Book V.

1776.

Among the regulations of the financial system, formed and adopted in 1772, under the authority of Mr. Hastings, the seventeenth article was exThe law gross- pressed in the following words; "That no Peshcar, Banyan, or other servant ly violated in favour of Mr. of whatever denomination, of the collector, or relation or dependant of any such Hastings's Banyan.

servant, be allowed to farm lands, nor directly or indirectly to hold a concern
in any farm, nor to be security for any farmer; and if it shall appear, that the
collector shall have countenanced, approved, or connived at a breach of this
regulation, he shall stand ipso facto dismissed from his collectorship." These
regulations had the advantage of being accompanied with a running commen-
tary, in a corresponding column of the very page which contained the text of
the law; the commentary proceeding from the same authority as the law, and
exhibiting the reasons on which it was founded. The commentary on the
article in question, stated, that, "If the collector or any persons who partake
of his authority, are permitted to be farmers of the country, no other persons
will dare to be their competitors. Of course they will obtain the farms on their
own terms. It is not fit that the servants of the Company should be dealers
with their masters. The collectors are checks on the farmers. If they them-
selves turn farmers, what checks can be found for them? What security will
the Company have for their property? Or where are the ryots to look for pro-
tection ? "*
Notwithstanding this law, it appeared that Mr. Hastings's own
Banyan had, in the year 1773, possessed, or was concerned in the farm of no
less than nineteen pergunnahs, or districts, in different parts of Bengal, the
united rent-roll of which was 13,33,664 rupees; that in 1774, the rent-roll of
the territory so farmed was 13,46,152 rupees; in 1775, 13,67,796 rupees; that
for 1776, it was fixed at 13,88,346 rupees; and for 1777, the last year of the
existing or quinquennial settlement, it was fixed it 14,11,885. It also appeared
that, at the end of the second year, he was allowed to relinquish three of the
farms, on which there was an increasing rent. This proceeding was severely
condemned by the Directors; and Mr. Hastings himself, beyond affirming that

against Hastings, No. 8, and Hastings's Answer to the Eighth Charge, with the Minutes of Evidence on the Trial, p. 953-1001; and the Charges against Sir Elijah Impey, exhibited to the House of Commons by Sir Gilbert Elliot, in 1787, with the Speech of Impey, in reply to the first charge, printed, with an Appendix, by Stockdale, in 1788. For the execution and behaviour of Nuncomar, see a very interesting account, written by the sheriff who superintended, and printed in Dodsley's Annual Register for 1788, Historical part, p. 177.

* Sixth Report of the Committee of Secrecy, in 1773; Bengal Consultations, 14th May, 1772, p. 18.

he had no share in the profits, and that little or none were made, alleged but CHAP. II. little in its defence.*

1776. Reza Khan

tion and

For the affairs of the Nabob, and the business of government, still transacted Mahomed in his name, a substitute to Munny Begum, and to the plan superseded by her restored to his removal, was urgently required. In their letter of the 3d of March, 1775, the former situaDirectors had declared Mahomed Reza Khan so honourably cleared of the sus- power. picions and charges with which he had been clouded, and Nuncomar so disgraced by his unworthy attempts to destroy him, that they directed his son, who was no more than the tool of the father, to be removed from his office; and Mahomed Reza Khan to be appointed in his stead. It is remarkable, that the Directors were so ignorant of the government of India, which it belonged to them to conduct, that the name of the office of Gourdass, who was the agent for paying the Nabob's servants, and the substitute for Munny Begum, when any of the affairs was to be transacted to which the fiction of the Nabob's authority was still applied, they mistook for that of the officer who was no more than the head of the native clerks in the office of revenue at Calcutta. When they directed Gourdass to be replaced by Mahomed Reza, they distinguished him by the title of Roy Royan; and thence enlarged the ground of cavil and dispute between the contending parties in the Council. Clavering, Francis, and Monson, decided for uniting in the hands of Mahomed Reza Khan the functions which had been divided between Munny Begum and Rajah Gourdass; and as Rajah Gourdass, notwithstanding the prejudices against his father, was recommended by the Directors to some inferior office, the same party proposed to make him Roy Royan, and to remove Rajah Bullub, the son of Dooloob Ram, by whom that office had hitherto been held.

There was another subject of great importance. As the penal department of justice was ill administered in the present Fousdary courts, (that branch of the late arrangements had totally failed); and as the superintendance of criminal justice, entrusted to the Governor-General, as head of the Nizamut Adaulut, or Supreme Penal Court of Calcutta, loaded him with a weight of business, and of responsibility, from which he sought to be relieved, the majority agreed to restore to Mahomed Reza Khan, the superintendence of penal justice, and of the native penal courts throughout the country; and for that purpose to remove the seat of the Nizamut Adaulut from Calcutta back to

* Extract of Bengal Revenue Consultations, 17th March, 1775; Parliamentary Papers, printed in 1787; see also the Fifteenth of the Charges exhibited to Parliament against Warren Hastings, Esq. and his Answer to the same.

1776.

BOOK V. Moorshedabad. The Governor-General agreed that the orders of the Directors required the removal of Gourdass from the office which he held under Munny Begum, and the appointment to that office of Mahomed Reza Khan; but he dissented from all the other parts of the proposed arrangement; and treated the renewal of the title of Naib Subah, and the affectation of still recognizing the Nabob's government, as idle grimace. "All the arts of policy cannot," he said, "conceal the power by which these provinces are ruled, nor can all the arts of sophistry avail to transfer the responsibility to the Nabob; when it is as visible as the light of the sun, that every act originates from our own government, that the Nabob is a mere pageant without the shadow of authority, and even his most consequential agents receive their express nomination from the servants of the Company." The opposing party, however, thought it would be still political, to uphold the pretext of " a country government," for managing all discussions with foreign factories. And if ultimately it should, they say, "be necessary to maintain the authority of the country government by force, the Nabob will call upon us for that assistance, which we are bound by treaty to afford him, and which may be effectually employed in his name." That party possessed the majority of votes, and their schemes, of course, were carried into execution. †

* How strange a language this from the pen of the man, who, but a few months before, had represented the power of the shadow of this shadow, the Naib Subah, as too great to exist with safety to the Company in the hands of any man.

+ Fifth Report of the Select Committee in 1781; and the Bengal Consultations in the Appendix, No. 6.

CHAP. III.

Deliberations on a new Plan for collecting the Revenue, and administering
Justice-Death of Colonel Monson, and recovery by Mr. Hastings of the
governing Power-Plan, by Mr. Hastings, for inquiring into the Sources
of Revenue-The Taxes levied by annual Settlements-Resignation of
Hastings, tendered by an Agent, whom he disowns-Transactions of Mr.
Hastings, in the Cases of Mr. Middleton, Mr. Fowke, and Munny
Begum-The Directors, ordering the Transactions to be reversed, are dis-
obeyed-Relations with the Mahrattas-A Detachment of the Bengal
Army sent across India to Surat-Expedition from Bombay against Poona
-Unsuccessful-Fruitless Negotiation with the Mahrattas-Goddard's
Campaign against the Mahrattas-Connexion with the Ranna of Gohud-
Mr. Francis fights a Duel with Mr. Hastings, and returns to Europe.

THE state of the regulations for collecting the revenue had for some time CHAP. III. pressed upon the attention of the government. The lease of five years, on 1776. which the revenues had been farmed in 1772, was drawing to a close, and it was New regulanecessary to determine what sort of course should then be pursued. To remedy for collecting tions required evils, which delayed not to make themselves perceived, in the regulations of 1772, the revenue. a considerable change had been introduced in 1773: The superintendence of the collectors was abolished: The provinces (Chittagong and Tipperah remaining under the original sort of management, that of a chief) were formed into six grand divisions, Calcutta, Burdwan, Moorshedabad, Dinagepore, Dacca, and Patna: In each of these divisions (Calcutta excepted, for which two members of the council and three superior servants, under the name of a committee of revenue, were appointed) a council was formed, consisting of a chief and four senior servants, to whom powers were confided, the same, in general, with those formerly enjoyed by the collectors: They exercised a command over all the officers and affairs of revenue, within the division: The members superintended in rotation the civil courts of justice, called Sudder Adaulut: The councils appointed deputies, or naibs, to the subordinate districts of the division: These naibs, who were natives, and called also aumils, both superintended the

1776.

Book V. work of realizing the revenue, and held courts of fiscal judicature, called Courts of Duanee Adaulut: The decisions of these courts were subject by appeal to the review of the provincial courts of Sudder Adaulut; which decided in the last resort to the value of 1000 rupees, but under appeal to the Court of Sudder Duanee Adaulut at Calcutta, in all cases which exceeded that amount. Even this scheme was declared to be only intermediate, and preparatory to an ultimate measure, according to which; while the local management, except in those districts which might be let entire to the Zemindars, or responsible farmers, should be performed by a duan, or aumil; a committee of revenue, sitting at the Presidency, should form a grand revenue office, and superintend the whole collections of the country. Such were the alterations adopted in 1773.

Accusations brought against the

mode of collection adopted by Hastings in 1772 and 1773.

At an early period, under the five years' settlement, it was perceived that the farmers of the revenue had contracted for more than they were able to pay. The collections fell short of the engagements even for the first year; and the farms had been let upon a progressive rent. The Governor-General was now accused by his colleagues of having deceived his honourable masters by holding up to their hopes a revenue which could not be obtained. He defended himself by a plea which had, it cannot be denied, considerable weight: It was natural to suppose that the natives were acquainted with the value of the lands, and other sources of the revenue; and that a regard to their own interests would prevent them from engaging for more than those sources would afford. It was contended with no less justice on the other side, that there was a class of persons who had nothing to lose; to whom the handling of the revenues and power over those who paid them, though for a single year, was an object of desire; and whom, as they had no intention to pay what they promised, the extent of the promise could not restrain.

The failure of exaggerated hopes was not the only evil whereof the farm by auction was accused. The Zemindars; through whose agency the revenues of the districts had formerly been realized, and whose office and authority had generally grown into hereditary possessions, comprising both an estate and a magistracy, or even a species of sovereignty, when the territory and jurisdiction were large; were either thrown out of their possessions; or, from an ambition to hold the situation, which had given opulence and rank to their families, perhaps for generations, they bid for the taxes more than the taxes could enable them to pay; and reduced themselves by the bargain to poverty and ruin.

* Sixth Report of the Select Committee, 1781, Appendix, No. 1.