Tanjore, who fent troops to his affiftance, and whofe general, Monacjee, put Chundafaheb to death. So unequivocal and honourable were the teftimonies which Pertaub Sing gave of his attachment to the Nabob, and to the English who protected him, that Governor Saunders would enter into no treaty with the enemies of the Nabob of Arcot, to which the guarantee of the Rajah in the kingdom of Tanjore was not a preliminary.

During the courfe of this long conteft, in the year 1751, Lord Pigot, who was then of the Council at Fort St. David, headed a detachment fent to the affiftance of the Nabob, in which expedition he was fuccefsful. In 1755, Lord Pigot fucceeded Mr. Saunders in the government of Madras. In 1756, notwithstanding the hazardous fituation of Madras, he fent a detachment under Colonel Clive, to the relief of Bengal, which retook Calcutta from Surajah Dowlah. General Lally arriving at this time at Pondicherry, took Fort St. Davids, and attacked Tanjore. But the Rajah was immoveable in his attachment to the English, and repulfed Lally. Lord Pigot's prudent and gallant behaviour fecured Madras; and it was through him that Pondicherry was rafed to its foundations. After the extirpation. of the French, Lord Pigot, in 1762, acted as an upright and prudent mediator between the powers of the country. In adjufting the claims of the Nabob and the Rajah, he paid the moft fcrupulous attention to juftice and equity: to check the ambition of the former, and reward the fidelity of the latter, he guaranteed the kingdom of Tanjore to the Rajah and his defcendents.

Lord Pigot's conduct, in this treaty, obtained the warmeft approbation of the company, who fpoke of the terms as agreeable and advantageous to both parties,' and pronounced his proceedings in the whole of this tranfaction to have been judicious. After the death of Pertaub Sing, though the Nabob congratulated the young king Tuljaujee on his acceffion, and gave him the strongest affurances of friendship, he foon discovered his defire of infringing the treaty of 1762, and was guilty of oppreffing the Rajah even while the troops of Tanjore were fighting in his caufe. In 1767 the Company instructed the prefident and council at Fort St. George to fettle the differences between the king of Tanjore and the Nabob, and to enforce the treaty between them. The Nabob however, by contracting, or pretending to contract, debts with individuals among the fervants of the Company, to the amount of more than twenty lacks of pagodas, attached them to his intereft, and was permitted to purfue his defigns against the Rajah without controul. They even gave themselves up as tools into the hands of the Nabob, and, for feveral years continued fubfervient to his ambition and revenge, Refufing to hear the pleas of the Rajah by his Va

keel,

9

keel, they fupported the Nabob with their forces; and when the Rajah was obliged to capitulate, they left it to the Nabob, a party in the difpute, to fix his own terms. To defray the large demand made upon him by this treaty, the Rajah was obliged to mortgage a part of his lands to the Dutch and to the Danes. This was alleged againft him as a criminal action, and the fervants of the Company, inftead of fupporting the character of guarantees, took an active part against the Rajah, and concluded it proper and expedient totally to reduce him. Thus fupported, the Nabob in 1773, proceeded openly against Tanjore. The Vakeel of the Rajah was treated with the highest infolence by the Nabob, and was refufed admiffion to the gentlemen at Madras. They paid no regard to the reprefentations of the king of Tanjore; took no measures to afcertain the truth of the declarations of the Nabob; but as parties in the quarrel, affifted him in crufhing the Rajah. The confequence was that Tanjore was taken, the Rajali imprifoned, and the fyftem of government in the Carnatic overturned.

The Company, confidering the fyftem established between the Rajah and Nabob in 1762, as ftul in force, and regarding the reduction of Tanjore as a dangerous violation of this fyftem, thought it neceffary to declare their entire difapprobation of the late measures, by displacing the Governor and repri'manding the Council. To remedy the evils which their mifconduct had occafioned, and restore the fyftem of 1762, Lord Pigot was fent out as Prefident and Governor with orders, the purport of which was as follows: that, without lofs of time he fhould take the moft effectual measures for fecuring the king of Tanjore; appoint a guardian for the protection of his perfon and family; lay before him the conditions on which the Company had determined to replace him on the throne of his aneeftórs (conditions which were for the mutual benefit of the Rajah and the Company, and at the fame time provided for the rights of the Nabob) and, on his agreeing to thefe conditions, reftore him to the government, with all the country, and all the rights he poffeffed at the conclufion of the treaty of 1762: that if the Rajah fhould not be living at the time of the receipt of thefe orders at fort St. George, he fhould forthwith place fome other fit perfon of the royal family upon the throne: that he should affure the king or his fucceffor, that the Company neither mean to diminish his authority, nor to impoverish or diftrefs his country. That the fervants of the Company be forbid to interfere in the affairs of his government: that the Nabob be allowed no farther claims on the Rajah than for the 'current tribute: that, to cut off all the complaints of the Nabob, the Prefident endeavour to ascertain the amount of his receipts and difbursements on account of the Tanjore country:

that

that when this business shall be finally adjusted, he should eftablish a judicious and permanent fyltem for the future mahagement of the territories belonging to the Company on the Coat of Coromandel, and enquire whether they can fupply an adequate fund for the neceffary increase of the military establishmetits.— These orders were to be carried into immediate execution.' In the execution of them, the Council were not to fail to concur with the Prefident. The Governor and Council of Bengal were to co-operate with them, if the Prefident and Council of Madras fhould find it neceffary. And an oppofition to thefe orders, or a refufal to carry them into full effect, on the part of any fervant of the Company, was, on proper representation of the cafe to the Company, to be followed by an absolute difmiffion from their fervice.

When Lord Pigot arrived at Madras with this commiffion, he found a great part of the Council attached to the intereft of "the Nabob, who had touched the real fpring of their actions, by iffuing Tankas, or affignments on the country of Tanjore, as a fecurity for debts real or pretended, to the amount of 1,200,000l. Notwithstanding this, Lord Pigot, the more fuccessfully to execute his commiffion, communicated the purport of it to the Nabob, and endeavoured by gentle means to engage him to compliance. He foon however difcovered his difinclination to refign Tanjore to the Rajah, and ufed every artifice to engage the board in his intereft. Lord Pigot proceeded with a proper mixture of moderation and firmness; determined not to relinquish the task he had undertaken, he fent Colonel Harpur to take poffeffion of the fort of Tanjore, and releafe the Rajah from confinement; at the fame time defirous if poffible to obtain the concurrence of the Nabob, he pursued the most gentle meafures with refpect to him. Some of the Council, who seem to have been alarmed at the cool and cautious manner in which Lord Pigot proceeded, and to have been apprehenfive of too fcrupulous an examination of the affair of the Tankas, propofed that the whole execution of this bufinefs fhould be put into the hands of the military officer commanding at Tanjore, Sir Robert Fletcher. This propofal, however was over-ruled: Lord Pigot was appointed by the board to go to Tanjore for the purpofe of reftoring the Rajah, and authorised to take with him a fufficient civil and military fupport. A motion made by Sir R. Fletcher, to join two members of the board in this deputation, was rejected. Lord Pigot proceeded to Tanjore, and after firmly oppofing the claims of the Nabob on the 11th of April 1776, reftored the Rajah to his throne; and fecured the future defence of the country in the moft advantageous manner, by accepting a voluntary offer of the Rajah, that the Company, befides the garrifon, fhould fix a mihitary establishment

eftablishment in Tanjore, for the fupport of which he would pay four lacks of pagodas per annum from his revenue. In all this, the conduct of Lord Pigot was irreproachable, and highly meritorious; it obtained the approbation of the Council on his return, and afterwards of the Board of the Company, expreffed in the strongest terms.

Among the feveral claimants on Tanjore, in confequence of the affignments granted by the Nabob, Mr. Paul Benfield was the principal; his whole demand amounted to about 234,0001. After feveral delays, his claims were examined by the Board, and found inadmiffible, because they were unfupported by adequate vouchers; because all private loans or money tranfactions. carried on by any of the fervants of the Company had been repeatedly pronounced by the Company to be illicit, and therefore could not come before their Council; and because the Board could not interfere in this matter without a direct violation of the particular orders of the Company refpecting the restoration of the Rajah, which were to be executed without delay. Thus far the Nabob and his friends were foiled. The claims of Paul Benfield were not admitted; the Rajah was reftored; and the crop of the prefent year in Tanjore determined to be his property.

The Nabob next endeavoured to intereft the Commodore, Governor-general, and Council of Bengal, in his caufe; and found means to do this fo effectually, that Sir Edward Hughes wrote a letter to Lord Pigot, inclofing the complaints of the Nabob; which confifted principally of two articles: "That Lord Pigot had declared in the Court, that he would place an European guard upon the Nabob's houfe, to keep him a prifoner in his own power; and that Lord Pigot had ordered people to enter the Nabob's garden in the night, on pretended information that the Nabob had ordered people to be ill-treated there." To the former of thefe charges Lord Pigot replies, That the Nabob had totally misunderstood him, that he never had a thought of placing a guard over the Nabob, but that he had found it neceflary to threaten the placing a guard about the grounds of the Company, to prevent the intrigues which were carrying on at the Durbar between the Nabob and feveral of the Europeans. Such a guard, for the purpose of intercepting. vifitors to the Nabob, and preventing correfpondence with him, was agreeable to the orders of the Company. The fecond charge will be afterwards noticed.

The Nabob, in his letter to Lord Pigot, farther charges him with feizing the territories of Marava and Neelcota, not belonging to Tanjore. But it appears from the ftate of the Rajah's poffeffions in 1762, and from the Nabob's own letter in 1755, that these countries did not belong to the Nabob, but to the

Rajah.

Rajah. Nor were these territories feized without frequent gene. ral notices previously given to the Nabob.

Mr. Benfield's claims having been three times offered to the confideration of the Board, and rejected; on June 13, Mr. Mackay made three motions which were carried by a majority of feven to five: the firft, that the Nabob had a right to the crop in the Tanjore country, and that his mortgages on the fame were good; the 2d and 3d, that a letter be written to the Rajah to recommend it to him, to affift Mr. Benfield in recovering his debts among the inhabitants, and to account with him for the government fhare of the grain in the diftricts affigned to him by the Nabob.

A refolution which had been folemnly confirmed three feveral times being thus overturned, and the oppofition of the Nabob and his party to the execution of the orders of the Company thereby ftrengthened, Lord Pigot thought it neceffary, if poffible, to ftop their cabals. For this purpose, he moved, “That the letter from the Nabob to Sir Edward Hughes was written purposely to create animofity between the Members of the Government," and "That no Member of the Council do henceforth visit or correfpond, by writing or meffage, with the Nabob or either of his fons." Both thefe motions, perfectly agreeing with the purport of the commiffion and the ftanding orders of the Company, were carried. On this the Prefident proceeded to move," That it be recommended to the Nabob to refide at Arcot:" the grounds of this motion were the numerous inconveniencies which his refidence at Madras had occafioned, and particularly the intrigues carried on by the Members of the Government at the Durbar of the Nabob. This falutary motion, however, was fet afide by a majority of seven to five.

From this time the whole attention of the majority of the Council was employed in thwarting the meafures, and curtailing the powers, of the Prefident. On the 24th of June, a motion was made for refcinding the two refolutions paffed a few days before; the motion was refumed on the 28th, when Lord Pigot had recourse to a power which he conceived to be vefted in him by the conftitution of the government, and which it appeared to be neceffary for him to exert on the present occafion; he refused to put the queftion. In the mean time he proposed that, according to the offer made by the Rajah, a Chief and Council, fubordinate to the Prefidency of Fort St. George fhould be established in Tanjore. This measure, from which many commercial and political advantages were to be expected, being overruled, Lord Pigot, defirous of fecuring at leaft the political advantages of his fcheme, propofed the ap pointment of a Refident, and named Mr. Ruffel, This moREV. Jan. 1778. C

tion