bankers, have been accumulated, ought not to De inquired into, as well as the reasonableness of the deduction of 25 per cent. which the Bengal government directed to be made from a great part of the debts on certain conditions. But to your appropriation of the fund, our duty requires that we should state our strongest dissent. Our right to be paid the arrears of those expenses, by which, almost to our own ruin, we have preserved the country, and all the property connected with it, from falling a prey to a freign conquerour, surely stands para mount to all claims for former debts upon the revenues of a country so preserved, even if the legislature had not expressly limited the assistance to be given the private creditors to be such as should be consistent with our own rights. The nabob had, long before passing the act, by treaty with our Bengal government, agreed to pay us seven lacs of pagodas, as part of the twelve lacs, in liquidation of those arrears, of which seven lacs the arrangement you have been pleased to lay down would take away from us more than the half, and give it to private creditors, of whose demands there are only about a sixth part which do not stand in a predicament that you declare would not entitle them to any aid or protection from us in the recovery thereof, were it not upon grounds of expediency, as will more particularly appear by the annexed estimate. Until our debts shall be discharged, we can by no means consent to give up any part of the seven lacs to the private creditors; and we humbly apprehend, that in this declaration we do not exceed the limits of the authority and rights vested in us.

Extract of a Letter from the Commissioners for the Affairs of India, to the Court of Directors, dated 3d November, 1784, in Answer to their Remonstrance.

Sixth Article.

WE think it proper, considering the particular nature of the subject, to state to you the following remarks on that part of your representation which relates to the plan for the discharging of the nabob's debts.

1st. You compute the revenue which the Carnatic may be expected to produce only at twenty lacs of pagodas. If we concurred with you in this opinion, we should certainly fee! our hopes of advantage to all the parties from this arrangement considerably diminished. But, we trust, that we are not too sanguine or this head, when we place the greatest reliance on the estimate transmitted to you by your prosident of Fort St. George, having there the best means of information upon the fact, and stating it with a particular view to the subject matter of these paragraphs. Some allowance, we are sensible, must be made for the difference of collection in the nabob's hands, but we trust not such as to reduce the receipt nearly to what you suppose.

2dly. In making up the amount of the pri vate debts, you take in compound interest at the different rates specified in our paragraph. This it was not our intention to allow; and lest any misconception should arise on the spot, we have added an express direction, that the debts be made up with simple interest only, from the time of their repective consolidation Clause F f.

3dly. We have also the strongest grounds to believe, that the debts will be, in other respects,

the Affairs of India.

The REPRESENTATION of the Court of Directors of the East India Company. My Lords and Gentlemen,

THE Court having duly attended to your reasonings and decisions, on the subjects of Amee and Hanamantagoody, beg leave to observe, with due deference to your judgment, that the directions we had given in these paragraphs, which did not obtain your approbation, still appear to us to have been consistent with justice, and agreeable to the late act of parliament, which pointed out to us, as we apprehended, the treaty of 1762 as our guide. Signed by order of the said court,

THO. MORTON, Sec. East India House, 3d Nov. 1784.

by you; and consequently, the company's annual proportion of the twelve lacs will be larger than it appears on your estimate. But even on your own statement of it, if we add to the £.150,000 or 3,75,000 pagodas (which you take as the annual proportion to be received by the company for five years to the end of 1789) the annual amount of the Tanjore peshcush for the same period, and the arrears on the peshcush, (proposed by Lord Macartney to be received in three years;) the whole will make a sum not falling very short of pagodas 35,00,000, the amount of pagodas 7,00,000 per annum for the same period. And if we that, both by the plan proposed by the nabob, carry our calculations farther, it will appear and adopted in your paragraphs, and by that which we transmitted to you, the debt from the nabob, if taken at £.3,000,000 will be dis

charged nearly at the same period, viz. in the course of the eleventh year. We cannot therefore be of opinion that there is the smallest ground for objecting to this arrangement, as injurious to the interests of the company, even if the measure were to be considered on the mere ground of expediency, and with a view only to the wisdom of re-establishing credit and circulation in a commercial settlement, without any consideration of those motives of attention to the feelings and honour of the nabob, of humanity to individuals, and of justice to persons in your service, and living under your protection, which have actuated the legislature, and which afford not only justifiable, but commendable grounds for your conduct.

Impressed with this conviction, we have not made any alteration in the general outlines of the arrangement which we had before transmitted to you. But, as the amount of the nabob's revenue is matter of uncertain conjecture, and as it does not appear just to us, that any deficiency should fall wholly on any one class of these debts, we have added a direction to your government of Fort St. George, that if, notwithstanding the provisions contained in our former paragraphs, any deficiency should arise, the payments of what shall be received shall be made in the same proportion which would have obtained in the division of the whole twelve lacs, had they been paid.

APPENDIX, No. 10.

Referred to from p. 412.

[THE following extracts are subjoined, to shew the matter and the style of representation employed by those who have obtained that ascendency over the nabob of Arcot, which is described in the letter marked No. 6 of the present Appendix, and which is so totally destructive of the authority and credit of the lawful British government at Madras. The charges made by these persons have been solemnly denied by Lord Macartney; and, to judge from the character of the parties accused and accusing, they are probably void of all foundation. But as the letters are in the name and under the signature of a person of great rank and consequence among the natives; as they contain matter of the most serious nature; as they charge the most enormous crimes, and corruptions of the grossest kind, on a British governour; and as they refer to the nabob's minister in Great Britain for proof and further

elucidation of matters complained of, commor. decency, and common policy, demanded an inquiry into their truth or falsehood. The writing is obviously the product of some English pen. If, on inquiry, these charges should be made good (a thirg very unlikely) the party accused would become a just object of animadversion. If they should be found (as in all probability they would be found) false and calumnious, and supported by forgery, then the censure would fall on the accuser; at the same time the necessity would be manifest for proper measures towards the security of government against such infamous accusations. It is as necessary to protect the honest fame of virtuous governours, as it is to punish the corrupt and tyrannical. But neither the court of directors nor the board of controul have made any inquiry into the truth or falsehood of these charges. They have covered over the accusers and accused with abundance of compliments. They have insinuated some oblique censures; and they have recommended perfect harmony between the chargers of corruption and peculation, and the persons charged with these crimes.] 13th October, 1782.

Extract of a Translation

of a Letter from the Nabob of Arcot to the Chairman of the court of Directors of the East India Company.

"FATALLY for me, and for the public interest, the company's favour and my unbounded confidence have been lavished on a man totally unfit for the exalted station in which he has been placed, and unworthy of the trusts that have been reposed in him. When I speak of one who has so deeply stabbed my honour, my wounds bleed afresh, and I must be allowed that freedom of expression which the galling reflection of my injuries and my misfortunes naturally draws from me. Shall your servants, unchecked, unrestrained, and unpunished, gratify their private views and ambition, at the expense of my honour, my peace, and my happiness, and to the ruin of my country as well as of your affairs? No sooner had Lord Macartney obtained the favourite object of his ambition, than he betrayed the greatest insolence towards me, the most glaring neglect of the common civilities and attentions paid me by all former governours, in the worst of times, and even by the most inveterate of my enemies. He insulted my servants, endeavoured to defame my character by unjustly censuring my administration, and extended his boundless usurpation to the whole government of my dominions, in all the branches of judicature and

polica; and, in violation of the express articles of the agreements, proceeded to send renters into the countries, unapproved of by me, men of bad character, and unequal to my management or responsibility. Though he is chargeable with the greatest acts of cruelty, even to the shedding of blood and cutting off the noses and ears of my subjects, by those exercising his authority in the countries, and that even the duties of religion and public worship have been interrupted or prevented; and, though he carries on all his business by the arbitrary exertion of military force, yet does he not collect from the countries one-f uth of the revenue that should be produced. The statement he pretends to hold forth of expected revenue, is totally fallacious, and can never be realised under the management of his lordship, in the appointment of renters, totally disqualified, rapacious, and irresponsible, who are actually embezzling and dissipating the public revenues that should assist in the support of the war. Totally occupied by his private views, and governed by his passions, he has neglected or sacrificed all the essential objects of public good, and by want of co-operation with Sir Eyre Coote, and refusal to furnish the army with the necessary supplies, has rendered the glorious and repeated victories of the gallant general ineffectual to the expulsion of our cruel enemy. To cover his insufficiency, and veil the discredit attendant on his failure in every measure, he throws out the most illiberal expressions, and institutes unjust accusations against me; and, in aggravation of all the distresses imposed upon me, he has abetted the meanest calumniators, to bring forward false charges against me, and my son Ameerul-Omrah, in order to create embarrassment, and for the distress of my mind. My papers and writings sent to you must testify to the whole world the malevolence of his designs, and the means that have been used to forward them. He has violently seized and opened all letters addressed to me and my servants, on my public and private affairs. My vackeel, that attended him, according to ancient custom, has been ignominiously dismissed from his presence, and not suffered to approach the government-house. He has in the meanest manner, and as he thought in secret, been tampering and intriguing with my family and relations for the worst of purposes. And if I express the agonies of my mind under these most pointed injuries and oppressions, and complain of the violence and injustice of Lord Macartney, I am insulted by his affected construction, that my communications are dictated by the

insinuations of others. At the same time that his conscious apprehensions for his misconduct, have produced the most abject applications to me, to smother my feelings, and entreaties to write in his lordship's favour to England, and to submit all my affairs to his direction. When his submissions have failed to mould me to his will, he has endeavoured to effect his purposes by menaces of his secret influence with those in power in England, which he pretends to assert, shall be effectual to confirm his usurpation, and to deprive me and my family, in succession, of my rights of sovereignty and government for ever. To such a length have his passions and violences carried him, that all my family, my dependants, and even my friends and visitors, are persecuted with the strongest marks of his displeasure. Every shadow of authority in my person is taken from me, and respect to my name discouraged throughout the whole country. When an officer of high rank in his majesty's service was some time since introduced to me by Lord Macartney, his lordship took occasion to shew a personal derision and contempt of me. Mr. Richard Sullivan, who has attended my durbar under the commission of the governour general and council of Bengal, has experienced his rosenment and Mr. Benfield, with whom I have no business, and who, as he has been accustomed to do for many years, has continued to pay me his visits of respect, has felt the weight of his lordship's displeasure, and has had every unmerited insinuation thrown out against him, to prejudice him, and deter him from paying me his compliments as usual.

"Thus, gentlemen, have you delivered me over to a stranger, to a man unacquainted with government and business, and too opinionated to learn; to a man, whose ignorance and prejudices operate to the neglect of every good measure, or the liberal co-operation with any that wish well to the public interests; to a man who, to pursue his own passions, plans, and designs, will certainly ruin all mine, as well as the company's affairs. His mismanagement and obstinacy have caused the loss of many lacs of my revenues, dissipated and embezzled, ana every public consideration sacrificed, to his va nity and private views. I beg to offer an instance in proof of my assertions, and to justify the hope I have, that you will cause to be made good to me all the losses I have sustained, by the mal-administration and bad practices of your servants, according to all the account of receipts of former years, and which I made known to Lord Macartney, among other pa pers of information, in the beginning of his

management in the collections. The district of Ongole produced annually, upon a mediurh of many years, ninety thousand pagodas; but Lord Macartney upon receiving a sum of money from Ramchundry,* let it out to him, in April last, for the inadequate rent of 50,000 pagodas per annum, diminishing, in this district alone, near half the accustomed revenues. After this manner hath he exercised his powers over the countries, to suit his own purposes and designs; and this secret mode has he taken to reduce the collections."

1st November, 1782. Copy of a Letter from the Nabob of Arcot to the Court of Duectors, &c. Received 7th April, 1783.

"THE distresses which I have set forth in my former letters, are now increased to such an alarming pitch, by the imprudent measures of your governour, and by the arbitrary and impolitic conduct pursued with the merchants and importers of grain, that the very existence of the fort of Madras seems at stake, and that of the inhabitants of the settlement appears to have been totally overlooked; many thousands have died, and continue hourly to perish of famine, though the capacity of one of your youngest servants, with diligence and attention, by doing justice, and giving reasonable encou ragement to the merchants, and by drawing the supplies of grain which the northern countries would have afforded, might have secured us against all those dreadful calamities. I had with much difficulty procured and purchased a small quantity of rice, for the use of myself, my family, and attendants, and with a view of sending off the greatest part of the latter to the northern countries, with a little subsistence in their hands. But what must your surprise be, when you learn, that even this rice was seized by Lord Macartney, with a military force! and thus am I unable to provide for the few people I have about me, who are driven to such extremity and misery, that it gives me pain to behold them. I have desired permission to get a little rice from the northern countries for the subsistence of my people, without its being liable to seizure by your seapoys: this even has been refused me by Lord Macartney. What must your feelings be, on such wanton cruelty, exercised towards me, when you consider that of thousands of villages belonging to me, a single one would have sufficed for my subsistence!"

See Tellinga letter at the end of this correspondence.

22d March, 1783. Translation of a Letter from the Nabob of Arcot to the Chairman and Directors of the East India Company.—Received from Mr. James Macpherso, 1st Jan. 1784.

"I AM willing to attribute this continued usurpation to the fear of detection in Lord Macartney. he dreads the awful day when the scene of his enormities will be laid open, at my restoration to my country, and when the tongues of my oppressed subjects will be unloosed, and proclaim aloud the cruel tyrannies they have sustained. These sentiments of his lordship's designs are corroborated by his sending, on the 10th instant, two gentlemen to me and my son Ameer-ul-Omrah; and these gentlemen from Lord Macartney especially set forth to me, and to my son, that all dependance on the power of the superiour government of Bengal, to enforce the intentions of the company to restore my country, was vain and groundless; that the company confided in his lordship's judgment and discretion, and upon his representations, and that if I, and my son, Ameer-ul-Omrah, would enter into friendship with Lord Macartney, and sign a paper, declaring all my charges and complaints against him to be false, that his lordship might be induced to write to England, that all his allegations against me and my son were not wellfounded; and, notwithstanding his declarations to withhold my country, yet on these conside rations, it might be still restored me.

"What must be your feelings for your ancient and faithful friend, on his receiving such insults to his honour and understanding from your principal servant, armed with your authority? From these manœuvres, among thousands I have experienced, the truth must evidently appear to you, that I have not been loaded with those injuries and oppressions from motives of public service, but to answer the private views and interests of his lordship, and his secret agents: some papers to this point are enclosed; others, almost without number, must be submitted to your justice, when time and circumstances will enable me fully to investigate those transactions. This opportunity will not permit the full representation of my load of injuries and distresses: I beg leave to refer you to my minister, Mr. Macpherson, for the papers, according to the enclosed list, which accompanied my last dispatches by the Rodney, which I fear have failed; and my corres pondence with Lord Macartney, subsequent to that period, such as I have been able to pre pare for this opportunity, are enclosed.

"Notwithstanding all the violent acts and declarations of Lord Macartney, yet a consciousness of his own misconduct was the sole incentive to the menaces and overtures he has held out in various shapes. He has been insultingly lavish in his expressions of high respect for my person; has had the insolence to say, that all his measures flowed from his affectionate regard alone; has presumed to say, that all his enmity and oppression were levelled at iny son, Ameer-ul-Omrah, to whom he before acknowledged every aid and assistance: and, his lordship being without any just cause or foundation for complaint against us, or a veil to cover his own violences, he has now had recourse to the meanness, and has dared to intimate of my son, in order to intimidate mne, and to strengthen his own wicked purposes, to be in league with our enemies the French. You must doubtless be astonished, no less at the assurance, than at the absurdity such a wicked suggestion."

(IN THE NABOB'S OWN HAND.) "P.S. In my own hand-writing I acquainted Mr. Hastings, as I now do my ancient friends the company, with the insult offered to my honour and understanding, in the extraordinary propositions sent to me by Lord Macartney, through two gentlemen, on the 10th instant, so artfully veiled with menaces, hopes, and promises. But how can Lord Macartney add to his enormities, after his wicked and calumniating insinuations, so evidently directed against me and my family, through my faithful, my dutiful, and beloved son, Ameer-ul-Omrah, who, you well know, has been ever born and bred among the English, whom I have studiously brought up in the warmest sentiments of affection and attachment to them; sentiments, that in his maturity have been his highest ambition to improve, insomuch that he knows no happiness, but in the faithful support of our alliance and connection with the English nation ?"

12th August, and Postscript of the 16th August, 1783. Translation of a Letter to the Chairman and Directors of the East India Company. Received from Mr. James Macpherson, 14th January, 1784.

"YOUR astonishment and indignation will be equally raised with mine, when you hear that your president has dared, contrary to your intention, to continue to usurp the privileges and hereditary powers of the nabob of the Carnatic, your old and unshaken friend, and 'he declared ally of the king of Great Britain.

"I will not take up your time by enumera ting the particular acts of Lord Macartney's violence, cruelty, and injustice; they indeed occur too frequently, and fall upon me, and my devoted subjects and country, too thick, to be regularly related. I refer you to my minister, Mr. James Macpherson, for a more circum. stantial account of the oppressions and enormities by which he has brought both mine and the company's affairs to the brink of destruction. I trust that such flagrant violations of all justice, honour, and the faith of treaties, will receive the severest marks of your displeasure, and that Lord Macartney's conduct, in making use of your name and authority as a sanction for the continuance of his usurpation, will be disclaimed with the utmost indignation, and followed with the severest punishinent. I conceive that his lordship's arbitrary retention of my country and government can only originate in his insatiable cravings, in his implacable malevolence against me, and through fear of detection, which must follow the surrender of the Carnatic into my hands, of those nefarious proceedings, which are now sup pressed by the arm of violence and power.

"I did not fail to represent to the supreme government of Bengal the deplorable situation to which I was reduced, and the unmerited persecutions I have unremittingly sustained from Lord Macartney; and I earnestly implored them to stretch forth a saving arm, and interpose that controuling power which was vested in them, to check rapacity and presumption, and preserve the honour and faith of the company from violation. The governourgeneral and council not only felt the cruelty and injustice I had suffered, but were greatly alarmed for the fatal consequences that might result from the distrust of the country powers in the professions of the English, when they saw the nabob of the Carnatic, the friend of the company, and the ally of Great Britain, thus stripped of his rights, his dominions, and his dignity, by the most fraudulent means, and under the mask of friendship. The Bengal government had already heard both the Marattas and the Nizam urge as an objection to an alliance with the English, the faithless behaviour of Lord Macartney to a prince whose life had been devoted, and whose treasures had been exhausted, in their service and support; and they did not hesitate to give positive orders to Lord Macartney for the restitution of my government and authority, on such terms as were not only strictly honourable, but equally advantageous to my friends the company; for they justly thought that iny