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PART V.
THIRD REVOLUTION IN BENARES

That the said Warren Hastings, having, in the manner before recited, divested Durbege Sing of the administration of the province of Benares, did, of his own arbitrary will and pleasure, and against the remonstrances of the Rajah and his mother, (in whose name and in whose right the said Durbege Sing, father of the one, and husband of the other, had administered the affairs of the government,) appoint a person called Jagher Deo Seo to administer the same.

That the new administrator, warned by the severe example made of his predecessor, is represented by the said Warren Hastings as having made it his "avowed principle" (as it might be expected it should be) "that the sum fixed for the revenue must be collected." And he did, upon the principle aforesaid, and by the means suggested by a principle of that sort, accordingly levy from the country, and did regularly discharge to the British Resident at Benares, by monthly payments, the sums imposed by the said Warren Hastings, as it is asserted by the Resident, Fowke; but the said Warren Hastings did assert that his annual collections did not amount to more than Lac 37,37,600, or thereabouts, which he says is much short of the revenues of the province, and is by about twenty-four thousand pounds short of his agreement.

That it further appears, that, notwithstanding the new administrator aforesaid was appointed two months, or thereabouts, after the beginning of the Fusseli year, that is to say, about the middle of November, 1782, and the former administrator had collected a certain portion of the revenues of that year, amounting to 17,000l. and upwards, yet he, the said new administrator, upon the unjust and destructive principle aforesaid, suggested by the cruel and violent proceedings of the said Warren Hastings towards his predecessor, did levy on the province, within the said year, the whole amount of the revenues to be collected, in addition to the sum collected by his predecessor aforesaid.

That, on account of a great drought which prevailed in the province aforesaid, a remission of certain duties in grain was proposed by the chief criminal judge at Benares; but the administrator aforesaid, being fearful that the revenue should fall short in his hands, did strenuously oppose himself to the necessary relief to the inhabitants of the said city.

That, notwithstanding the cantonment of several bodies of the Company's troops within the province, since the abolition of the native government, it became subject in a particular manner to the depredations of the Rajahs upon the borders; insomuch that in one quarter no fewer than thirty villages had been sacked and burned, and the inhabitants reduced to the most extreme distress.

That the Resident, in his letter to the board at Calcutta, did represent that the collection of the revenue was become very difficult, and, besides the extreme drought, did assign for a cause of that difficulty the following. "That there is also one fund which in former years was often applied in this country to remedy temporary inconveniences in the revenue, and which in the present year does not exist. This was the private fortunes of merchants and shroffs [bankers] resident in Benares, from whom aumils [collectors] of credit could obtain temporary loans to satisfy the immediate calls of the Rajah. These sums, which used to circulate between the aumil and the merchant, have been turned into a different channel, by bills of exchange to defray the expenses of government, both on the west coast of India, and also at Madras." To which representation it does not appear that any answer was given, or that any mode of redress was adopted in consequence thereof.

That the said Warren Hastings, having passed through the province of Benares (Gazipore) in his progress towards Oude, did, in a letter dated from the city of Lucknow, the 2d of April, 1784, give to the Council Board at Calcutta an account, highly dishonorable to the British government, of the effect of the arrangements made by himself in the years 1781 and 1782, in the words following. "Having contrived, by making forced stages, while the troops of my escort marched at the ordinary rate, to make a stay of five days at Benares, I was thereby furnished with the means of acquiring some knowledge of the state of the province, which I am anxious to communicate to you. Indeed, the inquiry, which was in a great degree obtruded upon me, affected me with very mortifying reflections on my inability to apply it to any useful purpose. From the confines of Buxar to Benares I was followed and fatigued by the clamors of the discontented inhabitants. It was what I expected in a degree, because it is rare that the exercise of authority should prove satisfactory to all who are the objects of it. The distresses which were produced by the long-continued drought unavoidably tended to heighten the general discontent; yet I have reason to fear that the cause existed principally in a defective, if not a corrupt and oppressive administration. Of a multitude of petitions which were presented to me, and of which I took minutes, every one that did not relate to a personal grievance contained the representation of one and the same species of oppression, which is in its nature of an influence most fatal to the future cultivation. The practice to which I allude is this. It is affirmed that the aumils and renters exact from the proprietors of the actual harvest a large increase in kind on their stipulated rent: that is, from those who hold their pottah by the tenure of paying one half of the produce of their crops, either the whole without subterfuge, or a large proportion of it by a false measurement or other pretexts; and from those whose engagements are for a fixed rent in money, the half, or a greater proportion, is taken in kind. This is in effect a tax upon the industry of the inhabitants: since there is scarce a field of grain in the province, I might say not one, which has not been preserved by the incessant labor of the cultivator, by digging wells for their supply, or watering them from the wells of masonry with which their country abounds, or from the neighboring tanks, rivers, and nullahs. The people who imposed on themselves this voluntary and extraordinary labor, and not unattended with expense, did it on the expectation of reaping the profits of it; and it is certain they would not have done it, if they had known that their rulers, from whom they were entitled to an indemnification, would take from them what they had so hardly earned. If the same administration continues, and the country shall again labor under a want of rain, every field will be abandoned, the revenue fail, and thousands perish through want of subsistence: for who will labor for the sole benefit of others, and to make himself the subject of exaction? These practices are to be imputed to the Naib himself" (the administrator forced by the said Warren Hastings on the present Rajah of Benares). "The avowed principle on which he acts, and which he acknowledged to myself, is, that the whole sum fixed for the revenue of the province must be collected,—and that, for this purpose, the deficiency arising in places where the crops have failed, or which have been left uncultivated, must be supplied from the resources of others, where the soil has been better suited to the season, or the industry of the cultivators hath been more successfully exerted: a principle which, however specious and plausible it may at first appear, certainly tends to the most pernicious and destructive consequences. If this declaration of the Naib had been made only to myself, I might have doubted my construction of it; but it was repeated by him to Mr. Anderson, who understood it exactly in the same sense. In the management of the customs, the conduct of the Naib, or of the officer under him, was forced also upon my attention. The exorbitant rates exacted by an arbitrary valuation of the goods, the practice of exacting duties twice on the same goods, (first from the seller, and afterwards from the buyer,) and the vexations, disputes, and delays drawn on the merchants by these oppressions, were loudly complained of; and some instances of this kind were said to exist at the very time I was at Benares. Under such circumstances, we are not to wonder, if the merchants of foreign countries are discouraged from resorting to Benares, and if the commerce of that province should annually decay. Other evils, or imputed evils, have accidentally come to my knowledge, which I will not now particularize, as I hope, that, with the assistance of the Resident, they may be in part corrected. One evil I must mention, because it has been verified by my own observation, and is of that kind which reflects an unmerited reproach on our general and national character. When I was at Buxar, the Resident, at my desire, enjoined the Naib to appoint creditable people to every town through which our route lay, to persuade and encourage the inhabitants to remain in their houses, promising to give them guards as I approached, and they required it for their protection; and that he might perceive how earnest I was for his observation of this precaution, I repeated it to him in person, and dismissed him that he might precede me for that purpose. But, to my great disappointment, I found every place through which I passed abandoned; nor had there been a man left in any of them for their protection. I am sorry to add, that, from Buxar to the opposite boundary, I have seen nothing but traces of complete devastation in every village: whether caused by the followers of the troops which have lately passed, for their natural relief, (and I know not whether my own may not have had their share,) or from the apprehensions of the inhabitants left to themselves, and of themselves deserting their houses. I wish to acquit my own countrymen of the blame of these unfavorable appearances, and in my own heart I do acquit them; for at one encampment a crowd of people came to me complaining that their new aumil (collector), on the approach of any military detachment, himself first fled from the place; and the inhabitants, having no one to whom they could apply for redress, or for the representation of their grievances, and being thus remediless, fled also; so that their houses and effects became a prey to any person who chose to plunder them. The general conclusion appeared to me an inevitable consequence from such a state of facts; and my own senses bore testimony to it in this specific instance: nor do I know how it is possible for any officer commanding a military party, how attentive soever he may be to the discipline and forbearance of his people, to prevent disorders, when there is neither opposition to hinder nor evidence to detect them. These and many other irregularities I impute solely to the Naib, and recommend his instant removal. I cannot help remarking, that, except the city of Benares, the province is in effect without a government. The administration of the province is misconducted, and the people oppressed, trade discouraged, and the revenue in danger of a rapid decline, from the violent appropriation of its means."

That the said Warren Hastings did recommend to the Council, for a remedy of the disorders and calamities which had arisen from his own acts, dispositions, and appointments, that the administrator aforesaid should be instantly removed from his office,—attributing the aforesaid "irregularities, and many others, solely to him," although, on his own representation, it does appear that he was the sole cause of the irregularities therein described. Neither does it appear that the administrator, so by the said Hastings nominated and removed, was properly charged and called to answer for the said recited irregularities, or for the many others not recited, but attributed solely to him; nor has any plea or excuse from him been transmitted to the board, or to the Court of Directors; but he was, at the instance of the said Hastings, deprived of his said office, contrary to the principles of natural justice, in a violent and arbitrary manner; which proceeding, combined with the example made of his predecessor, must necessarily leave to the person who should succeed to the said office no distinct principle upon which he might act with safety. But in comparing the consequences of the two delinquencies charged, the failure of the payment of the revenues (from whatever cause it may arise) is more likely to be avoided than any severe course towards the inhabitants: as the former fault was, besides the deprivation of office, attended with two imprisonments, with a menace of death, and an actual death, in disgrace, poverty, and insolvency; whereas the latter, namely, the oppression, and thereby the total ruin, of the country, charged on the second administrator, was only followed by loss of office,—although, he, the said Warren Hastings, did farther assert (but with what truth does not appear) that the collection of the last administrator had fallen much short of the revenue of the province.

That the said Warren Hastings himself was sensible that the frequent changes by him made would much disorder the management of the revenues, and seemed desirous of concealing his intentions concerning the last change until the time of its execution. Yet it appears, by a letter from the British Resident, dated the 23d of June, 1784, "that a very strong report prevailed at Benares of his [the said Hastings's] intentions of appointing a new Naib for the approaching year, and that the effect is evident which the prevalence of such an idea amongst the aumils would probably have on the cultivation at this particular time. The heavy mofussil kists [harvest instalments] have now been collected by the aumils; the season of tillage is arrived; the ryots [country farmers] must be indulged, and even assisted by advances; and the aumil must look for his returns in the abundance of the crop, the consequence of this early attention to the cultivation. The effect is evident which the report of a change in the first officer of the revenue must have on the minds of the aumils, by leaving them at an uncertainty of what they have in future to expect; and in proportion to the degree of this uncertainty, their efforts and expenses in promoting the cultivation will be languid and sparing. In compliance with the Naib's request, I have written to all the aumils, encouraging and ordering them to attend to the cultivation of their respective districts; but I conceive I should be able to promote this very desirable intention much more effectually, if you will honor me with the communication of your intentions on this subject. At the same time I cannot help just remarking, that, if a change is intended, the sooner it takes place, the more the bad effects I have described will be obviated."

That the Council, having received the proposition for the removal of the administrator aforesaid, did also, in a letter to him, the said Hastings, condemn the frequent changes by him made in the administration of the collections of Benares,—but did consent to such alterations as might be made without encroaching on the rights established by his, the said Hastings's, agreement in the year 1781, and did desire him to transmit to them his plan for a new administration.

That the said Hastings did transmit a plan, which, notwithstanding the evils which had happened from the former frequent changes, he did propose as a temporary expedient for the administration of the revenues of the said province,—in which no provision was made for the reduction or remission of revenue as exigences might require, or for the extraction of the circulating specie from the said province, or for the supply of the necessary advances for cultivation, nor for the removal or prevention of any of the grievances by him before complained of, other than an inspection by the Resident and the chief criminal magistrate of Benares, and other regulations equally void of effect and authority,—and which plan Mr. Stables, one of the Supreme Council, did altogether reject; but the same was approved of as a temporary expedient, with some exceptions, by two other members of the board, Mr. Wheler and Mr. Macpherson, declaring the said Warren Hastings responsible for the temporary expediency of the same.

That the said Warren Hastings, in the plan aforesaid, having strongly objected to the appointment of any European collectors, that is to say, of any European servants of the Company being concerned in the same, declaring that there had been sufficient experience of the ill effects of their being so employed in the province of Bengal,—by which the said Hastings did either in loose and general terms convey a false imputation upon the conduct of the Company's servants employed in the collection of the revenues of Bengal, or he was guilty of a criminal neglect of duty in not bringing to punishment the particular persons whose evil practices had given rise to such a general imputation on British subjects and servants of the Company as to render them unfit for service in other places.

That the said Warren Hastings, having in the course of three years made three complete revolutions in the state of Benares, by expelling, in the first instance, the lawful and rightful governor of the same, under whose care and superintendence a large and certain revenue, suitable to the abilities of the country, and consistent with its prosperity, was paid with the greatest punctuality, and by afterwards displacing two effective governors or administrators of the province, appointed in succession by himself, and, in consequence of the said appointments and violent and arbitrary removals, the said province "being left in effect without a government," except in one city only, and having, after all, settled no more than a temporary arrangement, is guilty of an high crime and misdemeanor in the destruction of the country aforesaid.

IV.—PRINCESSES OF OUDE

I. That the reigning Nabob of Oude, commonly called Asoph ul Dowlah, (son and successor to Sujah ul Dowlah,) by taking into or continuing in his pay certain bodies of regular British troops, and by having afterwards admitted the British Resident at his court into the management of all his affairs, foreign and domestic, and particularly into the administration of his finances, did gradually become in substance and effect, as well as in general repute and estimation, a dependant on, or vassal of, the East India Company, and was, and is, so much under the control of the Governor-General and Council of Bengal, that, in the opinion of all the native powers, the English name and character is concerned in every act of his government.

II. That Warren Hastings, Esquire, contrary to law and to his duty, and in disobedience to the orders of the East India Company, arrogating to himself the nomination of the Resident at the court of Oude, as his particular agent and representative, and rejecting the Resident appointed by the Company, and obtruding upon them a person of his own choice, did from that time render himself in a particular manner responsible for the good government of the provinces composing the dominions of the Nabob of Oude.

III. That the provinces aforesaid, having been at the time of their first connection with the Company in an improved and flourishing condition, and yielding a revenue of more than three millions of pounds sterling, or thereabouts, did soon after that period begin sensibly to decline, and the subsidy of the British troops stationed in that province, as well as other sums of money due to the Company by treaty, ran considerably in arrear; although the prince of the country, during the time these arrears accrued, was otherwise in distress, and had been obliged to reduce all his establishments.

IV. That the prince aforesaid, or Nabob of Oude, did, in humble and submissive terms, supplicate the said Warren Hastings to be relieved from a body of troops whose licentious behavior he complained of, and who were stationed in his country without any obligation by treaty to maintain them,—pleading the failure of harvest and the prevalence of famine in his country: a compliance with which request by the said Warren Hastings was refused in unbecoming, offensive, and insulting language.

V. That the said Nabob, laboring under the aforesaid and other burdens, and being continually urged for payment, was advised to extort, and did extort, from his mother and grandmother, under the pretext of loans, (and sometimes without that appearance,) various great sums of money, amounting in the whole to six hundred and thirty thousand pounds sterling, or thereabouts: alleging in excuse the rigorous demands of the East India Company, for whose use the said extorted money had been demanded, and to which a considerable part of it had been applied.

VI. That the two female parents of the Nabob aforesaid were among the women of the greatest rank, family, and distinction in Asia, and were left by the deceased Nabob, the son of the one and the husband of the other, in charge of certain considerable part of his treasures, in money and other valuable movables, as well as certain landed estates, called jaghires, in order to the support of their own dignity, and the honorable maintenance of his women, and a numerous offspring, and their dependants: the said family amounting in the whole to two thousand persons, who were by the said Nabob, at his death, recommended in a particular manner to the care and protection of the said Warren Hastings.

VII. That, on the demand of the Nabob of Oude on his parents for the last of the sums which completed the six hundred and thirty thousand pounds aforesaid, they, the said parents, did positively refuse to pay any part of the same to their son for the use of the Company, until he should agree to certain terms to be stipulated in a regular treaty, and among other particulars to secure them in the remainder of their possessions, and also on no account or pretence to make any further demands or claims on them; and well knowing from whence all his claims and exactions had arisen, they demanded that the said treaty, or family compact, should be guarantied by the Governor-General and Council of Bengal: and a treaty was accordingly agreed to, executed by the Nabob, and guarantied by John Bristow, Esquire, the Resident at Oude, under the authority and with the express consent of the said Warren Hastings and the Council-General, and in consequence thereof the sum last required was paid, and discharges given to the Nabob for all the money which he had borrowed from his own mother and the mother of his father.

That, the distresses and disorders in the Nabob's government and his debt to the Company continuing to increase, notwithstanding the violent methods before mentioned taken to augment his resources, the said Warren Hastings, on the 21st of May, and on the 31st July, 1781, (he and Mr. Wheler being the only remaining members of the Council-General, and he having the conclusive and casting voice, and thereby being in effect the whole Council,) did, in the name and under the authority of the board, resolve on a journey to the upper provinces, in order to a personal interview with the Nabob of Oude, towards the settlement of his distressed affairs, and did give to himself a delegation of the powers of the said Council, in direct violation of the Company's orders forbidding such delegation.

VIII. That the said Warren Hastings having by his appointment met the Nabob of Oude near a place called Chunar, and possessing an entire and absolute command over the said prince, he did, contrary to justice and equity and the security of property, as well as to public faith and the sanction of the Company's guaranty, under the color of a treaty, which treaty was conducted secretly, without a written document of any part of the proceeding except the pretended treaty itself, authorize the said Nabob to seize upon, and confiscate to his own profit, the landed estates, called jaghires, of his parents, kindred, and principal nobility: only stipulating a pension to the net amount of the rent of the said lands as an equivalent, and that equivalent to such only whose lands had been guarantied to them by the Company; but provided neither in the said pretended treaty nor in any subsequent act the least security for the payment of the said pension to those for whom such pension was ostensibly reserved, and for the others not so much as a show of indemnity;—to the extreme scandal of the British government, which, valuing itself upon a strict regard to property, did expressly authorize, if it did not command, an attack upon that right, unprecedented in the despotic governments of India.

IX. That the said Warren Hastings, in order to cover the violent and unjust proceedings aforesaid, did assert a claim of right in the same Nabob to all the possessions of his said mother and grandmother, as belonging to him by the Mahomedan law; and this pretended claim was set up by the said Warren Hastings, after the Nabob had, by a regular treaty ratified and guarantied by the said Hastings as Governor-General, renounced and released all demands on them. And this false pretence of a legal demand was taken up and acted upon by the said Warren Hastings, without laying the said question on record before the Council-General, or giving notice to the persons to be affected thereby to support their rights before any of the principal magistrates and expounders of the Mahomedan law, or taking publicly the opinions of any person conversant therein.

X. That, in order to give further color to the acts of ill faith and violence aforesaid, the said Warren Hastings did cause to be taken at Lucknow and other places, before divers persons, and particularly before Sir Elijah Impey, Knight, his Majesty's chief-justice, acting extra-judicially, and not within the limits of his jurisdiction, several passionate, careless, irrelevant, and irregular affidavits, consisting of matter not fit to be deposed on oath,—of reports, conjectures, and hearsays; some of the persons swearing to the said hearsays having declined to declare from whom they heard the accounts at second hand sworn to; the said affidavits in general tending to support the calumnious charge of the said Warren Hastings, namely, that the aged women before mentioned had formed or engaged in a plan for the deposition of their son and sovereign, and the utter extirpation of the English nation: and neither the said charge against persons whose dependence was principally, if not wholly, on the good faith of this nation, and highly affecting the honor, property, and even lives, of women of the highest condition, nor the affidavits intended to support the same, extra-judicially taken, ex parte, and without notice, by the said Sir Elijah Impey and others, were at any time communicated to the parties charged, or to any agent for them; nor were they called upon to answer, nor any explanation demanded of them.

XI. That the article affecting private property secured by public acts, in the said pretended treaty, contains nothing more than a general permission, given by the said Warren Hastings, for confiscating such jaghires, or landed estates, with the modifications therein contained, "as he [the Nabob] may find necessary," but does not directly point at, or express by name, any of the landed possessions of the Nabob's mother. But soon after the signing of the said pretended treaty, (that is, on the 29th November, 1781,) it did appear that a principal object thereof was to enable the Nabob to seize upon the estates of his female parents aforesaid, which had been guarantied to them by the East India Company. And although in the treaty, or pretended treaty, aforesaid, nothing more is purported than to give a simple permission to the Nabob to seize upon and confiscate the estates, leaving the execution or non-execution of the same wholly to his discretion, yet it appears, by several letters from Nathaniel Middleton, Esquire, the Resident at the Court of Oude, of the 6th, 7th, and 9th of December, 1781, that no such discretion as expressed in the treaty was left, or intended to be left, with him, the said Nabob, but that the said article ought practically to have a construction of a directly contrary tendency: that, instead of considering the article as originating from the Nabob, and containing a power provided in his favor which he did not possess before, the confiscation of the jaghires aforesaid was to be considered as a measure originating from the English, and to be intended for their benefit, and, as such, that the execution was to be forced upon him; and the execution thereof was accordingly forced upon him. And the Resident, Middleton, on the Nabob's refusal to act in contradiction to his sworn engagement guarantied by the East India Company, and in the undutiful and unnatural manner required, did totally supersede his authority in his own dominions, considering himself as empowered so to act by the instructions of the said Hastings, although he had reason to apprehend a general insurrection in consequence thereof, and that he found it necessary to remove his family, "which he did not wish to retain there, in case of a rupture with the Nabob, or the necessity of employing the British forces in the reduction of his aumils and troops"; and he did accordingly, as sovereign, issue his own edicts and warrants, in defiance of the resistance of the Nabob, in the manner by him described in the letters aforesaid,—in a letter of 6th December, 1781, that is to say: "Finding the Nabob wavering in his determination about the resumption of the jaghires, I this day, in presence of and with the minister's concurrence, ordered the necessary purwannahs to be written to the several aumils for that purpose; and it was my firm resolution to have dispatched them this evening, with proper people to see them punctually and implicitly carried into execution; but before they were all transcribed, I received a message from the Nabob, who had been informed by the minister of the resolution I had taken, entreating that I would withhold the purwannahs until to-morrow morning, when he would attend me, and afford me satisfaction on this point. As the loss of a few hours in the dispatch of the purwannahs appeared of little moment, and as it is possible the Nabob, seeing that the business will at all events be done, may make it an act of his own, I have consented to indulge him in his request; but, be the remit of our interview whatever it may, nothing shall prevent the orders being issued to-morrow, either by him or myself, with the concurrence of the ministers. Your pleasure respecting the Begums I have learnt from Sir Elijah, and the measure heretofore proposed will soon follow the resumption of the jaghires. From both, or indeed from the former alone, I have no doubt of the complete liquidation of the Company's balance." And also in another letter, of the 7th December, 1781: "I had the honor to address you yesterday, informing you of the steps I had taken in regard to the resumption of the jaghires. This morning the Vizier came to me according to his agreement, but seemingly without any intention or desire to yield me satisfaction on the subject under discussion; for, after a great deal of conversation, consisting on his part of trifling evasion and puerile excuses for withholding his assent to the measure, though at the same time professing the most implicit submission to your wishes, I found myself without any other resource than the one of employing that exclusive authority with which I consider your instructions to vest me: I therefore declared to the Nabob, in presence of the minister and Mr. Johnson, who I desired might bear witness of the conversation, that I construed his rejection of the measure proposed as a breach of his solemn promise to you, and an unwillingness to yield that assistance which was evidently in his power towards liquidating his heavy accumulating debt to the Company, and that I must in consequence determine, in my own justification, to issue immediately the purwannahs, which had only been withheld in the sanguine hope that he would be prevailed upon to make that his own act which nothing but the most urgent necessity could force me to make mine. He left me without any reply, but afterwards sent for his minister and authorized him to give me hopes that my requisition would be complied with; on which I expressed my satisfaction, but declared that I could admit of no further delays, and, unless I received his Excellency's formal acquiescence before the evening, I should then most assuredly issue my purwannahs; which I have accordingly done, not having had any assurances from his Excellency that could justify a further suspension. I shall, as soon as possible, inform you of the effect of the purwannahs, which, in many parts, I am apprehensive it will be found necessary to enforce with military aid. I am not, however, entirely without hopes that the Nabob, when he sees the inefficacy of further opposition, may alter his conduct, and prevent the confusion and disagreeable consequences which would be too likely to result from the prosecution of a measure of such importance without his concurrence. His Excellency talks of going to Fyzabad, for the purpose heretofore mentioned, in three or four days: I wish he may be serious in his intention, and you may rest assured I shall spare no pains to keep him to it." And further, in a letter of the 9th December, 1781: "I had the honor to address you on the 7th instant, informing you of the conversation which had passed between the Nabob and me on the subject of resuming the jaghires, and the step I had taken in consequence. His Excellency appeared to be very much hurt and incensed at the measure, and loudly complains of the treachery of his ministers,—first, in giving you any hopes that such a measure would be adopted, and, secondly, in their promising me their whole support in carrying it through; but, as I apprehended, rather than suffer it to appear that the point had been carried in opposition to his will, he at length yielded a nominal acquiescence, and has this day issued his own purwannahs to that effect,—declaring, however, at the same time, both to me and his ministers, that it is an act of compulsion. I hope to be able in a few days, in consequence of this measure, to transmit you an account of the actual value and produce of the jaghires, opposed to the nominal amount at which they stand rated on the books of the circar."