibits the 
 new Bank at Hyderabad, 390 ; 
 accuses General Fraser of " party 
 feeling", 399 ; gives up the words 
 " in perpetuity" in the Treaty of 
 1853, but claims to have obtained 
 '•'•perpetual government", 417, 418 ; 
 gives up in council all his original 
 contentions against the Nizam, but 
 enforces them, 425, 426 ; his pre- 
 eminent influence in 1853, 444 to 
 446 ; in his annexation policy acted 
 under instructions, 459. 
 
 Davidson, Captain Cuthbert, after- 
 wards Colonel and Resident, Assist- 
 ant Resident under General Fraser, 
 his interview with Rajah Ram 
 Buksh about pledging the Nizam's 
 jewels, 313 ; says we had "no just 
 claim" against the Nizam for debt 
 in 1853, 365 ; a threatening note 
 to the Minister signed by him, 414 ; 
 says that the promise of limited 
 expense in management was made 
 to induce the assignment of Berar 
 in 1853, 421. 
 
 Dewan, or Minister, Chundoo Lall 
 had the full powers, but not the 
 patent or commission as Dewan, 
 210, 218; style of the Dewan's 
 correspondence with the Governor- 
 General, 216, 217 ; efficient Dewan 
 wanted, 332, 333. 
 
 Dhuleep Singh, the Maharajah, 
 mentioned in a letter from Lord 
 Hardinge, 215. 
 
 Dighton, Henry, banker and mer- 
 chant in the Hyderabad country, 
 192 ; his employment in the 
 Nizam's civil service forbidden, 
 218, 219 ; illogical objection made 
 to his intimacy with the Resident, 
 221 ; letter from him, describing 
 an interview with Lord Dalhousie, 
 244 ; his employment again sug- 
 gested, 272, 370 ; promotes the 
 establishment of a Bank at Hyder- 
 abad, and a loan to the Nizam on 
 the security of jewels, 389 ; 
 threatened with deportation, 390 ; 
 honestly removes the pledged 
 jewels to Europe, 392. 
 
 Doria, Lieut.-Gen. Richard Andrew, 
 240, 408, 409. 
 
 Du Puy, Count, Governor of Pondi- 
 
 cherry and of the French settle- 
 ments in India, 22, and Appendix A. 
 
 Durand, Major-General Sir Henry, 
 orders a field allowance to the 
 Hyderabad Cavalry, 419 (footnote) 
 and Appendix C. 
 
 Dyce, Colonel Archibald Brown, 
 afterwards General, of the. Madras 
 Army, commands force at Kur- 
 nool, 56. 
 
 Eastwick, E. B., C.B., author of 
 
 Dry Leaves from Young Egypt, 287, 
 288. 
 
 Eastwick, Capt. W. J., Director 
 E.I.C., and member of Indian 
 Council, 288 (footnote). 
 
 Ellenborough, Lord, afterwards 
 Earl of, Governor-General, letters 
 from him, 140, 160, 169, 177, 180, 
 18(5, 193, 202 ; his letter to the 
 Duke of Wellington on the Secun- 
 derabad mutiny, 149 ; circular to 
 Political Agents, 152 ; warns the 
 Nizam to act "according to the 
 counsels of the Resident", 165 ; 
 proposes a Treaty for a loan to the 
 Nizam and British management of 
 Hyderabad country, 187 ; takes no 
 notice of Chundoo LalPs mys- 
 terious remittances, 198, 199, 307 ; 
 his removal from office, 203, 204. 
 
 Elpiiinstone, Lord John, G.C.B., 
 etc., Governor of Madra, announces 
 General Fraser's appointment to 
 the Hyderabad Residency, 37 ; 
 letters to him, 55, 59, 78, 115, 119, 
 130, 137, 138, 161 ; letters from 
 him, 102, 105, 108, 139, 117, 127, 
 133, 135, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 149. 
 
 Elpiiinstone, General W. K., two 
 letters from him to Lord Elpiiin- 
 stone, 146, 147. 
 
 Fraser, General Hastings, elder 
 brother of General James Stuart 
 Fraser, birth, 2 ; godson of War- 
 ren Hastings, 2 ; services and death, 
 3. 
 
 Fraser, General J. S., ancestry and 
 parentage, 1,2 ; education, 3; arri- 
 val in India, A. D. C, to Governor 
 of Madras, 4 ; joins expedition to 
 Mauritius, 21 ; Commissioner for 
 French, Dutch, and Danish settle- 
 ments, 21, 22 ; Political Agent in 
 Coorg, 23 ; Resident at Mysore,
 
 1X30 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 27 : at Travancore, 27, 31 ; ap- 
 pointed Resident at Hyderabad, 
 32 ; letter to Lord Auckland, 41 
 to 53 ; first interview with the 
 Nizam, 78 ; in letters to Lord 
 Auckland, says expense of Con- 
 tingent is excessive and it exists 
 only " on sufferance", 89, 90 ; con- 
 tends for promotion of reform in 
 Hyderabad State under four 
 Governors-General, 122, 123, 373 ; 
 tries to strengthen Nizam's govern- 
 ment by Native agency, 124, 153, 
 176 ; puts down mutiny at Secun- 
 derabad, 132, 133,150 ; thanked by 
 Government of Madras and Lord 
 Auckland, 139 ; difference with 
 Lord Ellenborough as to inquiry 
 into Sepoys' condition, 140, 149 to 
 151 ; presses the removal of Chun- 
 doo Lall, 185: says military force 
 is not wanted for the introduction 
 of reforms, 213, 228 ; plan for a 
 model district under Dighton, 219, 
 220, 372 ; puts down mutiny in 
 the Nizam's Line troops, 222 ; takes 
 his only leave of absence in fifty 
 years. 231 ; marriage in 1826, 233 ; 
 his daily work and life, 237 to 240 ; 
 accused of " ambitious greed" by 
 Lord Dalhousie, 342 ; his instruc- 
 tions to Captains Taylor and Bul- 
 lock, and Mr. Dighton for managing 
 Nizam's districts, 370 to 372 ; 
 thinks the Nizam would offer 
 "passive resistance" to a Treaty 
 for assigning districts, 384 ; repels 
 indignantly a charge of " party 
 spirit", 400 ; resigns the Residency, 
 408 ; leaves Hyderabad and n t urns 
 to England, 41 1 and 444 ; declines 
 to attack the Court of Directors, 
 446, 447 ; signs a petition against 
 the annexation of Mysore, 456 ; 
 letters to Major Evans Bell, 455, 
 456,459 ; death, 464 ; his character 
 and counsels, 46."), 466. 
 
 Goa, Archbishop of, claims the Pa- 
 t riarchate, and metropolitan powers 
 over all India, 274 ; prohibited by 
 the Court of Rome from interfer- 
 ing with the Vicars-Apostolic, 274, 
 275 276. 
 
 GtORdr, J. *E. Esq., Q.C., M.P., erro- 
 neously cries down fc ir Salar Jung's 
 administration, and asserts, on in- 
 
 sufficient grounds, that the popula- 
 tion of Hyderabad is wretched and 
 oppressed, Preface, ix to xii, and 
 436. 
 Gresley, Captain Francis, of the 
 Nizam's Contingent, commands in 
 the attack on Murchair, 156 ; let- 
 ters from him, 157, 158. 
 
 Hardinge, Sir Henry, afterwards 
 Viscount, Governor-General, on his 
 way out, 204 ; his letter to the 
 Nizam, 206 ; Nizam's letter to him, 
 communicating the appointment of 
 a Minister, 213 ; letter from him, 
 215. 
 
 Hastings, Marquis of, Governor- 
 General of India, determined to 
 maintain the Contingent as "an 
 inexpensive addition to our 
 strength", 357 ; and to uphold 
 Chundoo Lall, 358. 
 
 Hastings, Warren, Governor-Gene- 
 ral of India, godfather to Colonel 
 Charles Fraser's eldest son, letter 
 from him, 2. 
 
 Hyderabad, State of, sketch of its 
 history, 32 to 36 ; its population as 
 well off as in British provinces, 
 Preface, 79, 87, 226 ; absurdly said 
 to be "subsidised", 217. 
 
 Karamut Ali, judicial officer sent to 
 try prisoners at Murchair, 157. 
 
 Khureeta (lit. "bag"), letter to or 
 from a Prince or Dignitary, enclosed 
 in an ornamental bag, draft of one 
 to the Nizam suggested by General 
 Fraser to Lord Dalhousie, 327 to 
 329 ; the letter actually sent by 
 Lord Dalhousie, treating the Nizam 
 as " the dust under foot", 344. 
 
 Kurnool, Nawab of, detected in 
 conspiracy, 55 ; deposed, 58 ; won- 
 derful accumulation of guns and 
 stores in his arsenal, 56, 57 ; his 
 death, 103. 
 
 Link, The, "Bar", or " Line-wallas", 
 the Nizam's own Infantry, reduc- 
 tion of their numbers by Sooraj- 
 ool-Moolk, mutiny suppressed by 
 General Fraser, 221, 222 ; Nizam 
 dislikes their reduction, 259, 261. 
 
 Low, General Sir John, acts as Resi- 
 dent during General Fraser's ab- 
 sence on leave, 246 ; letter to him
 
 INDEX. 
 
 lxxix 
 
 from Sir J. L. Lushington, 247 ; 
 his reply, advising large reduction 
 of the Contingent, 248 ; second 
 letter on same subject, 251 ; his 
 official views on that point, 255 ; 
 letter to General, describing inter- 
 view with Lord Dalhousie, 256 ; 
 urged on the Nizam that his father 
 had " practically acquiesced " in 
 the Contingent, 387. 
 
 Lushington, Charles May, Madras 
 Civil Service, letters from him, 170, 
 204. 
 
 Lushington, General Sir James Law, 
 Director of the East India Com- 
 pany, extract of letter from him, 
 170 ; letter to him, 224 ; letter from 
 him to Colonel Low on the Con- 
 tingent, 247 ; recommends its dis- 
 bandment, 248. 
 
 Mackenzie, Brigadier, afterwards 
 Lieut. -General, Colin, C.B., 303, 
 304 ; official differences with Resi- 
 dent, 317, 318, 319, 320. 
 
 Macnaghten, Sir William Hay, 
 Bart., Secretary to Government of 
 India, his memorandum on the 
 Hyderabad Contingent, G5 to 77 ; 
 letter to him, 82 ; letter from Jel- 
 lalabad, 101. 
 
 McEgan. Dr., Nizam's Cavalry, cen- 
 sured by Lord Dalhousie for taking 
 part in a cavalry charge, 294, 290. 
 
 McGoun, Captain Thos., afterwards 
 General, Deputy-Judge Advocate- 
 General at Hyderabad, his advice 
 and opinions as to the Aurungabad 
 trials and trial of Zoolficar Ali 
 Beg, 397, 398, 403 to 407. 
 
 Maddock, Sir Herbert, Seci'etary to 
 the Government of India, 122. 
 
 Madhava Rao, Sir T., K.C.S.I., 
 Dewan of Travancore, Indore, and 
 Baroda, 111 (foot-note) ; relative of 
 Vencata Rao of Mysore, 236. 
 
 Malcolm, Captain D., Assistant-Re- 
 sident, his interview with Chundoo 
 Lall, 171. 
 
 Mayne, Brigadier William, of the 
 
 Nizam's Army, 394, 403, 404, 406. 
 Meade, General Sir Richard, his tes- 
 timony to Sir Salar Jung's re- 
 formed administration, 441. 
 Metcalfe, Sir Charles, afterwards 
 Lord, Resident at Hyderabad, de- 
 
 clares the maintenance of the Con- 
 tingent unjust, 74, 76, 77. 
 Montgomery, Sir Henry, Bart., 
 
 Madras Civil Service, 55. 
 Moore, Major J. A., Military Secre- 
 tary at Hyderabad, afterwards a 
 Director of the East India Com- 
 pany, 80, 82, 91 ; his views on the 
 Contingent and Subsidiary Force, 
 260, 261 ; letters to him, 279, 338, 
 446, 447. 
 Mountain, Colonel Armine, C.B., 
 Military Secretary to the Earl of 
 Dalhousie, letters to and from him, 
 231, 232. 
 Mubariz-ool-Dowla, brother of the 
 Nizam, implicated in conspiracy, 
 38 ; in concert with Nawab of Kur- 
 nool, 56 ; confined in fort of Gol- 
 conda, 59, 61 ; assumed treasonable 
 titles, 63 ; complains to the Resi- 
 dent of harsh treatment, 311. 
 Munster, George Augustus, first 
 Earl of, mentioned in letter from 
 Lord Elphinstone, 102 ; letter from 
 him asking for books on Mussul- 
 man arms and tactics, 103 ; Lord 
 Elphinstone mentions him, 106 ; 
 letter to him, 107 ; Lord Elphin- 
 stone mentions his researches, 108 ; 
 suicide, 109, 110. 
 Murchair, Rajah of, 155 ; check of 
 Contingent force before his fort, 
 155 ; fort captured, 159 ; Arab pri- 
 soners tried, 158 ; Rajah acquitted, 
 159 ; Lord Ellenborough on the 
 conduct of troops and officers at 
 the attack on the fort, 160. 
 Murphy, Right Rev. Dr., Bishop of 
 Philadelphia in partibus and Vicar 
 Apostolic of Hyderabad, 274 to 
 279. 
 Mysore, Maharajah of, mismanaged 
 and unfairly treated, the permanent 
 assumption of his country would 
 be unjustifiable, 28, 93 ; letters 
 from H.H., 452, 453. 
 Mysore, State of, its annexation de- 
 termined upon, 4, 55 ; General 
 Fraser signs a petition against 
 that measui'e, 456. 
 
 Napier, General Sir Charles, Com- 
 mander-in-Chief in India, accused 
 by Lord Dalhousie of " extrava- 
 gant exaggerations " and " unjust 
 imputations against the Bengal
 
 lxxx 
 
 [NDEX. 
 
 Army", 126; quarrels with Lord 
 Dalhousie, 289. 
 Nizam-ool-Moolk, title of the Nawab 
 Soubadar of the Deccan, Sovereign 
 of the Hyderabad State, sketch of 
 the family history, 32 to 36 ; for- 
 merly addressed the Governor- 
 General as a superior, 217 ; inter- 
 view with General Fraser, 78, 83, 
 211, 282, 299, 309, 314, 321, 323, 
 346, 374 : pawns his jewels to pay 
 the alleged debt on account of the 
 Contingent, 367, 389; personally 
 claims from the Resident the 
 excise revenues of Secunderabad 
 and Jaulna, 433 ; much affected at 
 General Fraser's departure, 444. 
 
 Olipiiant, Major, Director of the 
 East India Company, letter to him, 
 226. 
 
 OLPHERTS, General William, Y.C., 
 C.B., 241. 
 
 OPIUM, grown in the Nizam's Do- 
 minions, questionable restrictions 
 on its export, 246. 
 
 PAGAH, the Nizam's Household 
 troops, 50 ; also the term for the 
 body of horses belonging to a 
 Sdladar of Cavalry owning more 
 than one horse, Additional Ap- 
 pendix. 
 
 Peshcar, or Finance Minister of the 
 Hyderabad State. See Chundoo 
 Lall and Ram Buksh. 
 
 PONDICHERRY, principal French pos- 
 session in India, Captain J. S. 
 Fraser, Commissioner and Com- 
 mandant there, 21, 22 ; Appendix 
 A, letters of Count Du Puy. 
 
 Pottinger, Right Hon. Sir Henry, 
 Bart., G.C.B., Governor of Madras, 
 letters to and from him, 286, 287, 
 288, 289 ; letters to him, 341. 
 
 Ram Btksii, Rajah, nephew of 
 Maharajah Chundoo Lall, ap- 
 pointed Peshcar, 190; his inca- 
 pacity and want of influence, 199 ; 
 reappointed Peschar, 302 ; pro- 
 tests that he is helpless, 307 ; says 
 the Nizam intends to pawn jewels, 
 313; again dismissed, 314, 315 to 
 319. 
 
 ROHILLAS, Lord Dalhousie declines to 
 deport them to Peshawur, 294,295. 
 
 RuSHEEp-OOli-MoOLK, the Nizam's 
 confidential secretary, 183, 184, 189. 
 
 Salak Jung, Nawab Sir, Minister of 
 the Nizam, his reforms carried out 
 on lines laid down by General 
 Fraser. 238, 280; redeems from 
 Mr. Dighton the Nizam's pawned 
 jewels, 392 ; letter to Sir George 
 Yule, 437 ; his policy, 46o ; auto- 
 graph letter from him, Additional 
 . [ppi ml). >■ . 
 Saunders, C. B., Esq., C.B., Resident 
 at Hyderabad, testimony to the 
 reforms under Sir Salar Jung's 
 administration, 440. 441. 
 Scott, Sir Walter, letters to Charles 
 
 Carpenter, 7 to 18. 
 Scott, Charlotte Margaret, Lady, 
 sister of Charles Carpenter, 6 ; 
 letter to him, 18. 
 Secunder Jah, Nizam, father of 
 the Nizam Nasir-ood-Dowla, 35, 
 36, 48 ; title of " Royal Highness" 
 proposed for him, 217 (footnote). 
 Shums-OOL-Oomra, Nawab Ameer-i- 
 Kabeer, head of a noble family 
 connected with that of the Nizam 
 by marriage, 42, 50 ; installed as 
 Dewan, 283, 286 ; his complaints, 
 296, 297 ; dismissed from office, 
 299, 300.' 
 Soltykoff, Prince, 117, 120. 
 Sooltan Mohammed, his good, ser- 
 vices, 465. 
 SOORAJ-OOD-DOWLA, afterwards Soo- 
 raj-ool-Moolk, Nawab, son of the 
 Minister Mooner-ool-Moolk, 42 ; 
 gives portrait of the Queen to the 
 Nizam, 56, 164 ; on Chundoo 
 Lall's resignation appointed Wakeel 
 or Agent by the Nizam, 195 ; 
 granted full powers as Minister, 
 210 ; dismissed from office, 264, 
 267; his reforms, 238, 239, 240, 
 280 ; Court of Directors wish him 
 to have our "decided support", 
 256 ; reappointed Minister with 
 full powers, 346 ; his reforms, 436, 
 437. 
 STEVENSON, General, great uncle of 
 
 Mrs. J. S. Fraser, 233. 
 STEWART, Colonel Josiah, Resident 
 at Hyderabad, thinks we do not do 
 justice to the Nizam's administra-> 
 tion, 86, 87, 88 ; is charged to get
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Ixxxi 
 
 districts assigned for pay of Con- 
 tingent, 89. 
 Stokes, Major, afterwards Major- 
 General, Resident at Mysore, men- 
 tioned in letter to Sir Frederick 
 Adam, 28 ; letter to him, 93. 
 Subsidiary Force, Hyderabad, kept 
 much below its strength under 
 Treaty, 81, 360, 361 ; its duties 
 done by the Contingent, 91, 260, 
 352 ; unwarranted savings by its 
 reduction in numbers, 361 and 426, 
 427 ; Resident's complete authority 
 over it, 128 ; mutiny of Native 
 troops put down by General Fra- 
 ser, 129 to 133, 137, 139 ; detach- 
 ment moved against rebels at 
 Goolburga, 284 ; shifting of its 
 duties under Treaty of 1853, 427, 
 428. 
 Sullivan, John, some time of the 
 Madras Civil Service, and Member 
 of Council, his views on Lord 
 Dalhousie's annexation policy, 448. 
 Sykes, Colonel, M.P., Director of 
 East India Company, 242 ; his 
 views as to the Contingent and 
 Subsidiary Forces, 260, 359, 422. 
 
 Taylor, Captain Meadows, of the 
 Nizam's Army ; author of Con- 
 fesaions of a TJmg, Tara, and other 
 works, 167, 263; selected for 
 management of assigned district, 
 272, 370. 
 
 Temple, Sir Richard, Resident at 
 Hyderabad, his testimony to Sir 
 Salar Jung's good administration, 
 439. 
 
 Travancore, Native State in South- 
 ern India, Colonel J. S. Fraser 
 appointed Resident there, 27 ; 
 letter to Sir F. Adam, 29 ; letter 
 from the Elliah Rajah or Heir 
 Apparent, 111 ; letter from the 
 Rajah, 449. 
 
 Trevandrum, capital of Trevancore, 
 29. 
 
 Tucker, Henry St. George, member 
 of the Court of Directors, his 
 
 opinion of Lord Dalhousie's policy 
 and of the Nizam's alleged indebted- 
 ness, 448, 449. 
 
 Vencata Rao, a Brahmin official of 
 distinction in Mysore, proposed to 
 be employed in Hyderabad with a 
 view to financial reforms, 99, 100, 
 125, 153, 154, 177 ; his arrival at 
 Hyderabad and death, 181, 186; 
 relative of Sir T. Madhava Rao, 
 K.C.S.I., 236. 
 
 Wahabees, fanatical sect of Moham- 
 medans, 37 ; their tenets making 
 progress, 47, 55, 61, 62, 63. 
 
 Waugh, Captain, afterwards General 
 Sir Andrew Scott, Bengal Engi- 
 neers, letter from him, 242. 
 
 Wellington, Duke of, Lord Ellen- 
 borough's reference to him as to 
 the Secunderabad mutiny, and his 
 opinion, 150 ; visits of Mrs. Fraser, 
 when a child, to him, 233 ; men- 
 tioned by Sir Henry Pottinger, 
 288, 289. 
 
 Wilkinson, Colonel Lancelot, Resi- 
 dent at Bhopal and at Nagpore ; 
 letter from him, 38 ; letter to him, 
 131. 
 
 Willock, General Sir Henry, Direc- 
 tor of the East India Company ; 
 his views as to the Contingent and 
 Subsidiary Force, 259, 356. 
 
 Yates, Captain Commandant, of the 
 5th Nizam's Cavalry, suspended, 
 393 ; his injudicious measures, 395 ; 
 brings the Rissaldar Zoolficar Ali 
 Beg to trial for "conspiracy", 396. 
 
 Yule, Sir George, Resident at Hy- 
 derabad, letter to him from Sir 
 Salar Jung, 437 to 439. 
 
 Zoolficar Ali Beg, Mirza, Rissal- 
 dar in the Nizam's Cavalry, accused 
 of "conspiracy" against Captain 
 Yates, 396 ; honourably acquitted, 
 398. 
 
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