when about one lack of rupees had with great difficulty been obtained from him, he wrote a letter himfelf to the governor general, foliciting forbearance with refpect to the remainder until the following year, when he promifed to pay it along with the ftipulated

revenue,

While a fubfidy of about fixty, thousand pounds a year was extorted with fo much difficulty, it was not well to be fuppofed, that a demand made upon the Raj-h to furnish 2,000 cavalry for the fervice of the war, would have been attended with much effect; at leaft, without its being enforced by fome extraordinary degree of exertion. By Mr. Haftings's ftate of the tranfaction, which differs confiderably from that given by the Rajah, he baffled the demand by delay and evafion; he said that the body of horse which he had already on foot was fuily employed in, and abfolutely neceffary to the collection of his revenues, without which he could not fulfil his ftipulations with the company, and that he was utterly unequal to the expence of raifing a new corps. It is farther faid, that the demand was leffened to a thoufand; that he at length promised to fupply 250; but that neither man or horfe was ever fent. It is to be obferved, that the Rajah's horfe had done good and acknowledged fervice in a former war. So different are the fruits procured by violence, from those which are the fpontaneous produce of good-will and affection.

It will scarcely be imaginéd, that as thefe unexpected demands ferved fucceffively to weaken the Rajah's opinion of his own fecu

rity, and to leffen his faith in the English, fo likewife, that they did not ferve equally to weaken his attachment, and to loosen his fidelity to the company. It was natural, that he fhould look for new friends and connections; and that he thould endeavour to provide fome refource against the days of trouble and danger. Nothing could be more favourable to the encouragement and confirmation of fuch a difpofition, than the general state of India. The difaffection to the English was unfor tunately general throughout all that vaft continent; they were in every fettlement, and on every fide, engaged in the moft dangerous wars; and while the fucceffes of Hyder Ally feemed to render their very exiftence in the Carnatic more than precarious, they no lefs diminished the reputation and dread of their arms.

The countries immediately bordering on, or furrounding the Rajah's territories, were in a state of the moft marked difaffection to the company, and fuch of them as were under its government, fcarcely reftrained their violence, until a proper opportunity fhould offer for thaking off its yoke. The company's adminiftration of the affairs of Oude, in concert with his weak fucceffor, ever fince the death of Sujah U Dowlah, had spread defolation, tumult and diforder through thofe extenfive dominions. All these things, together with the general alliance and confederacy which was known to be in contemplation for chacing them entirely out of India, ferved to render their affairs apparently def perate.

In thefe circumftances it is not much

much to be doubted, that fome of the charges laid against the Rajah Cheit Sing, might be well founded. That he perhaps en. tered into negociations with the native princes in the adjoining countries, for mutual fupport, and for acting on fome plan of general concert, in the defence of their refpective rights; and that he might have correfponded with the dif contented Begums of Oude, or caballed with the difaffected Ra. jahs, in the neighbouring English governments.

The governor general ftates, that various accounts had been repeatedly tranfmitted to Calcutta, as well by the English refidents at Benares, as by feveral of the company's officers, from different parts of that country, of the fre. quent and ftrong marks of dif affection that were thewn by the Rajab himself; but which were difplayed in a fill higher degree by his officers, and by the people in general. Thefe charges, in. deed, fo far as they are fhewn, are laid in very loose and general terms; without any specification of facts, dates, names, or circum. ftances. It is not lefs remarkable, that they are not included in the written complaints of his conduct, which the governor general fent to the Rajah himself upon the spot.

But however just the charges of contumacy and difaffection laid against the Rajah might have been, and however neceffary, perhaps, in fome degree their correction, it is fully evident, that the enor. mous expences of the war had fo drained the treafury of Bengal, and the means of ftill feeding it

in all its parts went fo far beyond the revenues of the ftate, that the looking out for new fources of fupply was become a matter of great urgency. In fuch circum. ftances, the fuppofed wealth and real weaknefs of the Rajah, pointed him out as the immediate and proper object for fupplying the public neceffities.

Such was the fituation of the Rajah, and the ftate of affairs in the country of Benares, before and about the time that the governor general fet out on his progrefs from Calcutta, upon the 7th of July 1781. He had, in that progrefs, other objects befides Benares in view, Order was, if poffible, to be reftored in the dominions of the Nabob vizier, and money, at all events, to be there procured. A feparate peace with Madajee Scindia was then likewife in agitation, through the in. tervention of Colonel Muir; and the governor general hoped that his approach to the fcene of ne gociation, might afford means for bringing it the more fpeedily to a conclufion. This was indeed au object of the first importance.

With respect to Benares, the governor general ftates in his nar. rative of these transactions, that the difappointment of aid from the Rajah, though in a season of fuch extreme public diftrefs and danger, was ftill lefs a matter of confideration with him, than that those repeated acts of contumacy and difobedience of which he had been guilty, appeared evidences of a deliberate and fyftematic con. duct, aiming at the total fubverfion of the company's authority, and the erection of his own inde

pendency

pendency on its ruins; a defign, he fays, which had been long and generally imputed to him. He farther obferves, that it was reported he had inherited a vaft mafs of wealth from his father Balwant Sing, which he had fecured in the two ftrong fortrelles of Lutte fpoor and Bidjeygur; and that he made yearly additions to it; that he kept up a large military establishment, both of cavalry, of difciplined and irregular infantry, and of artillery; that befides the two already named, he had many other fortreffes, of firong confiruction and in good repair, conftantly well ftored and garrifoned; that he maintained a correfpondence with the Marrattas, and other powers, who either were or might eventually become enemies to the company; and, that he was collecting, or had prepared, every provifion for open revolt, waiting only for a proper feafon to declare it, which was fuppofed to depend, either on the arrival of a French armament, or on a Maratta invafion.

It will appear not a little extraordinary, that feveral of thefe matters, particularly whatever relates to the Rajah's military eftablishment and preparations, the ftate of his garrifons, and the internal condition or appearance of things, fhould be founded on no better authority than mere report, when it is confidered, that the ftrong fortress of Chunar, in the centre of his dominions, and within an eafy march of his capital, had for many years been garrifoned by the English; that his country was the highway and thoroughfare to the company's troops, in their frequent paffage to and from the

dominions of Oude, and all the western fide of India; that it was equally the paffage and the refidence of their merchants and traders; and that it was at all times open to the free obfervation and inspection of their officers whether civil or military.

Another offence was indeed charged on the kajah, which perlaps had its weight. That he had, by his agents and emiffaries at Calcutta, taken an active and decided part against the governor general, it thofe contefis which had for fome years back prevailed between him and other members of the council. To that continued oppofition which he met with in Calcutta, to the difapprobation of his conduct, induftrioutly publish. ed by the parties formed against him in England, and to the con. ftant expectation from thence en. tertained in India of his fpeedy degradation, the governor general attributes all the mifconduct, mifdeeds, and crimes of the Rajah of Benares.

In the progrefs of his narrative, the governor general by degrees opens and avows the motives and objects of his expedition, with refpect to that prince. He fays, that he confidered Cheit Sing as culpable, in a very high degree, towards the ftate, and his punith. ment, (of which, he fays, he had given him frequent warnings if he did not amend his conduct) as an example which juftice and policy required. That, he was refolved to draw frons his guilt the means of relief to the company's diftreffes, and to exact a penalty, which he was convinced he was very well able to bear, from a fund, which he was alfo convinc.

ed,

dered his fubftance in a courfe of vice and profligacy, he was at length banished the country for his crimes. That being in that ftate joined by feveral whofe condition, characters, and defperate fortunes correfponded with his own, they drew together a number of those rovers of all nations, with whom India, more than any other part of the world, abounds, fo that he was at length enabled to invade, and to excite fome fort of rebellion in the country of Benares; and became fo formidable, that it was only by the aid of the English, whofe forces were called in for the purpofe, that, after doing infinite mifchief, he was defeated and driven out. Such was the man, who now came in the fuite of the governor general, to revifit the city and country of Benares.

Upon the governor general's arrival at Buxar, on the borders of Benares, he was met by the Rajah, who brought with him a great train of the principal people of his country. Mr. Haftings remarks, with difapprobation, that he had brought with him a great fleet of boats; that he had afterwards been informed they were crowded with chofen armed men, to the amount of two thousand; and that this circumftance was a matter of much obfervation and notice with fome of the gentlemen of his train. It is not improbable that this matter was much mifrepresented to him. It is now evident that no defign had been formed against his perfon; nor can it be drawn or fuppofed from the fubfequent circumftances, that any fuch number of chofen, or of

armed men, were yet collected in a body.

The governor general informs us, that he received the Rajah with civility, and without any expreflion of difpleasure, at Buxar. That he received a fecond vifit from him in his boat, upon their paffage up the river, on the following morning; when a private conference was requested and granted. He does not at all affume being correct in his recollection of the particulars which paffed in this private converfation; for confidering it, he fays, as accidental, and as making no part of the plan which he had concerted in his own mind for his conduct with the Rajah, he did not think it of fufficient confequence to make any written minutes.

From his recollection, however, of the fubftance of this conference, it appears that the Rajah expreffed much concern for his citpleafure, and contrition for having himfelf given any occafion for it; declaring at the fame time, and in the most humiliating terms, that the zemindary and every thing he poffeffed were at his devotion; that he expreffed great fears about Ouffaun Sing; and that, upon that occafion, whether it proceeded from an extraordinary agitation of mind, or from a defire to imprefs a ftrong opinion of his fincerity, he accompanied his words with the fingular action of laying his turban in Mr. Haftings's lap.-The governor general, in anfwer, difclaimed the idea of his defcending to become a party in the Rajah's family disagreements; but avowed