DIRECTIONS FOR CHARGING THE NABOB OF ARCOT'S PRIVATE DEBTS ΤΟ EUROPEANS, ON THE REVENUES OF THE CARNATIC. FEBRUARY 28th, 1785. WITH ΑΝ APPENDIX, containing feveral Documents. Ἐναῦθα τί πράττειν ἐχρῆν ἄνδρα τῶν ΠλάτωνΘ καὶ Αρισοτέλους ζηλωτὴν δογμάτων; ἄρα περιοράν ἀνθρώπες ἀθλίας τοις κλέπταις ἐκδιδομένες, ἢ καλα δύναμιν ἀυτοῖς ἀμύνειν, οίμαι, ὡς ἤδη το κύκνειον ἐξάδουσι διὰ τὸ θεομισὲς ἐργαστήριον τῶν τοιέτων; Ἐμοὶ μὲν ἦν ἀισχρον εἶναι δοκεῖ τὰς μὲν χιλιάρχες, ὅταν λείπωσι τὴν τάξιν, καταδικάζειν τὴν δὲ ὑπὲς ἀθλίων ἀνθρῶπων ὑπολείπειν τάξιν, ὅταν δέη πρὸς κλεπίας ἀγωνίζεσθαι τοιέτες· καὶ ταῦτα τ8 Θεῖ συμμαχενῖος ἡμῖν, ώσπερ ἔν ἔταξεν. JULIANI Epift. 17. ADVERTISE MEN T. T HAT the least informed reader of this fpeech may be enabled to enter fully into the spirit of the tranfaction on occafion of which it was delivered, it may be proper to acquaint him, that among the princes dependent on this nation in the southern part of India, the most confiderable at present is commonly known by the title of the Nabob of Arcot. This prince owed the establishment of his government, against the claims of his elder brother, as well as thofe of other competitors, to the arms and influence of the British Eaft India Company. Being thus established in a confiderable part of the dominions he now poffeffes, he began, about the year 1765, to form, at the instigation (as he afferts) of the fervants of the East India Company, a variety of defigns for the further extenfion of his territories. Some years after, he carried his views to certain objects of interior arrangement, of a very pernicious nature. None of thefe defigns could be compaffed without the aid of the company's arms; nor could those arms be employed confiftently with an obedience to the company's orders. He was therefore advised to form a more fecret, but an equally powerful interest among the fervants of that company, and among others both at home and abroad. By engaging them in his interests, the use of the company's power might be obtained VOL. II. 3 I without without their oftenfible authority; the power might even be employed in defiance of the authority, if the case should require, as in truth it often did require, a proceeding of that degree of boldness. The company had put him into poffeffion of feveral great cities, and magnificent caftles. The good order of his affairs, his fenfe of perfonal dignity, his ideas of oriental splendour, and the habits of an Afiatick life (to which, being a native of India, and a Mahometan, he had from his infancy been enured) would naturally have led him to fix the feat of his government within his own dominions. Instead of this, he totally fequeftered himself from his country; and, abandoning all appearance of ftate, he took up his refidence in an ordinary house, which he purchased in the fuburbs of the company's factory at Madras. In that place he has lived, without removing one day from thence, for several years past. He has there continued a conftant cabal with the company's fervants, from the highest to the loweft; creating, out of the ruins of the country, brilliant fortunes for those who will, and entirely destroying those who will not, be fubfervient to his purposes. An opinion prevailed, strongly confirmed by feveral' paffages in his own letters, as well as by a combination of circumstances forming a body of evidence which cannot be refifted, that very great fums have been by him diftributed, through a long course of years, to fome of the company's fervants. Befides thefe prefumed payments in ready money (of which, from the nature of the thing,, the direct proof is very difficult) debts, have at feveral periods been acknowledged to those gentlemen, to an immenfe amount; that is, to fome millions of fterling money. There is ftrong. reafon to fufpect, that the body of thefe debts is wholly fictitious, fictitious, and was never created by money bona fide lent. But even on a fuppofition that this vaft fum was really advanced, it was impoffible that the very reality of fuch an astonishing tranfaction should not cause fome degree of alarm, and incite to fome fort of enquiry. It was not at all feemly, at a moment when the company itself was fo diftreffed, as to require a fufpenfion, by act of parliament, of the payment of bills drawn on them from India-and also a direct tax upon every houfe in England, in order to facilitate the vent of their goods, and to avoid instant insolvency-at that very moment that their fervants fhould appear in fo flourishing a condition, as, besides ten million of other demands on their mafters, to be entitled to claim a debt of three or four millions more from the territorial revenue of one of their dependent princes. The oftenfible pecuniary transfactions of the nabob of Arcot, with very private perfons, are fo enormous, that they evidently set aside every pretence of policy, which might induce a prudent government in fome inftances to wink at ordinary loose practice in ill-managed departments. No caution could be too great in handling this matter; no scrutiny too exact. It was evidently the intereft, and as evidently at least in the power, of the creditors, by admitting fecret participation in this dark and undefined concern, to fpread corruption to the greatest and the most alarming extent. Thefe facts relative to the debts were fo notorious, the opinion of their being a principal fource of the disorders of the British government in India was fó undisputed and univerfal, that there was no party, no description of men in parliament, who did not think themselves bound, if not in honour and confcience, at leaft in common decency, to in3 I 2 stitute |