Chapter 10

We much regret that the situation of the Arcot province will not admit of the same settlement which has been made for the other districts; but the enemy being in possession of the capital, together with several other strongholds, and having entirely desolated the country, there is little room to hope for more from it than a bare subsistence to the few garrisons we have left there.

We shall not fail to give our attention towards obtaining every information respecting this province that the present times will permit, and to take the first opportunity to propose such arrangements for the management as we may think eligible.

We have the honor to be

Your most obedient humble servants,

CHARLES OAKLEY, EYLES IRWIN, HALL PLUMER, DAVID HALIBURTON, GEORGE MOUBRAY.

FORT ST. GEORGE, 27th May, 1782.

A true copy.

J. HUDLESTON, Sec.

COMPARATIVE STATEMENT _of the Revenues and Expenses of the Nellore, Ongole, Palnaud, Trichinopoly, Madura, and Tinnevelly Countries, while in the Hands of the Nabob, with those of the same Countries on the Terms of the Leases lately granted for Four Years, to commence with the Beginning of the Phazeley, 1192, or the 12th July, 1782. Abstracted from the Accounts received from the Nabob, and from the Rents stipulated for and Expenses allowed by the present Leases_.

GROSS REVENUE. +---------------+------------------+------------------+ | | Annual Gross Rent| Annual Rent by | | | by the Nabob's | the present | | | Account. | Leases, at an | | | Average of the | Average of | | | Four Years imme- | Four Years. | | | diately preceding| | | | the present War. | | +---------------+------------------+------------------+ | | Star Pagodas. | Star Pagodas. | | Nellore and | | | | Sarapilly | 3,22,830 | 3,61,900 | | Ongole | 1,10,967[68]| 55,000 | | Palnaud | 51,355 | 53,500 | | Trichinopoly | 2,89,993[69]| 2,73,214 | | Madura | 1,02,756 | 60,290 | | Tinnevelly | 5,65,537 | 5,79,713 | +---------------+------------------+------------------+ | Total | 14,43,438 | 13,83,617 | +---------------+------------------+------------------+

EXPENSES. +---------------+------------------+------------------+------------------+ | | Annual Expenses | Annual Expenses | Reduction in the | | | by the Nabob's | allowed by the | Annual Expenses. | | | Accounts. | present Leases | | | | | at an Estimate. | | +---------------+------------------+------------------+------------------+ | | Star Pagodas. | Star Pagodas. | Star Pagodas. | | Nellore and | | | | | Sarapilly | 1,98,794 | 33,000 | 1,65,794 | | Ongole | 88,254 | ... | 88,254 | | Palnaud | 25,721 | 5,698 | 20,023 | | Trichinopoly | 2,82,148 | 13,143 | 2,63,005 | | Madura | 63,710 | 12,037 | 51,673 | | Tinnevelly | 1,64,098 | 70,368 | 93,730 | +---------------+------------------+------------------+------------------+ | Total | 8,22,725 | 1,40,246 | 6,82,479 | +---------------+------------------+------------------+------------------+

NET REVENUE. +---------------+------------------+------------------+------------------+ | | Net Revenue | Net Revenue | Increase of | | | by the Nabob's | by the | Net Revenue. | | | Accounts. | present Leases. | | +---------------+------------------+------------------+------------------+ | | Star Pagodas. | Star Pagodas. | Star Pagodas. | | Nellore and | | | | | Sarapilly | 1,24,036 | 3,28,900 | 2,04,864 | | Ongole | 22,713 | 55,000 | 32,287 | | Palnaud | 25,634 | 47,802 | 22,168 | | Trichinopoly | 7,845 | 2,54,071 | 2,46,226 | | Madura | 39,046 | 48,253 | 9,207 | | Tinnevelly | 4,01,439 | 5,09,345 | 1,07,906 | +---------------+------------------+------------------+------------------+ | Total | 6,20,713 | 12,43,371 | 6,22,658 | +---------------+------------------+------------------+------------------+

N.B. In this statement, Madras Pagodas are calculated at 10 per cent Batta; Chuckrums at two thirds of a Porto Novo Pagoda, which are reckoned at 115 per 100 Star Pagodas; and Rupees at 350 per 100 Star Pagodas. To avoid fractions, the nearest integral numbers have been taken.

Signed,

CHARLES OAKLEY, EYLES IRWIN, HALL PLUMER, DAVID HALIBURTON, GEORGE MOUBRAY.

FORT ST. GEORGE, 27th May, 1782.

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No. 5.

Referred to from p. 73.

_Case of certain Persons renting the Assigned Lands wider the Authority of the East India Company._

Extract of a Letter from the President and Council of Fort St. George, 25th May, 1783.

One of them [the renters], Ram Chunder Raus, was, indeed, one of those unfortunate rajahs whose country, _by being near to the territories of the Nabob_, forfeited its title to independence, and became the prey of ambition and cupidity. This man, though not able to resist the Company's arms, _employed in such a deed at the Nabob's instigation_, had industry and ability. He acquired, _by a series of services_, even the confidence of the Nabob, who suffered him to _rent apart of the country of which he had deprived him of the property_. This man had afforded no motive for his rejection by the Nabob, but that of being ready to engage with the Company: a motive most powerful, indeed, but not to be avowed.

[This is the person whom the English instruments of the Nabob of Arcot have had the audacity to charge with a corrupt transaction with Lord Macartney, and, in support of that charge, to produce a forged letter from his Lordship's steward. The charge and letter the reader may see in this Appendix, under the proper head. It is asserted by the unfortunate prince above mentioned, that the Company first settled on the coast of Coromandel under the protection of one of his ancestors. If this be true, (and it is far from unlikely,) the world must judge of the return the descendant has met with. The case of another of the victims given up by the ministry, though not altogether so striking as the former, is worthy of attention. It is that of the renter of the Province of Nellore.]

It is, with a wantonness of falsehood, and indifference to detection, asserted to you, in proof of the validity of the Nabob's objections, that this man's failures had already forced us to remove him: though in fact he has continued invariably in office; though our _greatest supplies have been received from him_; and that, in the disappointment of your remittances [the remittances from Bengal] and of other resources, the specie sent us _from Nellore alone_ has sometimes enabled us to carry on the public business; and that the _present expedition against the French_ must, without _this_ assistance from the assignment, have been laid aside, or delayed until it might have become too late.

[This man is by the ministry given over to the mercy of persons capable of making charges on him "_with a wantonness of falsehood, and indifference to detection_." What is likely to happen to him and the rest of the victims may appear by the following.]

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_Letter to the Governor-General and Council, March 13th, 1782._

The speedy termination, to which the people were taught to look, of the Company's interference in the revenues, and the vengeance denounced against those who, contrary to the mandate of the Durbar, should be connected with them, as reported by Mr. Sullivan, may, as much as the former exactions and oppressions of the Nabob in the revenue, as reported by the commander-in-chief, have deterred some of the fittest men from offering to be concerned in it.

The timid disposition of the Hindoo natives of this country was not likely to be insensible to the specimen of that vengeance given by his Excellency the Amir, who, upon the mere rumor, that a Bramin, of the name of Appagee Row, had given proposals to the Company for the rentership of Vellore, had the temerity to send for him, and to put him in confinement.

A man thus seized by the Nabob's sepoys within the walls of Madras gave a general alarm, and government found it necessary to promise the protection of the Company, in order to calm the apprehensions of the people.

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No. 6.

Referred to from pp. 101 and 105.

_Extract of a Letter from the Council and Select Committee at Fort St. George, to the Governor-General and Council, dated 25th May, 1783._

In the prosecution of our duty, we beseech you to consider, as an act of strict and necessary justice, previous to reiteration of your orders for the surrender of the assignment, how far it would be likely to affect third persons who do not appear to have committed any breach of their engagements. You command us to compel our aumils to deliver over their respective charges as shall be appointed by the Nabob, or to retain their trust under his sole authority, if he shall choose to confirm them. These aumils are really renters; they were appointed in the room of the Nabob's aumils, and contrary to his wishes; they have already been rejected by him, and are therefore not likely to be confirmed by him. They applied to this government, in consequence of public advertisements in our name, as possessing in this instance the joint authority of the Nabob and the Company, and have entered into mutual and strict covenants with us, and we with them, relative to the certain districts not actually in the possession of the enemy; by which covenants, as they are bound to the punctual payment of their rents and due management of the country, so we, and our constituents, and the public faith, are in like manner bound to maintain them in the enjoyment of their leases, during the continuance of the term. That term was for five years, agreeably to the words of the assignment, which declare that the time of renting shall be for three or five years, as the Governor shall settle with the renters.--Their leases cannot be legally torn from them. Nothing but their previous breach of a part could justify our breach of the whole. Such a stretch and abuse of power would, indeed, not only savor of the assumption of sovereignty, but of arbitrary and oppressive despotism. In the present contest, whether the Nabob be guilty, or we be guilty, the renters are not guilty. Whichever of the contending parties has broken the condition of the assignment, the renters have not broken the condition of their leases. These men, in conducting the business of the assignment, have acted in opposition to the designs of the Nabob, in despite of the menaces denounced against all who should dare to oppose the mandates of the Durbar justice. Gratitude and humanity require that provision should be made by you, before you set the Nabob's ministers loose on the country, for the protection of the victims devoted to their vengeance.

Mr. Benfield, to secure the permanency of his power, and the perfection of his schemes, thought it necessary to render the Nabob an absolute stranger to the state of his affairs. He assured his Highness that full justice was not done to the strength of his sentiments and the keenness of his attacks, in the translations that were made by the Company's servants from the original Persian of his letters. He therefore proposed to him that they should for the future be transmitted in English.--Of the English language or writing his Highness or the Amir cannot read one word, though the latter can converse in it with sufficient fluency. The Persian language, as the language of the Mahomedan conquerors, and of the court of Delhi, as an appendage or signal of authority, was at all times particularly affected by the Nabob. It is the language of all acts of state, and all public transactions, among the Mussulman chiefs of Hindostan. The Nabob thought to have gained no inconsiderable point, in procuring the correspondence from our predecessors to the Rajah of Tanjore to be changed from the Mahratta language, which that Hindoo prince understands, to the Persian, which he disclaims understanding. To force the Rajah to the Nabob's language was gratifying the latter with a new species of subserviency. He had formerly contended with considerable anxiety, and, it was thought, no inconsiderable cost, for particular forms of address to be used towards him in that language. But all of a sudden, in favor of Mr. Benfield, he quits his former affections, his habits, his knowledge, his curiosity, the increasing mistrust of age, to throw himself upon the generous candor, the faithful interpretation, the grateful return, and eloquent organ of Mr. Benfield!--_Mr. Benfield relates and reads what he pleases to his Excellency the Amir-ul-Omrah; his Excellency communicates with the Nabob, his father, in the language the latter understands. Through two channels so pure, the truth must arrive at the Nabob in perfect refinement; through this double trust, his Highness receives whatever impression it may be convenient to make on him: he abandons his signature to whatever paper they tell him contains, in the English language, the sentiments with which they had inspired him. He thus is surrounded on every side. He is totally at their mercy, to believe what is not true, and to subscribe to what he does not mean. There is no system so new, so foreign to his intentions, that they may not pursue in his name, without possibility of detection: for they are cautious of who approach him, and have thought prudent to decline, for him, the visits of the Governor_, even upon the usual solemn and acceptable occasion of delivering to his Highness the Company's letters. _Such is the complete ascendency gained by Mr. Benfield._ It may be partly explained by the facts observed already, some years ago, by Mr. Benfield himself, in regard to the Nabob, of the infirmities natural to his advanced age, joined to the decays of his constitution. To this ascendency, in proportion as it grew, must chiefly be ascribed, if not the origin, at least the continuance and increase, of the Nabob's disunion with this Presidency: a disunion which creates the importance and subserves the resentments of Mr. Benfield; _and an ascendency which, if you effect the surrender of the assignment, will entirely leave the exercise of power and accumulation of fortune at his boundless discretion: to him, and to the Amir-ul-Omrah, and to Seyd Assam Cawn, the assignment would in fact be surrendered. HE WILL (IF ANY) BE THE SOUCAR SECURITY; and security in this country is counter-secured by possession. You would not choose to take the assignment from the Company, to give it to individuals_. Of the impropriety of its returning to the Nabob, Mr. Benfield would now again argue from his former observations, that, under his Highness's management, his country declined, his people emigrated, his revenues decreased, and his country was rapidly approaching to a state of political insolvency. Of Seyd Assam Cawn we judge only from the observations this letter already contains. But of the other two persons [Amir-ul-Omrah and Mr. Benfield] we undertake to declare, not as parties in a cause, or even as voluntary witnesses, but as executive officers, reporting to you, in the discharge of our duty, and under the impression of the sacred obligation which binds us to truth, as well as to justice, that, from every observation of their principles and dispositions, and every information of their character and conduct, they have prosecuted projects to the injury and danger of the Company and individuals; _that it would be improper to trust, and dangerous to employ them, in any public or important situation; that the tranquillity of the Carnatic requires a restraint to the power of the Amir; and that the Company, whose service and protection Mr. Benfield has repeatedly and recently forfeited, would be more secure against danger and confusion, if he were removed from their several Presidencies._

[After the above solemn declaration from so weighty an authority, the principal object of that awful and deliberate warning, instead of being "removed from the several Presidencies," is licensed to return to one of the principal of those Presidencies, and the grand theatre of the operations on account of which the Presidency recommends his total removal. The reason given is, for the accommodation of that very debt which has been the chief instrument of his dangerous practices, and the main cause of all the confusions in the Company's government.]

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No. 7.

Referred to from pp. 82, 88, and 89.

_Extracts from the Evidence of Mr. Petrie, late Resident for the Company at Tanjore, given to the Select Committee, relative to the Revenues and State of the Country, &c., &c._

9th May, 1782.

William Petrie, Esq., attending according to order, was asked, In what station he was in the Company's service? he said, He went to India in the year 1765, a writer upon the Madras establishment: he was employed, during the former war with Hyder Ali, in the capacity of paymaster and commissary to part of the army, and was afterwards paymaster and commissary to the army in the first siege of Tanjore, and the subsequent campaigns; then secretary to the Secret Department from 1772 to 1775; he came to England in 1775, and returned again to Madras the beginning of 1778; he was resident at the durbar of the Rajah of Tanjore from that time to the month of May; and from that time to January, 1780, was chief of Nagore and Carrical, the first of which was received from the Rajah of Tanjore, and the second was taken from the French.--Being asked, Who sent him to Tanjore? he said, Sir Thomas Rumbold, and the Secret Committee.--Being then asked, Upon what errand? he said, He went first up with a letter from the Company to the Rajah of Tanjore: he was directed to give the Rajah the strongest assurances that he should be kept in possession of his country, and every privilege to which he had been restored; he was likewise directed to negotiate with the Rajah of Tanjore for the cession of the seaport and district of Nagore in lieu of the town and district of Devicotta, which he had promised to Lord Pigot: these were the principal, and, to the best of his recollection at present, the only objects in view, when he was first sent up to Tanjore. In the course of his stay at Tanjore, other matters of business occurred between the Company and the Rajah, which came under his management as resident at that durbar.--Being asked, Whether the Rajah did deliver up to him the town and the annexed districts of Nagore voluntarily, or whether he was forced to it? he said, When he made the first proposition to the Rajah, agreeable to the directions he had received from the Secret Committee at Madras, in the most free, open, and liberal manner, the Rajah told him the seaport of Nagore was entirely at the service of his benefactors, the Company, and that he was happy in having that opportunity of testifying his gratitude to them. These may be supposed to be words of course; but, from every experience which he had of the Rajah's mind and conduct, whilst he was at Tanjore, he has reason to believe that his declarations of gratitude to the Company were perfectly sincere. He speaks to the town of Nagore at present, and a certain district,--not of the districts to the amount of which they afterwards received. The Rajah asked him, To what amount he expected a jaghire to the Company? And the witness further said, That he acknowledged to the committee that he was not instructed upon that head; that he wrote for orders to Madras, and was directed to ask the Rajah for a jaghire to a certain amount; that this gave rise to a long negotiation, the Rajah representing to him his inability to make such a gift to the Company as the Secret Committee at Madras seemed to expect; while he (the witness) on the other hand, was directed to make as good a bargain as he could for the Company. From the view that he then took of the Rajah's finances, from the situation of his country, and from the load of debt which pressed hard upon him, he believes he at different times, in his correspondence with the government, represented the necessity of their being moderate in their demands, and it was at last agreed to accept of the town of Nagore, valued at a certain annual revenue, and a jaghire annexed to the town, the whole amounting to 250,000 rupees.--Being asked, Whether it did turn out so valuable? he said, He had not a doubt but it would turn out more, as it was let for more than that to farmers at Madras, if they had managed the districts properly; _but they were strangers to the manners and customs of the people; when they came down, they oppressed the inhabitants, and threw the whole district into confusion; the inhabitants, many of them, left the country, and deserted the cultivation of their lands; of course the farmers were disappointed of their collections, and they have since failed, and the Company have lost a considerable part of what the farmers were to pay for the jaghire_.--Being asked, Who these farmers were? he said, One of them was the renter of the St. Thomé district, near Madras, and the other, and the most responsible, was a Madras dubash.--Being asked, Whom he was dubash to? he said, To Mr. Cass-major.

Being asked, Whether the lease was made upon higher terms than the district was rated to him by the Rajah? he said, It was.--Being then asked, What reason was assigned why the district was not kept under the former management by aumildars, or let to persons in the Tanjore country acquainted with the district? he said, No reasons were assigned: he was directed from Madras to advertise them to be let to persons of the country; but before he received any proposal, he received accounts that they were let at Madras, in consequence of public advertisements which had been made there: he believes, indeed, there were very few men in those districts responsible enough to have been intrusted with the management of those lands.--Being asked, Whether, at the time he was authorized to negotiate for Nagore in the place of Devicotta, Devicotta was given up to the Rajah? he said, No.--Being asked, Whether the Rajah of Tanjore did not frequently desire that the districts of Arnee and Hanamantagoody should be restored to him, agreeable to treaty, and the Company's orders to Lord Pigot? he said, Many a time; and he transmitted his representations regularly to Madras.--Being then asked, Whether those places were restored to him? he said, Not while he was in India.