^Mmmmm iSflL^^ D jBS?fll In ^^S k|N% ^^i Mi E?L«^ gg ^^1 4 s biIhI i-c B^H 1 °^^— "■ B^^v^^l ^^^B^K 6 ^^3 IDbI Ih3^ 6 ■n -T^:- ^r^ X /T' ( ,-n; ir^:^>^r\/frfii-< THK CASE - ^ ^'^ HIS HldHNKSS PHllNOE AZEEM J AH, i;\\Tic \" ) u Support ot tljf J3ttilious of He left no issue, and his uncle and nearest relative. Prince Azeem Jah, was en- 2= titled, according to Mahomedan law, to succeed him in the rights, titles, and revenues of the Nawaubship. Prince Azeem Jah is the second son of his late Highness Azeem TJl Dowlah, Nawaub of the Carnatic, who was elevated to the Musnud in 1801. He is the brother, by the same mother, of his late Highness Azum Jah, who succeeded to the Musnud upon the death of their father in 1819. And, as already stated, he is the uncle of his late Highness Gholam Mahomed Ghouse Khan, the next and last Nawaub, who succeeded in 1825, and to whom, upon the occurrence of that event, — he being then an infant, — his Highness Prince Azeem Jah, as next heir to the throne, was appointed Prince Regent, or, as it is termed in the native language, Naib-i-Mooktar. Prince Azeem Jah was born not long after his father's elevation to the Musnud. By birth a prince, and from the earliest moment of his somewhat long life asso- ciated with an illustrious title, — the immediate relative of successive sovereigns, — surroiuided by everything which in India gives the kingly title its importance, — and for the last thirty years the openly recognised heir to the throne of his ances- tors, his accession suddenly became only the unexpected signal for an unmerited and bitter degradation. Without a rival, — without a crime laid to his charge, — in the midst of peace, — an attached ally of the British Government, — it was made known to him that that Government, through the Honourable the East India Company, had, after a period of more than half a century, for the first time dis- covered that the Treaty with his father extended not to the son, and that thence- forth the title of Is^awaub of the Carnatic, which for centuries had been a title of power and dignity in India, and even, by its association with British arms and history, of world-known fame, was extinct, and the revenues by which its splen- dours had been maintained, and which for the last fifty-four years liad been expressly provided and set apart for its maintenance by treaty, were now to be appropriated by that same power with whom the treaty had been made. Unfor- tunately for his Highness, that treaty had placed the collection of the revenues in the hands of the East India Company, and it became an easy matter to enforce their decision. By this decision (which will afterwards be more fully explained) a great wrong 358057 was done to an innocent man ; and to those acquainted with the facts, it is difficult at first to refrain from imputing to those by whom the decision was made, the unworthy motive of desiring to replenish an impoverished treasury, by denying the rights of one who was not able to resist their power. But from the imputa- tion of such base injustice any association of English gentlemen, unaccustomed to it in dealings amongst themselves, may well be freed. The British name has become proverbial amongst the nations of the world for its strict fidelity to its enoasements in all circumstances, whether these engagements should be to its gain or prove to its loss. Accordingly, by the very Act by which the sovereignty of the great Empire of India was transferred to the Queen, the Legislature took care expressly to provide that " all treaties made by the East India Company shall be binding on Her Majesty." In considering, therefore, the decision of the Directors of the East India Company, it is not possible to conceive it, emanating as it does from a body of high-minded Englishmen, to have been dictated by anything but an honest and conscientious regard to considerations believed to be sound and accurate. Taking this view of the matter, it will be the business of this paper to show, in a manner conclusive and irresistible, that their consideration and decision were erroneous, and must have proceeded upon imperfect information of the real facts of the case. Indian Territorial The head of the great Empire of India formerly was the Great Mogul or Em- Dignities. peror of Delhi. "The dominions of the Great Mogul," says Mr Orme, "consist The Gr t~M o- 1 ^^ twenty-two provinces, six of which, comprehending more than one-third of the Y„, j jg, ° empire, compose the Soubahship of the Deccan ; the viceroy of which division is, by a title still more emphatical than that of Sonbah, styled in the language of the The Nizam of the court I^izam-al-muluck, or regulator of the empire : his jurisdiction extends in a Deccan, jj^^g nearly north and south from Brampore to Cape Comorin, and eastward from that line to the sea. Golcondah, one of these provinces, comprehends what Europeans call the ifabobsliips of Arcot, Canoid, Cudapah, Raja-manch-um, and Cliicacole ; so that there were under !N izam-al-muluck thii-ty sucli Nabobs, besides several powerful Indian kings and many others of lesser note." The Subahdar, " From the word Soubah, signifying a province, the viceroy of this vast itid. p. 35. territory," Mr Orme mentions at another place, " is called Soubahdar, and by Europeans improperly Soubah. Of the countries under his jurisdiction, some are entirely subjected to the throne of Delhi, and governed by Mahomedans, whom Europeans as improperly call Moors ; whilst others remain under the government of their original Indian Princes or Rajahs, and are suffered to follow their ancient modes, on condition of paying tribute to the Great Mogul. The INIoorlsh governors, depending on the Soubah, assume, when treating with their inferiors. The Nabob. the title of Nabob, which signifies Deputy ; but this, in the registers of the throne, is synonymous to Soubahdar ; and the greater part of those who style themselves Nawabs or Nabobs, are ranked at Delhi under the title of Phous-dar, which is much inferior to that which they assume, signifying no more than the commander of a body of forces. The Em'opeans established in the territories of these pseudo Nabobs (if we may be allowed the expression), following the example of the natives, with whom they have most intercourse, have agreed in giving them the title they so much aft'ect." The Nabobs themselves, however, were frecjuently styled Soubahs or Soubahdars. It will thus be seen that under the Emperor was tlie Nizam or Soubah, or more correctly than both, the Soubahdar, and under the Nizam were the Nabobs. Under them again were various gradations of rank or oflice, into which it is need- less, for the purposes of the present case, to make Incpiiry. The system bore, in some respects, a resemblance to the feudal polity, and this not more in the sub- ordination of successive superiors than in other features. The oflSces wei'e held partly by tenure of military service, and partly for payment of specified tribute. The Soubahs and Nabobs were bound to render to their superior military assist- ance, and the superior extended to them his protection. At first the offices were, like the feudal fiefs, personal and dependent upon the will of the Emperor, who, upon the death of a Soubalidar, or of a Nabob, appointed his successor; but in course of time, and especially aw the power of the Great Mogul declined, and as the advantages of licieditary rule were made ajiparent, the ottices became heredi- tary, either tacitly or by express confirmation of the Emperor. AH of these potentates wore possessed of great military power. At a time Military strength when the military maintained by the English might be counted by tens and <**' Native Princes, units — their troops, in the words of Macaulay, being "scarcely numerous enough to man the batteries of three or four ill-constructed forts which liad been erected for the ])rotection of the warehouses at Madras" — Anwar ad-Dien, a Nabob of the Carnatic, to whom attention will imme French Government, resolved, in viola- junction, and taketion of the Nabob's injunction, to strike a blow at the East Indian trade of the Madras. English ; and in Se]itember 1746 anchored near Madras, Mhich be bombarded, and Nabob comes to the town cajiituhited. Viewing this as an affront, the Nabob sent an army of 1 0,000 as-slstaiice of En- j^jen to revenge it, which was, however, on this occasion repulsed. Thus commenced, Khsh, and founds ^^^, hundred and thirteen years ago, by a voluntary act on the j)art of the Nabob in a most critical juncture, the connection between him and the English, which has subsisted unbroken througli his descendants to the present day. Dupleix afterwards invested the English fort of St David, situated to the south of Pon- dichorry, when the Nabob again sent an army to the relief of the English. His assistance was attended this time with more success ; and Dupleix found that he could effect nothing against the English at St David so long as they were assisted l)y the troops of the Nal)ob. Tic; therefore had recourse to cunning and corre- spondence, and ill course of time succeeded in detacliing the Nabob's troops from the Englisli ; and St David would also have fallen into the hands of the French, had not, in March 1747, the Englisli squadron unexpectedly hove in sight. A fleet afti'rwards arrived from England, and an attempt was made by the English against Pondicherry; but the attempt failed, and Dupleix took advantage of the failure to impress upon the native ])owers an idea of the Frencji su])('riority. Un- der the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, by which the English and French were in 1748 restored to peace, Madras was redelivered to the English. Dupleix was a vain and ambitious man, possessed of very considerable ability, Frencli Ambition. and burning with desire to extend the French power in India. With all his vanity, however, he united profundity as a politician, while lie was jiossessed of rare address in the management of Indian affairs. He saw clearly that, on the one hand, the existence of any other Europeans in India, and particularly of the Englisli, would be perilous to his hopes, and on the other, that he never could succeed but through alliances with the native princes, and by siniulating adhesion to the cause of some powerful chief. For the French to have ventured upon an open war of conquest on their own account, would only have been to have invoked the contempt and vengeance of all the neighbouring princes. Naturally, with such views, he must side, not with the legitimate reigning powers, but against them ; and the opportunity was found, just where it was most needful, in the province in Avhich his schemes of aggrandisement must first find their vent, and against that ruler whose displeasure he had aroused. When the Nabob Anwar ascended the Musnud, it seems there was among the Carnatic chiefs a feeling against his elevation, and in favour of the family of Sada- tullah, which for several generations had ruled in peace, and with advantage to their subjects. Chunda Sahib, although only a member of the family by marriage, ChundaSalubcon- resolved to avail himself of this feeling, and was watching his opportunity, although spires against the detained a prisoner by the Mahrattoes. Dupleix, quick to discover his man, and '^°^ Anwar, skilful to turn his vigilance to account, used every art to promote an alliance, and ultimately guaranteed the heavy ransom which released him from captivity. In 1748 Nizam-al-Muluck died at an advanced age. He had obtained his eldest son appointed to the high office of Ameer ul Omrah at the Court of Delhi. His second son Nazir Jung had hitherto in his absence managed the affairs of the Deccan, and upon the Nizam's death he assumed the Government. A rival, however, started up in the person of Moozuffer Jung, his nephew — a favourite grandson of the late Nizam Moozuffer Jung. He had been, for several years during the life of his grandfather, Nabob of Beejapore, and it was given out and believed he had been nominated, by his grandfather's will, successor to the Soubahdarrv. At this time Chunda Sahib was at the head of 6000 men. He immediately entered into a league with Moozuffer, and was joined by the French. Moozuffer was prevailed upon to Alliance with commence the campaign in the Carnatic ; and the combined forces attacked the t'rench. city of Arcot, which, after a very stubborn resistance, was taken. Anwar ad-Dien, Anwar slain, and the Nabob, who had reached the great age of 107 years, was slain in the engage- *"^*=*^^'^®<^.^3' **^" ment, and his son Mahomed Ali escaped with the remains of the army to the strong °™ fort of Trichinopoly. Moozuffer and Chunda Sahib neglected the advice of Du- pleix promptly to follow up their advantage ; and Nazir Jung, who had been The Nizam tokes marching to Delhi, having heard M'hat had taken place, retraced his steps, and ad- the field, vanced into the Carnatic with an army of 300,000 fighting men, with 800 pieces of cannon, and 1300 elephants. He thereupon summoned Mahomed Ali to join him, and despatched letters to Fort St David requesting the English to send a body of Europeans. From the beginning of 1747 the English had been intriguing both with Nizam- al-Muluck and Nazir Jung against the French ; and a mandate had been issued to Anwar, directing him to protect, aid, and assist them in all respects, and to use his best endeavours for the chastisement of the French and recovery of Madras. The arrival of Moozuffer Jung, the defeat of Anwar, and the apprehended schemes of Dupleix, had struck the English with alarm. They saw the dangers to which 8 Tlie French re- treat. Nizam murdered and Moozuffer elevated. Moozuffer slain, and French ele- vate Salabut Jung Vol. iii., p. 79. Death of Chunda .Saliib. Conference be- tween French and English. Vol. iii. p. 9.1. they were exposed, but were incapal)le of acting with the necessary vigour. They had allowed the fleet with troops to sail for England, and only 120 Europeans were sent to support Mahomed Ali at Trichinopoly. But upon the arrival of Nazir Jung, Major Lawrence, with GOO Euroj)eans, joined his immense army in the capacity of Allies. The French retreated in the face of this force, leaving Moozuffer and Chunda Sahib in a state of despair. Moozuffer yielded himself up to his uncle, by whom he M'as placed in fetters, and Chunda Sahib retreated with his troops to Pondi- cherry. Hostilities took place ; and although the French obtained some advan- tages, they could not have maintained the field very long against Nazir, had not Dupleix entered into correspondence with some of Nazir's Pitan chiefs, who were incited to treachery, and by one of whom Nazir Jung was shot through the heart. Moozuffer Jung was now freed from his imprisonment, and assumed the autho- rity of Soubalidar. Dupleix was appointed by him Governor of the Mogul do- minions on the coast of Coromandel, from the river Kistna to Cape Comorin, being the full extent of the Carnatic, or rather more; and Chunda Sahib -was ap- pointed his deputy at Arcot. Thereafter Moozuffer Jung set out with his army towards Golconda in the Deccan. On the march the Pitan chiefs who had joined his standard revolted, and in the conflict which ensued Moozuffer was slain. Upon this emergency, the French General at once resolved to elevate Salabut Jung, the eldest surviving son of Nizam, who was present in the camp. Salabut Jung became thenceforth the French Soubah, and promised the same concessions to the French which had been made by his predecessors, and the army continued its march towards Golconda. " The Europeans in India," says Mr Mill, " who hitherto had crouched at the feet of the meanest of the petty governors of the district, were astonished at the progress of the French, who now seemed to pre- side over the whole region of the Deccan. A letter to Dupleix from a friend in the camp of Salabut Jung, affirmed that in a little time the Mogul on his throne would tremble at the name of Dupleix ; and however presumptuous thi.s jirophecy might appear, little was wanting to secure its fulfilment." The English, with their ally Mahomed Ali, were now sunk in apathy and despair, and, in conjunction with him, made proposals which were haughtily declined. The English then took the field, and at first suffered repulses ; on one occasion, with disgrace flying from the field, leaving the native troops fighting. Then Mas it that Clive, having obtained the command of a small force, attacked and took Arcot, and made that ever-memorable defence of that place which first gave a name to the British arms in India, and may be said to have been the turn- ing point of their career in that empire. This, however, was a mere diversion. The enemy's efforts were directed to the reduction of the strong fort of Trichino- poly, which Mahomed Ali was occupying. In the difficulties which befell Mahomed Ali, he applied to the Mysoreans, and obtained from them a force of 20,000 men. The King of Tanjore likewise sent 5000 men, and Lawrence arrived with 400 Europeans and 1100 Sepoys. By aid of these forces, and the vigorous proceed- ings which were adopted, the enemy were driven to extremity, and Chunda Sahib surrendered himself to the King of Tanjore, who immediately ordered him to be assassinated ; the English General not esteeming himself sufficiently powerful to interfere. The hostilities which had been commenced to unseat Mahomed Ali, and ostensibly to elevate Chunda Sahib, but more truly on the part of the French to drive the English out of the Carnatic and make them.selves supreme, were, how- ever, after Chunda Sahib's death, resumed and continued till October 1754. But the war had become exceedingly hateful to the Directors and Proprietors of both the English and French Companies in Europe; and in January 1754, Dupleix had opened a negotiation with Saunders, the Governor of Madras. " The real point in dispute," says Mr Mill, "was, whether or not Mahomed Ali should be acknowledfjed Nabob of the Carnatic ; the English contending tliat he should be recognised by the French, the French contending that he should be given up by the English." The dispute turned u])on title, — the French stating that they held patents from Moozuffer Jung and Salabut Jung, confirmed by the Great Mogul, in favour of Dupleix and Chunda Sahib. The English stated that they held patents from Nazir Jung, Gazoe o deen Khan, the eldest son of the Nizam, and the Great Mogul, in favour of Mahomed Ali. The English proposed to meet the difliculty by a compromise, by which Salabut Jung should be recognised as Sou- bahdar. and Mahomed Ali as Nabob, on condition of Salabut Jung confirming the 9 others appointment. But Dupleix "was so intoxicated by his connexions with Oimc, vol. i. p. 339. SaLabad Jing and liis notions of his own autliority in the Carnatic, that he rejected Mr Saunders' proposal with disdain." In the meantime, a discovery was made that the patent, which the Frencli produced from the Great Mogul, was a forgery, and the cordcrence, on its eleventh day, was broken off. The parties in Europe met each other in a better spirit, and agreed that a neeotiation should bo conducted in India, between Mr Saunders the English Governor, and M. Godhcu, as Connnissioner sent out on the part of the French, superseding Dupleix, whose ambitiousncss was odious to both nations. A Pro-ProvisionalTreaty visional Treaty was concluded in December, 1754, by which " everything for which '^;''i"een t'le En}:- they had been contending was gained by the English; every advantage of whicli "'' "'"^ 1* ■'ench. they had come into possession was given tip by the French, by a stipulation to' ' '^" '"' ''' withdraw effectually from interference in the affairs of native princes, Mahomed Ali was left, by the fact, Nabob of the Carnatic or Arcot." The expectations War renewed by that the blessings of peace would be secured by this Treaty, were, however, com- French, plctely deceived, — " it procured not so much as a moment's repose." DupleixMiii, vol. m. p. 103. was recalled; but shortly afterwards Count de Lally, an able and and)itious military commander, was sent out by the French Government, and, in consequence, for a series of years, the Carnatic became again the theatre of war, in the course of which, that there might not be wanting a pretext for their hostilities, the French decorated Raja Salieb, the eldest son of Chunda Saheb, with the title of Nabob. The war/WiZ, p. 1G2. was attended with varied success, Arcot was taken and retaken, but at last the arms of the allies triumjjhed. The triumph of the English and of Mahomed Ali Allies triumph, being completed by the taking of Pondiclierry in 1701. The English were now in the ascendant ; but the wars were attended with im- mense expense — were productive of much and continual bloodshed (many thousand men having been killed in the struggle), and were a source of continual injury to the country, and of disturbance to the proper collection of its revenues, and pro- secution of its trade and Industry. It can scarcely, therefore, be matter of sur- prise, that both the French and the English in Europe, were most desirous of their termination. Accordingly, when the terms of the Treaty of Paris, of date 10th Treaty of Paris, February 1763, came to be adjusted, the restoration of peace in India became thel7G3, acknow- subject of an express Article, In which It was agreed that, "in order to jjyeserve^'l'^p^ ^^^^^'^^'^ future peace on the coast of Caromandel and Orixa, the English and French shall " .. ^ „ acknowledge Mahomed Ali KJian for lawful Nabob of the Carnatic, and Salabut of Treaties, vol. l, p. Jung for lawful Soubah of the Deccan." IMahoraed All was thus, by a solemn ^^''' Treaty, " acknowledged " by both the European nations as Nabob, and the terms of the Treaty show that this acknowledgment removed all the pretence there was for war. Mahomed Ali, in truth, both by birth and otherwise, was the person legitimately entitled or naturally having right to that high station. All the others were pretenders or adventurers who were thrust forward by the French, to give an excuse for their appearing In the field, and obtaining the assistance of the native princes to the ambitious projects of their leaders. In agreeing upon the acknowledgment, however, of the French Soubah, Salabut Jung, the framers of the Treaty had not been aware that that personaorexv „ ai-i, ,,„ 111 • 111 1 1 • ■ 111-1 1 -ivy » 1- -P -iNizam Ah becomes had been previously dethroned and imprisoned by his brother JNizam All, who, Soubalidar of upon learning the terms of the Treaty, caused him Immediately to be put to death, Deccan. and thus became, without a rival, Soubahdar of the Deccan. The English Company had, prior to the Treaty, become desirous of obtalnlno- from the Great Mogul, the confirmation, among other things, of Mahomed All's Application to the title as Nabob of the Carnatic, and of certain grants of land which, as will be ^'"'^'i' Mogul to afterwards mentioned, they had obtained from him in Jaghire. In the general^)" ^^ ^lome letter from Bengal, dated 12th November 1761, It Is said, — " We directed Major Carnac and Mr M'Gwire, and afterwards Colonel Coote and Mr M-Gwire, to apply, as soon as Shall Alkim should be acknowledged king, for Sunnuds, for the Company's pos- sessions and privileges in Bengal. . . . We directed also apijlication to be made at same time for the Sunnuds for the Provinces of Arcot, in the name of the Nabob Aly Verdi Cawn, otherwise called Miamud Ally Cawn, with whom we have been so long allied. These requests wei'e made by Major Carnac, who was detached by Colonel Coote to escort the king to the borders of the Province ; and the king wrote upon the papers of Requests, that they sliould be granted whenever a proper Peskouh or Tribute was remitted. The Major transmitted to us copies of the said papers of Requests, with the king's superscription ; and advised us, at the same time, that the king had offered to confer on the Company the Duannee of Bengal, on condition of our being answerable for the Royal Revenues ; but as we are sensible that our accepting of this post would cause jealousy and ill will between us and the Nabob, we thought it more prudent to decline it." E 10 The answer of the Directors upon this siihjcct was contained in their general letter to Bengal, dated 9th March 1703, in the I'ollowing terms : — Common's 3il Report, " Your refusal of the Duannee of Bengal, offered by the King, was certainly right, and we are well 1773, p. 383. satisfied with the just and prudent Reasons you give for declining that offer: However, it seems something extraordinary to us, that, at the time the King makes this advance, he should return the applications made to him for the Sunnuds to confii-m our Privileges and Possessions in Bengal, granted by the late and present Nabob, in so loose and unsatisfactory a manner, and even to require a Piscah or Present before he passes the order in due form. The great services we had rendered His Majesty, and the generous treatment he met with from us as well as from our Ally the Nabob, durinn- his stay at Patna, surely claimed a more distinguished treatment, and at least a full grant of our request, without such an expensive demand annexed ; the time and manner of the refusal seem likewise very extraordinary, your applications being returned at the very juncture Major Carnac was escorting him to the Caramnassa, or borders of the Province — a service which must then be fresh in the King's memory ; and, therefore, we think there is reason to apprehend the Kin" is not so cordially attached to us as we might have expected: However, if you judge the obtaining such Sunnuds to be absolutely necessary, you have, we doubt not, continued your appli- cation to have them perfected. It was a 2^>'>'dent consideration in you, to add to your applications on, this subject, our Ally, Ally Verdi-Cawn, otherwise called Mhamud AUy-Cawn, as Nabob ofArcot, which, we suppose, you have or will continue to do, when you think proper to move again in this affair ; and should the King succeed in his pretensions to the throne, the sooner the grants are obtained, the less, we apprehend, will be the expense attending it." In the following year, the Directors of the East India Company addressed the following letter to the Nabob : — " To His Excellency Umdatul Mullc Serajah Dowlah Anawerdean Cawn Behaudor Munsoor Jung, Nabob of the Carnatic Payngaut. " May it please todr Excellency — " Amidst the deep concern with which we are touched on account of the disorders which have arisen in the Kingdom of Bengal, we have the satisfaction to learn, that the friendship which has so long subsisted between your Excellency and the Company is daily increasing. The assurances Mr Pigot, our late Governor of Madras, has given us of your continued attachment to the Company, and the strong proofs you have yourself produced of your generous attention and good will, in taking on yourself the wlioje charges of the sieges of Madras and Pondicherry, and in the grants you have lately made to the Company of lands in the vicinity of Madras, are pleasing and acceptable to us in the highest degree. We are at a loss how to express our acknowledgments, otherwise than by the strongest assurance of our firm intention to prove to you at once the sincerity of our past, and the warmth of our present friendship, by supporting you in the most effectual manner in your Govern- ment, and by endeavouring, as much as in us lies, to perpetuate the succession thereof in the direct line of yonr Family. " The good effects which have been derived both to your Excellency and to the Company, from the cordial friendship which has at all times subsisted lietween you and our late Governor, IMr Pigot, have been so conspicuous, and his conduct in this respect particularly has given us so much satisfaction, that we thought proper, on his arrival here, to receive him with the most honourable testimonials of our approbation. " May your Excellency long continue to enjoy the blessing of a peaceful and prosperous Govern- ment, with continued increase of honours and wealth. "In testimony whereof we hereunto affix our Great Seal, in the City of London, this first day of the month of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and sixty-four." In evidence of the Company's friendly feelings thus expressed towards Ma- homed Ali, and of their desire to maintain him and his descendants in the throne of the Carnatic, they renewed their application to the Emperor for the Eoyal Grant in his and their favour. The Eoyal P'ir- The Eoyal Firmaunds, however, were not obtained until August 1765. On 12th maunds granted j^^^gugt, 1765, the Emperor Shah Allum granted a confirmation in favour of the ^^^^- English Company, their heirs and descendants for ever and ever, of the grants by the Nabob from the Circar of the Carnatic. And on 26th August 1765, the Emperor granted a Firmaund confirming Mahomed All's right and title to the Nawaubship of the Carnatic. This important document confirmed a previous Fir- maund of the Emperor Ahmed Shah in Mahomed All's favour, dated in 1750, and conferred upon Mahomed Ali and his eldest son, and their heirs for ever, the govern- Iment of the Carnatic Tayen Ghaut and the countries dej^endcnt thereon, to be held immediately of hiui, the Emperor, without dependence upon the Soubahdar of the Deccan, By the same Firinaund, he bestowed upon the Nabob Mahomed Ali, the new titles of Walla-Jah, Ummlr-id-IIind, which he ever afterwards used. Anotlicr firmaund, dated 12th August 1705, was likewise granted to the Com- pany, conferring upon them the Five Northern Circars, which foriued a part of the Soubah of the Deccan, from de])cndence upon whicli they wore accordingly thereby released. To take possession of these jjrovinccs General Calliaud marched with 11 the troops of tlie Carnatic. Nizam Ali, the Soubali, Immediately took steps to ' avenge himself, and was preparing to invade the Carnatic, when the Presidency, alarmed at the prospect of war with the Soohahdar, sent orders to Calliaud to negotiate a peace. Arrangements were accordingly concluded with the Nizam, and a Treaty was subscribed by the parties. The only part of the arrangement Treaty between of present importance was that by which, in consideration of a payment by theJ'^nglish and Ni- Nabob of L.50,000, he secured for himself and his successors a discharge of all^,'*'"- demands by the Soubah against him and them. The discharge is in the following; ""!*"' ° f'' ^"' JO to o by iSizam to Isa- tcrms : — bob. "In consideration of the fidelity and attaclimcnt flic said Omdct-iil-Mulek Behaudor (Mahomed 12tli Nov. 1766. Ali) has promised and engaged to my Court, by the means of General Caillaiid, and in return for Vol. of Trcatic-B, p. 3C7. the sum of five lacs of rupees (agreeable to tiio jjetilion hereto mentioned countersigned by us (this disduirrje is now given to him, the said Omdet-ul-Mulck, Itk sons and heirs, for the whole of the above- mentioned countries (the Carnatic I'ayen Ghaut, from the borders of the I'ahiaud country to the further extremity of those of the Malavar country), fis ivcU past, present, as the future also." At the same time, with a view to remove doubts and suspicions from the mind of the Soubah regarding the Nabob, and to " strengthen and establish in the strongest manner the alliance, attachment, and fidelity between his Highnei^s " the Nabob and the English Company, General Caillaud subscribed an obligation, by which he engaged, on the part of the Nabob, that he would "do nothing preju- voi.ofTrcatie«,p.3i;8. dicial to the interests of his Highness, or contrary to the friendship and alliance by the means of the said Company, now happily established between them, for the true and just performance of which the aforesaid Company do hereby become securities." This alliance with the Nizam was of short duration. Hyder Ali soon afterwards succeeded in gaining over the Soubahdar, and concluding a Treaty with him. He prepared to invade the Carnatic, and Mahomed Ali suggested to the English to attack the Nizam before he could effect a junction with Hyder. His advice was neglected — the English were attacked by the united forces, and had to fly — the country was desolated by Hyder, who marched to Madras. Fortunately the English were reinforced, and in an engagement with Nizam and Hyder, the latter were defeated and had to retire. The Nizam had previously made over- tures of peace, and his motions were now quickened by this disaster. Negotia- tions were opened between him and the English and the Nabob, who in all these affairs lent the English his assistance. The result was a Treaty, dated 23d Feb. 1768, entitled, " A Treaty of perpetual friendship and alliance, made and concluded at Fort St George, between Treaty of 1768 the Hon. United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies, in conjunction with the with Nizam. Nabob WokiM Jan, Omdet-ul-Mulck Ummeer-ul-Hind Serajah Dowlah Annever-Deen Khan Be- hauder Monsoor Jung Sippa Sardar of the Carnatic Payen Ghaut, on the one jiart, and the Great y i ( Treaties d 369 Nabob, high in station, Ausuph .Jah Nizam-ul-Mulck Meer Nizam Ally Khan Behauder Phuttah Jung Sippa Sardar Soubah of the Deccan, on the other part ; by the Hon. Charles Bourchier, Esq., President and Governor of Fort St George, and the Council thereof, on behalf of the said English East India Company ; the Nabob Wolau Jau Omdet-ul-Mulck, on behalf of himself as Nabob of the Carnatic ; and the Nabob Eecun-ud-Dowlah Dewan invested with full powers, on behalf of the said Nabob Ausuph Jau Nizam-ul-Mulck, his heirs and successors, as Soubah of the Deccan." This treaty referred to the previous treaty of 17G6, and contained various pro- visions, and, among others, by Article 6 it was agreed " That a mutual peace, confidence, and friendship shall subsist for ever between the English Com- pany, his Highness Ausuph Jah, and the Nabob Wolau Jah ; the enemies of either shall be regarded as the enemies of the other two powers, and the friends of either be treated as the friends of all ; and in case any trouble should arise, or any enemies invade the countries under the government of either of the contracting parties, the other two shall give no countenance or assistance to such enemies or invaders." The most important, however, of the articles of this Treaty to the present question was the 7th, which is as follows : — " The exalted and illustrious Emperor Shah Allura, having been pleased, out of his great favour and high esteem for the Nabob Wolau Jah, to give and to gi-ant to him, and his eldest son Meyen- ul-Mulck Omdet-ul-Orarah, and their heirs for ever, the Government of the Carnatic Payen Ghaut, and the countries dependent thereon, by his Royal Firmaund, bearing date the 26th of August 1765, or the 27th of the moon Zuphur, in the Cth year of the said Emperor's reign ; and the Nabob Ausuph • Jah Nizam-ul-Mulck, etc., having also out of his affection and regard for the said Nabob Wolau Jah, released him, his son Meyen-ul-Mulck, etc., and their heirs in succession for ever, from all dependence on the Deccan, and given him a full discharge of all demands, past, present, and to come, on the said Carnatic Payen Ghaut, by a sunnud under his hand and seal dated the 12th of November 1766, in 12 Nabob released from dependence on Deccan. Mahomed Ali thus by every power acknowledged. His title derived from native autho- rities. The Nabob an in- dependent prince. consideration of the said Nabob Wolau Jah having paid the Soubah five lacks of rupees, it is now agreed and acknowledged by the said Ausuph Jah Nizam-ul-Mulck, that the said Nabob Wolau Jah, and after him his son JMeyen-ul-lMulck, and their heirs and succession, shall enjoy for ever, as an ultumgau or free gift, the Government of the Carnatic Pai/en Ghaut in the J'ullest and amplest manner, the said Nabob Ausuph Jah promising and engaging not to hold or keep up any kind of correspondence with any person or persons in the said Carnatic Payen Ghaut, or in the Sircars before and now ceded to the Eng- lish Company, except the said Nabob Wolau Jah, or the said English Company, by the means of their President and Council of Madras, — who, on their part, in conjunction with tlie said Nabob Wolau Jah, en"-ao-e likewise not to hold or maintain any correspondence with any person or persons in the Deccan, except the Nabob Ausuph Jah, his Dewan, and the securities whose names are hereunto subscribed." By this Treaty, therefore, the Eoyal Firmaund of the Emperor in favour of the Nabob Wolau Jah was recognised, not merely by the Soubahdar, but by the English Government, while the Soubahdar himself, so far as he was concerned, confirmed or conferred upon the Nabob, in free gift, the Government of the Car- natic. Thus, by every power concerned, — by the Emperor, by the Soubahdar, and by the English Company, the right of Wolau Jah to the Nabobship or Govern- ment of the Carnatic was expressly acknowledged in the most solemn manner, while it is most important to observe that these documents prove not merely their right, but that it flowed from the lawful native authorities, and was not in any view the creation of the English Company. Nor is this observation wholly un- necessary, for there have been persons Ignorant enough to have supposed that Wolau Jah, as Nabob, derived his title and right from the English, and was some mere dependent of the Company, or, at all events, he was the tolerated ruler of a conquered kingdom. Such an idea is not to be discovered as existing in the mind of any one at the period at which we have now arrived. It could not be. It was directly contrary to the fact. He ivas found an independent prince. The Eno-lish had gone to war for him, but they had never gone to war against him. His position could not, therefore, have been changed, and necessarily the whole course of the Company's dealings with him was upon the footing of his being a Sovereign in his own right. Thus the Nabob himself writes : — " By the blessing of God I am an hereditary jn-ince, and a firm and steady friend and ally of the King of Great Britain, and am the most attached to the English nation of all the princes of India. My friendship and sincere regard to them has been frequently put to the test both in times of pros- perity and adversity, and, through the strict connection which subsists between me and the Company, our concerns are the same, and my country is independent of every Sirdar, however powerful, by means of my alliance with the King of Great Britain." So far removed, however, from discussion was the subject, that the mention of the title is at first, at least, only incidental. Thus, in the Draft of a Treaty between the English and Dutch East India Companies and the Nabob, which was prepared by the Madras Government in January 1781, the Nabob Wolau Jah is incidentally thus designated, " who is the sovereign of the Carnatic Payen Ghaut." His right indeed was expressly acknowledged in the agreement entered into Gth Report, p. 1083. between the Company and the Nabob in December 1781. This agreement took the form of requests and replies ; and the second article of the Nabob's requests was in the following terms : — " / am hereditary Prince of the Carnatic andofBalla GJmuts, under Peanghaut, and am independent of every one, and I have entire right and authority over my country, my children, my family, my servants, and subjects ; and have power, in the jiolitical and domestic administration of my country. This ought to bo altogether dependent on me, and let not my friends intcrfci-e in it." The reply of the Honourable the Governor-General and Council went beyond the request. "The right and authority which the Nabob possesses over his country, his children, his family, his servants, and subjects, in all the political and domestic administration of his country, ive will maintain and support." At a much later period, a legal difficulty arose out of the position of the Nawaub ; and in the following dispatch in relation to it, it is very distinctly laid down what was the status of His Highness : — Extract of Political Letter. Fort St George, 18th March 1801. Para 17. In our despatch of the 9th October last, we apprised your honourable Court of the pro- bable agitation before the Court of Recorder, of questions relative to property of liis lliglmess the Nabob of the Carnatic, situated within the limits of the Court. An application had indeed already been submitted to us by Mr Lautour, but we postponed any decision on the points stated by that gentleman, from an earnest desire tliat liis Highness the Nabob should be induced to anticipate, by an amicable adjustment of the accounts, the necessity of defining the nature of his Highness' situa- tion with respect to the jurisdiction of the Recorder's Court. Oct. 14, 1775. Fifth Report of Com- mittee of Secrecy, p. 97. 6th Report, p. 1036. Papers relatinfr to Car- nntic, printed 1803. Vol. C , p. 220. 13 18. All endeavours having however failed to produce a conciliatory disposition on the partof liis lliphness the Nabob, ive consulted the opinion of the Atto7-uei/- General on this cnse, and informed Mr Lalour tluit we considered the Ndbub of the C'arnatic to he an indejjendent Prince, representing liiniself in the Britisli territories, now subject to tiie jurisdiction of the Court of Recorder, and tliat his Highness was tlierelbre entitled to tlie rights and immunities secured to Foreign Ambassadors by the Law of Nations and the Statute of Queen Anne. But we did not limit tiie Nabob to tiie privi- leges of an ordinary ambassador; adverting to the nature of the connection formed between his Highness' family and the British (iovcrnment in India, and to the establishment of the seat of his Highness' political government in tlie vicinity of Madras, we deemed it incumbent on the national honour and justice to extend to his Highness, and to Ids fiimily, the riglits and immunities of a Foreiijn A inhuxsador in a superior degree. But while the documents to which reference has been made expressly esta- Bight conferred blished Mahomed Ali in the throne of the Carnatic, it is ecjually important to"P°" him and /■« observe that they as expressly conferred that rioht upon his descendants. It has" '^^'^" '^" "" been seen that the Coui|jany itself promoted the application to the Emperor for ' confirmation of the Nabob's right. In the letter from the Directors to the Nabob, dated 1st June 1704, already quoted, they expressed their desire to manifest their friendship, " bi/ endeavouring, as much as in us lies, to perpetuate the succession thereof in the direct line of your family." Accordingly, the Firmaund which was obtained, bore expressly, as the above quotation from the Treaty of 1768, shows, that it was granted in favour of " the Nabob Wolau Jah and his eldest son Meyeu ul Mulck Omdut ul Omrah, and their heirs for ever ;" while the Soubah agrees with the Nabob that he and " after him his son Meyen ul Mulck, and their heirs in succession, shall enjoy for ever" the government of the Carnatic. The grant so made in favour of the Nabob's descendants received the entire con- currence of the English power. His late Majesty George HI., in a letter to the Nabob, dated 19th March 1771, expressed the Royal hope or wish : " We are satisfied that our friendship and protection to you and your posterity will descend through our successors y?'om generation to generation." The Directors themselves employed terms even more explicit ; for upon the 25th November 1775, they wrote to the President and Council at Fort St George, " you are to secure to his Highness' children the government of the Carnatic in a just and lineal succes- sion, accordinfj to the Firmaund from the Emperor Shah Allum and the Treaty of 1768, between the Company, the Soubah of the Decan, and the Nabob. These acknowledgments and directions on the part of the Company were, no doubt, dictated by the warmest feelings of friendship towards an eminent, constant, and important ally, but they may not have been without their political use. It is very true that the Company had at that time attained to consider- Alliance with Xa- able power in India, and particularly in the southern portion of the peninsula, hob a political ne- and they had made the English name to be both feared and respected. But, at*^^^^'*^' the same time, they had not attained to the position which they now occupy, of being the predominant power. They had many enemies among the Native Princes, and these Princes were very powerful. It was, therefore, a matter of importance to cultivate and retain the friendship and alliance of the Nabob Wolau-Jah. It mioht be that his power alone could have made but feeble resistance of itself to the English forces ; but he might have leagued himself with one of the great native powers ; and had he done so, there were times when it might have occasioned the entire eradication of the English from the Carnatic. Fortunately for him — and it may be said with some confidence, for the English Company — he maintained throughout his whole life the most cordial friendship and strictest alliance — an alliance which endured in his person for the remarkable length of half a century. It was, accordingly, as an esteemed friend and as a close ally, that he was reo-arded by the English Coiiipany. And it may not be unimportant now to introduce a few excerpts, by which How relations this relationship, and the views and anxieties of the parties become more fully "''th Nabob apparent. Here, in the first place, the letters of the Nabob are very explicit. A ^'^^'^'^• quotation has already been made from one of his letters. The followino- is an extract from another letter from him, dated 23d February 1779 : — "I have lived in strict friendship and alliance with the Company and English Nation near First Report of Corn- forty years, during which time I have spent the best part of my life, and all my treasures, in reducins '"'"^'^ "'" Secrecy, p. their enemies. When those enemies were superior to them in force by ten to one, I have, in every "^^' respect, continued the unalterable and firm friend of the English, and considered their loss as my own. When the King and the Princes of this country saw the rectitude which the English ob- 14 served in all their dealings, and their attachment and sincerity, they desired to make friendship with them through my mediation, and to have their protection. I have repeatedly given assurances of this to former Governors, and we have had frequent opportunities of trying who were our friends and foes, and of settling our affairs in Indostan, in such a manner that we should have no fear of having our tranquillity afterwards disturbed." The following are Extracts from tlie wri+ings of the Company : — Extract from Letter of Hon. Court of Directors, dated 30th June 1769. Fifth Report of Cora- a You will see, by the whole tenor of our letters to you and the other Presidencies, that we are mit^tee of Secrecy, rather jealous of the Maratta Power, yet we have sought to continue in peace with them, and to ^' ' ■ keep up a friendly intercourse ; but if they think fit to take a hostile part against us, to send you insulting messages, and to brave your Port with their Grabs, it is time to take vigorous measures for preserving that respect which we have hitherto held on your side of India. When you wrote your letter of the 13th December, giving an account of the Maratta fleet cruising off the harbour, and of the insolent answer of Vissajee Punt, you had ships in your harbour more than sufficient to have destroyed his fleet, or brought him to a more becoming and explicit declaration ; and when Madarao informed you that his designs were to demand the Chout from the Nabob of Arcot, pre- serving at the same time towards the English, you should have told him that those two things were incompatible; t/iat the Nabob of Arcot was, as he knew, in Jinn friendship and alliance icith the English; and that any demand made upon him at the head of an army laying waste his country, would be answered by the English forces in all parts of India, who never would suffer a people under their protection to be distressed and plundered under any pretence whatsoever. That accounts should be settled between their respective agents in the usual manner ; and, if any thing was due from the Nabob of Arcot, your good offices should be employed in bringing the matter to an amicable con- clusion. This sort of language, with some vigorous preparations at the same time by sea and land, would have been more likely to preserve peace with the Marattas, than the silent respect with which you seem to have received aU their insults. Extract from General Letter to Fort St Georf^e, dated 10th April 1771. Second Report of " Having expressed to our Select Committee the earnestness of our desire that every conciliatory Committee of Secrecy, measure should be employed to remove from the Nabob's mind any jealousies, and eradicate any suspi- ''■ ■ cions he may have unjustly conceived respecting the sincerity of our attachment to him, we shall here confine ourselves to your inquiry concerning the disposal of the jaghire lands at the expiration of the present Cowle. Impressed as we are with the most friendly disposition towards the Nabob, we can by no means think of increasing his jealousy, or depriving him of the least degree of importance, by not admitting him as a renter of the Enaum lands." Letter, President and Council at Fort St George, to tlie Governor-General and Council of Bengal, 7th December 1774. First Report of Com- " We come now to speak of the Nabob of Arcot, the Company's ancient ally." mittee of Secrecy, p. 258. Extract Letter from Governor-General and Council read at Fort St George, Military Consultations, 13th November 1775. Second Report of " It shall always be our study, as far as can depend on us, to promote a mutual confidence Committee of Secrecy, between your Presidency and the Nabob, ichose interest we regard as inseparably united ivith the Com- pany's, in the Carnatic." Extract from Letter, Governor-General and Council to Colonel Upton, 16th August 1775. Fifth Report of Com- « As the Nabob of Arcot is a particular friend and all^ of the English, and as his interest may be rnittee of Secrecy, p. affected with any Treaty you may conclude with the Maratta Government, we direct that you make the Maratta Chiefs acquainted with the union that subsists between him and the Company, and insist on including him in the Treaty, in an express article to the following effect : — That the Nabob Walla Jail Bahadar, Nabob of the Carnatic, having been for a considerable course of years united to the English Company by lite strongest lies of fricndslrip and alliance, and the Company having ever considered his enemies as their enemies, and his friends as their friends, it is agreed that the IMahratta Chiefs likewise shall hereafter regard him as their friend, and his enemies as their enemies. At the same time we are to accjuaint you, that we have desired the Nabob of Arcot, if there are any particular articles which he wishes to have stipulated for him, to state these articles to us, assuring him that we would take them into consideration, and give you such further orders re- specting them as shall be compatible with the other objects which we have in view in concluding tlie Treaty of Peace with the Marattas." Extract from President's Minute, Fort St George, Revenue Consultations, 2d October 1778. second Report of " I am aware that there have been opinions that it would, on many accounts, be better if his Committee of Secrecy, Highness was to reside at his own capital. I nuist profess I always differed from them. We never P- *"^- can have a greater inlhience in the Carnatic, nor a stronger assurance of attachment, I may say de- pendence, than whilst tlie Soubah with his iinnily, and everything that is dear to him, is living with us, and absolutely under the protection and fire of our own guns. Some inconveniences, 1 idlow, arise ; but I am jiersuaded they are much overbalanced by the advantages accruing from his resi- Ihid. p. 587 dcncc here." " And however repugnant it may be to us to take any step that may hurt the feel- ings of our ancient friend and much-respected ally, we cannot consent to divest ourselves of that 15 immediate and absolute authority in the Guntoor Circar, which we deem necessary for its protec- tion and improvement." Extract from President's Minute, submitted at Fort St George — Select Consultations, 4th February 1779. "All attention and support is certainly due to the Nabob, as our old and faithful albi, co»n«ctec/ f ''"«' K^port of Com- with us hi/ eva-i/ tin, ami demandiii(j from iis I'.ren/ iiidiihiciicc ; for, il' we take a view from the southern "'.'"''''^ " Secrecy, y. boundary of Indo.staii, to the northern extremity, wliere the English forces have proved victorious, " where shall we hnd one Native Prince who has not severely felt the effects of our power, and that is now lamenting the rapid success of our arras, and the credulity that ever induced him to trust to our engagements? Mahomed Ally can alone boast that we have not entirely violated every principle on wliich he has depended ; and" the minute concludes with these memorable words, "w/io, with his faiiiili/, it is to be wished, ma// loiiij remain instances of our national faith." Extract from a Letter from Warren Hastings, Governor-General of Bengal, to tlie Court of Directors, 28th November 1783. . . . The Nabob Walla Jah, your old and faithful friend and ally. . . . An aged prince. Papers relatini; to whose life, to the last dregs of it, had been spent in the mutual intercourse of friendship with the '^"j" ''(''''"l *'^'''.''^' . Company and the British nation, and in participation of all the vicissitudes which had attended their 2d June isoii, I'aKe 4. fortune. But, probably, the following extract from " considerations upon the present jiolitical state of the Company in India, written at Madras in January 1780," by Sir Thomas Rumbold, then Governor of Madras, will best explain the position of the Nabob, and of the feelings entertained towards him by the Company : — " The first and most distinguished of our connections is that which has been long formed with the Sixtli Report, Commit- present Nabob of the Carnatic. The cause and progress of this alliance have been often traced, and ^"^ of Secrecy, p. 'JTO. are now so generally known, that it were superfluous to dwell upon them. It began upon a principle of mutual advantage, and has been cementing during a series of more than 30 years, by the exchange of all sorts of good offices, so that at this time, or at least very lately, it might be said to have ripened into a sincere and eipial attachment. Much, indeed, were it to be wished that all our alliances had been formed on the same principles, and that we had never taken advantage of our strength to estab- lish a superiority which might perhaps have been as well or as permanently acquired by more justifiable means. Our influence in the Carnatic is founded on the free ivill and consent of the Nabob. From his confidence in our attachment and our power, he requested, of his own accord, that the Com- pany might garrison his forts, and maintain troopj? at his expense, for the protection of the Carnatic. Such a confidence ought never to be abused : to have deserved it, reflects lionour upon our moder- ation : to abuse it loould be to throw an indelible stain upon our character and memory. " I have often wondered that a connection of more than thirty years' standing should have sub- sisted without any specific treaty or agreement, for I do not remember that any was ever yet formed between the Company and the Nabob ; possibly it may be owing to this circumstance that their friendship has continued so long. Where express stipulations are established as the ground of an alliance, the parties are so much upon their guard, and so watchful of the conduct of each other, that jealousy and distrust too often assume the place of confidence and good will. These inconve- niences are more likely to be felt where the intercourse is frequent and even constant, as that which has always existed between the Nabob and the Company. By maintaining a connection upon the mutual exchange of good offices, without expressly defining the views and wishes of either party, such a latitude is given as cannot fail of producing confidence and friendship. In these cases, mis- understandings, when they happen, are removed by liberal explanations and arguments drawn from genei'al questions, and not by the construction of words and phrases which may admit of various opinions, and be strained occasionally to the views and purposes of either party. " But, although it be allowed that such advantages have arisen from the nature of our connec- tion with the Nabob, yet, in another view, it must be confessed that the want of some precise line for the guidance of the Company's servants in their intercourse with him hath been, and must continue to be, productive of much embarrassment ; for example, the Nabob has always been considered and treated by the Company as an independent prince ; an union of interests and of measures has generally taken place between them ; and, at his request, a certain force is continually kept up under the Company's authority for the defence of the Carnatic ; it has not, however, yet been settled how far the Nabob, in virtue of his independency, or the Company in the character of his friends and protectors, should direct and superintend the interests of the Carnatic. If this privilege belong solely to the Nabob, and he (as is natural to suppose) should wish to exercise it, then the Company may, without, and even against their consent, i)e drawn into measures directly affecting their own interests and pos- sessions, for it is not possible in any case to separate their cause from that of the Nabob without totally giving up all concern in his affairs. On the other hand, if the Company, in virtue of their character as protectors of the Nabob's Government, claim the riglit of directing the interests of the Carnatic, then they infringe the acknowledged independency of the Nabob, and become in flict the rulers instead of the defenders of his country. It seems reasonable, indeed, that the Company, who have taken upon themselves the office of protector, should be allowed the lead in all pohtical trans- actions that affect the Carnatic, and this the Nabob has hitherto generally admitted ; but there are instances on record where he has claimed tlie privilege of acting for himself, even in opposition to the advice .and remonstrances of the Company's Government, and it is upon these occasions that the Company's servants will always find themselves perplexed, until it be absolutely determined how far they or the Nabob are to yield upon any diflTerences of opinion. " There are other embarrassments of a different nature attending the close connection we have with the Nabob, which do not come so properly within my present purpose to mention ; but it is cer- 16 tain that all the inconveniences ive suffer are amphj compensated by the advantages derived from an exclusive injtuence in the Nabob's coiintn/, sufficient to establish a decided superiority, and to prevent all com- petitors, European or native, from hurting the commerce, or disturbing the possessions of the Com- pany. It is unquestionably to this influence that we are indebted for a great part of our prosperity, for our success against the French in India the last war, and for the decisive stroke made against tiiem so early in the present war, to which, as affairs have since turned out, we otce perhaps our present eo:istence in the East. " Under these circumstances, if our gratitude alone be too weak a tie to bind us to the Nabob, a sense of interest should teach us the importance of so useful an attachment; and by showing how much we have profited and may still profit by it, instruct us on the other hand how diiferent our situation would have been and may still be, if that attachment should ever be dissolved or transferred to our rivals. " But, it has been often urged, that the benefits resulting from this connection are reciprocal, and that the Nabob having received the same advantage from our alliance and support that we have derived from his friendship, is equally bound, upon principles of gratitude and of interest, to remain stedfast in his attachment to the Company. There can be no doubt tliat the Nabob owes the pos- session and security of his Government to the Company; and he has never been wanting in acknow- ledgments for their favour and protection; though it be certain that the support of the Company was originally given to him, not upon his account, but their own; and that having effectually answered their own purposes by estabhshing him in his Government, the numerous gifts and fixvours he has since bestowed on them, ought to be considered rather as earnests of his attachment than returns for benefits received. " Sucli being the state of our connection with the Nabob, it were extremely to be wished that nothing had been ever done by us which might tend to impress on his mind any unfavourable ideas of our justice, or the sincerity of our attachment." Sir Thomas Rumbold then enters into a consideration of the Nabob's con- nection with the Eajah of Tanjore, and adds, — Sixth Report of Com- " I have dwelt the longer upon the affairs of the Nabob separately ; and as they are connected inittee of Secrecy, p. -nrith those of Tanjore, because as he is the oldest, and, properly speaking, the only natural ally of '■''■'■ the Company, it is fit that his situation, his grievances, his embarrassments, should be perfectly known and understood. If it shall appear from a cool and candid examination of past measures, that he has been treated with a severity ill suited to the long and faithful attachment he had confessedly borne to the Company ; if it shall appear that we have, in any instances, used our power unjustly to exact compliances from him, which he might have otherwise thought it dishonourable to grant ; if it shall appear that we have raised into our favour and alHance, a man whom he, and whom the Company have considered as a dependent on him, who was obnoxious to him, who had deservedly, on more occasions than one, drawn on himself the Company's displeasure, and who never made any effort to deserve their friendship ; if it shall appear that we have done this in a manner the most distinguishing to that man, the most humiliating and disgraceful to the Nabob; and, lastly, if it shall appear that these acts have been committed at the expense of our public faith, pledged to the Nabob in repeated and positive engagements ; I am at a loss to conceive how we shall be able to atone for such accumulated injustice. Certain it is, we ought to lose no time in making every reparation in our power ; and, though we have as yet been slow in our attempts towards it, I hope we shall not confirm and add to the injuries we have committed, by neglecting any longer to redress them." Tiie Nabob as an In the capacity of a friend and ally of the English, the ISTabob was in the con- ally, stant habit of communicating intelligence to the English authorities, and his in- telligence was usually so far in advance of that obtained by the English, that it was sometimes discredited, and the English occasionally failed to act upon his advice,. to their and his great injury. That they did apply to him for his advice, also appears, as, for example, may be seen in the proceedings of the Fort St 2.1 Report, Committee QeQi-gg Military ConsultatioHS of 30th August 1775, Avhile in every war which ecrccj,p. occurred, they were in the habit of applying to His Highness for assistance. E.-itimation in Personally, he had secured for himself the esteem of the Company's highest helir^ ^'''^°'' '* officers ; Clive, writing on 30th September 17G5. describes him as " the best Mus- 3dKe'port, i"3,v. 395. sulman I cvev knew.'" And Sir Archibald Campbell, President of Madras, twenty- .Miii, vol. V. p. 255. two years later, said, — " I have narrowly watched the Nabob's conduct and senti- ments since my arrival in this country, and I am ready to declare that I do not think it possible that any prince or person on earth can be more sincerely attached to the prosperity of the Honourable Company than His Highness, or that any one has a higlier claim to their favour and liberality." But there was another relation wliich the Nabob bore, or, more properly speaking, tmdertook towards the Company, whicli was destined to have conse- quences as regarded the relations between liim or his descendants and the Com- pany, of a very serious description, and to which it is now necessary to advert. From tlie brief sketch wliich has been given in the earlier part of this state- ment, it will be seen that the wars between the English and the French in India, were virtually commenced, as they were jierpetuated, by tho French, and that the Nabob Anwar voluntarily came with a large force to the succour of the J'jiiglish. The attachment of the linglish to the cause of Anwar and of his son Mahomed 17 V Ali, was one, therefore, orioinally dictated by natural gratitude. The power of the Enghsh, however, was at lirst remarkably limited. Had they stood alone, they must necessarily have been driven out of the Carnatic. It was only by leaguing themselves with the native powers, and by obtaining the co-operation of large native armies, that they succeeded in retaining any hold upon the country. But even with all the assistance which they thus procured, they were frequently re- duced to extremity. In the course of the struggle Madras had been taken,. Fort St David had been taken, Arcot had been taken, and it may be said that every post of importance, Trichinopoly excepted, had been taken by the Erench. Had the ambition of the French Commanders been seconded by their Government at home in the way in which it might have been, the French power in India, and, in any view, in the Carnatic, must have become everywhere predominant, and the English would, in all probability, have been entirely extirpated. The struggles of the English, therefore, were as much for the sake of maintaining the existence of their own power, possessions, and trade in India, as for the sake of assisting and maintaining the power of the Nabob ; and the result of the long continued struggle was to place the English in a position of power and importance, and to stir up their ambition in a way which possibly they never might have dreamt of, had they been let alone by the French. But necessarily these struggles occasioned the English a large expenditure of money ; and therefore, when the war came to a conclusion, they looked, and per- haps naturally looked, to the Nabob for, to some extent at least, reimbursement of their expenditure. The Nabob promptly and cheerfully met the demand, but N:ibob j)l;ices him- from the day he undertook the obligation, he placed himaelf and his successors in *''^y '" '^ i"Tr'^' the dangerous position of debtors and oMiyants to the East India Company. ^^^ i^ Comitanv Prior to the surrender of the French in Pondicherry, the Nabob presented a Demands on him. draft of the conditions to which it appeared to him expedient that the two parties should bind themselves. One of these conditions was an oft'er to pay to the Com- '^^'^'' "''"^- "'•' p- -^*- pany, in liquidation of the sums for which in the course of the war he had become responsible, 28 lacsof rupees (L.280,000) annually till the debts should be discharged, and 3 lacs of rupees (L.30,000) annually to defray the expense of the garrison at Trichinopoly. The President, Mr Pigot, agreed to these conditions by letter dated 23d June 1760. However, not long afterwards he presented to the Nabob a requisition for 50 lacs of rupees (L.500,000), which the Nabob, not possessing, had to raise by loan upon very disadvantageous terms ; and the Company, through the President, made other demands which were equally oppressive. These demands were made at a time, moreover, when the country was in a condition little fitted to supply the Nabob with the means of payment. It had been desolated by successive and continued wars, and the different antagonists had collected the revenues and levied contributions in those districts which had at any time fallen into their hands. Not only so, but the collection was difficult by reason of the anarchy which these wars occasioned. The Nabob's treasury was exhausted ; and having no means of meeting the demands of the English, pressure was made upon the Rajah of Tanjore, and 22 lacs of rupees (L.220,000) were agreed by him to be paid to the Nabob, a sum which was at once appropriated by the Company. The English, however, began to represent to the Nabob the propriety of bestow- Grants a .Jaghire. ing upon them a Jaghire or grant of lands, the rents and revenues of which, free from any deduction to the Nabob's treasury, should accrue to themselves. Ac- cordingly, the Nabob agreed to grant them a Jaghire of certain districts, and sunnuds were in the year 17G3 issued, granting the Jaghire of these districts, ex- pressed in the following terras : — " Be it known to the Deesmokees, Deespondees, Muccuddems, husbandmen, and others, inhab- Vol. of Treaties, p. ;j49. itants of the District of Chingleput, belonc^ing to the said Sircar, and depending upon the Subah of Arcot, for and in consideration of the many services rendered to my affairs by tlie Enghsh East India Company, their firm friendship for me, and the dependence I have of their always, in future, remaining firm in alliance with, and supporting myself and sons, I have given and made over to them, in Jaghire" the several districts therein mentioned, the revenues of which amounted to 442,881 pagodas, equal to nearly L. 180,000 per annum. These sunnuds obtained the confirmation of the Mogul by Firman already mentioned, dated 12th August 1765. [n addition, however, to this, agreement was made with the Nabob that he should Contributes to defray the expense of the Company's maintaining ten battalions of Sepovs for the Company's mili- "pi ■' tary expense. 18 se'crec'^''''' coa'a'nd^ protection of tliG Camatic, which necessarily involved a heavy annual contribution 7^1. ' or appropriation of the revenues. While the Nabob thus came under obligation, and granted Jaghires to the His own military Company, he maintained a large, probably an unnecessarily large, military force expenditure. himself. The exact amount of that force the Company appear at first not to have First Rep. Com. of knowu, but it secms that in 1770 it amounted to nearly 40,000 men, and these Secr6cy d. 37. • • j ^ ^ troops were well disciplined ; for in a letter from Fort St George, dated 4th July 1775, it is stated that his, lb., p. 258. " the Nabob's, second son, Ummeer ul Urarah, has seven distinct corjis, consisting of Cavalry, light armed Sepoys, and Artillery; 12 battalions of sepoys, with near 1000 artillery; all which are far better disciplined than those of any of the country powers. Some of his black cavali-y, we are informed, are as well disciplined as any of the English troops ; his artillery attached to them may vie almost with Europeans." — " He pays them himself, and all look up to him for honour and wealth." Eeference has been already made to the victory which the English obtained War with Hyder. over the united forces of Hyder and the Soubah, which resulted in the Treaty of Vol. Hi., p. 333. 1768. This victory, says Mill, — " Elevated the Madras Government to a high tone of ambition. They resolved not only to caiTy their arms into Mysore, but to make the conquest and acquisition of the country. They pressed Mohammed Ali to join the army, that the war might, as far as possible, appear to be his. ' They pompously' (as the Directors afterwards reproached them) ' appointed him Phousdar of Mysore,' and afterwards accused him, for accepting that very title, ' of an insatiable desire of extending his dominions.' " The war was disastrous to the English, and resulted in their being obliged to Occasions fresh de- conclude a treaty with Hyder. The war was then made the occasion of a fresh de- mands, mand upon the Nabob ; and in a letter to the Court of Directors, dated 20th March 1772, he wrote as follows : — 2d Rep. Cora, of " Every demand hitherto made on me by your Governor and Council I have fully paid, though Secrecy, 1 7., p. 3J. j could not prevail on them to give me my accounts till very lately ; and even those are wrote in such a manner, that neither I nor any of my people can well understand them. However, from the beginning of my transactions to the end of October 1771, there is not a Daum* due from me to the Company. The Governor and Council, in December 1769, thought proper to charge to my account Ten Lacks of Pagodas, as my share of the expense of the Mysore war ; they have frequently men- tioned, in their letters to me, that I acknowledged this as a just debt, and promised to pay it; and I understand, from your letters, that they had been at great pains to write in the same manner to England. In the Mysore war 1 expended large sums, as I maintained the whole army, paid the expense of the troops, as well as those employed in the war, as in the defence of the Carnatick at the time. By what management, then, could the extraordinary e.xpenses amount to such a sum ? This is the sense I have always had of the agreement I entered into with the Governor and Council in 1768 : That I was to be put in possession of the conquered country, out of the revenues of which the whole ex- pense of the war was to have been paid. The event of the war is well known, and in every one article the Governor and Council failed on their part, even in such as I esteemed essential to my honour as well as to my interest, and that of my country. I desire you to consider this matter well, and am certain that you will then see this matter in the light I do ; and I appeal to yourselves, whether you think it probable I ever could be brought voluntarily to acknowledge this demand as a just debt in such circumstances. " I have nothing so much at heart as endeavouring by every means to make my friendship with the Company stronger and stronger; and, therefore, in my last letter, by the ship Lord North, I told you that the next ship should bring you accounts of my friendship, that you might set your minds at ease. What is money to me without your friendship '? or what sum can equal the value I have for you ? Therefore, since you have been told that 1 would pay you Ten Lacks of Pagodas (L.400,0P0), I now tell you, that out of pure friendship, and merely as the result of my own free will Nabob agrees to and choice, I will, in time of peace and tranquillity, pay to my friends, the East India Company, Ten pay L.400,000. Lacks of Pagodas; I ask nothing in return but your friendship, which I doubt not you will readily grant." Renewed War In 1779, the Presidency of Madras resolved upon an expedition against Mah6. with Hyder. ipj^jg ^^^ ^^^ territory of a petty prince on the Western Coast, who, with the other petty princes, his neighbours, had been rendered tribvitary to llyder. The Nabob remonstrated against the expedition, and urged the necessity of making peace with Hyder, or, on the other hand, of first making terms with the Marattas and the Soubahdar. Instead of following his advice, the Presidency formed an arrano-cmcnt with Jkizalut Jung, which in the highest degree alurmed and exas- perated l)otli. The consequence was, that Hyder invaded and devastated the Carnatir, and involved the Company and the Nabob in a useless and protracted wai', whicli was costly to botli of the allied powers, and materially disturbed the internal tranquillity of the Carnatic, and was especially injurious to the * A Daum is equal to about a peiwiy. Nabob remon strates. 19 Nabob. Again, and witli little semblance of justice, the Company made their Fresli demands on demands upon the Nabob, who informed them that it was completely out of his Nabob, power to render them assistance. " Participatinn^ in the general aversion to be- heve that the Nabob" was so circumstanced, the President renewed his importu- nities ; and probably in consequence the Nabob applied to the Governor-General, concluded an arrangement with him, and intimated the fact to the J 'resident. Arrangements This transaction is thus narrated in the letter from Jiengal to the Court of Direc- with Governor- tors, dated 27th April 1781 : — General. " About tlie middle of Last niontli, arrived in Fort William, Syod Assam Cawn Beliaudre, De- sixth Rep. Com. of wan of bis Highness the Nabob Walla Jaw, accompanied by Mr Ricliard .Joseph Sullivan. Their Secrecy, p. 1054. arrival was reported to us by the Governor-General on the 29th of that month, .and a translation of their credentials as Ministers and ricnipotentiaries Extraordinary from his Ilighncss the Nabob Walla Jaw was laid before us, together with a pai>er of re(piisitions prepared by the Dewan, who, in the name of his Master, requested the JJoard's rcjdy, expressing their resolution on each article as expeditiously as i)ossible ; their object being of the utmost importance, not only to the future prosperity of his country, but also to the safety of the English possessions in the Carnatic, and to the relief of his numerous creditors, whose claims and necessities he rejircscnted as •'reat and dis- tressing. We had, a few days before, received from tlie N.abob's new consolidated creditors a pro- posal for the siitisfaction of the debt owing to them from his Highness, and your Select Committee at Fort St George had transmitted to us with it a copy of their Mnutes on a similar proposal made to them. " Sensible of the heavy load of difficulties under which the Nabob Walla Jaw hath laboured for a considerable length of time, and anxious that a permanent plan should be adopted for the future regulation of the affairs of the Carnatic, we readily acquiesced in the desire of Syed Assam Cawn, that distinct replies should be given by us to each of the several propositions of the Nabob; and we agreed that the replies, if approved by the Dewan, should serve for the basis of an agreement be- tween this Government and that of the Carnatic. As the agreement includes many particulars which cannot be made so clear in an abstract of them as in the perusal of the agi-eement itself, we have thought it necessary to transmit to you a copy of the requests of the Nabob Wallah .Tab, and of our replies to them, which together form the agreement, numbers in this dispatch. The a^ree- raent having been fairly engrossed on two distinct papers bearing the seal and signature of the Nabob Wallah Jaw, and the Dewan, Syed Assam Cawn Behaudre, and Mr Richard Joseph Sullivan, attending at our Council on the 2d inst., it was sealed and signed by them in our presence, and by us in their presence, and formally interchanged. " We should have previously acquainted you that we were fully satisfied with the sufficiency of the powers with which Syed Assam Cawn Behaudre and Mr Richard Joseph Sullivan were in- vested on the part of the Nawaub Wallah Jaw ; and being anxious that speedy and effectual reme- dies should be applied to the disordered state of the affairs of the Carnatic, deemed it of essential moment that the entire sanction of the controlling Government of India should be given to the agreement ; and the more especially, as in the letters which have been received from the Presidency of Fort St George since the commencement of the late troubles in the Carnatic, they have repeat- edly declared their total and absolute inability to obtain from the Carnatic the smallest supply of money for the maintenance of the war, or the support of their current expenses." The requests of the Nabob, which formed the one part of this agreement, were p. 1082. inter alia as follows : — " 1. Let a treaty be firmly established between us which Agreement with may last for ever, and be subject to no deviation." The answer to this article is Nabob, important, as showing the permanency of endurance with which the treaties afterwards concluded with the Nabobs of the Carnatic were intended to be regarded : — " A temporary treaty shall be made, subject to the revision and approbation of the Company; and it is hoped this may serve as the basis of another treaty, to be concluded under the orders and in- structions of the Company, and even with the sanction of the EngUsh Parliament, which may endure for ever, and rendered so binding that it shall not be in the power of any individual to break it or to depart from it." ' After some other articles, the sixth article is as follows : — " After peace and alliance is made between us and the English Corapanj', the enemies, the security, and the dangers of both will be the same ; that is to s.ay, whoever of us suffers an injury, it will be felt by both of us. I therefore wish that the English in India, or the Kino- of Great Britain, would make a treaty of peace with the King of France ; and let the peace and security of the Carnatic and the rights of my Government, without the connection of any one, and my power to appoint a successor in the Carnatic, be settled in a solid manner, and included in the treaty." The appointment of a successor by will, here referred to, was a favourite subject with Mahomed Ali, his wish being that his second son, Ameer-ul-Omrah, should succeed him. Whether he ever executed such a will in favour of that son is not known, but it is not improbable. The answer to this article admitted the right : — " In whatever treaty," it bore, " shall be concluded between the Nabob and the Company, it will of course be stipulated that the friends or enemies of either party should be held as equally the fi-iends or enemies of the other, and their interest, their safety, and their danger the same. Such has been the implied condition of the alliance hitherto subsisting between the Nabob and the Company, although unsupported by any written engagements. Respecting the latter claim of this article, we are informed by Assam Cawn, the Nabob's Dewan, that the Nabob possesses letters from the Com- 20 pany, the King's Minister, and the King himself, on the subject of his will ; and he has produced copies of those from the King and from the Company, ivhich all express a clear acbiowkdr/ment of the NaboVs rifjht to appoint a successor to the Government of the Carnatic. It is therefore unnecessary, and would be unbecoming in this Government, to make any provision, even in a temporary treaty, for such event, which we hope is far distant. Sueli aclcnowledgments are equivalent to treaties, and of the highest possible authority, and must be binding on all the servants of the Company, and on all the King's subjects." In Article 8 the Nabob says — " My constant wish has been to discharge the money due to the troops stationed by the Com- pany, and I have always exerted myself for this purpose ; from the commencement of my connection I have paid veiy considerable sums on this account, and on the day that Hyder invaded tlie Carnatic I owed the Governor and Council of Madras less than one lac of pagodas, which I was in hopes of dischar^inc by receiving bills from the bankers in tlie country ; when in the meanwhile tlie attack of our enemy began, and, instead of paying the balance in money to the Company, provided in my country a "reater amount than that, in rice, and bullocks, and sheep for the army, besides the stores in my forts, of which there is a large supply in Trichinopoly, and a less quantity in Velore, etc. ; and what was in those forts which our enemy has taken is in his possession ; had not my bad destiny produced many obstacles, there is no doubt but at this time I should not have been indebted one single pagoda to the Company." He then makes a proposal in regard to certain talooks, which he proposes should be handed over to his creditors ; and mentions in Article 9, that for several reasons, and from the invasion of his enemy, which were not unknown to his friends, he was greatly distressed, and his subjects were not in a state to suffer him to have any hopes from them. The answer of the Company was, — 8. " This is just. Let the Nabob consent and engage to assign all the reeemtes of his country during the war, without any exception, to the Company for the actual support of the war." Then entering further into explanations, they conclude, " By this arrangement the resources of the Carnatic will be applied, as they oun'ht to be, to its immediate defence and preservation ; and the Nabob's faith and the ri"-hts of the creditors will be secure';^, and this is agreeable to the request which the creditors themselves have formerly made." And with reference to the Nabob's statement as to the debts he was owing to his creditors, a new adjustment was advised to be made. The receipt of this communication occasioned discussion. The Nabob was naturally reluctant to part with his revenues, while the Company's servants were as naturally desirous of securing them. Their sole object, however, was the good of both parties. For even Sir Eyre Coote, who took a strong view of matters, thus wrote to -the Select Committee on lltli September 1781 : — Carnatic Papers, 1803, " I am fully persuaded in my own mind, that we should stand justified both to our King and vol. ii., p. .52. country in taking for a time the entire management of the Carnatic ; and in guaranteeing in their just rights and privileges such of the Polygars as either from necessity or ill-usage have been induced to become subservient to Hyder-; and would upon such protection unite -ndth us and against him, not meaning thereby to rob the Nabob of either Ids honour or his lights, but upon principles of the soundest friendship, and, with all due respect and regard for his person and authority, to give that real assistance towards his future interests, which, from a mistaken policy, he hinaself denies them. All resources which mio'ht by such a measure be obtained, would necessarily be employed in support of a war, and be credited to the Nabob in our accounts ; which will carry with it tlie appearance of having given some assistance to the cause, whereas at present there is none." Mill, V..1. iv., p. iia. " "With much negotiation, it was at last arranged ; that the revenues of all the dominions of the Nabob should be transferred to the Company for a period of Nabob assigns re- f^ye years at least ; that of the proceeds one-sixth part should be reserved for the venues to Com- pj.jy^tg expenses of himself and his family, the remainder being placed to his ac- pany or o years. ^^^^^ . ^i^^^j. ^j^g collectors should all be appointed by the President : and that the Nabob should not interfere. By this deed, which bore date the 2d of De- cember 1781, the inconveniences of a double government, which by its very nature enorendered discordance, neghgence, rapacity, and profusion, were so far o-ot rid of ; though yet tlie misery and weakness to which they had contributed could not immediately be removed." The assignment of the revenues, by lessening the ostensible importance of the Nabob, and infringing on his acknowledged indopondency, was most naturally distasteful to him, and he made representation against it to the Governor- General. Upon the Information which the latter obtained, a resolution was passed on 8tli January 1783 to surrender the assignment into tlie liands of the Nabol) ; but this was opposed to the views both of the Directors and of tlio Madras Presidency, and the resolution was not carried into effect at that time. CariLitic Paper.-, 1803, Tlic Opinions entertained arc thus expressed in tlie two following letters to the vol. ii.. p. ,>s-y. Secret Committee of Directors, from Lord Macartney, then President at Madras, by whom the assignments had been carried througli shortly after his arrival at the Presidency : — 21 24th January 1784. Para. 10. Having, on my .arrival in this country, found your affiiirs most critically situated in all respects, 1 cniloavourcid, by an early and laborious attention, to acquire exact information of the stiUe of every department, and have communicated to you, from time to time, the result of my in- quiries and observations. 11. The first thing that struck me as defective in your system, was the nature of the Company's connection with tiic Nabob, by which the rosource-i of a province garrisoned and defended by your forces in peace and war were altogetlier in the control of his Highness, under a simple and insecure engagement of reimbursing, by instalments, the current charges of a certain proportion of those forces. This stipulation, even in peace, was, from constant failure and backwardness in the Nabob, a source of [lerpetual alarm to (Government, which often found itself absolutely unable to provide for the payment of the troops when it became due. But if such are the inconveniences of this system in time of peace, how totally unprovided, weak, and defenceless must be your situation under it iti time of war, and particularly of an invasion of the country trom whence this scanty resource is to come? When Ilyder Alii entered the Carnatic in July 1780, there was an instant sto[) to all pay- ments from the Nabob, upon a [)lea of absolute inability. Your army, at the very moment that its expenses were doubled, lost even its usual supply, and the whole charges of the war, ordinary and e.iftraordinary, and even the daily sustenance of the troops, were thrown upon you; in this dreadful exigency was obtained that Assignment, without which all your revenues and credit must have been inevitably sunk to no purpose. 12. In my letter of the 1st December, [ declared my opinion, that from the moment you should surrender that Assignment, you would cease to be a nation on the coast : I now repeat to you the same opinion. Whatever reliance you may formerly have had upon the gratitude, friendship, or fidelity of the neighbouring princes, has been long since at an end ; from the time of Ilyder's cnterin"- the Carnatic in July 1780, to the Assignment of December 1781. The inability or unwillingness of the Nabob to assist you appears fully detailed on your records before my arrival in this country ; and the Assignment itself, from the date of it till the Company had the full management of the revenue, was mere moonshine, and did not furnish you with a shilling. By the establishment secured under the late peace to the French on this coast, and by the force they possess and seem determined to maintain here, it is past a doubt that your first and principal stand against that nation, in case of a rupture, must be made in the Carnatic. What, then, have you to trust to ? To nothing but your- selves having the administration and direction of the revenues of the country which is to be defended. 14th October 1784. voi. u., p. 60. Para. 7. From the statements now enclosed, you must perceive at once how impossible it will be for you to exist in the Carnatic if you surrender the Assignment. With every attention to the management of the revenue on its present advantageous footing, your relief from this resource will not be very material for the next three years; afterwards, indeed, if the peace of the country be not disturbed, a rapid progress may be made in the discharge of the Company's and the Nabob's incum- brances ; but without the Assignment, I see not a ray of hope for the preservation of the Company or the security of the Nabob on this coast. As my voucher for this assertion, I must call to your remembrance the disordered and ruinous state of the country, and the extreme insufficiency of the Nabob's payments while he collected the revenues himself. During the first eighteen months of the late invasion, the Company obtained scarcely any assistance from him. The Assignment was then procured ; and in the next eighteen months, notwithstanding the devastations of the enemy, and the gi-eatest opposition and intrigue on the part of the Nabob himself, you will observe, from the books of this Presidency, what considerable resources have been drawn from the country, — resources without which all our other aids must have totally failed in carrying us through the multiplied embarrass- ments of the war. The Board of Control, lio\vever, iaterferrecl ; and for the purpose of giving to all the powers of India a strong proof of the national faith, ordered restoration of the revenues; and, in June 1785, a preliminary treaty was entered into with the Voi. of Treaties, p. Nabob, by which the Nabob agreed to pay his proportion, fixed at 4 lacs of pagodas Ireiiminary Treaty of per annum (L. 160,000), of the current charges, and 12 lacs of pagodas per annum '"^■ (L.480,000) on account of his debts to the Company and private creditors until those debts were discharged ; and, in the event of failure in the payment, certain districts were assigned to the Company in security ; and by the last article it was declared, " the within conditions being first duly signed and sealed bv the respective parties, the agreement of the 2d December 1781 will be immediately returned to his Highness the Nabob, vvho is hereby restored to the possession of, and full ex- ercise of sovereignty over, the Carnatic." Sir Archibald Campbell arrived at Madras as President of that Presidency Sir A. Campbe^l■^ after this restoration to the Nabob of the collection of his revenues, and one of the negotiations, principal duties he had then to perform was that of effecting a new arrangement with the Nabob. The instructions he had received appear to have been, to have required a much larger aimual payment from the Nabob than what had hitherto been agreed upon, and on this subject he, on 18th April 1786, thus feelingly wrote : — Though I may fail iri accomplishing all you wish, be assured that I will leave nothing untried Carnatic Papers, isoa, to make the arrangement with his Highness and the Eajah of Tanjore as consonant as possible to ^°'" "■■ P' ^^■ your instructions, and that no deviation from them shall ever meet with my approbation, except where the case may render it indispensably necessary. At the same sime, I wish you to be aware 22 hat, from the Nabob being assessed 12 lacks for the payment of his debts, and 4 lacks towards military charges, his country, under its present management, may not, perhaps, be found able to bear any great additional burden, although, in strict justice, and in compliance with your orders, a much greater demand will be fully warranted. 12. Wliile I call in question any part of the agreement lately entered into with the Nabob of Arcot, I must do liim the justice to say that, so far as it has gone, his Higness has acted up to the terms agreed upon by paying his Kists punctually as they became due ; which, joined to the great respect I have for liis Highness, cannot fail to secure to him every degree of kindness and attention on the part of this Government. Treaty of 1787. After some negotiation, a treaty was entered into, dated 24tli February 1787- This treaty proceeded upon tlie narrative, that The Court of Directors of the Honourable United East India Company, having taken into their serious consideration the great advantages which may be attained by improving the blessings of peace, now happily re-established on the coast of Coromandel and the Carnatic ; and considering the present hour the best suited for settling and arranging, by a just and equitable treaty, a plan for the future defence and protection of the Carnatic and the Northern Sircars on a solid and lasting found- ation, have communicated these their sentiments to his Highness the Nabob of the Carnatic, who, being fully impressed with the propriety and wisdom of such an arrangement, has for himself, his heirs and successors, adjusted and concluded a solid and permanent treaty with the President and Council of Fort St George, upon the principles and conditions herein after mentioned ; in consequence whereof, it is stipulated and agreed that due provision shall be made for the military peace estab- lishment ; and also, that, for discharging the expense of war, in the event of a war breaking out in the Carnatic, or on the coast of Coromandel, certain contributions or proportions of the revenues of the contracting parties shall be united into one common stock, to be applied for their mutual security and defence. And as it is necessary that the application of the said contributions, both for peace and war, shall be reposed in the United Company or their representatives, together with the direction of the war, the company of the army, magazines of stores and provisions (the granaries and present magazines of his Highness the Nabob excepted), with full power to occupy or dismantle such forts as by them shall be deemed necessary for the general security, the said contracting parties do hereby solemnly engage and agree, for themselves and their successors, to and with each other, in manner following, — that is to say. Article 1. The friends and enemies of his Highness the Nabob of he Carnatic, and of the English United East India Company, shall be considered as the friends and enemies of both. It was then provided that the Nabob should contribute towards the mihtary peace estabhshment, and should pay into the treasury of the Company the annual sum of 9 lacs of pagodas(L.360,000), in place of the 4 lacs agreed by the Preliminary Treaty ; and that the Company should, with the aid of Tanjore, contribute such further suras as might be necessary, and should annually furnish the Nabob with an account of the troops maintained by his contribution ; and the security of the assignment of districts was made to the Company in case of failure in the punctual payment of the 9 lacs. It was further provided that, in the event of any war breaking out in the Carnatic or on the coast of Coromandel, the Company should charge themselves with the direction, order, and conduct thereof, and both parties should each contribute four-fifths of their whole revenues in the Carnatic to the military expenses of the war. It was further agreed by Article 15, that, " Whenever the Company shall enter into any negotiations, wherein the interests of the Car- natic and its dependencies may be concerned, the President in Council of Fort St George shall communicate the proceedings to his Highness the Nabob of the Carnatic, as the firm ally of the Company ; and although the direction of the combined force of the country is committed entirely to the Honourable Company or their representatives, it is nevertheless understood, that his High- ness shall bo informed of all measures which shall relate to the declaring of war or making of peace with any of the princes and powers of Ilindostan, so far as the interests of the Carnatic may be im- mediately concerned therein, and the name of his Highness shall be inserted in all treaties regarding the Carnatic, and Ifis Highness will not enter into any political negotiations or controversies with any state or power, without the consent or approbation of the President in Council of Fort St George." By Article 19 it was further stipulated that the articles of agreement contained in the Preliminary Treaty above-mentioned, in so far as they related to the dis- charge of the debts of liis Highness the Nabob, should be in continual full force — in other words, that the Nabob should continue to pay 12 lacs of pagodas per annum to the reduction of his debts ; but in so far as regarded the agreement to pay 4 lacs towards ctirrent ox])enses, the previous article declared that the Preli- minary Treaty sliould be null and void. Sir Archibald Campbell, in his letter of 24th Feb. 1787 to the Court of Directors annonncing the coui])letion of this Treaty, after alluding to his in- stigations and negotiations, thus wrote : — Letter Sir A. Under the Nuholl's present expensive system of manafjiiKj his revenues, I think it almost certain Campbell an- ^^^^ '"^ Jlu/lincss novhl not (i/pinl to pat) the 1 0^ lacks of pagodas annually, and 1 2 lacks more to his cre- nouncing Treaty. •^''°''^' without involving himself and family in very great difficulties ; and 1 think it my duty to say <;;iriiatif Papers. l«o3,80 Candidly, rather than mislead the Company into expectations which can only tend to deceive »iii. !•., |i. «1 them. Viewinir matters in tliis li^'ht, I iiroposed to his Highness, that in case the Court of Directors 2.3 illj not comply with his request for an abatement of two lacks of pagodas from the annual sum paid to the creditors, and in case the revenues of liis Highness should not be found adecjuate to the dis- charge of the same, I should have great pleasure in assenting to those two lacks of pagodas bein"' carried to the account current of his Higiiness with the Coni|)any. 14. On a suhsc(pient meeting witli the old Nabob, his Highness in a very afftctiiig manner stated his distresses, and warmly represented ids disposition to do whatever 1 should, in the nana; of the Company, say lie in justice ought to pay ; at tlie same time throwing himself upon the gene- rosity and friendshi]) of the Company, from a conviction that tiiey would never ask him to engage for more than he was able actually to perform. The old J'rince was considerably agitated at this period, and retired, leaving iiis son the Ameer (ul-Omrah) to communicate his sentiments as to the extent of his powers to com[)ly with the re(|uisitions pro])osed. 15. Pleased with the moderation and pro[)ricty of the Nabob's conduct, I desired tiie Ameer to inform me what sum his Highness could pay witii ease to himself and comfort to his family. The Ameer replied that he was instructed by his father to say, that he could pay tnue lacks of pagodas annually to the army peace establishment, and have a sullicient surplus to make himself and his family liajtpy and comfortable. 16. An oiler of such magnitude, accompanied with tlie certain prospect of giving satisfaction to a venerable Prince and haiipiness to his whole family, could not fail to be acceded to, especially as it produced an additional revenue of five lacks of pagodas, or L.2OO,0UO sterling, annually to the Company ; and was unanimously approved of by the Council on my laying the ofler before them. 17. Exclusive of tlie jdeasure I enjoyed in diffusing happiness to all the branches of a family who look up to this Government for protection and support, the consideration of the Nabob's inva- riable attachment to the British nation, and the strong assurances which his Highness had uniformly received of the friendship and liberality of the India Company, rendered it in my opinion a matter of wisdom and good policy to deviate in a small degree fi-om the rigid principles set forth in my minute, especially as such a deviation was most likely to obtain much greater objects in the Treaty. If to these considerations I am permitted to add the impressions I had received from your letter of the 22d of September 1785, which directs every degree of attention to the convenience and hajjpi- ness of the Nabob in forming this Treaty, I trust you will think I did not make any unwarranted or improper sacrifice of the Honourable Company's interest in acceding to the Nabob's proposal. He then proceeds to mention the arrangements made for time of war, and that it had been agreed that The Nabob of the Carnatic, after deducting certain jaghires and charities, amounting to 2,34,787 pagodas, should contribute four-fifths of his gross revenues to the purposes of the war, leaving (and it may be of some importance to note this) the other fifth to answer for the current cltarges of his family and cieil government. It was also stipulated and agreed tliat the Nabob should pay twenty-five fifty-one parts of all expenses incurred in time of war. As being in strict proportion to the amount of his revenues, as compared with those of the Company and of the Eajah of Tanjore — He adds, — 20. The care I have taken in securing to the Company the punctual payment of the several sums agreed upon, will be sufficiently illustrated by the Treaty itself, which I have the honour to enclose. It is therefore necessary only to observe that this, as well as all the other objects recom- mended to me by the Court of Directors, have been minutely attended to in this Treaty. 21. The potver of the purse and stvord is now completely secured to the Company ivithout lessening the consequence of the Nabob ; and I pledge myself that these powers, so long as I have the honour to preside in this Government, will be exerted with discretion, and to the utmost of my abilities, to secure the interests and promote the honour and prosperity of the India Company. 22. If the articles of this Treaty appear satisfactory to you ; if they produce, as I trust they will, solid and lasting advantages to the India Company, by the very respectable addition of five lacs ofjiago- das to their annucd receipts, ivhile the Nabob of the Carnatic is happy and pleased with the arrangement, I shall think my labours well bestowed, and feel that I am fully rewarded for all the fatigue and anxiety of mind I have undergone, preparatory to and during the whole of this negotiation, which I can with truth say has greatly exceeded any description that I can possibly convey. I should not, he adds, discharge my duty to the Honourable Company, were I not to re- Mill, vol. v., p. 25i. commend the present state of the Nabob's finances to your most serious consideration. The volun- tary grant of so large a proportion of his revenues to the public and private creditors of his Highness does, in my opinion, infinite honour, and marks his real character. But it ought to be considered that this grant was made at a time when he thought his proportion for the defence of the Carnatic would not exceed the sum of four lacs of pagodas annually. His contribution for this defence is now extended to nine lacs ; and I can easily perceive that, although he has cheerfully agreed to pay for that purpose five lacs of pagodas more than he expected, yet it is from a conviction that such a contribution is indispensable for the general security ; and that this venerable Prince would rather subject himself and family to the feelings of difficulty and distress, than be thought backward for a single moment in contributing most liberally to any arrangement which might tend effectually to the defence and prosperity of the Carnatic. Of this arrangement in general the Directors expressed great approbation, but Directors require required that, instead of 9 lacs, the Ifabob should be obliged to pay 11 lacs additional pay- towards the current expenses ; and he was obliged to agree to this hard "proposal, ™^°''' although the Nabob strongly remonstrated, stating his inability to meet so heavy a demand. The Treaty was not long in being considered defective in its machinery for Treaty found im carrying out the purposes of the parties ; the management of the Nabob M-as pro- Pfrfect ; Commu- bably, like that of most of the native powers, defective and insufficient for ti^g "'nations as to realisation of the revenues. At all events, it was not so complete as the English' 24 were accustomed to in their own aiFairs; and General Meadows, then President of Madras, on 31st March, 1790, wrote to the Court of Directors : — Camatic Papers, jjjg Higijness the Nabob is so backward in his payments, so oppressive to his Polygnrs, whom '"■■''*■ ■ at this time it is so necessary to have on our side, that I conceive it will be absolutely neces- sary, upon his first material delay of payment, to talce the 7nanagement of his country into your own lumds ; a measure, in spite of the opposition to it, so advantageous to you, the country, and even to his Hiqhness himself, when so wisely projected and ably executed by Lord Macartney (referring to the agreement of 1781). On 16th September 1790, the President and Council at Madras wrote: — We resolved to submit to the Supreme Government the correspondence which had taken place between our President and the Nabob ; and to point out to his Lordship in Council the im- policy of depending for our principal resources, at a time when the greatest exertions were necessary, and pecuniary supplies were of the utmost importance, upon the operations and management of the Nabob's Government, of which the system ivas, perhajis, as defective and inefficient as any u])oii earth. And we did not hesitate to declare it as our unqualified opinion, that this Government (meaning the Company), ought, during the war, to take the Nabob's country under their own management, as afibrding the only means by which the resources to be derived from it could be realised, and the fidelity and attachment of the Polygars and tributaries secured, which is of the utmost importance to the successful operations of the war. In the event of his Lordship's agreeing with us in opinion, and instructing us to act in conformity, we suljmitted to him the necessity of our adopting the measure in so comprehensive a manner as to preclude any kind of interference on the part of the Nabob while the country might be under our management ; and stating, that if this were not done, he expected advantages could not be derived. The Governor-General, upon receipt, recommended obtaining the consent of the Nabob to assuming the Government of the country. To this the Nabob was vehemently opposed ; and the Madras Council wrote : — We cannot say that the event has surprised us ; for when it is considered how many people attached to the Durbar are interested in the Nabob's retaining the management of his country in his hands, it will not be a matter of wonder that every effort should be made to prevent his again ceding what, in a former instance, he had much diificulty in recovering. We are convinced he will never make a voluntary assignment of his country. On 21st June the Governor-General in Council, declaring their Perfect persuasion of the impossibility of obtaining in future the stipulated proportion of the Nabob's revenues through the medium of his own managers, which also precluded all hopes of being able by those means to recover the immense amount of his balance, authorised and directed the Governor and Council of Madras to take effectual measures to put the Company into immediate pos- session of the management of his Highness' revenues and country, in order that the total amount of the collections might be applied with fidelity and economy in the proportions that had been ah-eady settled, To defray the exigencies of the war, and to supiwrt his Highness' own family and dignity. And add, We trust, however, that before long his Highness will be fully sensible of the interested and criminal motives of the advisers by whom he has been influenced to resist your solicitations; and that he will soon see, that whilst his people will be treated with justice and humanity, a liberal fund will be secured for the maintenance of his own family and dignity, and that the remainder of the revenues will be secured from the hands of extortioners and usurers, and honourably applied to the defence and protection of his subjects and dominions. 10th August 1790. In reporting upon these transactions to the Court of Directors, the Governor- General thus wrote : — I was impelled to the determination of assuming the revenues of the Carnatic by the strongest considerations of humanity, justice, and public necessity. The flagrant failure on the part of the Nabob in the performance of the stipulations of the Treaty with the Coni]iany, ought long ago to have awakened the Government of F'ort St George to a sense of their public duty ; and would, in strictness, at any time have merited the serious interference of this Government. But at a dangerous juncture, when the resources of Bengal are totally inadequate alone to support the expense of the war, into which we have been forced by one of the most inveterate enemies of his Ilighness' family and of the British name, I could not for a moment hesitate in discharging what clearly a[)peared to me to be the duty of my station, by taking the only measures that could be effectual for securing the jjroportional assistance to which we are entitled from the funds of the Carnatic. I must likewise observe, that b}'^ executing this resolution, 1 have every reason to believe that whilst we provide for the general safcity, wo at the same time greatly promote the interests of humanity. For, by the concurrent accounts that I have received from many (juarters, I am perfectly convinced that, from the Nabob's being unacquainted with the details of business, and either from an indifference to tlie distresses of his subjects, or from a total inca|)acity to superintend and control the conduct of his renters and managers, the most insatiable extortions and cruel oppressions are nowhere in Lidia more openly and genendly committed with inijiunity upon the mass of the miserable inh.abitants, than by liis Iliglniess' officers in the internal management of his country. And it will tlicreforc not only bo felt as a relief by the body of the people to be ))ut under the autho- rity of the Company's servants, but we shall probabl}' be able, by mild and just treatment, to ••onciliatc on this critical occasion the attachment of the Southern I'olygars, who, from being 25 Viarassed by the unreasonable exactions of the Nabob's renters, have almost always been ripe for ilisturbance and revolt. I trust, likewise, that in addition to the other advanta;,'(s that may be expected from tlie measure of taking the management of the ('arnatic into your own hands, it may tend to break off a connection between the Durbar and many of your servants, from which nothin" but the most baneful cflects can result botli to your own and his Highness' interests. Tiie relation between his lligluK^ss and tiie Company's (jiovernmont ; the delusive schemes into which he has at different times been drawn, by the acts of intriguing and interested men, to seek for support in England against regulations and orders no less calculated for /tis real good than for the advantage of the Company; and the case which Europeans of all descriptions have found, by the vicinity of his residence to Madras, in carrying on an intercourse with him, in defiance of all your jjrohibitions, have thrown out temptations that have proved irresistible to several of your servants, and other persons, not only recently, but during a long period of years, to engage in unjustifiable and usurious transactions with the Durbar. And I believe I may venture to assure you, that it is to these causes, so Iiighly in- jurious to the Company's interest, and so disgraceful to the national character, that the present state of disorder and ruin in his Highness' affairs is principally to bo attributed. Jt will retiuire much mature consideration to devise means that will be effectual to i)revent a repetition of tliese evils ; and, indeed, I must freely own, that I could not venture to propose any jjlan on the success of which I could have a firm reliance, unless the Nabob could be induced, by a larye annual revenue, to surrender the management of his country for a long term of years to the Company. These documents are very important, as indicating what were the views of the officials of the Comj^any in reference to obtaining the management of tlie Carnatic into their own hands ; and the concluding sentence of the above letter affords a sufficient commentary upon, and explanation of, the arrangement afterwards come to by the Treaty of 1801, to which reference will hereafter be made. It is quite clear from this letter, which, probably, greatly exaggerated the real state of matters, that all that was wanted was to obtain possession of the government and collection of the revenues, as a measure of benefit to all concerned ; and had simply in view the object of securing payment to themselves of the amount agreed to be paid by the Treaty, and of handing over the balance to the Nabob, because the Nabob's management was so bad and defective, that they could not trust to it for securing payment of these obligations. As we advance, this will become still more apparent. This arrangement was followed by the complete approbation of the Directors, who considered, from the experience they had had of the Assignment of 1781, that such an Assignment was the only effectual method of securing the Nabob's payments. The English were then at war with Tippoo, and upon its conclusion, in 1792, the Carnatic revenues fell to be restored to the Nabob. This led to negotiations for a new Treaty, both parties being dissatisfied with the former Treaty; the Nabob complaining that its pecuniary conditions were heavier than the country was able to bear, the English complaining that the securities it provided for the payments by the Nabob were inadequate to their end. The Treaty of 1787 was therefore annulled, and a new Treaty, dated 12th July 1792, was Treaty of 1792. entered into. This Treaty is still in subsistence, and it is therefore of importance to attend to its terms. It narrates that — Whereas a certain engagement entered into between the Honourable English East India Vol. of Treaties, p. k-j. Company, and His Highness the Nawaub of the Carnatic, bearing date the 24th February 1787, for the purpose of cementing an everlasting friendship with each other, and of contributing mutually towards the defence of the Carnatic and countries dependent thereon ; whereby it was stipulated that the said Company should maintain a military force, and that the said Nawaub should pay annually a certain sum of money arising from the revenues of the Carnatic, and should furnish sufficient and satisfactoiy security, under certain conditions expressed in the said engagement, for the regular pay- ment of the sum stipulated to the said Company; and wdiereas it appears by the representations of the said Nawaub, contained in a certain letter addressed by him to the Governor-General, etc., etc., dated the 18th of the month Shawal, 120G Higera (corresponding with the'Jth June 1792), that the resources of the Carnatic are not competent to enable him to perform the stipulations in the said engagement ; and whereas it further appears that the security which the said Nawaub agreed in the above-mentioned engagement to furnish for the due p.ayment of the stipulated sum to the said Com- pany, is, in its nature, inadequate to the end intended; and whereas certain agreements have also been entered into between the said Company and the said Nawaub, for the discharge of certain debts due by the said Nawaub to private persons, it has been mutually agreed, in consequence of the above written circumstances, that the engagement aforesaid shall henceforth be considered by the contract- ing parties as annulled, and no longer of eff"ect or in force ; and in lieu thereof, the Right Honourable Charles Earl Cornwallis, Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, Governor-General, etc., etc., etc., invested with full powers on the part of the said Honourable English East India Company to direct and control the affairs of the said Company in the East Indies, in the name of and for the said Company, their heirs and successors, on one part, and the Nawaub Wallah Jah Aniecr-ul-IIind Omdut-ul-Moulk Asoph-ul-Dowlah Unevah-ul-Deen Hian Behauder Zuffer Jung Sepah Salar Nabob of the Carnatic, in his own name, and for himself a»rf his successors, his eldest son Nabob Omdut-ul-Omrah Najun-ul-Moulk Assud-ul-Dowlah Hassein Ally Khan Behauder Zool Sircar Zung, a7id his heirs and successors, on the other part, agreed to the following Articles, which shall be binding on the respective contracting parties for the purposes contained therein, notwithstanding all or any of the conditions stipulated in the engagement dated the 24th February 1787 to the contrary. G 26 Article I. The friends and enemies of either of the contracting parties shall be considered the friends and enemies of both. Article II. In order to execute the foregoing article in its full extent, the Honourable English Kast India Company agree to titaintain a military force, and the Nawaub Wallah Jah Behauder agrees to contribute annually a certain sum of money, hereinafter mentioned, as his share of the ex])ense of the said military force ; the said Nawaub further agreeing, that the disposal of the said sum, together with the arrangement and employment of the troops supported by it, shall be left entirely to the said Company. Article III. It is hereby also agreed, that for the further security and defence of the countries belonging and subject to the contracting parties in the Carnatic, etc., that all forts shall be garrisoned by the troops of the said Company : and in the event of war breaking out in the Carnatic and countries appertaining to either party, and dependent on the Carnatic or contiguous thereto, it is agreed, for the better prosecution of it, that as long as it should last, the said Company shall possess full authority over the Carnatic (except the Jaghires belonging to the family of the said Nawaub, amounting to Star Pasodas 2,13,911, which, on condition of the good behaviour of the Jaghiredars of the said Jaghires, and of their fidelity to the said Nawaub and to the said Company, shall be continued to them, sub- ject to the pleasure of the said Nawaub only, and except also certain charities, amounting to Star Pagodas 21,366, subject to the same conditions as are mentioned with respect to the Jaghires), and shall collect the revenues thereof, the said Company hereby engaging that, during such war, they will pay to the said Nawaub one-fifth share of the net revenue arising therefrom, and that, at the conclusion of the war, the Carnatic shall be restored to the said Nawaub, except in certain cases, which are hereinafter mentioned. Article IV. The Nawaub Wallah Jah agrees to pay to the said Company, for the purpose of mutual defence, the sum of nine lacks of Star Pagodas annually, as his share of the expense for the military force ; and also in consequence of certain agreements entered into by him with the said Company, and guaranteed by the Parliament of Great Britain, for the purpose of liquidating certain debts due by the said Nawaub, a further sum of 6,21,105 Star Pagodas annually, which further sum of 6,21,105 Star Pagodas shall cease on the full liquidation of the debts above mentioned, and tile sum of 9,00,000 of Star Pagodas only shall continue to be paid by the said Nawaub to the Company. Article V. The said Nawaub having agreed to pay the aggregate sum of 15,21,105 Star Pagodas, as mentioned in the fourth article, determines that the tributes or Peschush, payable by the Poligars, as more particularly mentioned in the Schedule No. 1, hereunto annexed, shall be collected by the said Company, wlio agree to make the collection thereof at their own expense and risk, and that they will not increase the demand on the said Poligars beyond the sum mentioned in the said Schedule, except in the case hereinafter mentioned, nor charge to the said Nawaub either the expense attend- ing the collection or any deficiencies that may arise thereon, but will give credit to the said Nawaub annually for the aforesaid tributes or Peschush, in part payment of the sum of nine lacks of Star Pagodas above mentioned, without any deduction whatever. Although the contracting parties have, in the present instrument, agreed that the sum of 2,64,704 Star Pagodas 20 Fanams 26 Cash be deducted from the sum of nine lacks of Pagodas, as the amount of the tributes or Peschush from the Poligars; yet should it, on future inquiry, appear that the said Poligars ought, by virtue of any ex- isting and lawful engagements, to pay a larger sum, it shall be demanded of them ; and any addition that shall thus be made to the sums mentioned in the said Schedule, shall be deducted from the sum of nine lacks, in like manner with the sum of 2,64,704 Star Pagodas 20 Fanams 26 Cash, and a similar deduction shall, in consequence, be made in the Kistbundy hereinafter mentioned. It is, however, mutually agreed, that the diminution of this aggregate sum which shall take place on the full liquidation of the debts, as specified in the fourth article, shall make no change in this article, which shall, notwithstanding such diminution, remain in full force. Article VI. The said Company, desirous of preserving the lights of sovereignty over the said Poli- gars to the said Nawaub, engage to the utmost of their power, and consistent with the realisation of the tributes of Peschush from them, to enforce the allegiance and submission of the said Poligars to the said Nawaub, in customary ceremonies, and in furnishing the Poligar Peons, according to established custom, for the collection of the revenues, the support of Government, and for the protection of the property of the inhabitants of the said Nawaub's country, promising that all acts of authority shall be exercised, and all accounts of revenue (of which accounts the said Nawaub, if he so wishes, siiall be annually furnished with copies) shall bear his, the said Nawaub's, name. For the better execution of this and the fifth article, the said Nawaub promises to furnish to the said Company, that is to say, to their representatives, the President and Council of Fort St George, the necessary orders, under his seal and signature, addressed to each Poligar, and to the purport hereof, without delay. Article VII. After deducting from the above-mentioned sum of nine lacks of Star Pagodas, which forms a part of the aggregate sum of 15,21,105 Star Pagodas, mentioned in the fifth article, the amount of the tributes or Peschush from the Poligars, as specified in the Schedule No. 1, the said Nawaub agrees to pay annually the remaining sum, being 0,35.295 Star Pagodas 15 Fanams 54 Cash, together with the further sum of 6,21,105 Star Pagodas, for the purpose mentioned in the fourtli article, making the sum of 12,56,400 Star Pagodas 15 Fanams 54 Cash, at the following periods: — On the 1st September, ...... Ist October, ..... 1st November, ...... 1st December, . . . ... Ist January, ...... 1st February, ...... 1st March, ....... 1st April, ....•■. 1st May, ....... 1st June, ....... Star Pagodas, star Pagodas. V. (' 1,00,000 1,00,()()0 1,00,000 (1 1,00,000 1,00,000 1,00,000 (1 1,50,000 1,50,000 (1 1) 2,00,000 (• 1,56,400 15 54 12,56,400 15 54 27 And it is mutually agreed, that on tlio lull liquidation of tlie debts before mentioned, when the payment of the sum of Star Pagodas 6,21,105 shall cease, by virtue ol tiic fourtii article, arcduction, in equal proportion, shall take ])lacc in the above instalments. Article VIII. The said Nawaub engages to make good to the said Company the payments of the sums, according to the instalments of Kistbundy contained in the seventh article; and ;/; con- trarij to his sincere inteiiiiom and exertions, an;/ oftlte Kaid sums shall not he Julli/ paid, at the e.q/iraiion of fifteen dai/s from the time limited, in that case tiie said Nawaub arjrees, that the said Company sludl assume tlie. management of, and incdce the collection of tJie revenue.H, from tlie districts tuentioned in tlie Schedule No. if, hereunto annexed, according to the following conditions : and for this the jjresent engagement shall be considered sullicient authority, the said Company, through tlieir President and Council at Fort St George, giving immediate and o.xjjlicitinibrniation, according to the tenor thereof, to the said Nawaub, who shall, on the arrival of the Company's ollicers in the said district, recall all his officers, except one in each district, which officer shall remain at the Sudder Cutcherry, and shall be furnished annually, by the officer of the said Company, with eojiies of the Sudder Cutcherry accounts, of the gross collections, and of the net receipts, under the attestation of the officer of the said Company, and of the Sudder Omlah of the district. First. The said Company shall assume the management of such district or districts, the revenues of which, after. deducting the charges of collections, shall e(iual the amount of theKist which shall have fallen in arrear. Second. The said Company agree, that a deduction shall take place proportionably from the amount of each of the ten Kists above mentioned, equal to the amount of the net revenue of the district or districts which shall have been assumed as above, such deduction commencing from the day that the assumption shall take place. It is also mutually agreed, that an account, called " Balance account," shall be immediately opened, for this and other purposes hereinafter men- tioned, bearing an interest of eight per cent, per annum, between the said Nawaub and the said Company, in which the said Nawaub shall be debited for the balance accrued in his above stipulated payments, and also for the amount deducted, as above, from the ten Kists, and shall be credited for the net revenue collected from the said district or districts, the said Company continuing to exercise authority in, and to make the collections from the same, until, in conse- quence of the full liquidation of the debts and diminution of the annual sum, to be for that pur- pose paid by the Nabob to the said Company, according to the fourth article, the said balance account shall be equal on the debit and credit side, and nothing shall remain due to the said Company, then the said district or districts shall revert to the management of the said Nawaub. Tlii.rd. Whenever the said district or districts, thus assumed, shall be restored, according to the above condition, it is agreed, that in case any of the Kists for the sum remaining (after the deduction of the sum of 6,35,21,105 Star Pagodas, that is to say, for the sum of 6, .35, 295 Star Pagodas 15 Fanams 54 Cash, be not paid fifteen days after the expiration of the time limited, the said Company shall possess equal power to assume the districts mentioned in the said Schedule, No. 2, as in the first instance, and shall accordingly assume such district or dis- tricts, the revenues of which, after deducting the charges of collection, shall equal the amount of the Kist which shall have fallen in arrear, from which they shall realise the balance that shall have arisen in the payment of the Kists, and shall give credit to the said Nawaub for the surplus and subsequent net revenues, in part paj^ment of the sum of 6,35,295 Star Pagodas 15 Fanams 54 Cash ; and, in this case, the management of the district or districts thus assumed, shall for ever continue in the possession of the said Company, anything contained in the third article of the present engagement to the contrary notwithstanding, and the said Company agree to give the Nawaub credit for the revenue arising therefrom. Fourth. In order to prevent any loss arising to either party from this measure, it is mutually agreed, that the district or districts which shall thus be assumed by the said Company, shall be entire, as mentioned in the said (schedule, and not parts of districts. Fifth. In consequence of this measure, whereby the districts mentioned in the Schedule, No. 2, become responsible for any arrears that may accrue in the payment of the above stipulated Kists, the said Nawaub agrees, that he will not grant Tunkaws, or assignments, on any account on the revenues thereof, and if, contrary to this condition, any Tunkaws or assignments should exist, where the said districts or any of them shall be assumed by the said Company, such Tun- kaws, or assignments, shall be declared by the said Company and the said Nawaub to be of no value, nor shall they remain in effect. Sixth. It is agreed between the contracting parties, that the above described balance account sh.all be annually adjusted, and a committee, consisting of four respectable and capable persons, of which two shall be nominated by the said Company and two by the said Nawaub, shall assemble, on the 1st day of August of every year, commencing with 1 793, for the purpose of adjusting and drawing out a fair and e(iuitable statement thereof Ajrticle IX. In case the said Nawaub shall, at any time, have occasion for any number of troops for the collection of his revenues, the support of his authority, or the good order and govern- ment of his country, the said Company agree to furnish a sufficient number of troops for that purpose, on public representation being made by the said Nawaub to the President and Council of Fort St George, of the necessity of employing such troops, and of the objects to be obtained thereby ; and the said Nawaub agrees to defray the additional expense of such troops, so long as they may be employed at his request, this additional expense being the sum over and above the expense of such troops while in garrison or at fixed quarters : and it shall be at the option of the said Nawaub to re- imburse the said surplus expense, either on the conclusion of the service on which such troops may have been employed, in money, or to add it to the debit side of the account called balance account, as more particularly explained in the second condition of the eighth article. Article X. The said Nawaub shall receive regular information of any negotiation which shall relate to declaring war or making peace, wherein the said Company may engage, and the interests of the Carnatic and its dependencies may be concerned ; and the said Nawaub shall be considered as an ally of the Said Company in all Treaties which shall in any respect affect the Carnatic and countries depending thereon, or belonging to either of the contracting parties contiguous thereto ; and the said Nawaub agrees that he will not enter into any negotiation or political correspondence with any European or native power without the consent of the said Company. 28 Tliis Treaty, consisting of ten articles, and having two Schedules annexed thereto, marked No, ] and No. 2, shall be in force and have effect from the 12th day of July 1792 (coiTes])onding with the 22d day of the month Zekaida, 120G Higera); and the contracting parties having affixed their respective seals and signatures to two counterparts, on the dates undermentioned, that is to say, the Right Honourable Charles Earl Cornwallis, K.G., Governor-General, etc. etc. etc., shall affix his seal and signature to one counterpart, on the part of the Honourable English East India Company, and the Nawaub Walla Jah Behauder, Nawaub of the Carnatic, shall affix his seal and signature to another counterpart, shall be exchanged. Signed and Sealed at Chepauk House, this 22d day of Zekaida 1206, and 12th day of July 1792. ° The completion of this Treaty was communicated by Lord Cornwallis to the Honourable Court of Directors, by letter dated 9th July 1792, in which he says : — Carnatic Paners 1803 -■ ^''^ disadvantage and danger arising from the separation of the internal government and management Tol. ii., p. 84. ' 'of the revenue of the country from the responsibilitii for its defence, is so obvious, that if there had appeared to be the least chance o{ obtaining the Xalob's voluntary acquiescence, I should without hesitation have been ready to propose to him, as the plan best calculated for promoting his own interest and comfort, and the happiness of the inhabitants 'of the Carnatic, that he should intrust the Company with the entire management of the country, in addition to the responsibility for its defence, under an engagement on their part, after allotting certain sums for public purposes, and for the gradual liquidation of hia private debts, to pay to hiui regularly a liberal portion of its revenues for the maintenance of his family, and the support of his dignity. But the Nabob's own disposition, and the influence of a number of inter- ested people of a variety of descriptions with whom he has intercourse, left me no ground to hope that he could be brought to give his free consent to an arrangement of that nature ; and a regard to justice and liber- ality towards an old ally, as well as to our own reputation in India, equcdly precluded the most distant idea of making use of any other means than those of persuasion, which I knew luould be ineffectual. His Lordship then proceeds to mention that he had entered upon negotiations for a new arrangement, at the rej^eated urgent request of the Nabob, which had resulted in the treaty, and in explanation says : — Ibid. p. 85. 8. I do not think myself called upon to endeavour to account for the Nabob's having been pre- vailed upon to agree, by the Treaty which he concluded with Sir Archibald Campbell, to pay a sum into the Company's treasury which so far exceeded the real resources of his country, but shall only ob- serve, that it was full time that this delusion, so flattering, but in the end so injurious to the Com- pany and to his private creditors, should cease ; and I am persuaded that you will feel as I did, that, exclusive of the Jaghires, not less than a fifth part of the revenues of the Carnatic should, under any circum- stances whatever, be left for the support (f his Highness family. 9. By observing this rule in the present agreement, it has certainly been rendered possible for the Nabob to be regular in his future payments ; but, from the general improvidence of his manage- ment, and in particular from his having unluckily fallen into inveterate habits of allowing himself to be preyed upon by artful and interested men, I cannot help apprehending that his Kists will before long fall again as formerly into arrear ; and although the assumption of the ditierent districts at the period of each failure will protect the Company against future disappointments, yet, as his share of one-fifth of his revenues is never to be diminished, the amount of those arrears, and the accruing in- terest upon them, must stand over in account as a debt to the Company until all his consolidated debts shall be discharged. 10. This could only have been avoided by an article in the Treaty, to entitle the Company, upon the failure of the payment of a Kist, to take the immediate management of the whole of the districts mentioned in the schedule ; but I should have been restrained from making such a proposition from the harshiless of its nature, even if I had thouglit it possible that his Highness could have been in- duced to consent to it 14. The Nabob's foilure in making good his stipulated payments alone compelled us, at the commencement of the war, to take the management of his revenues into our own hands ; but experi- ence having convinced me, since my arrival upon this coast, that it would have been impossible to carry on the war without having likewise the means in our power to command, without delay or in- terruption, the resources that the Carnatic could allord of grain and cattle for the use of the army, I thought it my duty to propose that the Nabob should agree, that, in case of a future war with any of the neighbouring powers, the Company should, during tlie pci-iod of the war, assume the entire manage- ment of his country, and it gave me great pleasure to find that neither his Highness or his son made the least objection to that article. Vol. T., p. am Referring to the foregoing dispatch, Mr Mill observes, that it appears that " Lord Cornwallis set a great value upon this arrangement (the Treaty 1792), and fondly The Treaty found believed it was calculated to answer all the ends which it was the object of liimself unsatisfactory. ^nd his countrymen to secure. The complaints of which he had heard were chiefly complaints rcspoctiiig the securities for the payments of the Nabob. The seciu'ities wliicli lie had taken had the apj)earance of being complete, and he saw not far beyond first appearances. The observation is just, " that though this engagement sim])liried in some points, and greatly ameliorated in others, the engagement which Sir Arcliibald Caiii[)bell had contracted, it corraied nane of its radical defects.'" Management during a limited and precarious period excluded that minute know- ledge on which alone could l)e founded an assessment just either to the Companv or tlir, Iiiliabltaiits ; ensured the l»ad oHices of all descriptions of the people, who had an interest in courting the Government which they were again to obey; and 19 totally prevented the introdm-tion of a new inanao;cment in place of that crnel and oppressive system, which, under tlio Government of the Nabob, desolated the country." I'atY It will be observed, that the effect of the arrangement made by this Treaty of Eftj^^'^' '^'''^ 1792, so far as the Nabob was concerned, simply was to oblige him in time of peace ° ' ' ' to contribute a certain sum towards the defence of the Carnatic and reduction of his debts, and to entitle the Company, in the event of failure in timeous payment, to assume the management and make the collection of the revenues from certain stipulated districts; and it was only in the event of war breaking out that the Company were empowered to assume fidl authority over the Carnatic, and to collect the revenues thereof, in time of peace the collection and management of the revenues and government of the country was left entirely in the hands of the Nabob. As, however, the Company were entitled, in the event of failure in due payment of the stipulated annual contributions, to enter upon the possession of certain districts of sufficient value to meet the obligation, it might bo supposed, and in point of fact it was supposed by Lord Cornwallis, that the interests of the Company were sufficiently protected ; and so undoubtedly they would have been, if the Nawaub's management had resembled the wise and beneficent Government Cniipes of delects to which the British people have been accustomed in the management of their "' ^ '<'"')■• own affairs. But unfortunately the government of the Nabob was not of that Nawaub's Govern- description ; at all events, the opinion formed by the English with regard to it, ment. was, not merely that it was oppressive to his subjects (with which directly they had no concern), but that it was disastrous and ruinous to the interests of the Nabob, and to the condition of his revenues, in the prosperity of which their interest was direct and deep. The evils, moreover, which attended upon a divided government, — that is to say, a country subjected to the government of two separate and independent sets of rulers (for by this time the English had necessarily their share of rule In the Carnatic) — began to be felt. The extracts already furnished from the dispatches show that the opinion had been gaining ground, even prior to the Treaty of 1792, that the Carnatic never would be in a Remedy, satisfactory state, as well for the Nabob as for the Company, until the enth'e col- lection of the revenues, and vianagement or government of the country, were at all times, whether during peace or during war, entrusted to die Company. Not that it was desired by obtaining such management to acquire the possession of any abstract power, but simply because, in a pecuniary point of view, such manage- ment would be more certain to ensure regular payment of the annual contribu- tions for which the Nabob had become bound. Nor was it with any view, at least at this period, of extracting a revenue. Still less was there in the minds of the Company the most remote idea of affecting the status of the Nawaub, as sovereign of the Carnatic, or of doing anything but a benefit to him and his subjects. The difficulty in the way was the very natural opposition of the Xawaub him- Nawaub's opposi- self His opposition to It when it was agreed to in 1781, and for a short time """• acted upon, has been already seen. And the Company felt that it would be a most ungracious, Impolitic, and improper act towards one who stood to them 111 the position of an ancient ally, united to them by every tie of friendship and alliance for a long period of years, to use anything like force to compel him to accede to their wishes. Accordingly, in recommending the accpilsltlon of the management, they uniformly enjoined the. use of no other means than those only of persuasion. If the opinion so entertained prior to the Treaty of 1792 was well founded, facts, which seem to have come to light afterwards, confirmed the Company and its officers The real causes still more strongly in the necessity of carrying that opinion into practical effect ; ^^^^^^ and as It is of the greatest importance to the present case to demonstrate that the opinion so entertained was the real cause which led to the next and last Treaty, — that of 1801, — which has been so erroneously misconstrued by the Directors of the East India Company in dealing with his Highness Prince Azeem Jab, — It will now be proper to introduce in considerable detail a variety of dispatches by de'iionpirated by which the fact is substantiated. The following dispatch is dated during the lifetime of Mahomed All : — 30 CanuitioPapei-s, 1803, EXTRACT of tlie Company's POLITICAL Lettee to Fort St George, dated 19th February Paua. 9. The abi/sen practised nnder the Nabob's management in the collection of the tribute, and the uncertainty of the demands of his Government, continually vai-ying with his own necessities and with the avarice and extortion of his officers, have naturally rendered the Poligars suspicious even of the just and reasonable demands of Governn.dnt. We are therefore glad to find that you have commenced a settlement of the tribute upon fixed and definite principles ; and it is of the greatest importance that the Poligars should be convinced, that it is the determination of Govern- ment to exact nothing from them in future beyond the amount of the tribute stipulated in the re- spective engagements, so long as they shall adhere faithfully on their part to the conditions of the settlement which has been concluded with them. On 13th Oct. 1795, the Nabob Mahomed AU died at the age of 78, after a reign of close upon 50 years. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Omdut-ul- Vui. v-i., p. 40. Omrah. Mr j\Iill, in recording this event, observes, "From the date of the Treaty, framed by Lord Cornwallis in 1792, the payments of the Nabob, being in the years of peace, had through the agency of the money lenders been regular. But the country, made over to the cruel exactions of this description of men, had rapidly declined. The continued operation of the same causes threatened to extinguish the resources of the Govern- ment ; and, thoiigh no attempt had been made to ameliorate the state of aifairs during the life of Mahomed Ali, the succession of Omdut-ul-Omrah ajipeared to Lord Hobart to present a favourable opportunity for introducing those reforms of which the necessity had become so urgent." Accordingly on the 24th of the same month in which the Nabob died. Lord Hobart, President at Madras, placed on record the following Minute in Council : — LoRt> Hobart's Minute in Council, the 24tli October 1 795. Carnatic Papers, 1803, The proposed arrangements which have been brought into discussion since the death of hi.'^ IV.. p. 99. Highness the Nabob Walajah, make it necessary for me to advert with more minuteness than has been usual upon the Public Records to the system on which the administration of his revenue has been conducted, because it manifestly shows the necessity of that change which it is my object to accomplish, both in respect to the country itself, which, though under the immediate control of his Highness, it is the duty of tliis Government, in a general point of ^dew, to cherish and protect, and in respect to the security which has been pledged to the Company for the support of their military establishment, and for the discharge of the consolidated debts guaranteed by Parliament to the private creditors of his Highness the Nabob. I shall therefore in this Minute lay before the Board the information which I have collected, and the consequent observations which have occurred to me, upon the usurious loans which it has long been the practice (principally among the European gentlemen of the Presidency) to make to the Durbar, for mortgages upon the different provinces of the Carnatic ; and here I may be allowed to express my belief, that though the Honourable Court of Directors have been extremely pointed in their orders and observations against this practice, the continuance of it has been owing in some measure to the want of that candid exposition of the fact, which it is my intention to make. The southern districts of the Nabob's country, and Tinnevelly in particular, as being the most distant from the Presidency, have been the theatre in which these scenes have been chiefiy exhi- bited ; but it is notorious that similar practices have been introduced, and are now actually in use, in Nellore, Arcot, and Trichinopoly. The transaction commences at IVIadras, where the Kists of his Highness are payable, and is opened by an agreement between the Nabob and some one of the principal houses of business, or even some of the Company's servants, for the payment of a certain sum into the Treasury on ac- count of his Highness' public engagements. The advancers of this money knowing from experience that a simple mortgage would be insufficient security, unless the means of reimbursing themselves should be placed in their own hands, find it necessary not only that a person of their own nomina- tion should be appointed to the management of the mortgaged province, but that there should be a vigilant superintendence and a powerful support of the concern upon the S[iot ; hence the expedi- ency of a connection between them and the military commanding officer in the district : he also finds it advantageous to embark in the speculation, because he thereby adds considerable weight to his own interest, and because it fiicilitates the means of raising money to carry on his part of the con- cern. From this connection both j)arties derive ample security for their money, by the absolute power of the one in command upon the spot, and by the weighty influence of the other in command of monied interest at Madras. This outline is filled up by a liirther connection with the person who appears to receive the appointment of Aumildar or Manager from the Nabob ; hence it is either stipulated that a person chosen by the money lenders at Madras shall be nominated to manage the district, or, wdiere men of rank may have already been appointed as Foujdars by his Highness, the same effect is produced by a connuunication between him, the commanding officer, and the money lenders, jirevious to the agreement for a loan at the Durbar. The combination is in this latter case completed by tiie appointment of a Tehsaldar on the part of the money lenders, and thenceforward produces an uniform, consistent, and connected oi)eration. His Highness having by this arrange- ment obtained his principal object — provision for the payment of his Kist without any immediate disbursement from himself — delivers his poo[)le and his province u[) to the control and j)ower of the Manager, evidently without rcganl to their situation ; because, as his terms with the money lenders necessarily provide for the removal of all restraint from the governing power, so he must e.\j)ect that the Manager, who can have no interest in the future prosperity of the country, will have recourse to every means by which he may hope to bear himself and his connections hannles.s, and that within the shortest time possible. The interest allowed by the Sirkar varies in different places, and depends not a little upon the influence which the lender may hajipen to have at the Durbar; at a medium, however, it may be 31 stated at four per cent, per month, besides the i>iiy of all tlie servants employed by the junto in re- ceiving the revenue. This last charge is always a fixed sum at the expense of the Nabob, consider- ably above the actual expense incurred by the Tehsaldar, and the dilfercnce is considered amongst the customary advantages of the concern. The Manager, arrived within his district, innnediately assembles his Under Managers, Anniildars, and Renters, and tlien ensues tlu; second part of this o])- pressive system. Tiie Tehsaldar is importunate, and the Miinager must find means of satisfying his demands; suljordinate Sotikurs, native as w(dl as European, are called u))on ibr assistance. Tlie Soukar makes his advance; and in tiiefirst instance the Aumildar, or Renter of tlie districts assigned over as security for such advance, grants liis bond until other securities shall be fbrtlicoming : these are either the bonds of the inhabitants or grain. In time, al)out tla-ee-lburths of the sum are secured to tiie Soukar by grain made over to him, and placed uniler charge of his servants; and for the other one-fourth, the bonds of tiie iniiabitants arc made over for that part of the revenue payal)le by them to the Sirkar in ready money upon tiie cultivation of doy grain, etc. Those are frecjuentiy forced from them at the commencement of tlie season, which consecpiently compels them to anticipate the crops, and pay interest upon money before it be due from them. At this period of the transaction, the Soukar sends his servants and Peons into the country, with an order from the Nabob's Manager to the guards placed therein to afford every assistance (as it is generally called), but in fact to obey them im])licitly in collecting the amount of the bonds from the inhabitants. Anxiety to secure so precarious a projierty naturally leads the Soukar to ado|it such measures as power enables him, and the custom of the country authorises. Then follows this (iro- cess : if the Ityot is dilatoiy in the discharge of his bond, he is confined without victuals, beaten with rods, and comjielled to pay batta to those vei-y Peons and guards who are the means of his confine- ment and punishment. In this manner, 1 am credibly informed that an inhabitant who grants his bond for 100 chuckrums (nearly 40 pagodas), is compelled, before he is released from the consequences, to pay from 110 to 115 chuckrums, according to circumstances. If his credit or his other means is exhausted, which is too often the case, he must necessarily dispose of some part of his stock, which consists of cattle and seed grain. The first part of the system which I have stated desci-ibes the original cause at the fountain-head, the second comprises the detail which springs out of it, — in both, the considerations of the means which are immediately employed, and of' the effect which it may produce upon the future revenue, is abandoned ; and while the grand mover of these effects is at a distance from the scene, and the subordinate instrument is hardened by practice, conscience is lulled to rest by the delusive opiate of interest upon interest. Thus far I have traced the progress of a loan secured upon the bonds of the inhabitants : it will not be less principal for me to pursue it to the disposal of the .Paddy. The first endeavour of those who are engaged in a concern of this nature is to enhance the price of grain by artificial means, lest the ordinary price of that article, the sole subsistence of the natives, should fail to answer the large advance of money, and the exorbitant advantage expected upon it by ' the Soukar. The means of eftecting this purpose is easy ; for the necessitous condition of the Ryots compels them to dispose of their grain as soon as it comes into their possession, in order to satisfy the urgent demands upon them which I have already described. The purchasers of this grain monopolise it until the demand, which increases with the consumption, advances the price ; if, towards the expiration of the season, any part of the grain should yet remain on hand, the expedient is to divide the whole quantity, in whatever condition it may be, among the inhabitants, and to force it upon them by Guddyum. This Guddyum, it appears, compels the people (in general the manufac- turers) to receive grain at a valuation considerably above the market price ; and it would seem to be of ancient establishment and current practice; Ibr, in the agreement which I was successful in negotiating with his late Highness the Nabob Walajah for placing a portion of the Tinnevelly weavers under the immediate superintendence of the Company's Resident, his Highness has expressly re- served, nor could be prevailed upon to relinquish, the right of his Siikar to exercise this Guddyum. The inferior servants of the Sirkar, whose duty should be to watch over the public interests, are placed under the arlfitrary control of the money lenders, without whose permission not an anna can be expended, nor a measure of grain issued, except by stealth : indeed, I understand that, upon the aJTival of a Soukar, or his representative, in a mortgaged district, the usual custom is to notify his authority throughout the villages, and to prohibit the expenditure of grain or money but by his order : this prohibition extends to the ordinar}' charges of pagodas, mauiums, and sibbeendy ; and when an order is granted from the Sudder Cutcherry for any of these purposes, the persons receiving the Sunnud must wait at the Cutcherry of the money lender for a confirmation of his Instead of receiving relief by Tukavy (or advances for cultivation) at the proper season, by which to replace their cattle, and to provide seed for extending their cultivation, the inhabitants are often obliged to sacrifice both to their own immediate wants and the rapacity of the Soukar ; of course no system of regulation can prevail, and every hope of improvement must be relinquished. Some of tlie means Ibr enhancing the price of grain I have already related, but the subject is exhaustless. The Poligars have been prevented by the Manager of Tinnevelly from selling within the Sirkar lands the grain which is allowed them for Dash Cavellry (or watching fees) ; and I should hesitate to advance, if I was not supported by the authority of public record, that during a late scarcity of grain in the southern provinces, Extabar Khan, the Nabob's Manager, had the hardiness to write a public complaint to the Company's collector against the Poligars for selling grain to the inhabitants ; nor was the evil removed without the interposition of this Government, who, by sending vessels loaded with grain, induced the monopolisers, from regard to their own interests, to restore their usual supplies to the market : yet did the Company not escape the efi'ects of this monopoly, for they were reduced to the necessity of purchasing grain at the price to which the monopolisers had raised it, for the subsistence of those troops who were stationed there for the protection of his Highness' territories. After this exposition, no comment can be required to show that this species of government, if it deserves the name of government, coiiiains the most grievous oppression of tJie people, tlte certain im- poverishment of the country, and consequently the inevitable decay of revenue; but it will be useful to show the particular manner in which it affects the resources of his Highness the Nawaub. 32 It is estimated, and I believe not with exaggeration, that the Province of Tinnevelly alone i» annually mortgaged, upon the terras I have described, to the amount of 300,000 jKigodas ; and calculating the period for which interest is paid upon the whole sum at six months, the amount of interest at 4 per cent, per month is - - - - - - 72,000 The charges paid by the Sirkar for the Sibbundy of the money lenders, during that period, cannot amount to less than ----- 3,000 The amount of loss therefore to the Sirkar on this transaction is, pagodas - 75;000 That an individual gentleman should, in less than three years, amass a fortune of more than L.50,000 would be a matter of wonder, if this statement did not at the same time afford a solution of the difficulty and a proof of its own correctness. But the scene is not closed here : besides the dealings of the principal Soukars with the Head Manager, there are subordinate transactions of a similar nature among the inferior officers, and those who possess but smaller means for usurious practices, amounting in all perhaps from fifty thousand to a lack of pagodas ; this brings an additional expense upon the Sirkar, because interest is allowed on all advances made by the Renters on pressing occasions, before the Kists are due ; and, on the other hand, the inhabitants are not exempt from a part of this expense, which is imposed upon them by fine, forfeiture, or guddyuni, in order that he may be enabled to make the advance upon which he receives interest. As the Manager is under engagements to pay the fullest computed value of the district, he is justified, according to the custom of the country, in availing himself of every possible resource. A proportion of the church allowances is withheld ; the pay of all descriptions of servants is kept in long arrear, and in partiitular the Sibbendy sepoys : a small advance indeed is sometimes made for subsistence ; but their principal resource (and it is not unproductive) is in the Batta, which they receive by acknowledged practice while doing the duty of Sezawuls, and in the dexterous manage- ment of the power which that service gives them, to extort presents for their forbearance. The Manager knows from experience, that in the event of assuming the country, the English Govern- ment will be induced, either from motives of humanity to attend to the calls of these unhappy people, or from motives of policy to satisfy the clamours of a mutinous and undisciplined rabble. Thus, at the very time when the exigencies of Government became most pressing, a part of their resources, which ought to be immediate, is appropriated to the liquidation of arrears. If this is a true history of the present management, it may be asked, why an immediate and large defalcation of the revenue does not i'ollow ; ibr the operation of such system as I have de- scribed tends directly to the point of ruin ? Nothing less than the hand of arbitrary power could avert it, even for a time. In proportion as the means of cultivation decrease, the price of grain is enhanced ; and it is a notorious but inhuman maxim of Eastern finances, that a year of scarcity is more productive than a year of plenty to the Sirkar ; because, as a given number of mouths can only consume a proportionable quantity of grain, the immediate advantage or disadvantage of Government arises from the price at which that given quantity is sold. In years of plenty, the superfluous grain is in a great measure useless, owing to tlie partial and difficult means of exporta- tion ; in years of scarcity, the same given quantity is required for the subsistence of the people ; and as the demand is greater than the supply, an increase of the price is produced by the usual effects of a competition in the market. Though the dealings of Soukars in the collection of the revenue are not of recent establishment, yet the terms of loans have never been carried to so usurious an extent as since the practice has been introduced among Europeans ; and though the inevitable effects of it may be protracted by the harsh expedients of an arbitrary Government, yet no man who reflects upon such a system can doubt that the resources of the country have hem undeitmned ; that the wealth of the people Is exhausted; and that a principle of decline has been establislied ivhich is now precipitating the C'arnatic, u'ith accumulated weight and rapiditi/, to destruction. Impressed as I am with a serious conviction of this truth, I can- not but look with extreme anxiety to the nature of the securit// pro\ided by the Treaty of 1792, for those resources on which the British intereM on the coast of Coromandel niaterialli/ depend. I cannot but see that ihe. present si/stein of collecting the revenues cf the Curnatic luanifesth/ invalidates that security ; and that, whenever a failure may happen in the payment of his Highness' Kists, we shall in vain have recourse to it for the recovery of the defalcation. As those juiyments, though avowedly moderate in their extent, are now kept up by the exti'aordinary means which I have described, so it is reason- able to suppose that a failure, whenever it may hajipen, will arise from the total inijiovcrishment of the people. In taking possession of a district under such circumstances — for the amount of a Kist which will then have fallen in arrear — we shall, instead of fniding the immediate means of reim- bursement, become charged with an exhausted country, requiring all the liberal assistance and fos- tering attention of a lenient and indulgent Government. It is not only that our means will be cur- tailed at our greatest need, but that humanity and i)olicy will call upon us for advances of money at a time when our expenses will be most burthensome. This is an embarrassment from which tho known resources of this (Jovernment arc unecjual to extricate us, and it is a dilemma unprovided for by the Treaty of 1792 ; for the objects of that Treaty are, the payment of a debt guaranteed by Parliament, which we arc not at liberty to postpone ; and the discharge of military pay, which can» not be interrupted without danger to the State. To avert the ranscqucuces of an evil big with, such eminent danger, is an object Ihat merits the most serious as well as the most unwearied attention of tiiis Government; and it is a matter of verj' great mortification to me, that, seeing the jirogress of this calamity, and anlicipaling as I do its pestiferous effects, I am compelled to acknowledge that the means of arresting its course is extremely difficult. The prohibitory ordt'rs hitherto published liavc all failed of their object ; because the evasion of them is easy to lOuropeans through tiie agency of their native servants, and because the enormous profits which arise from those usurious loans hold out an irresistible temi)talion to ail venturers. To ])rohibit the intercourse of Kuropc'ans at the Durbar is ineflectual ; — other channels of communi- cation are open ; and the superintendent of an usurious loan at Palamcotah conveys his demands to the ears of the Nabob with no less certainty than he who lives in the [jrccincls of Chepauk. As 33 long, therefore, as his ITighness shall be so regardless of his true interests as to deliver up his pro- vinces and his people to juiblic depredation, so long will there be found men who, in the ])i4rsuit of extravagant advantages, will overleap the bounds of discretion and of moral obligation. So (les])erate a malady fcijinres a reiueihi iIkU nhdU rcdclt its sutircc ; and I have no hesitation in stating my opinion, that there is no mode of eradicating the disease but by removing the original cause, and pLtriiKj those distrii'tri ir/iirk mr p/edijed fur the si'fun'ti/ af liif KiMs hciiond the rejich of his Ilii/h- jjesV maiiiiijeiiient. Tiie disposition which his Highness has already evinced to suppose such an arrangement, leaves me in no doubt of the real cause. It is not possible to calculate the extent and variet// of interests which are involued in this one pursuit ; and though they arc subdivided in every direction of the Carnatic, yet, at the call of danger, theii alt rail// round a nniunon centre. The great houses of business who are the principal money lenders at the Durbar, borrow from individuals who, though not absolutely engaged in the loan itself, are partakers of the speculation in a remote degree, and feel with no less sensibility than their principals the approach of danger : similarity of interest makes it a common cause; and the great body of inHnence which is condensed upon this principle is uniforndy exerti^d /" snpiiort his /fii/hness the Nabob in - i^-. p- lOi. Entrusted with the government of the Company's affairs upon the coast, it is my duty not merely to look to that temporary prosperity which an increase in their revenues, and the manifest improve- ment of their commercial concerns, is calculated to afford; but, considering their permanent interests as the substantial object of every administration, to point out all defects in their system, and more particularly if they are of a nature tending to undermine their resources, and contribute, in an alarm- ing degree, to the insecurity of their possessions. Under this conviction, the Minute, to which the opinions I am now offering may be deemed supplementary, has been submitted. The Treaty of 1792, entered into by Lord Cornwallis on the part of the Company and the Nabob Walajah, appears to have embraced three objects, viz. : the discharge of the Nabob's private consoli- dated debts ; provision for a military establishment in time of peace ; and an arrangement to supply resources for a period of hostility. The Company binding themselves for a stipulated sum (9 lacks of pagodas) to furnish a sufficient military force for the defence of the Carnatic, and the Nabob engaging to pay a certain subsidy under a guarantee of landed security, whereby a proportion of the revenues of the Carnatic were mortgaged for the execution of the provisions of the Treaty ; and. therefore, so long as the Company fulfil the conditions on their part, the}' have acc|uired an interest, and eventually a right of interference, to prevent the declension of those revenues to the extent of their being rendered inadequate to the security for which they have been pledged. As they can have no claim, and, notwithstanding the increase of their military expenses, have made none under any circumstances, for calling upon the Nabob to augment his stipulated payments, so, on the other hand, under a liberal and equal construction of the Treaty, they would be justified in interposing their authority to guard against a positive deficiency in the appropriated resources. Was the security in bullion or moveables of any kind, an attempt to transport it out of the reach of the Company, even during a period that no defalcation had arisen in the payment of the Kists, would probably be resisted, if necessary, by force. The difference in the case now imder discussion is, that whatever diminution (and it is considerable) in value the security is gradually though rapidly sustaining, carries along with it the destruction of the human race and the desolation of the country. The Treaty is formed upon a well-founded presumption, that the districts specified therein are capable, either in the hands of the Company or of the Nabob, of producing revenues competent to the purposes for which they are given as security ; but that security becomes nugatory if the exces- sive deterioration of it shall not be deemed a virtual violation of the Treaty, and warrant the adoption of measures watli a view to avert the injurious effects of such deterioration. If we look back to the origin of the Treaty of 1792, we shall find that it arose from the repre- sentations of the Nabob Walajah, that, without imposing burthens upon this people which they were not able to bear, he could not make the payments to the Company stipulated for in the Treaty of 1787; but he had no sooner prevailed upon the Govei-nment to acquiesce in a reduction of those payments, which he effected by the Treaty of 1 792, than, by the manner in which he carried the pro- visions of it into execution, he increased the miseries of his peojile tenfold, and defeated every humane and salutary object it was intended to attain. Should the principle I have laid down be deemed insufficient to warrant a revision of the Treaty, the open and notorious violation of it on the part of the Nabob, by gi-anting without the authority of Government Tuncas or assignments upon the mortgaged districts, contraiy to an express article of it, would indisputably justify such measures as might be thought advisable for the security of the Com- pany ; and, in my opinion, calls upon the Court of Directors to issue such orders as maybe best cal- culated to guard the interests of their constituents from so alarming and extensive an evil. Under such an impression, I have ventured to make a proposition to the Nabob, offering great, but in my mind necessary, sacrifices on the ]3art of the Company for the accomplishment of an object connecting their substantial interests with the welfare of the people of the Carnatic. H 34 To those wlio may think the sacrifice too gi-eat, 1 would observe, that the realisation of tiie sums proposed to be relinquished (probably about 30 lacks of pagodas), under the present system, is a phantom that may be held up to their view, but must for ever disappoint their expectations. The advantages to the Nabob, as well as to the Company, in the plan I have suggested, are ex- tremely obvious during the period of hostility ; an increase of revenue arising from an improved manat'ement would be an essential resource to Government, in which his Highness would participate ; from the receipt of a proportional addition to his fifth of the whole produce whilst in peace, the benefit would \>e exclusively his. Under existing circumstances, the Company sustain no loss except in extinction of the inhabit- ants of the Carnatic ; but in the arduous season of war, they must experience the most fatal defal- cations. It has been with the deepest regret that / have found the Nabob unmoved by nty entreaties and re- monstrances iijion the subject, not that he has been insensible to the justice and expediency of irhat I have pro- posed, but, as he has candidly confessed at several interviews with me, that he has not the resolution to comply : informing me, that his native ministers and European advisers so perplexed, jtlagued, and intimidated him, that he could not venture upon, the measure, notwithstanding his conviction that he ought to do so. In my Minute of the 24th ultimo I went into a full explanation of the mischiefs resulting froii) the pernicious practice of usurious loans. I traced the iniquitous system through all its intricacies, and exposed a detail of oppression and rapine not less offensive to humanity than destructive of public property, and ruinous to the permanent interests of the Camatic. The operation, however, of this system is not confined to the subjects of his Highness : it takes a wide range, and affects in a sensible degree the public credit of the Company ; for a very large proportion of the specie in circulation being applied to the uses of the Nabob at an exorbitant in- terest, Government are forced into the measure of depreciating their own paper, in order to raise funds adequate to the exigencies of the State. Tlie persons concerned with the Durbar, from the immense profit they reap, are well able to afford to raise money at 12 per cent., the legal interest of the country, and to lodge ample security for the debt; and hence it is that the Company are driven to the necessity of increasing the rate of interest upon their own paper, in order to supply their immediate wants. The effects of these usurious loans upon the commercial interests of the country, as well as every national improvement which would require a capital, are most lamentable ; no trade can stand a competition with such exorbitant profits; and when the ])ractice which so generally prevails with the Eastern Princes, of hoarding up every pagoda they can lay hold of, is superadded to the various corroding evils that have been stated, it would seem that such a complicated system of ruin and devas- tation was ivithout a precedent in the annals of the world. Had the Treaty of 1792 been adhered to with that good faith which the British nation had a right to expect from his Highness the Nabob, the country would have found in it a source of in- creasing prosperity ; since, by its wise provisions, a considerable portion of the Carnatic was ex- onerated from those private assignments, which have ever been productive of such oppression and distress to the inhabitants. To the violation, therefore, of the Treaty, may be attributed those evils which have been so fully set forth, and which loudly demand instant eradication. (His Lordship then alludes to the state of Tanjore, in which, he mentions, the same system prevailed, and for which he proposes similar remedies.) The acts of the Legislature with respect to usurious barg:iins ; the reiterated orders of the Company on the subject, and the iniquity of such transactions, aljstractedly considered, have had so little effect, that I scarcely know what to suggest as a means of future prevention. Possibly it might be attended with good consequences, if the Court of Directors were to order the Governor and Council of Fort St George to take an oath, that in every case where, according to his or their belief, there shall be reason to suppose that any servant of the Company, or person living under the Com- ))any's protection, shall, subsequently to the publication of the orders in question, have been con- cerned, directly or indirectly, in any lo;in or other money transaction with any of the native powers, unless with the knowledge and express permission of the Government, such servant of the Company, or person living under the Company's protection, shall be called before the Council Board, and ex- amined upon oath touching such supposed loan oi' money transaction ; and in the event of such servant of the Comi)any, or other jierson living under the Company's protection, refusing to answer to such questions as may be put to him, or not answering satisfactorily, so as to excul|>ate himself from all concern, directly or indirectly, in such loan or money transaction, he shall be sent to Europe by the first op[)ortunity, for having beeu guilty of a disobedience of the orders of the Com- pany, and punished accordingly. And with a view more eflectually to check this mischief, I would recommend that a proclamation should be issued, inviting to the discovery of these nefarious transactions, and oflfcring a reward to any one that should bring forward substantial proof that such ])rohibited loans had been negotiated. The pains, the trouble, the anxiety, and, above all, the pressure upon my personal feelings, arising from the investigation and exposure of this subject in its ti-uc colota'S, must be a test to the Court of Directors how important I consider it to their interest, as well as to the welfare of British India. I am aware of the numerous enemies who will start \\\> against mc for the ptirt I have taken ; hut I have a shield in the consciousness of an honest execution of my duly, which blunts tlieir arrows, and which will ultimately render all their ('Iforts impotent and unavailable. I have forborne to bring forward the names of individuals, imt because I am not able to do .so, but because the subject is above jjorsonal considerations. Let those who have amassed wealth by such means enjoy it as well as they can : let it be my pride to have paid this tribute to suH'ering humanity, by deterring others from the commission of similar enormities. (Signed) Huhakt. Shortly after receipt of tJie intclliocnce of Mahomed Ali's death, and of the 35 communications wliicli were thereafter lield witli liis successor, the Directors ad- dressed th(! following letters, the one to the Presidency and the other to the Nabob : — ExTKACT of Political Lettek to Fort St George, dated 31st August 1796. We were greatly concerned at the intelligence, tiiat the Nabob of Arcot and the Rajah of Tan- Camatic Papers, 1*).% jore had deviated from tlieir engagements with the Company, by gi-anting assignments upon llie dis-"> I'- ''■'"• tricts tiiat were actually mortgaged to tlie Company as a security for the paynjeiit of their annual subsidy for llu: protection afforded them. Itappears by the papers wliich acc'oinpanied your dispatch of the 25th February last, that the Rajah has acknowledged this iiilraction of the Treaty under his own hand. But you have not furnished us with any proof of smli infraction on the part of the Nabob; though, after the ])ositive manner in which you have communicated the information, we have no reason to doubt of the fact. It does not appear, however, even if the most undeniable proofs had been laid before us, that we siiould be strictly justilied, under the 8th Article of the Treaty of 1792, in assuming the collection of the revenues of the districts mentioned in the Schedule No. 2, annexed to the Treaty. From the baneful consequences, however, which are likely to follow to the countries upon which these assignments have been issued, and which must tend greatly to weaken, if not to annihilate, the Company's security, we siiiccrcbl Idinent that the Nabob could not be prevdikdupon to adopt the inodijicdtuni- iij' the Tiriil// proposed by you upon his accession, founded upon principles of sound policy, humanity, and justice. We are so thoroughly convinced of the necessity of this arrangement, that >cf authorise you to renew the propcsitinu in our name ; and you will render a most acceptable service to the Company, should you, bi/ address, coticitiation, ami persuasion, be successful in procuring his Hii/hness' consent thereto. And as, at the conclusion of the Treaty of 1792, the late Nabob agreed with Lord Cornwallis that his debt to tlie Company at that time should be examined into by proper persons appointed tijr that purpose, and that he would abide by his Lordship's ultimate award, or the award of the Governor-General and Council, we are willing to consent, if his High- ness' acquiescence in the proposed arrangement cannot be otherwise obtained, to exonerate him from the whole of that demand, provided he will surrender to the Company's management the districts named in the Schedule before mentioned. Letter, the Honourable Court of Directors to His Highness the Nabob Omdut-ul-Omrah, Oindut-ul-Mulk, Umnieer-ul-Hind, Asopii Dowlali, Anaveideen Cawn Behauder, Zupher Jung, Seppa Salar Soubardar of the Carnatic. To the Nabob of Arcot. Jbi'l. 7, p. 241. 1. We have received your Highness' letter, dated Chepauk House, the 22d October 179.5, con- taining the melancholy tidings of the death of your venerable father the Nabob Wallajah Behauder, and that, in consequence, your Highness had succeeded to the Government of the Carnatic. We sincerely condole with your Highness on the loss you have sustained : at the same time we offer your Highness our unfeigned congratulations upon your accession to the Musnud, in virtue of the Treaty of 1792, and assure you of our unalterable friendship and regard. 2. It was with great concern we received the intelligence, that your Highness had made some objection to the modification of the Treaty of 1792, proposed by Lord Hobart upon your Highness' accession. That your Hiijhness had the option to accede to or reject tlie jnvposal made to you by Lord Hobart, for a modification of the Treaty of 1792, «ce readily admit; but permit us to observe, that the leading features of that Treaty are, protection on the one side, and security for tlie jKiyment of a fixed sub- sidy on the other. The Company, by fulfilling this important condition of the Treaty on their part, and in constantly maintaining a large army, the expenses of which have considerably increased since the Treaty was concluded, are peculiarly interested in whatever concerns your Highness' prosperity, or the prosperity of your country; and cannot possibly view with indifference any measures which have a tendency to depreciate the revenues, which have been specifically assigned as a security for the subsidy, to the ex- tent of their being rendered inadequate to the security lor which they have been pledged. It must be obvious to your Highness, that we allude to the practice of negotiating usurious loans for Tuncaws on the revenues, and which, if extended to the districts named in the Schedule annexed to the Treaty, must be considered by every impartial judge as a deviation from the Treaty, and ol'a tendency to lessen, if not to annihilate, the value of the Company's security. In this observation, it is far from our in- tention to produce any unpleasant sensation in the breast of your Highness: at the same time, per- mit us to observe, that if the projMsed modification of the Trtaly of 1792 could be so arranged as to be made unobjectionable to your Highness, evei~y possible cau.9e of difference between your Hiyhness and the Company iu. future woidd be avoided. We have therefore directed Lord Hobart to enter upon another negotiation with your Highness for this purpose, and we in the most earnest manner entreat your Highness to lend a favourable ear to the proposition, so evidently calculated for tlie ease and advantage of both parties. In the adoption of the arrangement, your Highness will afford an early and unequivocal manifestation of your regard for the Company and the British nation. Should you unfortunately not be induced to accede thereto, we shall not cease to lament that your accession should be marked by a disinclination to attend to the first representation which your friends, the Company, have had occasion to make to your High- ness ; nor, permit us to observe, is it our wish alone that your Highness adopt the proposed arrange- ment, but we have reason to know it is also most ardently desired by the confidential ministers of our illustrious Sovereign. It appears (for the correspondence was not returned to Parliament along ^i"' ^''- p- ^•^• with the other papers ordered to be printed in 1803) that on 25th October 1795, the Governor of Fort St George had addressed a letter to the Governor-General in Council, in which he represented that, in consequence of several commruiications which he had with Mr Dundas and with Lord Cornwallis before leaving Eneland. 36 respecting the necessity of a change in that state of things which was estabHshed by the Treaty of 1792,' he had opened a negotiation for that purpose with Omdut- id-Omrah, and that he liad not communicated his intention to the Supreme Government, or waited for its concun-ence, on account of the intrigues of those who, from personal interest, endeavoured to prevent the accomphshment of his object. The members of the Supreme Government, however, had no sooner known ot the decease of the Nabob, than, on 28th Oct. 1795, they wrote to the President of Fort St George, with instructions to endeavour to obtain the consent of Oindut- ul-Omrah ti the cession of all his territories, which was carrying their views or ex- pectations a good deal further than those of the President of the Council of Madras. Lord Hobart was desirous of taking more decided measures than the Gover- nor-General approved, and the two Presidencies came thus into collision, which occasioned some rather acrimonious writing. The views of the Governor-General, however, appear from the following paragraph from a dispatch of Lord Hobart to have concurred with his Lordship, in holding that there were evils of a flagrant nature necessitating a change : — Lamatic Pa Mi-s 1803 ExcERPT of a LETTER from LoRD HoBART to the Honourable the Court of Directors, ^™*iit p^ssf" ' etc., etc., etc., dated Fort St George, 15th September 1796. Para. 8. Havin" established it as a maxim of British government that circumstances may justify the deprivation of the Nabob's guaranteed rights, the Governor-General in Council proceeds to enumerate some of the evils which have resulted to himself, his people, and the Company, from the undue exercise of those rights. The nial-administration under which his country has so long suffered the evils of a divided government, the pernicious effects of Durbar influence and intrigue, the embarrassment of the Nabob and the Company from the usurious system of loans and assign- ments, and the ruinous consequences attending it to his Highness' subjects, are all acknowledged and lamented by the Supreme Board ; and it appears, from the tenor of the Governor-General's correspondence, to be a desideratum of national importance, implicating the most serious interests of humanity, that these causes of decay should be removed, and such an arrangement introduced for the administration of the Carnatic as might avert impending ruin, and lay the foundation of future prosperity. His Lordship then enters upon a discussion in regard to some of the matters of difference. One of these appears to have been a question as to the right of the Nawaub to demand Nuzzers, which seem to resemble feudal casualties payable by heirs or singular successors to their overlords at entry, and may be adverted to simply as indicating the status or relationship which the Nawaub was considered to hold towards dependencies. P;^].a_ 21. Upon the death of the late Rajah of Calastry, the Nabob intimated his intention of Jlfid., 11.. p. 91. (igmanJiiitT a Nuzzer on the investiture of bis son, which, understanding to be the custom of the Car- natic and^lookino- upon it as a complimentary acknowledgment of the Nabob's right of sovereignty, I was disposed to admit, but at all events judged it prudent to solicit the opinion of the Supreme Government upon the subject. In reply, the Governor-General in Council, conceiving that the Nabob " was rather tenacious as to the principle, than anxious as to the amount," suggested that. he should be allowed to receive a sum, which might fairly be deemed a complimentary acknowledgment of his sovereign ri^ht, but also directed, " That it should be settled with his Highness' acquiescence." 22. A communication of the Nabob's sentiments soon discovered that he looked upon the Nuzzers as a source ol revenue, and not as mere compliment ; upon which I immediately saw the necessity of urging the terms of the Treaty as a bar to that understanding of the subject. His Hifhness adhered to his original idea ; a second reference w.as made to the Supreme Government, and the discussion terminated in the Nabob's receiving a lack of rupees. The Governor-General has stated the precedent to the Nabob, as the rule by which he is at liberty to exercise his sovereign ri-'hts. 1 resist it as incompatible with the realisation of the tribute. 23. An appeal to the whole of the proceedings upon this trans.action would be the most ample tes- timony of my consistency ; but I shall merely trouble your Honourable Court, in addition to the extracts furnished by the Governor-General in Council, with copies of my letter to the Nabob of the 26th April, of my Minute of the 21st May 1795, and of the concluding paragraph of the letter ^'Z'^^rtmT''"'^fTom this Government of the same date. The paragraphs which follow, in which Jjord Hobart presses the propriety of renuirino- from the Nabob an exact observance of his part of the Treaty, arc of no little imixirtauce at a time when the Company may be said to be refusing to fulfil their part of a Treaty obligation. 24. I cannot forego this opportunity of expressing to your Honourable Court the deeji retrret I have felt at the freriucnt uMiniiulvcrsions the Supreme Government have made upon my conduct. I will not j)resunie to assert it is free from error.-*, but whatever tlio.se errors may be, I can confidently declare they have been the result of the mosl zealous anxiety to promote the interests of the Kast India Company. 25. The satisfaction to be derived from disinterestedness and generosity, is too gratcl'ul to a well (li.-;po8cd mind to be checked by any considerations except those of duty ; but to publish to 37 all tlie Indian world that our allies may violate the faith of treaties, undermine the resources of the British Government, and icithhold the li(/iiidation (f their debts to tiie Company, without incurring any possible inconvenience, appears to be a sacrifice despenitely alarminji; to the public welfare. 21). For my part, I must for ever disclaiiii that spi^oios of reputation which is to be raised upon the ruin of those interests which it is my duty to preserve, or to be acquired l)y resorting to popular arguuienls in support of a depopulating system. An adherence to the faith of treaties is a i/rent principle ofthejirst /iiililir iilililij ; but if it be not uniform, it cannot be just, ft must be bindimj on both, or con- clnsive against neither partj/. Vatel tells us, " If the eiiiiniiniaenU (fa trcatij impose on one side a perfect ohlirjatiiin, the// on your Uiinourable Court the 39 subject of these piovernments, further than to assure you each day's experience tends to confirm our observation, and to point out the nh.tobite iiecessit;/ of providiiuj some means to rescue from ruin the ultimate security for our existence tin the coast. Extract Letter from Lord Mornington to the Secret Committee, dated 23d Juno 1798. Para. 4. Ry the Overhand Dispatch, which will leave Calcutta on the .'5d July, I intend to submit to you the whole clctail of my proceedings with the Nabob of Areot. To the Secret Committee of the Honourable Court of Directors. Fort William, 1th July 1708. HoNOUKABLE SiKS, — We had the iionour to address you on the :5d instant. 2. We avail ourselves of this Dispatch further to advise you, that tiie Right Honourable the Governor-General has acquainted us, that immediately on his arrival at Fort St George, he lost no time in taking the necessary steps for ojjoning a negotiation with the Nabob of Arcot, with a view to the accomplishment of your wishes with regard to the modilication of the Treaty of 1792. 3. Tlie Goccrnor-General, hoiuever, found his Higlmess so complelehj indisposed to that arranijement as to preclude all hopes of ohtainiiit/ his consent to it at present. 4. His Lordship trusted that he should have had it in his power to forward to you the detail of his communications with the Nabob on this subject by the present Dispatch. Other important matters, however, having pressed more immediately on his attention, he has been under tiie necessity of postponing the transmission of those details to a future opportunity. The delay appeared to him * Has never been of the less importance, as his Highness' refusal to consent to the modification of the Treaty of coursesent. precluded his Lordship from taking any further immediate steps in the business. Extract Political Letter from Fort St George, dated 15th October 1798. Nabob's resist- ance. Para. 67. In a preceding part of this letter we have attracted the notice of your Honour- camatif Papers, able Court to the peculiar style in which his Highness the Nabob has continued to address us, i^''^*- R- 1^- 2'-"- upon the completion of his Kist in the month of March last. His Highness took occasion to expatiate upon what he pleased to terra the arbitrary and tyrannical proposal which had been made to him for a modification of his Treaty of 1792. His Highness concluded this letter by a request for assistance of troops to suppress certain disturbances in the southern provinces. 63. This opprobrious expression was so inconsistent with the friendship and respect which his Highness in the same letter professed to entertain for the King, the nation, and the Company, of England, that we felt it incumbent upon us to expostulate wdth him upon the subject, and to explain, that the proposal in question had been made in strict conformity with the wishes and instructions of the Court of Directors, and of his Majesty's principal confidential ministers, founded upon a just and clear conception of his Highness' permanent welfare and happiness, as well as upon principles of justice, humanity, and policy ; and we expressed our concern that his indisposition to meet those ivishes, and his determination against the introduction of reform, had prevented a renewal of that proposal according to the orders of your Honourable Court. Matters, however, were making but little ])rogress. The ftovernor-General, in April 1799, put himself in communication with the Nabob, without effecting any result, as appears from the following Dispatch : Extract of Secret Letter from Fort St George, dated 13th August 1799. 75. At our consultation of the 23d July, the Governor-General recorded a letter from his /i«'. 5, p. 2' "4. Lordship to the Nabob, together with his Highness' answer, upon the subject of a modification of the existing engagements between the Company and his Highness. 70. It is the intention of the Governor-General to record, at a future period, the whole * of «Has nrver been re- his Lordship's negotiation with the Nabob ; but, in the meanwhile, we transmit, at his Lordship's corded, request, a copy of these papers for your information. To liis Highness the Nabob of the Carnatic. (Written 24th April 1799.) May it please your Highness, — 1. Within a few days subsequent to my arrival at this Presidency. I had the honour to inform your Highness of the state of tlie differences existing between the Honourable Company and Tippoo Sultan ; and conformably to the lOtii Article of the Treaty of 1792, I explained to your Highness, in the fullest manner, the probability of an approaching rupture with that Prince. 2. The conduct of Tippoo Sultan since that time having rendered war absolutely necessary for the security of the allied powers, hostilities have actually commenced. 3. The third Article of the Treaty of 1792 stipulates, " That in the event of war breaking out in the Carnatic, and countries appertaining to either party, and dependent on the Carnatic, or con- tiguous thereto, it is agreed, for the better prosecution of it, that as long as it shall last, the said Company shall possess full authority over the Carnatic (except the Jagheers belonging to the family of the said Nawaub, and except also certain charities), and shall collect the revenues thereof, the said Company hereby engaging that, during such war, they will pay to the said Nawaub one-fifth share of the net revenue arising therefrom." 4. Under this Article it is now become the right of the Company to exercise that full authority 40 over the Carnatic which is thus formally acknowledged to be necessary for the better prosecution of the war. 5. Your Highness, I am persuaded, is also satisfied that it is now become my indispensable duty, without delay, to assume the revenues of the Carnatic, conformably to the third Article of the Treaty of 1792, unkss some neiv arrangemmt can now be framed, with the consent of both parties, which shall afford equal security to the common interests of your Highness and of the Company for the vigorous and effectual prosecution of tlie war. 6. I am aware that both your Highness and yoiu- respected father have ever been disinclined to the assumption of the Carnatic by the Company in the manner specified by the Article in question ; and entertaining an anxious and sincere desire, not only to promote your Highness' interests and wel- fare, but to respect your inclinations and sentiments to the utmost extent compatible with the secu- rity of the Carnatic, I am induced to submit to your Highness' consideration tin- plan of a new arrangement between your Highness and the Company, which, if it shall prove acceptable to your Highness, will preclude the necessity of resorting to the stipulations of the third Article of the Treaty of 1792, and of assuming the whole of the Carnatic, not only during the present, but during any future war. 7. In framing an arrangement on this foundation, I have endeavoured to extend its provisions with the view of comprehending the whole state and condition of your Highness' connection with the Company, as well as the equitable adjustment of the various subjects of complaint which your Highness has been pleased to represent to me, since the period of my taking charge of the General Government of India. 8. Before I proceed to the details of this plan, I shall submit to your Highness' consideration some observations, which, as they proceed from my good wishes for your prosperity and happiness, I trust you will receive with the cordiality of friendship. 9. Your Highness' situation, for some years past, has neither been satisfactory to yourself, nor advantageous to the interests either of your own subjects or of the Company. 10. Your stipulated monthly payments, under the Treaty of 1792, are not only moderate in their amount, but cannot be stated to bear a due proportion to the increased military charges now defrayed by the Company for the defence of the Carnatic. 11. Your Highness will never forget that the amount of these payments was settled hj Lord Cornwallis under an indulgent modification of the Treaty of 1787, the benefits of wlach the Company cheerfully relinquished for the purpose of relieving his Ilighness the late Nabob of the Carnatic, and ultimately your Highness, from distress of circumstances and from anxiety of mind. 12. Moderate as these payments are in their amount, they have proved the source of continual vexation to the late Nabob of the Carnatic, and to your Highness ; and you have never been able to realise them in the Company's Treasury, without the utmost degree of difficulty and embarrassment arming from in fortunate defects in the administration of your affairs. 13. These embarrassments have occasioned the adoption of temporary expedients for the pur- pose of removing the pressure of the moment ; and the consequence of resorting to such eapedicnts has been injurious, not only to the peace of your Highness' mind, but to the permanent interests and happi- ness of your subjects, and to the foundations of the opulence and prosperity of the Carnatic. 14. The truth of this faithful and amicable representation will, I am persuaded, produce a just impression on your Highness' mind, when you reflect on the large amount of those sums of money applied to defray the exorbitant rates of interests on all the various loans occasioned by the necessity of discharging your monthly payments. 15. These loans have usually been accompanied by assignments of territory to the creditors, whose vexatious management of the revenues assigned has been the continual cause of the most aggravated calamities to the inhabitant of the Carnatic. In these transactions Me loss has fallen on your Highness, your subjects, a^d your funds ; and the illicit profit has enriched those who (to use the words of your respected father, addressed to Lord Cornwallis) never approach your Durbar for any other purpose than to pursue their habitual views of jilunder and rapine. 10. Upon the whole, tjie final result of this system has been that your Highness' mind has continued in a perpetual state of solicitude and alarm, from the difficulty of satisfying the Company's claims, of which the moderation and justice cannot hv contested ; that the resources of your country have fallen into a state of ]irogresxire decay : and that the Company regularly receiving your Highness' monthly payments into the l^reasury, has viewed, with unavailing regret, the approach of that crisis in the Carnatic, ichen every source of public revenue and credit, as well as (f private opulence, industry, and population, must be reduced to the lowest condition. 17. Neither your Highness nor the Company can reflect witli satisfaction on the regular dis- charge of your monthly payments, when those payments are known and acknowledged to be cttected by means which aggravate your Highness' embarrassments, and rapidly exhaust the territorial secu- rity pledged to the Company for the military subsidy. 18. The collateral operation of this unhappy system is not less injurious than its direct tendency. The notoriety of these embarrassments, which conqwl your Higlmess to resort to the expedients of loans and assignments of territory, tends to a general ex]iectation of the approaching failure of your monthly payments, and, eonseciuently, of a speedy transfer of the pledged districts to the manage- ment of the Company. 19. A constant expectation of war for some years past, has further countenanced the notion that the (Company's management must soon be extended over a large part of your Highness' terri- tories, under the third Article of the Treaty of 1792. 20. These expectations have precluded the possibility of introilucing, for the relief of your High- ness' subjects, any improvement founded on fixed and durable i)rincii)les. 21. The Carnatic, therefore, in addition to the calamitous misrule of those who have governed it under temporary assignments of territory, has been subjected to all the accumulated evils of a divided Covcmment, and of a fluctuating and i)recarious authority. 22. These sentiments relating to your Highness' situation are not the result of my judgment alone: / submit them to you a.'< the result oj' the (khberate judgment if the Honourable Court of Directors and of his Majesty's Mini-tters, formed u/ion a full, dispassionate, and iniparlial investigation oJ' the relation in, ivhich your Ilighruiss stands towards the Company, and of the whole state of your afliiirs. 41 23. TIic principles of sound jind comprelicnsivc policy, tiie duties of respect and regard for your Highness, as well as of those of humane consideration for the welfare of your subjects, demand that the Company and his jMnjesty's Ministers s/iould look bei/ond tlie mere convenience of the present liour, to the certain operation of eui/s meuiicinij the permanent resources of your countri/. 24. The apprehension of the approach of tliat period, when the necessary effect of these evils must break fortii, to l/ie entire ruin of the interests of your Ilii/hness and the Company in the Carnatic, has induced the Court of Directors and liie Government of Fort St George to urge with earnestness the nece.'isity of a new arrangement with your Highness. Tliey have, however, refrained from insisting to its full extent in that claim of justice and riglit which the Com|)any derives from the letter, as well as from the gcnctral substance and spirit, of the Treaty of 1702, according to the established rnaxinis of public law and national faith. 2ij. Under tiiat Treaty your Highness' faith is unequivocally pledged never to grant Tuncaws or assignments of revenue on the districts composing the security for your monthly payments to the Company. 2G. I am aware that the same article has also provided for the avoidance of all such Tiincawa or assignments as siiall be found to exist on any of the pledged districts which shall pass into the hands of the Company, under the operation of the precediiig articles of the Treaty. But this pro- vision cannot be viewed in any other light than that of an extraordinary precaution to establish an additional securit^'for the interests of the Company; it cannot be continued to absolve your Ili'diness from the positive obligation which you have contracted in specific sums, " not to grant Tuncaws or assignments on any account, on the revenues of tlie districts responsible for any arrears which may accrue in the payment of the stipulated Kists." 27. If the Treaty of 1792 has not provided a sufficient security for the due performance of this obligation, and if the neglect of this obligation tlirealens to defeat the primary object of the whole Treaty, and to destroy the fundamental principle of your Highness' connection with the Company, the contracting parties must resort to tlie (joieral law of luitions to supply the defective provisions of an engagement which it is their mutual interest to preserve inviolate, according to its true tenor and original spirit. 28. Tiie permanent establishment of an adequate territorial security for the payment of your Highness' share of the expense of defending the Carnatic, is the principal object of the Treaty of 1792. The Treaty, therefore, would become nugatory and delusive if no remedy could be provided against the continuance of a system whose unrestrained progress must ultimately deprive your High- ness of the power of satisfying your engagements to the Company, and must leave the Company be- reft of all means of recovering the ruinous consequences of such a failure; your Highness' own dis- cernment will at once enable you to judge whether it was the intention of Lord Cornwallis, in signing the Ti'eaty of 1792, to provide a real, substantial, and lasting security for the Company's military sub- sidy, or to sanction a system of disorder, by which the whole value and efficiency of that security must be an- nihilated before the Company could derive any benefit from it. 29. It is not necessary at present to trouble your Highness with a more detailed representation on this subject. The plan which I now have the honour to submit to you, is calculated to preclude all such discussions; and I have revived the subject in this place merely for the purpose of pointing your attention to one of the principal causes wdiich have rendered a new arrangement with your Highness indispensable. 30. Your Highness, I am persuaded, cannot reasonably view the proposition for a new arrange- ment proceeding from the Company with any degree of jealousy or alarm : I must repeat the obser- vation, and I recommend it with all the earnestness of friendship to your most serious consideration, that a similar jealousy on the part of the Company would have bound his Highness the late Nabob, and your Highness, to the stipulations of the Treaty of 1787. 31. If the Company had pertinaciously adhered to the letter of that Treaty, and had insisted on a strict performance of the engagements contracted under it, I leave it to your Highness' candour and justice to declare what would have been the actual condition of your affairs? But the Company then waived its undeniable rights under a subsisting Treaty, and consented to a new arrangement at your solicitation and for your benefit. The Company has therefore a just claim to your Highness' favourable attention on the present occasion ; and I trust that under this impression your Highness will not receive my earnest proposition for a modification of the Treaty of 1792, with any other sen- .sations than those with which Lord Cornwallis received your respected father's application for a modification of the Treaty of 1787. 32. In proceeding to submit to your Higliness the details of my proposed plan, I shall, in the first instance, state certain general princijiles which appear to me necessary to be observed, ybr the com- mon benefit of all parties. First, That the new Treaty shall comprehend the adjustment of every branch of your Highness' affairs as connected with your relation to the Company, and shall leave no question open to future dis- cussion. Second, That whatever adjustment shall now take place, shall be so framed as to afford the utmost degree of practicable security against the possibility of future change, in order that the new Treaty may become a final and conclusive settlement between your Highness and the Company. Thirdly, That, with a view to secure the stability of the new Treaty, as well as to provide an adequate remedy for the evils already enumerated in this letter, effectual provision be made, that no part of the Carnatic shall remain or fall under a divided government, or a fluctuating or precarious authority. 33. Referring to these general principles, the first object of consideration in the state of your Highness' affairs is your debt to the Company. This now consists, — First, of the balance, as re- ported by IMessrs Woolf and Place on the 1st July 1793, str. pagodas 3.^,06,135 : second, Balance of the Kiftbundy account, as per account made up to 7th September 1791, str, pagodas 19,98,006 : third. Balance of the New Cavalry Loan, with interest at 8 per cent, to the 12th October 1798, str. pags. 11,62,770: Total pags., 66,66,911. 34. The two first articles of this debt, at the earnest desire of his Highness the late Nabob of the Carnatic, were referred to the arbitration of the Governor-General in Council in the year 1793 ; and a Committee was appointed in Bengal for the purpose of assisting the Governor-General in de- ciding upon them. I 42 This Committee has never yet delivered in nny report ; but having myself entered into a minute examination of the whole of these disputed accounts, and having considered with impartiality tlie re- spective claims of your Highness and of the Company, I have no doubt that, upon the balance of these accounts, you will be found justly indebted to the Company to a very large amount. If, iiow- ever, a new arrangement should be acceptable to your Highness, I am ready, on the part of the Company, to consider whether it may not be practicable to compromise the whole of this claim (amounting to 55,04,141 pagodas), as well as the amouat of any claim arising out of the payments made by the Company to your Highness' consolidated creditors of 1787. The extreme solicitude manifested by the late Nabob of the Carnatic to induce Lord Cornwallis to place these disputed ac- counts in a way of adjustment, and the engagement by whieh his Highness bound himself to submit implicitly to the award of the Governor-General in Council, with relation to themselves, are sufficient testimonies of the importance and value of the concession which the Company may be disposed to make to your Highness in this article during the course of the negotiation. 35. With regard to tlie advance made by the Company to the late Nabob for the discharge of his Highness' debt, denominated the New Cavalry Loan, I am satisfied that this branch of your Highness' debt to the Company should be liquidated, partly by an arrangement stated from the 37th to the 41st paragraph of this letter, and partly (in the manner already proposed by your Highness to Sir John Shore) by the application of the sum of G,21,105 pagodas, after your Highness' present guaranteed debt shall have been liquidated by the operation of that fund. 36. The great branches of your debt to the Company would thus be entirely extinguished by their indulgence, and the period of the discharge of your New Cavalry Debt would be settled in such a manner that it could never interfere with your convenience. A stipulation may be inserted in the Treaty binding the Company never to apply to your Highness for any advance of money on ac- count of the New Cavalry Debt, previous to the period when its liquidation shall commence by the operation of the fund assigned for that purpose. 37. Your Highness has at different times preserved certain claims with respect to the Eamnad Surplus, and to the Peishcush of Jadras, and to the Pearl Fishery of Ceylon. 38. Your Highness has been informed that the whole question respecting Eamnad has been refex-red to the Court of Directors. If, however, I should be enabled to conclude a new Treaty with your Highness, I shall be ready to decide the question of Eamnad without waiting for the result of the reference to the Honourable the Court of Directors. And being anxious to pay every attention to your Highness' just claims, I shall direct the balance of the revenues of Kamnad remaining after the deduction of all expenses, according to the 9th Article of the Agreement of 17'J5, concluded by Lord Hobart, to be carried to your Highness' credit in the account of the New Cavalry Debt im- mediately after your acceptance of the general arrangement which may be concluded between your Highness and the Company in consequence of this letter. 39. I propose to dii'ect that the whole amount of the Peishcush due to your Highness since Jadras has been in the hands of the Company shall be can'ied to your credit in the same account. 40. Your Highness' share of the Pearl Fishery has been calculated, on principles which admit of no contest, to be one-fifth part of the number of boats employed in the Fishery in each season, and an equivalent sum of money has been allowed to your Highness in your general account. Immedi- ately after the execution of the New Treaty, I shall direct tiiis sum also to be carried to your credit on the same account and in the same manner as the two preceding sums ; the Governor of Ceylon being now at this Presidency in consequence of having received my orders to meet me here for the purpose of settling the affairs of his Government under my directions. If the proposals stated in this letter should meet your Highness' approbation, I shall direct the Governor of Ceylon to form a Treaty with your Highness, securing to you the i-egular payment of your share of the Pearl Fishery ; the payment to be made by the Governor of Ceylon into 3'our Highness' Treasury. 41. The Governor of Ceylon will state to your Highness the great injury which would arise to the Fishery, from suffering any persons to interfere with those to whom it is farmed ; and I there- fore trust that your Highness will not desire to send any boats to the Fishery. The punctual pay- ment of your just share appears to me to be the most advantageous settlement which can be made for your interests, as well as for those of the Governor of Ceylon. 42. Having thus manifested my desire to attend to the several objects which I know to be inter- esting to your Highness, I am further to inform you, that I am ready, by an article of the new Treaty, to relinquish the right of the Company to the assumption of the Carnatic, during the present and during all future wars, on the following conditions : — 43. That your Highness shall place wide?' the exclusive management, control, and authoriti/ of the Company in perpetuity a territory equal to secure the receipts of the rrhole of your monthly payments into the Company's Treasury, wliich payments are, of course, to cease fi-om tliat time. Tiie territory to be placed under the managenunt of the Company is described in a memorandum annexed to tliis letter. Your Highness will observe that I have included the Southern Division of the Arcot Province, although not one of the mortgaged districts, witli a view to preserve in your Highness' manage- ment the countries surrounding your capital, and that the revenues under each authority respec- • tively may be as compact as circumstances will admit. In place of the Northern Division of Arcot, I propose to hold a district in the Southern Division of that province to the amount si)ecitied in the annexed memorandum. I sliall also, for the convenience of both parties, be ready to exchange dis- tricts in the Southern Division of Arcot, adjoining to tliose of the centre, in place of the Jaghire lands which your Highness liolds to the southvvard of il\e Colcware, for a similar jmrpose of avertinff the evils of a divided authority. 44. If the territory placed under the management of the Company should produce more than the stipulated amount of 12,56 — 400.15.54., the wliole surplus sluill be paid into your Uigiiness' Treasury, upon an account to be settled every third year, or more frequently when a permanent .settlement of the revenue of the Carnatic shall take place. 45. On the otiier hand, if, from any accident o( season, or from any otlun- casualty, any defi- ciency should arise in the revenue of the countries managed by the Conqiany, the loss shall fall exclu.sively on the Company, and your Higiiness sliall not be responsible for any part of it. 46. Willi res[)ect to tlie districts remaining in your Highness' hands, your Highness shall not be accoiititable fur any increase of their jiroduce under your management, nor shall the Company be responsible hereal'ter for any contingent diminution of it. 43 47. As the expense of maintaining and repairing the Fort contained in the districts to be placed under the Company's management will necessarily be transferred to the Company, an annual sum will be allotted i'or the purpose chargeable on the assigned revenue. The amount of this sum will be settled, with your Highness' approbation, during the negotiation of the new Treaty. 48. I have already observed to your Highness, that the increase of military charges for the defence of the Carnatic has rendered the amount of your subsidy disproportioned to its original ob- ject ; on every principle of justice, the Company would be warranted in proposing to your Highness an augmentation of your military subsidy; Iml as J din anximis to preseiTe to ijour J/ii/hiioiS t/ie J'ull en- joyment of an ample ami unencumbered revenue, I have ende;ivoured to provide a I'und for the increase of the military subsidy without any diminution of your actual receipts. 49. I propose, therefore, that whatever claims on the part of your Highness, or of the Company, remain in doubt respecting the Poligars, under the Treaty of 1793, should be now fully adjusted with the Company ; and I am willing to accept that adjustment in lieu of all claims for an increase of your military subsidy, proportioned to the increased ex]jcnse of defending the Carnatic. .50. The principle which induced the Company to seek the transfer of the I'oligar Peishcush, will not admit any considerable augmentation oi the anuual payments from those tributaries. If the Company should liereafter deem it to bo a wise policy, the increase must be very moderate, and must be considered as a commutation for the military services of the Poligars. 51. Under a new Treaty founded on the basis described, I entertain no doubt that ,?/«//• Ilujhmsfs' clear revenue would he considcrah/j/ increased ; and I am persuaded that you will concur with me in this opinion, when you refer to the former and [iresent value of the countries which will remain in your Highness' hands ; and when you recollect the extent of your charges for collection and other contin- gencies, and the enormous sums which you are compelled to waste every year on account of interest and charges attending loans of money. 52. Under such a Treaty, the evils of a divided government, and of an imsettled and ill-defined potver, would cease throughout the Carnatic. The authority of the Company and that of your Highness could never interfere with each other ; and the new settlement would bear such unequivocal marks of per- manency and security as would inspire general confidence, facilitate the introduction of an improved system of mamigement, and revive the decaying principles of general industry, productive labour, and individual affluence. 53. In order to render this settlement perfect in all its parts, and to secure your Highness' future ease and comfort under all possible contingencies, it will be expedient to establish some certain fund for the satisfaction of those private creditors of the late Nabob of the Carnatic, and of your Highness, whose claims now stand without security. 54. T!ie operation of the sum of 0,21,105 pagodas will have liquidated the whole of the con- solidated private debt guaranteed by Parliament in the year 1804. 55. After that period, by your Highness' agreement with Sir John Shore, the whole of this fund would be applicable to the New Cavalry Debt ; but I propose that one-half the sum — namely, 3,10,552 pagodas 8 fanams — be appropriated to the payment of the interest and principal of the New Cavalry Debt, and the remaining half to the discharge of such just unconsolidated debt due by your father and by your Highness to individuals as shall, after the most strict examination, receive the sanction of your Highness, and of the Court of Directors. 56. After the licfuidation of the New Cavalry Debt, I propose that the whole fund of 6,21,105 pagodas shall be applied to tbe payment of the unconsolidated debt, according to the principles stated in the foregoing paragraph ; and when the whole of the private debt (thus sanctioned by your High- ness and by the Court of Directors) shall have been discharged, I propose that the full amount of the sum of 6,21,1 05 pagodas shall be annually paid in cash by the Company into your Highness' Treasury. 57. Thus, Sir, have I submitted to your Highness the outline of the ordy plan which appears to me to promise the hope of order to your affairs, of tranquillity to your mind, and of security to the interests of the Company committed to my charge. 58. Under the new arrangement, your Highness would be relieved from all urgent demands either of a public or private nature, and you would possess a much more ample revenue than you now enjoy, with the additional satisfaction of reflecting that your possession was liable to no disturbance either from the contingencies of war or from any casual failure of your resources. You would beat liberty to direct your undivided attention to the cultivation and improvement of those resources to the utmost practicable extent, and you never could feel the necessity of injuring the mainsprings of your revenues for the purpose of meeting the exigency of occasional difficulty. 59. Whatever increase of produce might arise in the districts managed by the Company would be a new source of wcaltli to your Highness, and you would feel a personal interest in every improvement which the Company might be enabled to introduce into the system of your revenue. 60. With these observations I shall conclude, earnestly entreating your Highness to give your most serious attention to this letter. The opportunity is now peculiarly favourable to the final ad- justment of your Highness' affairs. If you suffer it to pass away without improvement, events may intervene to aggravate your Highness' embarrassments, to postpone or even to preclude all final arrangement of your affairs, and ultimately to involve you in inextricable distress. 61. If the general principles which I have suggested with the freedom and sincerity of friend- ship should meet your Highness' approbation, they may speedily be reduced to the form of a Treaty, and I may be enabled, before my return to Bengal, to have the satisfaction of laying the foundation of perpetual ease to your Highness' mind, and of progressive improvement to this fertile but declining country. 62. Your Highness will observe, that, throughout the whole of this letter, I have avoided any reference to your late failure in your engagements to assist the Company in the present exigency by the immediate payment of a part of the JSTew Cavalry Debt. I trust you will attribute my silence on this recent transaction to my earnest desire of abstaining from any discussion which can be painful to your Highness. — I have the honour to be, with great respect and attachment, your Highness' most faithful humble servant, (Signed) Moknington. Fort St George, 24th April 1799. u The Nabob's answer, dated 13tli May 1799: — Carnatic Papers, ^Y LoRD, — Having read your Lordship's letter of the 24th ult. with great and serious attcn- 1803, 6, p. 213. ' lion, suitable to the importance of the contents, I shall return to it a fair and explicit answer. Tlie candour and sincerity of my character, witliout a request from your Lordship, would liave induced me on this, as well as on all other occasions, to speak without disguise. I liave an additional induce- ment, however, for plainness of language and sentiment in the earnest desire and manly example of your Lordship. I acknowledge, my Lord, that, under certain circumstances explained by the third Article of the Treaty of 1792, the Company are vested with authority to assume tlie Carnatic, and amongst other things, empowered to collect the revenue which it yields ; and I confess (without regard to the conse- quence of that confession) that the assumption of the control over the affairs and revenues of my country, under the provision of the Treaty, would occasion a severe and heartfelt afiliction, yet, if the time should arrive which should render it necessary that the Company avail themselves of the objects ■which that article secures, I hope that Divine Providence will endue me with fortitude adapted to the necessity of the season and the adversity of fortune, that I m.ay make the sacrifice required of me, if not with cheerfulness, at least with dignity and resignation ; and in performing this extreme act which the Treaty enjoins (if it ever be demanded of me), I shall have a constant consolation in reflecting on the letter of the Treaty itself, which stipulates that, as soon as the exigencies of the times which required the temporary sacrifice shall have been satisfied, I shall be reinstated in all my privileges and authority ; and I should wrong your Lordship's honour, and shir'the reputation of those whom your Lordship represents, if I could suspect for an instant, that, whilst I was fulfilling every relation to the Company with fidelity and exactness, they should hesitate on their parts to discharge their relative connective duties. Possessing these avowed sentiments within myself, and this declared sense of the honour and justice of my allies, I have no disinclination of that strong and rooted kind which your Lordship would seem to indulge, so as to induce me to enter into any new arrangement rather than conform myself to the provisions of the existing engagements. No, my Lord : the Treaty of 1792 was con- cluded under such happy auspices, and is calculated, from its precision and clearness, to promote and maintain so good understanding between the parties to it, and is, moreover, so recommended to mj' affections by the loved and revered personages who framed it, that I could not for any personal in- convenience, were it ten times greater, so it were created by the Treaty, consent that it should be altered even in a letter. But your Lordship has submitted reasons, ajiparently more cogent, why a new arrangement would be desirable ; and these arise out of the supposed defect of the Treaty itself to insure the objects v/hich it had in view, and tlie probable deficiency of my means to fulfil hereafter the duties which it imposes. I cannot overlook a circumstance which, in affairs of this sort, must naturally present itself to the mind of your Lordship, that the Treaty which is now suggested to be defective, has had a trial, my Lord, of more than seven years, and without a single exception, has been found for that period not only sufficient for all common purposes, but has secured the fulfilment of every engagement stipu- lated in it with an harmony uninterrupted, and perhaps I might add, almost unprecedented in any country or age; and if experience be the true test of human institutions, there can be nothing, my Lord, to apprehend of th6 competency of the Treaty of 1792 to continue to the contracting parties to an incalculable date that happiness, that security, and that universal good-will which it has hitherto produced. But, my Lord, you have directed my observation beyond the present hour, and have informed me that your Lordship and the Ministers of his Majesty the King of Great Britain (whom may the Almighty preserve ! ) have looked, and do still look, with a politic care and wise prudence to future probabilities and events as they regard our mutual conditions, and that the prospect is terrifying. I do not presuire to know the grounds on which your Lordship has formed your opinion of the instability of my affairs, nor is it necessary that I should be acquainted with them : it is sufficient for me to know that they arc abundant enough to enable me to keep with punctuality my plighted faith. Your Lordship, however, has supposed that, from a difficulty to raise the Kists periodically payable to the Company, that I have been reduced to so great pecuniary' distresses, that to provide a remedy for them I have had recourse to measures which I cannot bring myself to name, and that these measures, in their expected consequences, may affect the interests of the Com- pany as connected with the Treat}'. Your Lordship has a right undoubted to expect an cxidanation of me as to any public matter which may regard tlie affairs of the Company as interwoven with my own ; and I shall be happy on all occasions, as I am at the present opportunity, of answering that part of your Lordship's letter which respects the alleged assignment of certain districts set apart by the Treaty of 1792, as a security for the Company on the possible occurrence of a described event. But as to anything foreign to this, that may relate either to the internal management of my countries or the govern- ment of my people, I must on princiides as obvious as they are just, decline to enter into a discussion. The supposed assignment of the districts alluded to by your Lordship is stated as having been productive of the greater part of the mischief which is lamented and deplored in your Lordship's letter, and as having laid the seeds of a more deadly and extensive ruin ; and your Lordship relying [irincipally on this and on the reasons ajiplicable to it, has suggested the necessity of a new arriingcnu'iit. I am happy, my Lord, to oiler an unqualilied explanation of this alleged transaction ; and I have a double motive to rejoice at the opportunity allbrded by your Lordship, since it will serve to free my character and honour from the imputations which at present rest upon it, and will convince you, my Lord, that there are no subst;iiitial reasons, which must give your Lordship infinite satisfaction, for any apprehensions on this or any other ground related to it. I do most unc(piivocally assure your Lordship, on the word and faith of a Sovereign, that no one foot of the districts set a[)art by the Treaty of 1792 have been, or are in any manner or way, directly or indirectly assigned liy me, or ztvV/i my kiiowkdgc, to any individual whatsoever. And liaving made thi.s solemn aiieutalion) to have notoriously mortf;'ag('(l and ashif^ned the districts pledged to the Company, and the manner of my doiu};' it has been publicly and conlidently s])ol P- 216. nistration. We have accordingly confirmed the opinion already transmitted to the Court of Directors — an opinion which cannot be too urgently repeated — that the Government of his Highness is rapidly approaching that state of weakness which cannot be relieved but by a radical reform. The negotiations for an arrangement with the Nabob were thus alluded to by Mr Secretary Dundas in Parhamcnt, in laying before Parliament, on 2oth March 1800, the India Budget :— The due performance of the stipulations in the treaties with the Nabob of Arcot and the Rajah of Tanjore is secured by specific assignments of districts in their respective territories. As to the Nabob of Arcot, it was reasonably to be expected that the long-established alliance with his family, and a grateful sense of the eminent services they had received, would have been inducements to the most friendly and cordial co-operation in whatever might have a tendency to further the interests of his allies. A modification of the arrangements made in the year 1792 was desirable for the interests of both parties. The remonstrances with him on that subject have been formerly stated to the Com- mittee ; nothing, however, has been yet effected. On 12th June 1801, Mr Dundas, in bringing up his India Budget, again alluded to his repeatedly expressed wish that the Treaty of 1792 "might undergo several modifications, the interests of the Company and the welfare of the inhabitants of the districts under his Highness' government required it." From all the quotations which have now been made, it is proved to demon- Result of evidence, stration — \st, That the Company were deeply impressed, whether right or wrong, with the opinion, that the Government of the Nawaub was not only injurious to him- self and to liis subjects, but threatened to be, at least ultimately, destructive of the securities for the British interests in the Carnatic. The objection was not, jj ecessitv of however, it will be observed, that he was not making regular payment of his con- change. ' tributions ; but that his management threatened to destroy the security for the future pavments. ^ . 1 ;' T ri 1 • • 1 T • 1 c Company embar- 2d, ihat the Company were at their very wit's end to devise the means oi rassed to procure it. 48 A fortunate dis- covery. P. 24. Papers, ISO'i, vol. v., p. 217. Inquiry ordered. Vol. VI., p. 217 niHTRo p.ntircly nnsupporled by evidence. obtaining such a change as would secure these interests beyond the reach of danger ; and, 3d, Tiiat they did not feel themselves warranted in using other means than persuasion with the Nawaub to bring this change about. But whilst they were alternately suggesting first one means and then another, and were latterly approaching the di^ipositioa of employing some pressure under cover of the provisions of the Treaty then in force ; whilst they were anticipating the death of the then Nawaub, and the changes wliich would necessarily follow, and in doing so, ingeniously insinuating the possibility of there being contending claimants to the throne, and sowing the seeds of contention by casting a doubt upon the legitimacy of the next heir, so as to render, on one side or the other, the assistance of a great Power an object of importance, but an object to be secured only by granting those concessions which had been so ineffectually desired at the liands of his predecessors ; whilst the discussion and anxiety on the subject waxed so hot and so high as to lead to the recall of one Governor, and perhaps in some measure to the resignation of another, — a circumstance fortunately oc- curred which, to the relief of all their embarrassment, was at once and with eagerness seized upon as affording a plausible pretext for assuming the attitude of imperiously demanding that the proposals of the English Government should, without more ado, be agreed to. At the storming of Seringapatam, certain letters were found which had passed between the two Nabobs of Arcot, Wallajah and Omdut, and the Sultan of Mysore, — " the inveterate enemy" (to use lan- guage already quoted) " of his Highness' family and of the British name." The correspondence was at once set down as proving not merely the insincerity of the Nawaubs' attachment, but that they had thereby become public enemies, and had forfeited every claim to consideration. The letter in which the discovery was announced to the Governor at Madras is a very remarkable document, and contains proof within itself of the light in which the discovery was regarded. Extract of Letter from the Governok-Genekal to Lord Clite, dated April 7th, 1800. Para. 10. Tour Lordship will concur with me in opinion, that the disclosure made by the annexed documents of the disaffection of the Nabob Omdut-ul-Omrah supersedes the necessity of any further consideration of the state of the Company's connection with that Prince, under the orders lately conveyed by the Honourable Court of Directors to your Lordship m Council. While THOSE ORDERS WERE UNDER SIT CONSIDERATION, A COMBINATION OP FORTUNATE CIRCUMST.ANCES REVEALED THAT CORRESPONDENCE, which at oucc fumishcs au cxplauatiou of the perverse spirits of his Highness' councils since his accession to the Musnud, and demands the appUcation of the sole effectual reined!/ for the evils which those councils have brought upon his people. The Governor-General having announced this "fortunate circumstance" of the discovery of public enemies, in the person of those who for more than fifty years had been, or been considered, close allies and firm friends, gave instructions to Lord Olive to conduct inquiry into the subject, and transmitted a list of witnesses whose evidence was to be carefully and zealously collected. " In the meantime," says Mr Mill, "the Governor-General himself had completely prejudged the question, and did what depended upon him to make Lord Clive prejudge it in a similar manner. ' A deliberate consideration,' .says he, in llie very letter which directed inquiry, 'of the evidence resulting from the whole of these documents, has not only conHrmed in the most unquestionable manner my suspicions of the existence of a secret coiTespondenco between the personages already named, but satisfied my judgment, that its olyoct on the part of the Nabobs Wallajah and Omdut-nl-Onu'ab, and especially of the latter, was of the most hostile tendency to the British interests. The proofs arising from the papers would certainly be sufficient to justify the British Government in depriving that faithless and ungrateful Prince of all means of rendering any part of the resources of the terri- tories which he holds under the protection of the Company subservient to the further violation of his engagements, and to the prosecution of his desperato ]Hirposes of treachery and ingratitude.' "However, the Ciovernor-(ieneral thought it wonld, notwithstanding, be more consonant v,ilh 'the dignity and systematic inoileration of the J5ritish Government,' not to take the country from its Prince till some inquiry had first been made. But he says, ' Although it is my wish to dehiy the actual assumption of his Iligliness' government until that incpiiry shall bo completed, I deem it necessary to authorise your Lordship to proceed imnuMliately to make every arrangement preparatory- to that measure, which now api)ears to have become inevitable.'" It is a matter in reality of very little importance to tlie present case, whether the evidence was or was not sufficient to c>tabHsh tlie charoc which was fastened upon the Nawaubs. It is not usual, except in fable, to justify by accusing the great grandfather where tlio great grandson is without blame; and, accordingly, the Directors of tlie Honourable Company do not seem to make a point of the alleged fact. But it may be as well just at once to dispose of the matter, by quot- 49 ing the opinion of an historian entitled to every consideration, and who manifestly has gone into the subject with much care, arriving easily at the conclusion, that there was no evidence to sup])ort tiic cliarge, — a circumstance wliicli may readily enough be believed, when the object of making that charge, which the preceding remarks have explained, is clearly understood. " Notliiiiji, surely," says Mr Mill, "ever was more fortunate than sueli a discovery at such a Vul. vi., p. 218. time. "When the Governor-General, and all Jiis superiors and all his subordinates in the govern- ment of India, were languishing and panting for the possession of the Carriatic, but afraid without some more plausible reason than they yet possessed to coninienee the seizure, here it was provided for them in extraordinary perfection. Uut the very circumstance which recommended it to the eager aifeetious of the East India fuuctionai'ies, will recommend it to the rigid scrutiny of those whose minds are more hajjpily situated for a]ipreciating the facts. " The documents ou which so extraordinary a value was set by the Governor-General, consisted almost entirely of certain things picked out from a mass of corrcspondericc which purpoited to have passed between the ' Presence' (the title which Tippoo bestowed upon himself) and the two Vakeels, Golam Ali Khan and Ali Reza Khan, who accompanied in 1792 the hostage sons of the Sultaun to Madras. Uesides these, only two letters were produced ; one from a suliscquent Vakeel of Tippoo at Madras; another supposed to be from Omdut-ul-Onirah, but under a fictitious name." Mr Mill then adverts to the possibility of the documents being fabricated, but that it was ex- tremely improbable, and goes on to say — " But an argument more conclusive than any argument from character, either national or individual, can almost ever be, at any rate to strangers, and those whose partiality one has no reason to expect, is this ; that the papers prove nothing ; which most assuredly would not have been the case, had they been fabricated for the purpose of proving. On the other hand, if they had exhibited a proof which was very strong and specific, it would have Ijeen no easy task, after the very exceptionable manner in which they were examined, to have proved that all suspicion of them was utterly groundless." He then, by a variety of explanations, shows how the correspondence proves nothing : — " To establish still further the dark designs which the (iovernor-General firmly concluded that a few hyperbolical expressions had already proved, a Hst of nine witnesses was transmitted to Madras, of whom the two Vakeels, Golam Ali Khan and Ali Eeza Khan, were the chief. A commission consisting of two of the most approved servants of the Company, Mr Webbe, the Secretary to the Madras Government, and Colonel Close, were selected to conduct the investigation. Every precau- tion was taken, such as that of preventing comniimication between the witnesses, to get from them either the evidence pure, or the means of detecting its imjiurity. " It was resolved to begin with the two Vakeels, who of course could best elucidate their own correspondence. To form a proper judgment of their testimony, several circumstances ought to be remarked. In the first place, they were Orientals ; that is, men accustomed, in the use of language toward those on whom their hopes and their fears depended, to regard very little the connection between their words and the corresponding matters of fact, but chiefly the connection between those words, and the impression, favourable or unfavourable, which they were likely to make ou the minds of the great persons, on whose power the interests of the speaker most remarkably depended. In the second place, it is impossible to conceive any dependence more abject, than was, at this time, the dependence of the Khans, Golam Ah and Ali Re2;a, upon the Enghsh Government. The government, under which they had found employment, was totally destroyed. Every source of Independent subsistence was cut off ; they Uved upon a pension which they received from the Enghsh Government, and wdiieh it was only necessary to withhold, to plunge them into the deepest abyss of human misery. They had every motive which interest could yield, to affirm what would be agree- able to the English Government. They could have no interested motive to speak what would be agreeable to Tippoo, Wallajah, or Omdut-ul-Omrah. In these circumstances, if they had given a testimony in every respect conformable to the wishes of the Enghsh Government, what depended upon their affirmation would have been regarded as of little oi; no value by any impartial judge. But in as far as they gave a testimony in opposition to those wishes, that is, in opposition, as they must have believed, to their own interests, their testimony has some of the strongest possible claims upon our behef. " Everything was done to remove any obstructions which might exist in the minds of the witnesses , to the production of such evidence as was expected. They were given to understand that no blame would be attached to them, who only acted under legitimate orders, for their instrumentality in the designs of their master. And they were assured in the strongest language, that any appear- ance of a design to conceal the truth, and they well knew what eastern rulers were accustomed to call the truth, would be visited upon them with all the weight of English indignation " Of the two Vakeels, Ali Reza was residing at Velore, Golam AH at Seringa]iatam. As least remote, Ali Reza was examined first. In him, the examining commissioners say, in their report to the Governor, ' We thuik it necessary to apprise your Lordship that we discovered an earnest dis- position to develop the truth.' Golam Ali they accused of base endeavours at concealment. The evidence of both, taken together, tends not to confirm one single suspicion, if any could have been justly derived from the papers, but to remove them, every one." The historian then proceeds to dispose of the proofs, and adds, after some detail — " The commissioners say, ' We examined Gholam Ah Meer Suddor, the Dewan Purniah, and the Moonshee Hubljeeb Olla,' that is, the men above all others acquainted with the secrets of Tippoo's government ; ' but as their testimony did not establish any fact, we thought it unnecessary to record their evidence.' "Not only does this evidence afford no p7riofofa criminal correspondence with Tippoo, on the part of the Nabob ; but the total inability of the English to produce further evidence, with all the records of the Mysore Governmentin their hands, and all the living agents ofitwithin titeir absolute power, is aproofofthe contrary ; since it is not credible that a criminal correspondence should have existed, and not have left more traces of itself. K 50 MiU. Ti., p. 228. GoTernor's instrnctions. The course of reasoning. " It is just to bewail the unhappy situation in which the minds of Englishmen in India are placed. Acted upon by circumstances which strongly excite them, their understandings are dragged, like those of other men, towards a conformity with their desires ; and they are not guarded against the grossest illusions of self-deceit by those salutary influences which operate upon the human mind in a more favourable situation. The people of India among whom tliey live, and upon whom the miserable effects of their delusion descend, are not in a situation to expose the sophistry by which their rulers impose upon themselves. They neither dare to do it, nor does their education lit them for doin"' it, nor do they enjoy a press, the instrument with which it can be done. Their rulers, therefore, have no motive to set a guard upon themselves, and to examine rigidly the arguments by which they justify to themselves an obedience to their own incUuations. The human mind, when thus set free from restraint, is easily satisfied with reasons for self-gratification ; and the under- standing waits, an humble servant, upon the affections. Not only are the English rulers in India deprived of the salutary dread of the scrutinising minds and free pens of an enlightened public, in the regions in which they act ; they well know, that distance and other circumstances so completely veil the truth from English eyes, that, if the case will but bear a varnish, and if they take care to stand well with the minister, they have in England everything to hope, and seldom anything to dread, from the successful gratification of the passion of acquiring. " It is most remarkable, that of all the Englishmen in India, of whose sentiments upon the occa- sion we have any record, the Governor-General and his Council, the Governor of Fort St George and his Council, the examining commissioners, and the Persian translator, the very foremost men in India, not one appears to have douljted, that the evideuee we have examined established undeniably the facts which they so eagerly desired to infer." It will be seen from this, that Mr Mill gives the officials of the Company credit for apparent sincerity in their imputation, and undoubtedly this was the most charitable opinion which could be taken ; but it is one extremely difficult to arrive at in a full view of the whole circumstances, and particularly in the knowledge, which the Company repeatedly expressed in their Dispatches, of the Nabob's " settled hatred" of " the Mysorean," and it is much more likely to have been simply the result of cautious official policy In penning their Dispatches. In any view, what motive could there have been for real alarm after the hated Mysorean had been killed, his capital stormed, and his country subjugated ? But so obviously did the proofs fall short of evidence, that even Mr Wilson, who, in editing Mr Mill's work, generally agrees to differ from his author, although he is insufficiently informed as to the position of the Nawaubs of the Carnatic, is forced to admit with much obvious reluctance, " that upon the face of the correspondence little aiypeared to convict the Nawaubs of the Carnatic of actual treachery against the British Government." The " examination of witnesses was closed, and the report of the Com- missioners drawn up and signed at Seringapatam, on the 18th of May 1800. It was not till the 28th of May 1801 that any further instructions of the Cxovernor- General were dispatched. " The critical situation of the negotiation depending with the Nizam, appeared to me to render it advisable to postpone the adoption of measures required for the security of the Carnatic. The suc- cessful issue of that negotiation appeared likely to facilitate the arrangements which became indis- pensably necessary in the Carnatic ; while a premature prosecution of these arrangements might have impeded, and perhaps frustrated, the successful issue of the negotiation at Hyderabad." Another reason was, that for some time he indulged the hope of being aljle to employ the weight of his own presence, in removing the obstacles which he expected to oppose the intended revolution in the Carnatic. When that hope was rehnquished, he desired that Mr Webbe, the Chief Secretary to the Government at Madras, might join him in Bengal, to communicate a more minute knowledge of circumstances than he could otherwise acquire. " The delay," says the Governor-General, " which has occurred, has enabled me to receive the sentiments of the President of the Board of Commissioners for the affairs of India, and of the Secret Committee of the Court of Directors, on the sulaject of the correspondence of the late and present Nabob of Arcot with Tippoo Sultauu. Those sentiments entirely accord with your Lordship's, and with mine, on the same subject." There follows in this and in subsequent Dispatches, to be immediately quoted, what is elsewhere designated by the rather appropriate phrase, " the course of reasoning" which was to be erected upon the letters, to justify the Company's attitude and secure compliance with their demands. Carnatic Papers, 1803, Tol. i., p. 45. Excerpt from an Official Letter from the Governor-General to the Right Honourable Lord Clive, etc., etc., dated 28th May 1801. {Most Secret.) My Loud, Para. l."). In determining the mode in .which it may be expedient to exercise the rights of the British (Jovernment, under Ihis discovery of the Nabob's violation of the alliance, our right to establish whatever system shall \m judged advisalile for administering the civil and military govern- ment of the Carnatic is erdirdii rdieird from the. iiupaJimatts hitlie.rUi ajipused tn l/ie prorjrcss of impruve- ment, by considerations jjcrsonal tu the Nabob, and to his llighness' family. In all the different 61 discussions wliicli have taken place in every niodifieatioii wliieli has been proposed for the improvement of the connection between (iie Company and the Naliob ol' Arcot, territorial pox.Hcssioti lias justly been considered to alVord the only adequate securily for the military subsidy of the (Jaruatic. My knowledge of the intei'nal administration of his llii^hness' alVairs convinces me that the resources of the Carnatic can never be faithfully applied to the e.\i{;eneies of public all'aii's, while his Highness shall exercise the executive government. 1 have no hesitation, therefore, in stating my decided judgment, that no actual serurity can be established for the rif/hts pledijcd to the Company in the (Jarnatic, for the effectual restraint of the adverse and faithless disposition of the Nabob of Arcot, or for the successful intro- ductton of an improved system of finance, I'evenue, and judicature into the territm-ies subject to tfte Government of Fort St Georije, by any other mode than by admiuislerinfj, tlirouyh the (jompam^s officers, the entire civil and militai-y i/overnment of the Carnatic. 10. In the execution of this necessary measure, it would have been satisfactory to my mind if the safety of the British interests had permitted me to consult the personal convenience of the ?v abob of Arcot, to the extent proposed in the modilicalion of the Treaty of 17U2, offered by Lord Ilobart to his Highness' acceptance, and in the general plan for the arrangement of his Ilighness' affairs vrhich I proposed to him during the progress of the late war in Mysore. It would have been an act of wisdom to have sacrificed to the principles of national moderation and magnanimity, the advantages which I had proposed to surrender for the attainment of the Nabob's cheerful concurrence in an engagement which he was considered at liberty to reject ; but his Highness' hostile disposition having transpired, his violation of the most sacred ties of amity and alliance having been detected, it is become my duty to deprive him of the future means of injuring the British Government. Wisdom and prudence retpiire, justice and moderation warrant, that his Highness should not retain the pos- session of actual resources greater than shall be requisite for the support of the rank which he shall hereafter be permitted to hold in the Carnatic. Reduced by his own conduct to the condition of a public enemy, he has forfeited all positive right to any share of the resources of the Carnatic ; and his future situation must be determined entirely by the prudence of the Company, tempered with those considerations of lenity which, I trust, will always enter into the councils of every British authority. Under this view of the subject, it is my opinion that the stipend to be allowed to his Highness the Nabob Omdut-ul-Omrah, and to his family, should not exceed the sum of pagodas three lacs, nor be less than the sum of two lacs of pagodas. 1 7. I consider it to be extremely desirable that the Nabob should be induced, under a full con- viction of the rights acquired by the Company, in consequence of the discovery of his father's negotiations, and of liis own, to accede to the proposed arrangement in the form of a treaty. In expressing this wish, I am more desirous of consulting the dignity of the British Government, than of admitting any claim to its generosity and forbearance on the part of the Nabobs Mahomed Aly and Omdut-ul-Omrah. It would, however, be painful to your Lordship, and to me, to be compelled to expose to the world all the humiliating proofs of the ingratitude and treachery of those infatuated princes towards that power which has uniformly proved their guardian and protector. I therefore request that your Lordship will immediately open a negotiation, trith the Nabob Omdut-nl- Omrah, for the purpose of adjusting an arrangement for the entire transfer of the civil and military government of the Carnatic to the hands of the Company, on the terms specified in the draft of a treaty, which I have now the honour of transmitting to your Lordship. IH. In order to obtain his Highness' acquiescence in this mode of adjustment, it will be proper for your Lordship (after havmg fully apprised the Nabob of the nature of the proofs which we possess of his correspondence with Tippoo Sultaun) to offer the inducement of the largest provision to be made for his Highness' personal expenses ; and in that event, I authorise your Lordship to insert in the Treaty the sum of three lacs of pagodas (L. 120,000). 19. It is possible, however, that, in the actual state of his Highness' councils and temper, the Nabob may be disposed to reject even this moderate proposition ; and to appeal to the authority of the Honourable the Court of Directors. In that event, being already in. possession of the sentiments of the Secret Committee, founded on the discovery of the Nabob's faithless conduct, / shall consider it to be injudicious and unnecessary to admit the appeal, and by that admission to enter upon a formal trial of his Highness' criminal conduct. The case requires that we should act as against a state on the basis of the general law of nations, and that we should employ the power of the British Empire in India to demand, and, if necessary, to enforce an adequate security for our rights and interests against the machina- tions of a faithless ally, who has violated the fundamental principles of a pubhc alliance to the extent of placing himself in the condition of a pmhlic enemy. If, therefore, the Nabob Omdut-ul-Omrah, by refusing to acquiesce in the proposed arrangements, should compel the British Government, contrary to its wishes and intentions, to exercise its rights and its power to their full extent, I authorise and direct your Lordship to assume the civil and military government of the Carnatic ; and I have the honour of enclosing a declaration, which, in that event, I request your Lordship to publish under the authority of the Governor-General in Council. Even under this contingency it is not my intention that the allowance to be made to the Nabob should be less than two lacs of star pagodas. Prior to the date, and apparently to the receipt of this letter, Lord Clive had addressed the following letter to the Governor-General : — To His Excellency the Most Noble the Marquis Welleslet, K.P., etc., etc. Voi. i. p. 83. My Lord, — The reports which I continue to receive of the declining health of his Highness the Nabob of the Carnatic, afford the strongest reason to expect his speedy dissolution. The letter of your Lordship's official dispatch (No. 12), dated 2Gth March 1800, sufSciently determines the measures which, at that period, your Lordshp expected me to adopt on the occur- rence of his Highness' death, at any period previous to the receipt of your Lordship's final determi- nation on the whole tenor of his Highness' conduct, then under your Lordship's consideration. But in the decision of this delicate and important question, it is also material to bear in mind, that the result of the investigation, which was directed in your Lordship's subsequent dispatch (No. 13), had not at that time been brought under your Lordship's observation ; that, in consequence of the report of this investigation, your Lordship had made arrangements for proceeding professionally 52 to Fort. St George for the execution of the measures which your Lordship had resolved to adopt ; and that, being disappointed in the expectation, your Lordship had required the preference at Fort William of the principal executive officer of this Govermnent, for the purpose of connecting, among other important objects, the whole detail of the measures to be adopted for the future government of the Caruatic. If, therefore, in the event of his Highness' death, I should proceed to the execution of a treaty with his successor, according to the discretionary powers which have been vested in me by your Lord- ship's Dispatch (Ko. 2), it is manifest that I should anticipate those details which are either at this time under your Lordship's inmiediate consideration, or have been calculated or determined by your Lordship's authority ; and that, in either case, some new and important view, which a revision of the whole case may have suggested to your Lordship's mind, might be defeated by my premature inter- ference. After the most mature reflection on all the circumstances which are connected with these im- portant considerations, I am satisfied that no material injury is likely to arise, but that much future facihty will probably ensue, from holding the succession itself, as well as all its consequent arrange- ments, ojjen for your Lordship's future commands. I am accordingly prepared to limit my immediate views on the expected contingency to the assumption of the civil and military government of the Carnatic, according to the draft of a procla- mation which I have the honour to enclose for your Lordship's consideration; for the transmission of which to all quarters of the Carnatic, on the moment of his Highness' decease, I have made the requisite arrangements. I have the honour to ti'ansmit for your Lordship's consideration the draft of a Treaty which I had prepared, in conformity with your Lordship's orders in your Dispatch (No. 12) 1800, but which the considerations already stated in this letter have induced me to postpone for your Lordship's further commands. Although this draft appears to me to be founded on the spirit of your Lordship's instructions, as being modelled on the principles of the late Treaty of Tanjore, it is proper for me to observe, that a full consideration of its efl'ect, compared wath the actual state and increased difficulties of the finances of the Company, will probably justify in your Lordship's opinion an arrangement more fa- vourable to the interests of the Company. — I have, etc. (Signed) Clive. Fort St George, 21st May 1801. Enclosed in tliis letter were the drafts of a Treaty and of a Proclamation. In a letter of the following day, Lord Clive transmitted a paragraph which he pro- posed to add to the intended proclamation, '•for the purpose of tranqidllidng the minds of the Mussulman inhabitants at large." This fact is not a little important ; and it escapes again and again in the subsequent Dispatches that the British Government were alive to the necessity of conciliating the good opinion of the natives, and especially by avoiding every appearance in their dealings of violat- ing their rights. The two following letters were transmitted in reply. The instructions to Mr Webbe, therein referred to, do not appear to have been returned to Parliament: — „ , . ., To the Right Honourable Lord Clive, etc., etc. Vol 1., p. S3. & ' ' Mr Lord, — 2d June 1801. j_ j jj^yg j^g^jj (jjg honour to receive your Lordship's Dispatch (No. 11), dated the 21st ult. ; and I think it of importance to communicate to your Lordship, with .all practicable expedition, my entire approbation of the arrangement which your Lordship proposes to adopt in the event of the death of his Highness the Nabob Omdut-ul-Omrah, for exercising provisionally, on the part of the Honourable Company, the entire civil and military government of the Carnatic. 2. Having recently considered the subject of the aflairs of the Carnatic connected with the trans- actions described in the correspondence discovered at Seringapatam, it is my hitcntion to transmit to your Lordship, by Mr Webbe, my detailed instructions for your Lordship's guidance, which will embrace as well the contingency of the Nabob's death, as the nature of the security to he pnwided for the future interests of the Company in the Carnatic. LTntil your Lordship shall receive these instructions, it is my wish that the civil and military government of the Carnatic should be exercised by the Govern- ment of Fort St George, in the event of the death of Omdut-ul-Omrah; but it is my desire thsit your Lordship should entirely refrain from any negotiation with the reputed son of the Nabob, or with any other sujijioscd heir of his Highness, until my intentions M'ith regard to the future government of the Carnatic should be fully communicated to your Lordship. — I have, etc. Fort William, 2d June 1801. (Signed) Wellesley. Toi i p 60. Official Letter from the Governor-Genekal to tlie Right Honourable Lord Clive, etc., etc., dated 4th June 1801. Mt Lord, — Para. 1. My separate in.structions were delivered to Mr Welibe for your Lord.ship's information and guidance, and provided for the conlingency of the Nabob Omdut-ul-Omrah's death, and for the arrangements which it would in that event be advisalile to ado])t for the future government of Ihc Carnatic; but the tenor of your Lorilship's oflicial I)isi)ate]i, No. 11, dated 21st ultimo (May), having indicated the probability of his Highness' immediate demise, I now judge it i>rudent to furnish your Lordt-liij) with my sentiments on that subject, in the form of an oflicial Dispaldi. 2. Whatever right the reputed son of the Nabob Omdut-ul-Omrah nuiy be supposed to possess to the ('()iri]iany's support of his pretensions to the govermnent of the Carnatic on the death of liia Highness, is founded on the grounds of tiie rights of Omdut-ul-Omrah himself; the right of the Nabob 53 Orndut-ul-Oinrah to the assistance of the Com])an)/ in securimj his succession to the Nabob Mahoinod A'ote. — Ashistaucc Ally in tlie uovcn'iiiiient of Arnot, was founded on the exprei-s stipulations of the Treaty of 17!l2. Thc^^"** "k^'t atiktKl uor result of the written and oral evidence obtained from tli(^ papers diseovcred at .Seringapatani, has estab-"^''"^"''' lished abundant proof that (he fundamental priueiples of tin; alliance between the Coin|)any and the House of Mahouiecl Ally,as well as the exjjress letter of the Treaty of 1787 (of which the 'I'reaty of 1792 was an indulgent uiodilication), had been aJisolutely violated, and rendered of no ell'eel by the Nabobs Mahomed Ally and Onidut-ul-Onii'ali, previously to fhe ostensilile conclusion of the Treaty of 1792. It is manifest, therefore, that the Naliob ()nidul-ul-Onirah could derive no rij^ht from the foi'mal rati- fication of that instrument, the vital spirit of which liad already been annihilated by his Highness' conduct; and that the Nabobs Mahomed Ally and Omdut-ul-Omrah, by forming an intimate union of interests with Tippoo Sultaun, had placed themselves and their whole House in the relation ofjmbl'c enemies to the British Empire in India. 3. Whatever right to the Company's protection and support the reputed son of Omdut-ul-Omrah may derive from his supjiosed fatlier, had been utterly destroyed by the hostile conduct of Omdut-ul- Omrah ; and my instructions to your Lordship in consecjucnce of the discovery of the inimical conduct of Mahomed Ally and of Omdut-ul-Onu'ah, having j)rovidcd for the inuiUHliate exercise of the civil and military government of the Carnatic on the part of the Comjiany, as the only measure of self- defence and security, under all the circumstances of the case, it follows that the reputed son of Omdut- ul-Omrah (in the event of his Highness' death ])reviously to your Lordship's execution of my orders) must succeed to the condition of his father; and that the British Government in India will, in that event, remain at liberty to exercise its riglits, founded on the faithless ])olicy of its ally, in whatever manner may be deemed most conducive to the immediate safety and to the general interests of the Company in the Carnatic. 4. Under this view of the question, the British Government in India is at liberty to proceed to exercise, on the part of the Company, the civil and military government of the Carnatic, if it should judge that the most advisable plan of arrangement. 5. Many considerations, however, of expediency and policy must be connected with a measure of so much magnitude ; the long-established connection Itctween the Company and the House of Mahomed Ally justifies us in sacrificing to the sentiments of national magnanimity and generosity the resentment occasioned by his Highness' flilgrant breach of the alliance; and in every event it would be incumbent on the British Government to make a pecuniary provision for the family, suitable to its dignity. The discharge of this duty is fully a]3preciated by the natives of India ; but it is hij no means certain that, in the event of our proceeding to exercise a right founded on a violation of Treaty, and on the necessity of self-defence, the powers of Ilindostan woidd refrain from confounding the abstract principles of the general law of nations n:ith ambitious views of aggrandisement and extension tlie security of the Btitish interests in the Carnatic. Lord Clive will enter into a full explanation of all the evidence which has been discovered at Seringapataru, and will also state to your Highness the purport of the instructions which have been received from me. I request your Highness to consider Lord Clive to be fully authorised by me to terminate the requisite arrangements ; and under this view of the question, I trust that you will not expect from me any interruption to the course of those mea- sures which I have judged to be indispensably necessary, and which 1 have directed Lord Clive to accomplish without further reference to my authority." "When this peremptory letter arrived, Ouidut-ul-Omrah was labouring under his last illness ; and upon a medical affidavit to the injury which would result from its communication, it was not delivered to his Highness, but its terms were ob- viously intended to indicate that it would no longer be of any use to offer that opposition to the proposals of the Company with which they had hitherto been so systematically, but most naturally, met by the Nabob and his advisers. On 5th July Lord Clive reported to the Governor-General that the Nabob was not expected long to survive ; and that, having been informed that means had been used to Introduce armed men into the Nabob's Palace of Chepauk, he had judged it expedient to station some of the Company's troops at the Palace, " for the purpose of preserving order until an arrangement of the affairs of the Carnatic can be effected ;" and that he had the satisfaction of informing his Lord- ship that the troops had taken their position, " without producing any commotion on the part of his Highness' family, dependents, or troops ; and your Lordship may rely that every degree of conciliation and humanity, consistent with the secure attainment of the ultimate object of this arrangement^ will be observed in the further communications with the Nabob, and with every part of his Highness' family." Omdut-ul-Omrah died on the 15th July 1801. Immediately upon receipt of the intelliofence, Lord Clive addressed the following written instructions to Messrs AVebbe and Close for their instant attention : — Instructions to To J. Webbe, Esq., and Lieut.-Col. Close. In consequence of the death of his Highness the Nabob Omdut-ul-Omrah, it is my earnest desire, founded on the instructions of his Excellency the Governor-General, that a complete adjustment of the affairs of the Carnatic should be made with the least practicable delay. The nature of the evidence which has been obtained of the violation of the alliance by the Nabobs, Mahommed Ally and Omdut-ul-Omrah, and t/ie course of reasoning upon the condition in which the family of their Highnesses has, by that discovery, been placed in relation to the British Government, are subjects so famiUar to you, that any particular instructions from me with regard to the principles, or to the detailed considerations of the question, appear to be superfluous. It will be sufficient for me, therefore, to state that the death of the Nahob has produced no chaneje in the principles by which it will be proper to regulate the conduct of the British Government towards the family of his Highness ; but in the application of those principles to the actual state of affairs, I judge it to be of the greatest importance to the national character, as well as the critical state of our afairs, that the arrangement of the alVairs of the Carnatic should be adjusted hi/ an awicable negotiation. I accordingly depute you to conduct this negotiation, and hereby authorise and empower you to exercise your own discretion, for the purpose of carrying into effect my intentions, and the instruc- tions of his Excellency the Governor-General. The ofiBcer commanding the forces at Chepauk will obey such orders as he may receive from you. — I am, etc. (Signed) Clive. Commissioners' Messrs Webbe and Close Immediately repaired to the Palace, where they were Proceedings, met by some of the principal persons in tlie si'rvice of the late Nabob. It is not ,.~ ,o„, of importance to enter upon all the details of what took place on this and subse- p. 8. Commissioners' Proceedings. quent days, but there are some passages In the Conunlssioners' Report of the proceedings which are extremely useful, as showing distinctly the object of the interviews, and natiu-e and effect of the proposals which were made : — July l.'ith, 1801. In conformity to your Lordshi])'s instructions, wo ])roceeded to the palace of Chepauk, having previously caused a message intinuiting our a]i])roach to be communicated through the channel of Lieut.-Col. M'Ncil to the principal ollicers of the late Nabob Omointing Ally terval of time for the ceremonies of the occasion, and on the decorum of postponing to open the willlloussaiu his suc- until the heir appointed should be at libiu'ty, in conformity to the usual ])raetice, to attend to theeessor. transaction of public business. We repli(!d, that the Uritish (iovermnent was aware of the prevailing usages observed l)y the professors of the Mahommedan religion on all ordinary occasions of this nature ; that your Lordship could have no wish that those usages should be unnecessarily transgressed; but that the affairs of a great government, on wliich onr request was founded, could not be regulated by the ordinary practice of individual families. Having in consequence been informed that the Nabob had appointed his reputed son (Padj-nl-Onirah, commonly called Ally Uoussain) to be his sole heir, wc again urged the necessity of producing the will, and retiuested that the young man should be irj- troduced to us. The Khans having retired to consider this demand, we learned, during a desultory conversation with Mr Barrett, that tiie Nabob Omdut-ul-Omrah had become acquainted with the in- tention of Hussum-ul-Mulk to emph)y an armed force at the Talace of Chepauk, for the accomplish- ment of his views at the expected termination of his Highness' life; that the measure of stationing a body of the Company's troops for the protection of the family had in consequence been entirely accept- able to his Highness, and (to use his own ligurative expression) that the security derived from that arrangement had been the means of prolonging his Highness' life. Tlie Khans, having been jouied by Mr Barrett, returned, assenting to our request ; and after a short delay, the young man was introduced, with the will in his hand. The will, having been opened *''"^'^'"" "? '"" and read by Kadir Nawas Khan, was found to be an authentic instrument, expressing in clear, dig. troduced. tinct, and explicit terms, the will of the Nabob Omdut-ul-Omrah, that his reputed son (Ally Houssain) Will exhibited, should succeed him in the possession of all his rights, possessions, property, and in the sovereignty of the Carnatic. The will also appointed Mahommed Najeeb Klmn, Salar Jung, and Tukhia Ally Khan, to assist the reputed son of Omdut-ul-Omrah in the administration of his affairs. The will having been read, we excused ourselves to Ally Hussain for an intrusion which, although unseasonable, was indispensably necessary; and he immediately retired, returning expressions of civility. On the departure of Ally Houssain, we requested a private conference with the two Khans only, Interview with who had been appointed by the will of Omdut-nl-Omrah to assist the counsels of his son. Khans. The Khans were informed of the nature of the documents discovered at Ser- ingapatam, and some of the documents were produced. They expressed their surprise at the charge ; pointed out the impossibihty of its being true ; and offered, upon being furnished with the evidence, to supply explanations and counter- proofs, upon which the Company might form a more correct judgment. It was not of course convenient to agree to such a proposition ; — " This discourse being apparently intended to confound the object of our deputation, we stated to Carnatic Papei-s, i8oa, the two Khans, that in cases of disputed points between independent jmrers neither party could erect itself P- ^''• into a judge of the conduct of the other party ; that on those questions an appeal could be made only to the general practice of the nations of the world ; and that such differences could only be de- cided by the means possessed by each party respectively to provide for its own security ; that, with respect to the present case, the most abundant proofs were in the possession of the British Govern- ment, of the violation of the alliance between the Company and the late Nabob, and jiarticularly of the express stipulations of the Treaty of 1792 ; that the British Government, being satisfied ofthesuf- Jiciency of those proofs, had iw intention of constituting itself a judge of the conduct of its ally ; but that, being prepared to appeal, if necessary, to the established maxims of the public law of nations, it had resolved to demand from the late Nabob, Omdut-ul-Omrah, satisfaction for his violation of the alliance, and securiti/ for its rights and interests against the future operation of his Highness' hostile councils ; and the indisposition, which had terminated in the death, of the Nabob Omdut-ul-Omrah, had pre- vented the execution of the Governor-General's orders for this purpose ; and although his Highness' right to the support and friendship of the Company had been entirely cut off by his violation of the alliance, the British Government, being still desirous of preserving t/ie connection so long subsisting, would be deposed to extend those sentiments to t/ie reputed son of Omdut-ul-Omrali, if an adequate security could be established fir t/te rights cftlie Company in the Carnatic, through the channel of an amicable adjustment." After some further conversation, and the day being advanced, the Commissioners took their /^y jj leave, assuring the Khans, " in the most unequivocal terms, that on t/ie ansiver which they intend to give to our proposition would depend ivhcther the British Government wordd acknowledge the claims of the reputed son of the late Nabob Onidut-ul-Omrah to the support of the Company, or whether the British Go- vernment should proceed to take such measures as it might deem to be expedient for the security of its rights and interests in the Carnatic." Another meeting took place on the following day; and after some preliminary communings, the Report contains this most important passage, which may with all confidence be said to contain the elements for removing every difficulty felt by the Directors of the Hon. Company on the subject of the claims of his present Highness Prince Azeem Jah : — " We proceeded accordingly to state to the Khans the inconveniences vihich had been experienced ibid.. [,. 12. from the effects of a divided government; the difficulty of applying, under such a system, the resources of the Carnatic to the exigencies of the public service : and the impossibihty of introducing a regular 5G form of internal government, until the defects of the existing system should be corrected. We then informed the Khans, that the only remedy applicaljle to the errors of the present goyernment of the Carnatic, was the substitution of one permanent authority, in lieu of the fluctuating authority wliich had hitherto subsisted ; that the appropriation of the resources of the Carnatic, during the govern- ment of the Nabob, and under the pressure of actual war, had been found from experience to be in- compatible with the objects of the alliance ; and therefore the only adequate security for the riylit and interest of the British Qovernment in the Carnatic against the dangers with which they have been menaced, was the entire and exclusive administration of the civil and military government of the Carnatic. We accordingly informed the Khans, that tltis condition would form the basis of the arrangement which it was our intention to propose to them. Najeeb Klian observed, that such a proposition was calculated to frustrate the professed object of the arrangement ; for, if 1 he entire government of the Carnatic should be transferred to the hands of the Company, the station of Nabob of the Carnatic ivould be annihilated. We replied to the Khans, that the condition now proposed actually existed in the Treaties of 1787 and 1792 ; and that, although the entire civil and military government of the Carnatic had been transferred under the operation of that condition to the exclusive administration of the Company, no doubt was entertained thaXtherank and d/i/nity of MiihommtidA\\y and Onvhit-u\-OmTah,as the Nabobsof the Ca}matic, had been preserved: we therefore drew this conclusion, that the rank and dignity of the Nabob of THE Carnatic could not be injured by extending the operation of that condition ; and that the object of proposing an amicable adjustment, instead of proceeding to exercise the rights ac- quired by the British Government, was manifestly founded on the desire of preserving to tlie family the rank, dignities, and splendour of the Nabobs of the Carnatic. The Khans admitted this argument to be conclusive ; but, without coming to any determination on the fundamental proposition stated by us, appeared to be desirous of knowing the general outline of the arrangement which it was in the con- templation of the British Government to establish. We thought it expedient to satisfy, by de- scribing the principal parts of the plan intended by your Lordship and by the Governor-General, in the event of an amicable adjustment of affairs ; but we apprised the Khans, at the same time, that the intended arrangements, with respect to the family affairs and dependents of Onidut-ul-Omrah, would be regulated by the acceptance or rejection of X\\b fundamental projiosition ; for in the one case the British Government would be at liberty to consult the dictates of moderation, liberality, and friendship, but in the other case it would be compelled to adopt such measures of precaution for the security of its rights and interests as the hostile conduct of Omdut-ul-Omrah had justified, and as would be rendered necessary by the perseverance of his reputed son in the spirit of those councils." Interview with Some further conversation ensued, and an appointment was made for an in- Ally Houssain. terview with AUyHoussain. This interview did not take place till two days later, when the Khans having withdrawn, the young man stated with much anxiety that he had been deceived by them. lb. p. 19. " The entire substance of the conferences was recapitulated to Ally Houssain, the nature of the proofs of the violation of the alhance was distinctly described, and the extent of the security recpiircd by the British Government concisely explained." The young Prince, after a desultory conversation of some length, at last proposed " That a Treaty should be prepared by us," upon the basis of vesting the entire civil and military government of the Carnatic in the hands of the Company ; and stated that he would be ready to execute the instrument, with or without the consent of the Khans, at another separate conference, which was appointed for the next day. Ally Houssain de- At the interview, however, held upon the following day. Ally Houssain withdrew his acquies- clines proposals, cence. He was conveyed to a tent to meet with Lord Clive, apart from his attendants and advisers, where he stated that he considered it to be totally incompatible with his interests and honour to accede to the proposition on the bnsis of which he had agreed to conclude the Treaty. He was remonstrated Ih. p. 20. with, and informed that " the alternative choice was either to become the acknoivledged Nabob of the Car- natic, or one of the many pensioners dependent on the bounty of the Company ;" and the suspicion was ex- pressed, that he might be influenced in his determination by interested persons, who " would be desirous of sacrificing the permanent interests and honour of his family to the attainment of their immediate ad- vantage" (implying that the subscrijition to the Treaty would secure the interests and honour of the family in permanence) ; and after being interrogated whether he clearly understood the consequences of his determination, Lord Clive. " with concern for himself individually, now apprised him that his future situation would be that of a private person hostile to the British interests, and dependent on the bounty of the Company. This declaration Ally Houssain received with a degree of composure find confidence w^hich denoted that he acted from no iinjjression of fear ; and a smile of complacency which appeared on his countenance throughout this discussion, denoted an internal satisfaction at the line of conduct he was pursuing." . ^. The noootiation being thus closed on the part of Ally Houssain, Lord Clive opened withAzeem'l''"'^'*^^*^'*! ^'"-' Coiinnissioners to o])en, if ])ossible, a negotiation with Prince Azeem ul Dowlah. ul Dowlah, the son of Ameer ul Omrah, and grandson of INIahommed Ali. " Endeavours were accordingly used to establish a communication with him ; but it was found that •"'• P- '-^' so strict a watch had been established over him by the adherents of Omdut-id-Omrah, that no means appeared to be ])ractical)lc for o])ening a private connnunication with him ; while any attem]it to effect it by o))en means ai)])eared liable lo the serious olyection of ])recii)itnting the fate of the young rriiice. July 22d. — In this silualion of things, it was rei)orted to your liordshij) by the officer commanding the troops at (Miepauk ihat Najeel) Khan and Tukhia Ali Khan had already i)erf(irmed the ceremony of installing Ally Houssain in a private manner on the Musnud (jf Arcol, and that they had resolved to instui him in a jiublie niamicr on tin; following day. Your Lordshi]) resolved lo prevent a measure calculated to produce inniiediate conim(jlion in the provinces of the Carnatic ;" for which purjiose, the troops already conunanding the entrance look possession of the i'alaee, removed all the guards of the late Nabob, and placed a guard of honour about Azeem ul Dowlah, by which means Lord Olive's object of communication with him was secured. The objects of the Company were speedily 67 explained to him, and the conversation had, at the interview which took place, " ended in a declar- ation of the Prince Azeera ul Dowlah of his acknowledgment of the right ac(iiiired by the Company Azeera agrees to under the discovery made at .Scriiigapatani, and of //« rcaiUnean to ajfonl, in the event (if his elecutiun /o Ktij)ulations. the Mmoiiid, that saiisfdctioii and aecuriti/ winch yenir Lordsiiip and tlte (lovernor-denenil li. 41. " The Nal)ob Mahomed Ally and the Nabob Omdut-id-Onirah have violated the said stipulations, and have thereby yo/;/c(to/ «// '/'(! bcucf is of the said alliance ; and the Nabob Mahomed Ally and the Nabob Omdut-ul-Onirah having violated the said stipulations for the express jjurjiose of establishing an nnii)U of interests with Tip))ou Sultauu, thereby placed themselves in the condition oi public cnemic.t to the iJrilish Government in India." The Declaration then proceeds in the course of reasoning which had been resolved upon, and sipresses that, in proceeding to exercise the rights imagined to arise, " it was painful to the British Declaration. 63 Government to he compelled to expose to llie world all these humiliatinj? proofs of the ingrati- tude and treachery of tlie Naboljs ;" but that the Uriiish Government was desirous of consulting its own difi'iiity, and had intended to have made formal communication to the late Nal)ob of the proofs of his breach of the alliance, " with the view of obtaining a satisfactory secarilij Jhr the rlnhts pledged to the Company in the Carnalic." It then proceeds to argue tliut the reputed son of Omdnt-ul-Omrah had " sncceeded to the condition of his father," which condition was that of a jiublic enemy; but that, in pursuance of the principles by which the IJritish (j'overnment had been actuated, i't had been within his power "to form, by means of an amicable ad.jnstment, t/mt satisfuc.tkin ami secm-iti/ which the hostile and faithless conduct of his sujiposed father had entitled the British Government' to demand, and which the dic- tates of i)rudcncc and self-defence compelled him to require. Then mentioning that he had opposed a determined resistance to this demand, it concludes : — Frustrated in the hope of obtaining from tlie reimted son of the Nabob Umdut-ul-Omrali reparation for its injuries and security for its rights, the British (Jovernment is now reluctantly com- pelled to jiubhsli to the world the proofs of this flagrant violation of tlie most sacred tics of amity and alliance by the Nabobs Mahomed Ally and Omdut-ul-Omrah, and the hereditary spirit of enmity manifested by the reputed son of Omdut-ul-Omrah to the interests of the British Govermnent. The duty and necessity of self-defence require the British Govermnent, under the circumstances of this case, to exercise its poiver in the attainment of an adefjuate security foj- its rights; justice and moderation warrant that the family of Omdut-ul-Omrah shall he deprived of the means of completing its sijstenuitic course of host Hit g ; wisdom and prudence demand, that the reputed son of Omdut-ul-Oiurah shall not be permitted to retain possession o{ resources dangerous to the tranquillitii of the British Government in the peninsula of India. Wherefore the British Government, still mlhering to the princijdes of moderutiun, and actuated by its uniform desire of obtaining security for its rights and interests in the Carnatic, by an orranc/ement fimnded cm the principles of the long subsisting alliance between the Company and the family of the Nabob Mahomed Ally, judged it expedient to enter into a negotiation for that purpose with the Prince Azeem ul Dowlah Behauder, the son and heir of Azeem ul Omrah, who was the second son of the Nabob Mahomed Ally, and the immediate great-grandson by both his parents of the Nabob Auwer ud Deen Khan, of blessed memory. And his Highness the Prince Azeem ul Dowlah Behauder having entered into engagements for the express purpose of reviving the alliance between the Company and his illustrious an- cestors, and of establishing an adequate security for the British interests in the Carnatic, the British Govern- ment has now resolved to exercise its rights and its power, under Providence, in supporting and establishing the hereditary pretensions of the Prince Azeem ul Dowlah Behauder in the Suubahdarri/ of the territories of Arcot, and of the Carnatic Payen Ghaut. Mr Kirkpatrick's answer was dated 21st August. Joseph Webbe, Esq., Chief Secretary of Government, Fort St George. 1S(«. I>:i|iers, t'- «!>. Sir, — I have the honour to acknowledge thereceipt of your letter of the 31st ultimo, apprising me of the decease, on the 15th of that mouth, of his Highness the Nawaub Omdut-ool-Omrah, and of the succession of his Highness Ameer ool Omrah, Azim ool Dowlah, etc. etc. etc., to the vacant Musnud. The news of the death of the late Soobahdaur of the Carnatic excited, as might be expected, a certain degree of curiosity at this court as to the line of succession that might eventually be adopted by the Company's government; the inquiries respecting which, the copious details given in the interest- ing document enclosed in your letter, enable me to answer in the most satisfactory manner. No explanation on this delicate and important subject has, or in all probability will be, directly required from me 1)y this Government, while it nevertheless will thankfully receive whatever com- munications I may think proper to make on this occasion. The most easy and natural mode of introducing the subject will, I conceive, present itself, when- ever letters usual on such occasions from the successor to the Arcot Musnud to his Highness the Nizam shall be received here and delivered; a form which I conclude will, of course, not be over- looked. — I have, etc. Hyderabad, 21st August 1801. (Signed) J. A. Kirkpatrick, Resident. On 3d August, tlie Governor in Council of Fort St George addressed a Dispatch ^^^ , . , j.. to the Secret Committee detailing the circumstances. After mentioning Allv tors Houssain's refusal to accede to the demands, it thus proceeds : — 11. In consequence of the resistance unexpectedly opposed by Ally Hussain to this reasonable Asiatic Register 180' demand, it remained for Lord Clive to apply the instructions and authority conveyed to his Lordship vol. iv., p. 109. by the Governor-General to the actual state of circumstances. In proceeding to exercise the rights of the British Government, which the conduct of Ally Hussain had compelled his Lordship to assert. Lord Clive still judged it to be consistent with the sentiments of national magnanimity and generosity that the British Government should refrain from the exercise of the Company's power, and from the absolute humiliation of the family of Mahommed Ally, if an adequate security could be obtained through the channel of an amicable adjustment. LTnder the impression of these sentiments. Lord Clive directed his attention to the claims and to the situation of the Prince Azeem ul Dowlah Behauder. This Prince is the only son by afomnd marriage of the late Ameer ul Omrah, who was the second son of the late Nabob Mahommed Ally, and is the immediate great-grandson by both his parents of the Nabob Ameer ud Deen Khan, the founder of the family. The rights of Omdut-ul-Omrah, founded on the Treaty of 1792, having been vitiated by that Prince's violation of the alliance, and of the stipulations of tltat instrument, the hereditary claims of the home of Mahommed Ally descended to the second branch of the family, represented by the Prince Azeem ul Dowlah, the son of Ameer ul Omrah, who was the second sou of the Nabob Mahonnned Ally. G4 The Dispatch then proceeds to mention that the deputies opened a " communi- cation with that Prince, for the purpose of reviving the alliance between his ances- tors and the Company, and of estabhshing the rights and interests of the British Government in the Carnatic on a permanent basis of security ;" that the Trince had expressed " his willingness to afford, in the event of his elevation to the Mus- nud of his ancestors, the security demanded by the authority of the Governor- General," and a written engagement had been framed and executed. " In conformity to this arrangement, we have acknoivledged Ageem. vl Dowlah to be Nabob of the Caniatic;" and it is added, " The mode of providing for the support of the dignity of his Highness the Nabob Azeem ul Dowlah is conformable to the principles on which the alliance between his Highness' fiimili/ and the Company has been rech-cd and eufnUished. By these means the interests of his Highness will become united with those of the Company in the general prosperity of the Carnatic ; and while the actual security of the British interests provided by the present arrangement remains undiminished, the mode of supplying a fund for the expenses of the _/A^\i Honourable Lord Clive, Governor in Council of Fort St George. My Lori>, — Para. 1. The Governor-General in Council has had the honour to receive the Dispatch of your Lordship in Council, under date the 31st ultimo, together with the Treaty concluded with his High- ness the Nabob Azeem-oo-Dowlah, for the perpetual transfer of the administration of the civil and military government of the Carnatic to the Honourable Company. 2. His Excellency the Most Noble the Governor-General has communicated to us the corre- spondence which Las passed between him and your Lordship, and the several documents connected with the rise, progress, and termination of this important transaction. 3. The Governor-General in Council has the greatest satisfaction in expressing to your Lord- ship in Council his sincere approbation of the judgment, temper, and discretion, which have distin- guished your Lordshijj's conduct during the progress of the various events which have terminated in an arrangement so highly advantageous to the interests of the Honourable Company. 4. The reputed son of his Highness the Nabob Omdut-ool-Omra, having met your Lordship's just and moderate propositions for the security of the British interests in the Carnatic by a delibe- rate refusal to enter into the engagements absolutely necessary to that indispensable object, the general spirit of the instructions conveyed to your Lordship at different times, under the changes which have taken place in the situation of affairs, entirely warranted your Lordship to offer to the son of tlie late Ameor-ool-Omrah the same terms which had been proposed to the reputed son of Omdut-ool-Omrah. 5. His Excellency in Council is of opinion, that the immediate assuraplioii ))y the Company of the entire administration of the Carnatic, in consetiuence of Ally Hussain's refusal to accede to the proposed Treaty (although justifiable in every point of view), w^as not necessary, under all the cir- cumstances of the case, to secure the just rights of the Company in the Carnatic; and the establish- ment of the acknowledged heir of the Ameer-ool-Omrah in the rank of Nabob of the Carnatic, was therefore a measure of moderation and wisdom. 6. The reasoning stated by the Bight Honourable the Governor, in his oflicial Dis]iatch to the Governor-General of the 27th ultimo, is so full auti conclusive, that it aiii)cars to us umieccssary to add any further o))servatioii. 7. Under these circumstances, his Excellency in Council has the satisfaction to declare his entire approbation of the general spirit and stipulations of the Treaty concluded with the Nabob Azcem- oo-Dowlali. The observations which his ]<]xcellency in Council now proceeds to state with regard to the Treaty, and the eventual modilications of the Treaty which it is now his intention to propose, constitute no (jualitication of (lie apjirobation due to the ability and prudence manifested by your Lordship in Council, in concluding this important arrangement; the adoption or rejection of the inodiji- catiom v;Iiii:h will, be proposed in. this teller, is intended to be sulijcctcd, without further reference, to the discretion of your Lordship in Council. 65 8. With fliis view, his Excellency in Council has, in the first instance, ratified the Treaty trans- mitted by the Governor of Fort St (icorge; but at tlie same time has executed wiothfr Tmitii, framed in conformity to the modidcadons herein stated. This instrnnieiit, haviu}; l)een sig'ned and sealed by his Excellency in Council, is transmitted, together with that received from your LordshI]) in Council, in order that it may be ev(mtually substituted for the Treaty which has been executed at Fort St George, «;(fe. n r> 1 1 Prerogatives. Extract of Fort George Political and Foreign Consultations, the 18th Jaimarv "*"'' i""?*™' '''''• '" *^ . - ' .'11. Iii9. 1803. The following letter having returned from ciroulation is ordered to be recorded : — Translation of a Lettek from his Highness the Naljob Azeem-ul-Dowlaii, Behadur, to the Right lion. LoKD Clive, etc. etc. p. 109. Dated and received |if/''/"'"='-''"i217 Heger (7th January 1803. By the blessing of Almighty God, and the support of my sincere friends, the Governor General and your Lordship, the aft'airs of my Government are established on a basis as firm as the wall of Alexander : and under the protection of his august Majesty the King of Great Britain, and of the English nation, I am always in perfect safety and security. Thus situated, my liniionr and dignitji is the same as that of nil/ revered grandfatJier, the Nabob Wallajah (who reposes in paradise), and the preservation thereof will ever be incumbent on the English Government. On tlie 3d of the present month the Supreme Court at Madras, without any communication with me, sent their peo])le into the house of Abdul Mabud Khan Bahader Jumsheed Jung (one of the sons of the late Nabob Wallajah), seized his person and carried him away. This circumstance has been a source of great uneasiness and surprise to me, that, notwithstanding the intimate connection subsisting between me and the English (jovernment, such intemperate measures should have been adopted by the Court against my dependants. Your Lordship knows full well that the poorest man is the master of his own house, and is secure in it, and that none has the power of intrusion therein ; such behig the case, it is a matter of great astonishment to me, that the people of the Court should so far deviate from the customs of their own nation, as to go into the house of a son of the late Nabob Wallajah, and there disgrace him. Good God ! is it consistent with the justice and ecjuity of the Court, that men of rank and distinction should be dragged into durance in this disgraceful man- ner ? This act of violence I conceive to be highly hijurious to my honour. By the law of nations, as well as by the sanctions of Government, my dependants (such of them as are heartily well disposed towards me) are equally secure from the interference of the Court, as I am in my own person. 1 have therefore to request that, during your Lordship's government, such an arrangement may be made as shall preclude now and for ever all interference of the Court, or of strangers, with any of my dependants. This act of kindness in your Lordship towards me will add to my security and to my honour. What should I write more ? The President records the following Minute : — - v„i jij j, j-q The Board will doubtless have received with concern the communication stated in the letter of his Highness the Nabob of the Carnatic, dated 7th inst., of the seizure and subsequent imprisonment for debt of Abdul Maabood Khan Bahadur, son of the Nabob W^allajah, and uncle of the present Nabob. With regard to the facts of this case, it is proper for me to state, that about noon on the day of the confinement of Abdul Mtwbood Khan, I had the honour to communicate the nature of the transaction and the rank of the prisoner to his Majesty's Chief Justice, suggesting his immediate interference ; that on the same evening I received a note from Sir Thomas Strange, affording reason to believe that the prisoner would be immediately liberated ; but that at noon on the following dav, finding that the Khan was still in the gaol, and his Highness the Nabob having exhibited, by repeated and urgent remonstrances, considerable agitation of mind, I directed a gentleman of my family to make the requisite arrangements for the release on bail of Abdul Maabood Khan. The relation of the present Nabob to the British Government, under the Treaty of the Carnatic. was stated to the Honourable the Judges of the Supreme Court, in a letter dated the od September 1801 ; and an arrangement was therein proposed for their consideration, intended to secure to his Highness and to his family the honours and immunities enjoyed by his predecessors heretofore Nabobs of the Carnatic, under provisions of public treaties. It is much to be desired that the lion, the Judges had felt themselves at Uberty to comply with the request contained in that letter ; but the Chief Judge having communicated to me, in a private letter, the reasons which deterred him from stating his opinion extra-judicially, I have been anxious to avert the serious calamities which may ensue from the impossibility, on one hand, of hesitating to execute, to the e.vtent of our means, the spirit of the Treaty ; and, on the other, of opposing the power of the King's Court, thus leaving to the Nabob the care of defending his own rights. I have therefore been induced to repeat my attempts, by personal communication with the Chief Judge, to obtain such iuformatiou of the intentions of the Court, or such an arrangement of the point at issue, as should equally secure to the Court its jurisdiction, and to his Highness the Nabob and his family their public rights. It is with regret that I am to state that it has not been practicable for me to accompUsii, in a satisfactory manner, either of these important ends. The only point of arrangement to which the Chief Justice considered it competent for him to consent to. consisted in a notice of any intended personal arrest, on the condition that the Government should, in such case, guarantee that the person whom it was intended to arrest should be forthcoming. It is scarcely necessary to observe to the Board, that the effect of such an arrangement, with 78 regard to the Government, would be to place it in the predicament of agreeing to violate the personal immunities which it is bound by treaty to defend ; and that the proposal would either produce that effect, with respect to the members of the Nabolj's family, or subject the Company to the expense of sustaining the numerous actions which may be, and which jn-obaljly will be brought against them. I have communicated with the Company's law oflicers on the course most expedient to pursue in the present case ; and I have in consequence the honour to propose, that they shall be instructed to move the Court to discharge the proceedings in the action commenced against Abdul Maubood Khan, on the foundation of the requisite certificates from his Highness, and from the Government, of his actual place in the family of the Nabob. If this application shall succeed, it will become neces- sary to furnish the Court with a list certified in the same manner, of those persons who are considered to belong to his Highness' family and retinue, under the Treaty of the Carnatic ; and shall accord- ingly request his Highness to furnish me with a list, for the purpose of being transmitted to the Supreme Court, according to ihe practice in England, founded on the basis of public law and accommodated to the modes of the national Courts. (Signed) Cuve. Fort St George, 18th January 180.3. Vol. iii., p. 167. Diary to Political Consultations, 22d January 1803. To the Sub-Treasurer. Sir, — 'Shah Sawar Jung having incurred the displeasure of his Highness the Nabob of the Carnatic, I am directed to desire that the payment of his pension at the Treasury may cease from the 1st instant. I am likewise directed to convey to you similar instructions with regard to Gholam Hussein, who has been dismissed from his situation at his Highness' Durbar, and from his employment as Principal Moonshy in the Persian Translator's Office. The allowances of Gholam Hussein are to cease from the 18th instant. — I am, etc. (Signed) John Chamier, Chief Secy, to Govt. Fort St George, 21st January 1803. Vol. iii., p. 172. DiAKY to Foft St George Political Consultations, 26th January 1803. Sent a letter to the Nabob (entered in C. C, No. 6.) To His Highness Azeem-ul-Dowlah, Bahadur, Nabob Soubabdar of the Carnatic, etc. May it please your Highness, — I have had the honour to receive your Highness' letters of 30th December and 7th ultimo, and am greatly concerned that any circumstance should have occurred to disturb the composure of your Highness' mind. It will l)e satisfactory to your Highness to be informed that I perfectly coincide in your opinion of the unworthiness of Shah Sawar Jung to participate in your Highness' bounty, and have directed the payment of his pension to be discontinued at the Treasury. I am willing to believe that the late seasonable effort of resolution manifested by your Highness in the punishment of Shah Sawar Jung will effectually secure the Nabob of the Carnatic from the recurrence of similar effrontery. I have already received your Highness' acknowledgments for having effected the temporary enlargement of Abdul Mabub Khan ; and I have it in contemplation to make such further immediate arrangements as may be practicable for the purpose of preventing the occurrence of a similar event to any person under your Highness' protection who maybe deemed to be exempt from the jurisdiction of the law of England. With this view I request your Highness to transmit to me a certificate under the seal of your Government, describing the station of Abdul Mahbood Khan in the Wallajahi family, together with a list of such persons as may be considered by your Highness to be entilled to the privilege of exemption. — I have, etc. (Signed) Clive. Fort St George, 1st February 1803. 1803, Papers, vol. p..l7:3. Declaration that Nabob an Inde- pendent Prince. These proceedings above referred to led to the Governor in Council issuing the following remarkable and most important declaration : — We, the undersigned, the Governor in Council of Fort St George, do hereby certify That the Nabob Wallajah Ameer-ul-Omrah Madar-ul-Mulk Ameer-nl-Kind Azeem-ul-Dowlah Anwer-ul- Deen Cawn Bahadur Showhilt Jung, Sepah Solar Soubdar of the Carnatic, is achioidedged and rerMgnked hj our said Government A.s an indet'ENOKNT I'hince, ilie Souhadar of the Carnatic Pat/en Ghaut, and an alh/ of our said Government, and we do fnrtlier certify, That from the year 1768 hitherto, his late ITighncss the Nabob Wallajah, his late Highness Omdut-ul-Omrah, and his Highness the said Azeeni-nl-I)owlaii, being successively Soubadars of tlie Canuitic, and allies of the Government of Fort St (jlcorge, have severally, with their resjicctive families, resided, and his Highness the said Azeem-ul-Dowlah dolh now reside, with the api)ro))ation of the Government of Fort St George, near Madras, and within the tf^rritories dei)endeiit u]ion the side of Government, for the jiurpose of carry- ing on, in concert with the Government of Fort St George, the common and united interests of the said (Jovernment, and of tlic said several successsive Soubabdars of the Carnatic Payen Ghaul, as such allies. (Signed) Clive. Wm. PETfUE. M. Dick. Fort St George, Ist February 1803. 79 Extract Political Letter from Fort St George, dated 22d February 1803. Voi. iii.. p. 155. 5. The many applications from tlio Nabob for jxMisions to be paid IVom iiis proportion of liie revcmies, to sucli of the dependants of iiis family for whom no maintenance liad been prcjvided under the Treaty of the Carnatic, do not by any means form the least pleasing part of his Highness' correspondciM^e with our President. 6. Among- other instances of his prineely disposition in this respect, it is necessary that we notice, for your information, his resolution to discharge the arrears of pay, due by the late Nabob to Mr John Bafloy, a respectable European, cmi)loycd by his present ITighness as a Private Secretary, and who has been employed for the period of twenty-five years in the service of the family. 7. It is necessary for us to specify this act of generosity, in order that if tiie debt in question shall ever be acknowledged l)y your Honourable Court to be included in the adjusted debts of their late Tlighncsses the Nabob Walajah and the Nabob Omdutul Onirah, and conse(|uently to be charged oi\ the Uevenues of the Carnatic, you may, at the same time, take into your consideration whether the amount ought not to l)e repaid to his Highness the Nabob Azeem ul Dowlali, who has in fact redeemed, at his own expense, that part, of the floating debt. 8. While we dwell with pleasure on this feature of the Nabob's character, we state to you, with regret, that his Highness has experienced, in some instances, from the inferior branches of tlic family, a conduct very different from that to which lie was entitled both as the head of that family and as tke. Sovereign of the Mahomedans in ike Carnatic. We shall l^y all means inculcate tliis mode of conciliation and forbearance on the part of his Highness ; but the pertinacity with which some members of the family adhere to their opposition, and to the vain hopes encouraged by their private agents in Europe, appears to render it necessary that the means provided by us, for securing the respect of these dependants, should be permitted to oi)eratc for the purpose of checking insolence and disaffection to the Nabob. A recent case of this kind having occurred, in which Shaw Souver Jung, one of the supposed illegitimate sons of the late Nabob Onidut ul Omrah, avowedly threw off obedience to his Highness Azeem ul Dowlah, his Highness signified to us his intention of removing him from the palace of Chepauk, and his wish that the payment of the separate stipend, granted with his High- ness' concurrence to this Prince, should be suspended. 9. As this appears to be the only practicable mode by which the resistance of the inferior mem- bers of the family to the elevation of the Nabob Azeem ul Dowlah and their personal disrespect to his Highness can be diminished, we have concurred in his Highness' wishes on this question, and have accordingly suspended the payment of the stipend until a better consideration of the circumstances attached to their respective relations shall have induced Shah Souver Jung to restore himself to the favour of the Nabob. IG. In consequence of our former representatious on the subject, we trust that your Honourable Court will have taken into consideration the serious inconveniences to which his Highness the Nabob may be exposed, from the ditBculty of defining his situation as a Sovereign Prince residing with the whole of his family, and the officers of his State, within the jurisdiction of a British Court of law. 17. This question has been in some degree agitated, by an instance which has recently occurred, in the ai-rest and iraprisonment for debt of Abdul Mabud Khan, an uncle of his Highness, and a son of the Nabob Mahomed Ally. The distress occasioned to the Nabob by this event is forcibiy described in a letter from his Highness to our President, complaining of the indignity, and in the minute recorded by his Lordship, on submitting that letter to our notice. 18. We beg leave to refer you to the minute of our President for the nature and result of his Lordship's communications on this occasion with his Majesty's Chief Justice, who having declined to deliver extra-judicially his opinion on the subject, we have, iu conformity to Lord Clive's suggestion, instructed the law officers of the Company to move the Court to discharge the proceedings in the action commenced against Abdul Mabud Khan, ou the plea of his supposed privileges as a member of the family of the Nabob. 19. The Advocate-General has obtained a rule to show cause in the present case, and we shall apprise your Honourable Court of the issue. Iu the meanwhile, it is obvious that the situation of the Nabob and of his Highness' family is so singular as not to be iucluded in the usual interpretations of public law ; and, on the other hand, the faith of the Executive Government is pledged by a Treaty to secure to the Nabob his rights and immunities in the same full and ample manner as the;/ hare heretofore been enjotjed htj his Hif/hness' predecessors, Nahol/s of the Carnatic. But unless all doubt shall be removed from the interpretation of the law of England with resiiect to these rights and imnumities, it is manifest, from the extent of the Nabob's family and dependants, that it will be impossible to prevent similar instances of offence to his Highness' feelings, under the operation of the law as it now stands. We therefore request, iu the most urgent manner, your attention to the subject, in order that means may be applied to the removal of the ditriculty, if you shall judge it expedient, by applications for the interference of Parliament. 20. Our anxiety with respect to the immediate event of this question is considerably relieved by our reUance on his Highness' uniform moderation, and on his undiminished confidence in the protec- tion and honour of the British Government. 21. AVe have the honour to inform you that, conformable to the principle already explained to your Honourable Court, the Rajah of Travancore has paid to his Highness the Nabob, as the Sovereign of the Carnatic, the sum of 2,206 pagodas and 1.5 anas, in full discharge of the Peishcush and Cape Comorin Nuzzerauah, due to his Highness for the preceding Phuzely. The arrangements with the Nabob, which had been so long anxiously desired Increase of Re- and were at last effected by the Treaty of 1801, had apiiarently no other object ^en^^^not obJ«-t in view than the "preservation" and "security" of the rights, in other words, the ])aynients or obligations then existing, for which the Nabob had become bound to the Company. It was not only ivithont the object of acquiring increased revenue, for not a word on the subject of increase is breathed through their whole previous correspondence, but the Treaty with Azeoin ul Dowlah was entered into without And not antici- pated. 80 the expectation of increase, at least immediately, as will appear from the following dispatch : — 1802, Papers, p. 81. ExTBACT fi'om LETTER from Governor-General and Governor in Council of Fort St George, to Secret Committee of the Court of Directors, dated 3d August 1801. The calamitous impoverishment of every source of ivealth and population, of which the causes have been repeatedl// stated to your Honourable Committee, leaves no immediate expectation that the net revenues of the Carnatic will exceed the sum of nineteen lacks of Star Pagodas. (This fund, it is mentioned, after providing for expenses of Nabob, etc., and payment of debt, will afford a sum probably not exceeding nine lacks of pagodas for defrayment of charges of defence.) 19. That sum exceeds, by a very small amount, the proportion of the revenue which the pro- vince of Tanjore contributes to the general exigencies of the state, and bears a very inadequate pro- portion either to the expense of defending the Carnatic, or to the rate of assessment levied for the public protection in every other part of the territories subject to this Presidency. The present deduction of six from fifteen lacks of Pagodas is, therefore, so disproportioned to the present revenues of the Carnatic, that we can indulge no very sanguine hope of an immediate augmentation of our pecu- niary resources from the administration of the civil government of the Carnatic. The progressive decline of the revenues of the Carnatic may be considered to have approached that stage at which your committee have been prepared to expect the entire failure of the Nabob's Government, and, under the existing engagements, the augmentation of our 7-esoui-ces must be proportioned to the gradual restora- tion of the wealth and prosperity of the country ; every consideration, therefore, of the actual expense of protecting the extensive provinces of the Carnatic ; every view of the indispensable necessity of maintaining an adequate military force for the defence of the British possessions in the peninsula of India ; and every motive of attention to the alarmhig pressure on the finances of this Presidency, re- quired Lord Clive to establish, by the present Treaty, the best possible security for the more ade- quate application iu future of the public revenues of the Carnatic to the exigencies of the public service. 20. We feel great pleasure in congratulating your Honourable Committee on the completion of an arrangement which hasaZ length secured the British interests in the Carnatic on the solid basis of territo- rial possession ; and which is, at the same time, calculated to confirm the reputation of our national magnanimity, generosity, and moderation. We have no doubt that your Honourable Committee will concur in our sentiments, that the negotiation, which has terminated in the accomplishment of these important objects, has been conducted in a manner consistent with the liberal jjolicy of the nation, unbiassed by the adventitious advantage which might have been derived from the early excite- ment of a competition, founded on the variety of adverse interests dependent on the determination of the British Councils. We have the honour to inform you that, in conformity to the terms of the Treaty, the installa- tion of the Nabob Azeem-ul-Dowlah was completed on the 31st ult., accompanied with every demon- stration of pubhc respect, supported by every possible degree of splendour, and confirmed under the observance of the most formal procedure. — We have, etc. Fort St George, 3d August 1801. Expectation disap- In this expectation the Company were agreeably disappointed. In a letter pointed. from Lord Clive to the Court of Directors, of date 21st February 1803, his Lord- ship, after referring to the statement furnished by the Accountant-General for the purpose of adjusting his Highness the Nabob's proportion of the revenue from the 1st August 1801 to 12th July 1802, says,— 1S0.3, Papers, vol. iv., 37. Your Honourable Court will have the satisfaction of observing from the preceding detail, p. 184. that the pecuniary resources of this Presidency have been augmented by the Treaty of the Carnatic, in the Pecuniary resour- '"'■'^ V^"^'' "f '^^ 'V''^'*''^'^' '"^^"^ amount of star pagodas 7,94,074, or L. 317,629 sterling, independently of the of Presidency ""P''0''«"'<^"^ ff ''"^ territorial resources, and of the tranquillity of the empire obtained by that Treaty. It is laro-elv increased ^P"^*'*^^^ ^^^^^ '^'"^ arrangements adopted by me for the attainment of those important objects, should I'^^'^Treatv ' "°'' P^rt^^'^^ t''® injurious consequences which my authority has sustained from the effects of your late ' ' ■'' orders regarding my government ; but having made every practicable effort to mitigate the effects of those causes, I encourage a reasonable expectation, that the beneficial operation of the Treaty of the Carnatic will not l)e less extensive during the second than during the first year ; in that event the arrangement ali-eady carrieil into effect for the purpose of commuting the military service of the Western Poligars for pecuniary tribute will add the sura of star pagodas 1,78,000 or L. 71, 200 ster- ling per annum: and extend the augmentation of pecuniary resource under the Treaty of the Carna- tic, in the most limited point of view, to the amuud sum of star pagodas 9,72,074 or L. 388,829 sterling. 129. The Treaties of Tanjour and the Carnatic have forever removed the causes of internal solici- tude which have flowed from the distractions of a divided Government. This statement is so much at variance with the expectation, that looking to the grounds of the expectation, it is not unreasonable to infer that the management of the Nawaub Avas not so very " calamitous " as it was thought or said to be. Lord Castlereagh, on 29th July 1803, in laying his India Budget before Parliament, inontioncd the increase to the revenue irom the Carnatic derived from the Treaty with Azeein-ul-Dowlah, in a ])aragra|ih which is of some use, as cor- roboratory of what has been already advanced with regard to the object, and will afterwards be said as to the effect of this Treaty. Asiatic iicp;., 1 80.1, j(_ ^y^j. ]„„jr ,]|p subject of regret that the stii)ulations of the Treaty of 1792 were not found liameut) p.^^fio!" ^^' adequate to the end designed by tliem. The necessity of a modification, and the attem])ts to induce 81 the late Nabob Oindat ul Omrali to accede to a revision of that Treaty, have l)oen several times stated to the House. Thougli flic stipulated payments to the Comi)any were not often suffered to fall into arrear, the means resorted to for nuiliiiia; them wcu'e such as mmt idtiniateli/ hove destroyed every source of revenue, indc])endciitly of their beinf? the constiint cause of evils of a very extensive description. The several measures pursucy your Honourable Court ; and the more readily, as your Honourable Court's admission of the validity of such title has been placed on the public records of the State. 7. That as a ]iroof that the Government of India consider the provisions of the Treaty as de- scending along with the succession to the heirs of the Nawanb, 1 beg to quote an extract from a letter of the Government agent to my brother, the father of the late Nawaub, dated the 1.3th December 1819, conveying the opinion of the Governor-General in the following terms: — His Lordship con- ceives a new Treaty between his Highness and the Company to be lumecessary, as he considers his Highness to be ipso facto a party to the Treaty concluded with his father in 1801 ; whence it follows that, as the predecessor of the late Nawaub was a party to the Treaty, as the heir of Nawaub Azeemood Dowlah, the late Nawaub was also a party to it, as the heh- of Nawaub Azum Jah ; and consequently, in virtue of my heirship to my nephew, I must likewise be considered a party to the Treaty of 1801, and associated with its provisions. 8. That by the fourth, fifth, and sixth articles of the Treaty, the contracting parties stipulate and agree on the interchange of reciprocal advantages as follows : — That the British Government shall, in virtue of this document, assume the administration of the civil and military government of the Carnatic, with a right to all the revenues thereof, save and except such portion of the revenues as shall be appropriated for the maintenance of the Nawaul), and the support of his dignity, and that of his immediate family ; the precise amount of which is declared to be one-fifth part of the net revenues ; and I beg respectfully to urge the observation, that the mutual advantages thus detailed are the result of the distinct stipulation and agreement with the averment of which the fourth and fifth articles are headed and commenced, their validity on both sides being established by the joint and mutual consent of the contracting parties, neither of which can be competent to make any alter- ation in them without the concurrence of the other. 9. That the revenue assigned for supporting the dignity of the Nawaub and his family is as firmly and irrevocably guaranteed and secured in its full integrity to the heirs of the said family, as the administration of the Carnatic and the apjiropriation of the rest of its revenues are to the lieirs of the East India Company, the former being assigned by the tenor and language of the Treaty as the equivalent for the latter ; and only so long as the said stipulation and agreement retains its force with regard to the former engagement, can it pass any force with respect to the latter, and as long as the East India Company continues to possess and enjoy the administration and revenues of the territories of the Carnatic, so long are the Company bound by every consideration of good faith and honest dealing, of British honour and national morahty, to abide by the terms of the Treaty under yhich these superior advantages have been acquired, and continue to be retained by them. 10. Having thus detailed my reasons for consideriug that the Treaty of 1801 justifies and up- holds my claim to the Musnud of the Caruatic, and that my construction of the Treaty, as establish- ing the hereditary right to it in my family, has been adopted audocficiaily recorded by the Governor- General to your Honourable Court aiul the Government of Madras — for these several recognitions I conceive are based on the conditions and tenor of the said Treaty. I will lastly refer to the recog- nition of his late Majesty, King George the Third, in a short quotation taken from a letter addressed by his Majesty to the Nawaub Azeemood Dowlah, my father, dated at our Court at St James' the 27th day of January 1804, and in the 44th year of our reign. We congratulate your Highness on your accession to the Musnud of your ancestors, on which may you long remam with honour and happiness. Your Highness may be assured that we shall seize every occasion of affording you proofs of regard, and of continuing to your Highness and to your family our especial friendship and protection. 11. That, if your Honourable Court could be induced to coincide with the apparent object of the Madras Government in setting aside the Treaty of 1801, and your own unambiguous reco"-nition of my title in the public dispatch above quoted, no other alternative appears to remain to your Hon- ourable Court than that of reducing the present descendants of the Prince with whom the Treaty was contracted, by which the East India Company have obtained the wide territories and rich revenues of a valuable portion of British India to the miserable, degraded, and uncertain position of helpless pensioners on the precarious bounty of the Government, a condition which it was the desire and intention of Lord Clive and the Council of Madras, during whose administration the Treaty was framed and concluded, to prevent and avert, and who, with reference to this particular arrangement, observe in their dispatch to the Secret Committee of your Honourable Court, dated the 3d August 1801-15. The mode of providing for the support of the dignity of his Highness the Nawaub Azeemood Dowlah is conformable to the principles on which the alliance between his Hio-hness' family and the Company has been received and established. By these means, the interests of his Highness will become united with those of the Company in the general prosperity of the Carnatic ; and, while the actual security of the British interests provided by the present arrangement remains undiminished, the mode of supplying a fund for the expenses of the family in the manner suitable 84 to its rank and to the dignity of the British Government, by the allotment of a proportion of the pub- lic revenues for that purpose, is entirely relieved from the degrading name and appearance of a stipendiary maintenance. 12. That I have made use of the above arguments on the supposition that the objection of the Government is referrible only to the tenor of the Treaty of 1801 ; but as it is within the range of possibilities that a second objection may be advanced under the idea that the uncle cannot be his nephew's successor according to Mahomedan law, as he can be by the laws of Europe and Chris- tianity, I be" to adduce an instance to the contrary, of the recent date of 1837, in which year Musserood Deen Hider, the king of Oude, was succeeded by Musseeood Dowlah, his uncle, the Tandson of whom is the present king, both having succeeded to the throne with the knowledge and sanction of the Supreme Government. That, havinc thus argued tlie propriety of my claim as based upon the Treaty and the attest- ations of your Honourable Court and the Governor in Council of this Presidency, and shown that the Mahomedan custom and law are in support of it, as well as British law and practice, I finally commend myself and my claim to the generous and favourable consideration of your Honourable Court, and have the honour to subscribe myself. The following is the dispatch containing the Directors' decision. It reads a little strangely after a perusal of the foregoing statement, from which the facts as they really stand, appear. There is, however, every excuse to be made for the obvious mistakes in point of fact into which the Hon. Court of Directors have fallen, in the circumstance of the distant dates of the transactions to which they refer, and in the view of the large and confused mass of material out of which the facts have to be gathered : — 1. The Governor-General's letter in the Foreign Department, dated 14th November 1855, and the political letters from the Madras Government, dated the 12th October, the 20th November, and the 4th December 1855, report to us the death, icithout direct heirs, of his Highness Mahomed Ghouse, Nabob of the Carnatic, and communicate the views of the Governor-General and of the Governor in Council at Madras respecting the consequences of that event. 2. In the opinion both of the Governor-General and of the Madras Government, the dignity of the Nawaub of the Carnatic has expired ; the Treaties between the British Government and the suc- cessive heads of the family of Wallajah are at an end ; the British Government are under no obliga- tion to recognise any person as successor to the rights hitherto enjoyed under those Treaties ; and expediency being wliolly against such recognition, these authorities are unanimously of opinion that it ought not to take place. 3. We have carefully examined the past history of the relations of the British Government with this family, and have bestowed on the important question referred to us the earnest deliberation due to all questions which can be supposed to hivolve considerations of public faith. 4. We find that when, in 1801, the representative of the junior branch of the family of Walajah was placed on the Musnud by the Act of the British Government, a formal announcement was made to the following effect : The conduct of the two previous Nawabs, Walajah and Omdut ul Omrah, had placed them in the position of public enemies of the British Government ; that all antecedent right of the family had been forfeited ; and that the Nawab Azecmood Dowlah was solely indebted for his titular sovereignty, and for the pecuniary and other rights annexed to it, to the grace and favour of the British Government. 5. We find that Azeemood Dowlah fully acknowledged this fact ; and that the original Draft of Treaty prepared by the Madras Government haring contained words implying that the British Go- vernment did not confer a new, but recognised a pre-existing right, those words were, on that express ground, by the desire of the jMarquis Wellesley, struck out, and others substituted which did not contain that implication. 6. The rights of the family being thus derived from the Treaty of 1801, are necessarily limited by its terms, and those are exclusively personal to Azeemood Dowlah. There is no mention in the Treaty of heirs and successors, nor any stipulation respecting descendants. Two successions, indeed, have since taken place, but on each of these occasions the question was regarded and treated as one subject to the decision of the British Government. On the first of those occasions, the Governor- General acknowledged the son of Azeemood Dowlah as his successor in the mark and title of Nawaub of the Carnatic ; but the meaning of that ambiguous term was cleared up l)y the declaration. His • Excellency is pleased to renolre that tlie pecuniary provisions of the Treaty of 1801 shall remain in force. On that last vacancy the family were expressly informed that ''/^w the inteniion of Government that the late Nawaub shall l)e succeeded in his state and dignity by his infant son." It was thus distinctly held that the (jovernment might have refused its assent to the succession even of a direct heir, and on the present occasion there are no direct heirs. 7. In the circumstances, tliore cannot be any obligation on the British Government to continue the provisions of the Treaty of 1801 in favour of any collateral relative of the deceased Nawaubs ; while, in tlio absence of obligation, we entirely agree with the Madras Government in the opinion, that it would be highly inexpedient to do so. Such titular sovereignties, and the exeni))tion they are held to confer from the conniioii operation of the law, are always an evil, and in the present case their effect has (as was truly observed by Lord Harris) Ix-en morally most iK'rnicious, " not only by favouring the accuuiulalion of an idle and (lissi])atc(l ])opnlation in the chief city of the Presidency," but by the scandalous want of principle eviiic('d in j)ecuniary matters, both by the late Nawaub and by his uncle, Azeem Jali, the tiearest collateral relative. 8. Azeem Jali has addressed to us a Memorial, in which he professes to consider his right to the Musnud as having been admitted liy the ^ladras (lovernment and by us. He cites with this view an expression in the reKoliilion of Government in 1843: "The position which he holds in rela- tion to his Highness the Nabob, and to his succession to the Musnud;" and a passage from one of our letters to the Madras Government, dated 14tb January 1829, in which he is spoken of "as the 85 next heir," in case of tlic Nalxjh's doiniso. The subject then before us was not the succession to the Musriud, but tlie appoiiitiucut of a physician to tlie young Nabob, and we iiad no intention whatever of entering into tlie question, what niiglit be Azeem Jail's rigiits of inheritance. As tiie nearest of Ivin, wc s])olerienced is in repressing the multitude of answers with wliich the reasoning of ['-iny's argument. the Directors is at once met and overwhelmed. The real question raised by the decision of the Directors is, whether " the dignity of tlie Nawaub of the Caruatic has exijiied." There are several points of view from which this question can be regarded. I. In respect there was no transfer, bj the Treaty of 1801, to thei. Sovereignty not Company, of the Sovereignty of the Carnatic, that Sovereignty still sub- '^''^xated. sists in the person of the present Nawaub, and cannot be terminated by the will of the Directors, without the exercise of an unwarrantable act of violent aggression against an unoffending and virtuous sovereign Prince. Upon attending to the terms of the Treaty, it will be seen that all that is conveyed to the Company, or vested in them, is the administration of the Civil and Military Government of the Carnatic. There is no conveyance, and it is not No conveyance of pretended that there is any, of the right of Sovereignty ; — but it is now said that sovereignty. the right of the family had by an antecedent fact, viz., the alleged violation of a Said that right for- previous Treaty, been forfeited. This is a most singular and startling doctrine. If felted by violation true, it would involve this most alarming conclusion, that should at any time Her°* 'Alliance. Majesty the Queen happen, whether Mittingly or unwittingly, to violate the faith of any treaty with anotlier sovereign, great or small, the crown of Great Britain would, by such an act, be immediately forfeited to that other power, or, at best, would cease to exist. The proposition is so absurd as to require no refutation, but it may be proper to see how the matter in this case really stands. The Nawaubs of the Carnatic were and had been, past the records of their Relative position country, the sovereigns of that Province — a territory which in extent was as large as of Nabobs and the kingdom of England. The Englisli, on the other hand, were foreigners, and English. necessarily therefore intruders. As foreigners they had no natural rights. Any they could or did enjoy were those which the sovereigns of the country chose to allow. They had acquired no rights by conquest from the Nabob, because not only had he never been at war with them, but they had continually been close allies. Any rights, therefore, which they held, they had acqtiired either by the grant or good will of the Nawaub, or by agreement with him, or by purchase ; and not only were they not in the position of his superiors, but he was, in point of fact, in the position of the natural superior to them in his own country. Nor did his sovereignty sulfer even derogation by the fact that the Company undertook, at bis expense, to garrison his forts. vattei, u,, 12,155, > \ Any political rights which the Company held were rights derived from Treaty. Company's rights I I The Treaty which was in ojieration at the time to which these remarks point was from Treaty. | ' I that of 1792. That Treaty conferred certain specified rights of security upon the Company, in the event of the Nawaub failing to make jiayment of the sums for | which he had become bound ; but beyond this it contained no penalty. Nay, even]sfo penahv for the clause out of which it is said that so much mischief was to accrue from its violation, violation, is literally silent as to the effect of violation. It simply runs, " And the 86 said Nawaub agrees that he will not enter into any negociation or political corres- pondence with any European or native power without the consent of the said Company." Consequences of There being, therefore, no express or even inferential declaration as to AA-hat violation. ^j^g eifect would be of a violation of the Treaty, and particularly of this clause of it, the rights of the parties fell to be regulated by the general law of nations. And here, that there may be no room for difficulty, it may be assumed in argu- ment, 1. That there was a violation of tlie Treaty ; 2. That it was violated in a fundamental article ; and 3. That the Company were not bound to have demandcMJ or allowed explanations. But, with all these admissions, the whole right wliicli in the most aggravated point of view could arise, was that the Company would vattei, ii. 13, 200.; have been "at liberty to chuse the alternative of either compeUmj a faithless ally to fulfil his engagements, or, of declaring the Tveatij dissolved by his violation of it." Company did not l^ow, although there was a good deal of erroneous assumption for a purpose assert what now at the time, it cannot even be said that the Company either asserted or exercised maintained. ^jjg rjgbts which are now said to have flowed from the alleged violation. A few Case, p. 62. references to the Dispatches will show what they did assert. Thus, in the declara- tion of 31st July, all that is said is that the Nabobs have " thereby forfeited all the p. 65. benefits of the said alliance," and " placed themselves in the condition of public enemies." In the Governor-General's Dispatch of 18th August, lie says that the result was that it had placed the Soubahdar " in the situation of a public enemy," " had annihilated the existing Treaties," " and had sanctioned the enforcement of such measures as the British Government might deem necessary for the security p. 66. of its rights and interests, as connected with the Soubahdary of Arcot." Again, in Lord Olive's Letter in reply, his Lordship simply says that the " right acquired" was " to exercise discretion in the enforcement of such measures as might be deemed necessary/ for the security of the rights and interests" of the British Govern- ment, and that the Nabob had " stated his conviction that the rights of his High- ness' family, founded on its connection with the Company, had been annihilated." The plain meaning of all this is simply, that the alliance having been broken, the British Government were free to demand, and, if necessary, to obtain by force of arms " security" for that which it deemed to be existing " rights and interests" in the Carnatic. The expression attributed to His Highness is in precise accord with this view, as all that he says is that the rights founded upon the alliance were at an end. At another place His Highness himself says, " the terms of those engagements were infringed, and our whole house consequently involved in a situation dangerous and alarming." That was all. The Comjiauy's view appears also from other expressions, such as designating the part which they took in the elevation of the Nabob, as lending him their " assistance and support," and " acknowledging" his accession. Company attri- But so far were the Company from alleging that they had acquired the right buted acquisitions of Sovereignty by virtue of a violation of the Treaty, that they expressly attributed to Treaty. ^\^q acquisition of a right which could only have flowed from the sovereign, to Treaty with the NaAvaub. In the proclamation of 31st July this is repeated over and over again. It is there said, that " the Company have, by the Treaty above mentioned, acquired" — that the rights acquired were "by compact" — that the "trust" was " transl'erred to the Company by the present engagements" — and that the Nawaub " has divested himself by the Treaty." This was equivalent to an admission of what Avas undoubtedly true, that. Avitliout recourse to arms, it was by compact alone tiiat the Company had ac(iuired, or could acquire, from the Nawaub, any right in the Carnatic. Sovereignty would And here it may be obserA'ed that such a right could not ]iass by inference or not pass l)y infer- by anything but express grant, even if such grant Avould haA'e been laAA'ful. It ^^^''- was a right of a distinct, important, pre-eminent character, and could not be passed except per expressum. Nay, even in case of doubt, it Avould not have ]iassed, and Vattei, ii. 17, 305. that uj)fin the acknowledged rule in the intcr|iretation of Treaties, " that Avhatever tends to change the present state of things is also to be ranked in the class of odious things, for the jiroprietor cannot be dejirived of his r\