stant policy of the mogul, to remove nabobs so frequently, in order to prevent their acquiring hold in their districts, that Mr. Orme tells us, one of them going from Delhi, rode with his face towards the horse's tail, saying he looked out for his successor. On the decline of the Mogul empire from the contests amongst the successors of Aurengzebe, and after its being completely broke down by the invasion of Nadir Shaw, who carried away 100 millions sterling from Delhi and massacred 100,000 of its inhabitants, the power of coercing the several provinces and districts which composed the vast mass of the Mogul empire, no longer existing, they fell into the hands of those chiefs whom a modern periodical reviewer has emphatically and truly described as victorious assassins, consummate traitors, and experienced robbers more skilled in breaking than in making treaties, and less formidable from their swords than their daggers. And after a disgusting repetition of assassinations, poisonings, and putting out of eyes, the boldest and most fortunate having the power of the sword in their hands, and no superior sword to control them, assumed all those powers which under the mogul had been studiously kept separate and declared their possessions hereditary. As long as the Mogul empire continued in vigour, a British factory at Calcutta carried on a profitable mercantile concern, in consequence of valuable privileges conceded in return for important medical relief rendered to the mogul and the nabob of Bengal by superior European skill. After its decline, during the progress of the subsequent trans tative the India Company and the province of Oude, and what are the duties and rights respectively belonging to it and the native chiefs, with whom it has been involved, since it was forced to emerge into a territorial from being a mercantile concern, ought to save much time, as whatever may be said which does not apply to these relations may be very good declamation, but is not argument. Appeals to its humanity and justice have always, and I trust ever will be favourably received, but when those appeals are made, it becomes the good sense of this house to examine carefully the grounds, least their heads should be the dupes of their hearts, and intending humanity and justice should produce results directly opposite. I conceive for this salutary purpose it is necessary to trace the origin and progress of the British connections in India, and knowing the apathy this house, unfortunately for the publick, has shewn on those subjects, I shall take up as little of its time, as the nature of that investigation will admit. As anonymous, and unacknowledged publications, bold assertions gratuitously advanced in this house or out of this house, can have no effect on its good sense, I beg leave to state that the opinions I entertain on this great subject are drawn from the series of facts recorded by Mr. Orme in his history of the wars sustained by the British company and nation in Bengal and the Carnatick, and from Mr. Verelst's account of the rise and progress of the British company in Bengal. The works of these two gentlemen having been before the public 50 years, and having been stamped with the character of truth and impartiality by a great majo-actions, the British factory, notwithstandrity of the principal actors in those scenes and of their successors, I conceive, will be admitted indisputable authority; it is to be regretted, that with their means and talents they did not continue their labours to a later period. It appears from their authorities that while the Mogul government retained its vigour, the vassal chiefs styled nabobs, were appointed only to enforce the orders from Delhi, that the places called fortresses in those districts were intrusted to killedars or governors independent of the nabob, that the collection of the revenues was in the hands of officers called dewans, alike independent of him, that his emoluments arose from a jaghire or assignment in some other district with which he had no other connection, and that it had been the con ing frequent exactions of the chiefs, still carried on a valuable commerce in consequence of the privileges that were left to them. But on the accession of a ferocious youth to the succession of a victorious assassin and consummate traitor, who not many years before became nabob of Bengal, the opinion of the opulence of the British factory roused his avarice, and with a mighty rabble he invested Calcutta. After a feeble attempt to defend the settlement, the greatest number of the Europeans sheltered themselves on board their ships, and about 150 remained in the fort. In a few days those in the fort surrendered on capitulation for their lives; but this ferocious youth disappointed in what he found in the settlement, ordered them to be confined, with the view of ex torting treasure which he imagined they had concealed, about 147 were forced into a dungeon for the night 20 feet square, out of which the following morning 26 were brought out alive. When an account of this desperate state of the British interests in Bengal, was brought to Madras, which was then the superior presidency, they determined to divert a force, which had been prepared for another purpose, to the attempt to relieve Bengal. Fortunately for his country a man who had distinguished himself by repeated military and political talents, was selected for the command, and col. Clive, was sent with it. With this force and the cordial and gallant co-operation of admiral Watson with the British squadron, they forced the nabob's numberless rabble to evacuate the settlement, and following them in their retreat, after a fruitless negotiation with the nabob, but securing the cooperation of Meer Jaffier, one of the chiefs who knew he was destined to destruction by the nabob, col. Clive attacked with his trifling force 30 times their number at Plassy, and having effected a compleat deroute thereof, he advanced to Muxadabad the capital, and placed Meer Jaffier on the musnud with the general acquiescence of the natives, who accustomed to be equally oppressed by all their chiefs cared not who was placed there. This observation seems necessary in order to account for the ease with which those rapid changes of chiefs take place in that country. After remaining some time longer in Bengal, and having settled as he thought its government, he returned to Europe. Not long after discontents and distrusts arose between this nabob Meer Jaffier and the council at Calcutta, which produced his removal and placing his relative Cossem Ally Khan in his room. This change was at tended with large emoluments to the members of the said council. The same discontents and jealousies arising from pretensions mutually disallowed inflamed this nabob, who was more ferocious than his predecessor to the degree of assassinating some of the company's servants at Patna. To avenge which the company's troops advanced, and defeating the nabob's anny drove him out of the country. He took refuge with the nabob vizier of Oude, who pretending to restore him, but really meaning to possess himself of Bengal, collected, under the authority of the degraded mogul, a large force which was defeated and dispersed by the company's troops at Buxar. After this defeat the mogul separated his interests from those of the nabob, and put himse under the protection of the company at Benares. Meer Jaffier was again placed on the musnud, not without marks of gratitude to his restorers. Things continued sometime in this situation, and an account of the confusion which prevailed in Bengal, being sent to England, the company induced lord Clive to return there as best qualified, from the well earned authority acquired by his former conduct, to restore order. Before he arrived, the nabob vizier being joined by a Mahratta force in addition to what he could raise in Oude, thought himself able to attain what he had in view, and in opposition to the mandate of the mogul, who continued under British protection, prepared to attack them. On this the mogul declared him deposed from the vizcerat, and by a treaty with the company assigned him certain parts of the province of Oude. The British army advanced, and attacking the nabob's confederate forces at Calpy, defeated and dispersed them, taking the nabob Soujah Dowlah prisoner, and the whole province was in their power. In this posture of affairs lord Clive arrived, and from the view he took of the financial and military resources of the company at that time, judging it unsafe and impolitic to retain any accession of territory, he prevailed on the mogul to re-establish the nabob, who had been two months prisoner in the British camp, in the province of Oude and the vizcerat, under the protection of the company, who consented to withdraw their troops on the payment of 50 lacks of rupees as reimbursement of the expences of the war, and bouud themselves to defend the province in case of attack with their whole force should it be necessary, the expence of the same to be defrayed by the nabob. From these facts it appears, that the province by right of conquest belonged to the company that from prudential motives alone lord Clive, with that decision and sagacity which marked his military and political life, declined retaining any part of the province under the junnud of the mogul, and in lieu thereof accepted the dewanny of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa. As he had laid the foundation of the British power in that country by the victory at Plassey, by this measure he gave it such stamina, that the abuses and misrule which prevailed there for some years, after he quitted the country, were not able to destroy it. And here, sir, I is beg leave to lay before you in his own words government thereof, after having acquired the reasons he gave to the court of direc- the right and the power by having contors for having adopted this important mea-quered the country from France, avoided sure." The perpetual struggles for superiority between the nabobs and your agents, together with the recent proofs before us of notorious and avowed corruption, have rendered us unanimously of opinion, after the most mature deliberation, that no other method can be found, of laying the axe to the root of all those evils, than the obtaining the dewanny of Bengal, Bahar and Orissa for the company. By this acquisition of the dewanny your possessions and influence are rendered permanent and secure, since no future nabob will either have power or riches sufficient to attempt your overthrow by means either of force or corruption. All revolutions must henceforwards be at an end, as there will be no fund for secret services, donations, or restitutions: the nabob cannot answer the expectations of the venal and mercenary, nor will the company comply with demands injurious to themselves out of their own revenues. The experience of years has convinced us, that a division of power impossible, without generating discontent and hazarding the whole; all must belong either to the company or the nabob. The power is now lodged where it can only be lodged with safety to us, so that we may pronounce with some degree of confidence, that the worst which will happen in future will proceed from temporary ravages only. The more we reflect on the situation of your affairs, the stronger appear the reasons for accepting the dewanny of those provinces, by which alone we could establish a power sufficient to perpetuate the possessions we hold, and the influence we enjoy. While the nabob acted in quality of collector for the mogul, the means of supporting our military establishments depended on his pleasure. In the most critical situations, while we stood balancing on the extreme verge of destruction, his stipulated payments were slow and deficient, his revenues withheld by disaffected rajahs and turbulent zemindars, who despised the weakness of his government; or they were squandered in profusion and dissipated in corruption, the never failing symptoms of a declining constitution and feeble administration. Hence we were frequently disappointed of those supplies, upon the punctual receipt of which depended the very existence of the company in Bengal. Happy would it have been for Great Britain and the Carnatic had the VOL. X. the fatal delusion of letting the dewanny slip out of their hands. The above description of the evils apprehended in Bengal, faintly represents what were realised in the Carnatic. Enough of this, until that question comes before the house. Sir, it appears that things remained for some years in this state, with an English brigade stationed in the province of Oude, until an invasion of it by a formidable combined Mahratta force under Scindia and Holkar in 1773, the whole British army advanced and completely defeated them. In the year 1774 the Rohilla chiefs declining to fulfil their engagements of paying 40 lacks of rupees towards the expence of repelling the invasion of their country, and also manifesting a hostile disposition towards the vizier, the British army subdued them, and conquering the whole of Rohillund, placed it all under the government of Oude, with the exception of a few districts granted in jaghire to Fyzoola Khan, a chief who had submitted to their arms. On the death of Soujah Dowlah in 1775, and the investiture of his son Azoph ul Dowlah in the province of Oude and its dependencies, obtained from the mogul through the direct influence of the British government, a new treaty for an increased English force and subsidy was made in a few years. This force, in consequence of the misrule of Azoph ul Dowlah, was found insufficient for the preservation of the internal tranquillity and external defence of the country, and it became necessary to strengthen it with a temporary brigade and adequate increase of subsidy, and in 1781 with a permanent augmentation, as it had now become a most important barrier to the British possessions. The continuation of the same misrule producing a progressive anarchy and decline in the resources of the districts under the nabob vizier, and his thoughtless extravagance disabling him from fulfilling his engagements with the company, he had recourse, in order to answer its demands, to those ruinous measures of borrowing money from natives and Europeans at 3, 4, and 5 per cent. per mensem, as detailed in No. 7, a paper reprinted for the use of the house. In this approaching ruin of the resources and inhabitants of a country which had belonged to the company by right of conquest, and which it was bound to protect after it had re-established the nabob vizier, 3 T with which it became so involved by succeeding treaties that it was impossible to withdraw, without causing the immediate destruction of that country and thereby endangering its own; you find that in all the communications from the court of directors to the supreme government in Bengal, the most urgent object to be, the re-abuses, to remedy which, regulations were form and amelioration of the province of Oude, by the interference and exertion of that government. Accordingly you see that from the moment lord Cornwallis was sent there in 1786, how assiduously he applied his mind to that most important sub-through; it was, to give the servants of the ject. As the powers with which his lordship went there, form a new æra in the system of Indian government, it seems proper to take notice of it. The inadequacy of the constitution of the company, which had been formed on mercantile principles, to govern an imperial concern, had the fate of a dwarf's garment forced upon a giant, and was broke through in every part. Prior to 1774 many of the servants of the company abroad setting at nought the orders of the court of directory, and trusting for impunity to private interest, or a combination of interests amongst the proprietors, yielded to the temptation of rapidly acquiring large fortunes, by availing themselves of the power which situation gave them to pillage and oppress the miserable ryots and inhabitants; and universal anarchy prevailed over the country. In order to cure all those evils, in 1774 the legislature thought fit to appoint a governor general, and four counsellors, with new powers to control and superintend all the British settlements; but from the reluctance of the British parliament to vest summary powers in an individual, and therefore the governor general being controlable by a majority of said council, difference of opinion, although the contending parties acted from their views of the public interest, produced irritation and discord as to the measures of government, and insubordination and anarchy in the country. To cure this evil the legislature at length saw the necessity, and vested in the governor general a summary power to act on his opinion and responsibility. With this power that excellent man whose head seldom erred, his heart never, went to Bengal. His habits of life, all the adventitious circumstances attending him, and the personal consideration derived from them, qualified him peculiarly for what was to be done at that time in Bengal. The reports from your committees in 1781,-2, and 3, which were formed principally by the indefatigable industry and perseverance of Mr. Burke, who applied all the powers of his mighty mind to unravel and enlighten all the intricacies and obscurities in which the transactions in that country had been studiously involved, pointed out a variety of enacted by parliament. These, that noble he deposed this young man, and established the next brother, and son of Soujah Dowlah. In these instances the governor general exercised a sovereignty not surpassed by any act of Aurungzebe over his treme measures on the part of the company for their own safety, which was involved in the safety of Oude. (Lord Cornwallis's words are as follow, in his letter to the nabob dated 29th Jan. 1793. "I have offered my advice as a friend, and flatter my-vassal states. A new treaty was made, self that you set that value on the company's with this nabob vizier Saadut Ally, for an friendship that will induce you to listen to increased British force, with an increased their counsels in a manner that may render subsidy, and some important districts were unnecessary any other measures on the ceded to the company, with reimbursepart of the company for their own security ment of the expence of putting their army and defence.") Notwithstanding all these in motion. Soon after this, sir J. Shore exhortations, the same wretched system returned to Europe. His successor, on his continued, and this country, which was arrival in Bengal, found that country agia frontier in that quarter from whence tated with an expected invasion by Zeman most danger was to be apprehended, and Schah, and soon after by the insurrection which could be defended only by its re- of the deposed young nabob vizier at Besources, was reduced to the most extreme nares, where having collected a number misery and distress. Lord Cornwallis's of followers, he murdered the resident, successor,sir John Shore, made remonstran- with some other Englishmen, and fled into ces; the nabob continued his misrule. In the province of Oude, where he collected 1794 a case happened however which between 5 and 6000 men, and was joined proved the opinion sir J. Shore entertained by some of the present nabob's troops who of the relation between the nabob and the had been sent to stop his progress. These company. On the death of Fyzoola Khan, having been defeated by part of the Britthe chief above mentioned, who enjoyed a ish army, and the insurrection quelled, and jaghire dependant on Oude, the second son Zeman Schah being fortunately obliged to murdering his elder brother, was invested fall back by disturbances in his own counby the nabob with the succession, on his try, gave time to examine the state of Oude, engaging to him an increased tribute. Sir and take the measures necessary for the J. Shore, on learning the circumstances, defence of that province, which was the ordered a considerable British force to first object of Zeman Schah's invasion. It march against the murderer, and notwith- appeared that there was a rabble of an army standing the remonstrance of the nåbob, amounting to near 40,000, but of a nature drove him out and vested his succession in that the nabob declared he considered them the infant son of the murdered elder bro- as his enemies, and could not think himself ther. In the latter end of the year 1797, safe in Lucknow without a considerable this nabob, Azoph ul Dowlah, died, and a British force near his person. The British reputed son, vizier Ally, was placed on the generals all declared that the existence of musnud, with the usual forms of investiture that army would be a powerful diversion obtained from the mogul through the influ- in favour of Zeman Schah, in case he reence of the governor general. This youth, sumed his intention, and the nabob, imunder 20 years old, soon exhibited great pressed at that time with the danger, profligacy and ferocity, with a determined earnestly applied to the governor general hostility to the British interests. These for his assistance to reduce it, who in conaccounts being brought to Fort William, sequence sent a most able British officer to accompanied by representations from effect that great object. In this situation many of the principal persons in Oude, (to of things the war with Tippoo broke out, whom it was known that this youth was and the governor general went to the Carthe son of a woman introduced into the natic, where having by great energy colzenena big with child, and of a father of lected and put in motion in a few months the meanest order) the injustice of per- the most powerful army ever assembled in mitting such a person to hold the musnud India, Seringapatam was taken, Tippoo in preference to the next brother of the killed, and his whole dominions possessed late nabob, and the son of Soujah ul Dow- by the English. Having by a skilful and lah. On these considerations, sir J. Shore fortunate enterprise at Hyderabad destroyproceeded to Lucknow, where he had or-ed the French influence there, and having dered a large body of British troops to meet him, and having satisfied himself of the justice and necessity of the measure, by his regulations in Mysore brought all the resources of that country, from whence the company apprehended the greatest |