CHAP. XX. pany. Their further violences. Artifices of the French. Alarms and remonftrances of the planters.-Efforts of the lieutenant-governor. -- Orders of government. -Increafing infolence of the Carribs. Reprefentations of the planters to the king.-Deputation of the Carribs to Grenada. Interview between the British commiffioners and the Carribs.-Treachery of the French. - Remonftrances from the island.-Hoftile operations against the Carribs.- Difcuffion in the houfe of commons. Witneffes examined. Mr. Townshend's motions.-Termination of the conteft.Increase of pay of captains in the navy Bill for relief of diffenters rejected. THE HE affairs of India now again claimed the attention of the public, and the interfeAffairs of rence of the legislature: the brilliant profpect India. exhi. XX. exhibited in 1765 was overcaft: the accounts CHAP. from India prefented nothing but rapine, tyranny, and mifery; while the finances of the company feemed irreparably deranged, and their trade almoft ftagnant. 1770. mifma nagement. THE remotenefs of the court of directors Causes of from the country fubjected to their government facilitated abufes, and rendered their commands contemptible and unavailing. Men who became rich by difobeying the orders of their employers, and by an unprincipled difregard of the ordinary dictates of juftice, returned elated with their acquifitions, and not only defied punishment, but their clamours. against others, who had fhared in or impeded their fuccefs, rapidly augmented the widefpreading and well-founded odrum which prevailed against the administration in India. vifors. FORTUNE alfo combined against the com- Lofs of the pany the hip in which the fupervifors failed, fuper-. from whofe exertions the moft beneficial effects were expected, was loft, and no certain accounts ever received of the time or manner of the catastrophe: thus, for a while, abuses were fuffered to remain uncontrouled, because the operation of the measure intended for fuppreffing them was fufpended, and a new appointment could not, with propriety, be made. India. In the year which fucceeded the improvi- Famine in dent and ruinous war with Hyder Ally, a great failure was occafioned in the crops of rice, by the uncommon drynefs of the feafon. Notwithstanding the ftrict prohibitions of the court of directors against the interference of their fervants in the inland trade, this opportunity was eagerly feized, by interefted and unprin cipled individuals, to enhance the public mifery, and accumulate immenfe fortunes from the B 2 XX. April and CHAP. the groans of famine and defpair. When the ftate of the feafon made it apparent that the 1770. crop of rice would be generally defective, the Monopoly. English capitalifts became eager purchafers, and fuch was the effect of their pernicious induftry, that the natives, before they apprehended the extent of their combinations, were already expofed to the preffure of diftrefs, and complained to the nabob that the English had ingroffed all the rice. A traffic of unexampled iniquity now began; rice, which had been purchased at a hundred and twenty or a hundred and forty feers for a rupee, was re-delivered to black merchants at the rate of fifteen feers for a rupee; this enormous effort of avarice was fufficient to reduce the inhabitants of India, whofe chief food is rice, to utter defpair; when their distress was increased by the burning of feveral granaries in which the black merchants had depofited their purchases. The nabob and great men of diftrefs of the country having exhaufted their ftores in benevolent donations to the poor, and the fields no longer affording the means of fubfiftence, the cities were thronged with starving multitudes, who in the agonics of death implored a termination of thofe miferies from which they were not permitted to hope relief. Prodigious Thoufands died daily in the ftreets; the air mortality. was infected with the unwholefome exhalation; one hundred men were conftantly employed on the company's account in Calcutta, with fledges and other vehicles, to remove the dead, and throw them into the Ganges. Unufual quantities of dogs, jackalls, and vultures Extreme the natives. 2 A feer is the fortieth part of a maund; a maund an undetermined quantity, in Bengal it is from 73 to So pounds: a feer may therefore be estimated about two pounds. flocked XX. 1770. flocked to the fcene of defolation, and by de- CHAP. vouring the dead, added inconceivably to the general horrors of the fpectacle. The Europeans, who no longer poffeffed any great quantity of rice, could not effectually relieve the miferable Gentoos, and were themselves fevere fufferers by this unexpected effect of their iniquitous monopoly: the river being filled with human carcaffes, fifh was no longer confidered wholefome food; hogs, geefe, and ducks, feeding alfo on the dead, mutton became the only innoxious aliment, and even this, from the na ture of the feason, was poor and fcarce. Thus were the miferable natives haraffed and deftroyed, till means could be adopted for facilitating their fubfiftence till the next harvest, and thus, by the act of interested individuals, tranfgreffing no lefs the orders of their ein ployers than the laws of humanity, was an unmerited reproach entailed on the British name. The company, far from being benefited, was ir reparably injured by thefe iniquitics, which tended only to the aggrandizement of fpeculifts, who acquired unlimited wealth, while the coffers of the directors remained empty, and their best hopes fruftrated." of the fums No fpirited or general measure was attempted Retention for the purpose of reftoring order to govern- ftipulated ment, and plenty to finance; but petty refump- by treaties. tions, and violations of the treaty of 1765, were confidered as the means of repairing the deficiency which threatened ruin to their affairs. With this view, orders were iffued by the fele& 28th May committee, for their refident to withhold at leaft thirty lacks from the tribute and other allow Account of the late dreadful famine in India.-Tranfactions in 1:dia, Chap. v. 1770. CHAP. ances, fo that the receipts and disbursements might bear fome proportion to each other." XX. 1770. Effect of thefe events in IT was not poffible for the British nation to behold this progrefs of iniquity and calamity without fentiments of anxiety and terror. The England. Eaft India company was no longer a firm of merchants trading on a private capital to a diftant fhore; the poffeffions in India were not fimply beneficial appendages connected with the empire: but fuch was the intermixture of their revenues with the public finance; fuch the intimate intertexture of their commerce with the property and welfare of the ftate; fuch the union of intereft and co-existence of the company with government, that its ruin was regarded as portending downfal to the whole edifice of the British empire. of the Impotency THE Company could not, by themfelves, or the utmoft exercife of any authorities with company which they were invefted, remedy the growing evils. They were, in fact, without importance in affairs over which they nominally prefided. Radical defects in their very inftitution; their diftance from the fcene of action; their being individually called from narrow and confined occupations to the extenfive field of political management; their fugitive authority, the duration of which was merely fufficient for the tranfportation of orders; and their want of acquaintance with the peculiar circumftances of the regions committed to their fuperintendence; rendered them liable to be deceived, diminished their importance, and frequently fanc Bengal felect confultations. It is to be obferved, that on the death of Najim ul Dowlah (8th May 1766) the allowance to the nabob was reduced from 55 lacks to 41 lacks 81,131 rupees a year. The right, interest, and duty of government, as concerned in the affairs of the Eaft Indies, by governer Pownall, p. 4. |