The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 03 (of 12)

10th May.

Being asked, What he thinks the real clear receipt of the revenues of Tanjore were worth when he left it? he said, He cannot say what was the net amount, as he does not know the expense of the Rajah's collection; but while he was at Tanjore, he understood from the Rajah himself, and from his ministers, that the gross collection did not exceed nine lacs of pagodas (360,000l.).—Being asked, Whether he thinks the country could pay the eight lacs of pagodas which had been demanded to be paid in the course of one year? he said, Clearly not.—Being asked, Whether there was not an attempt made to remove the Rajah's minister, upon some delay in payment of the deposit? he said, The Governor of Madras wrote to that effect, which he represented to the Rajah.—Being asked, Who was mentioned to succeed to the minister that then was, in case he should be removed? he said, When Sir Hector Munro came afterwards to Tanjore, the old daubiere was mentioned, and recommended to the Rajah as successor to his then dewan.—Being asked, Of what age was the daubiere at that time? he said, Of a very great age: upwards of fourscore.—Being asked, Whether a person called Kanonga Saba Pilla was not likewise named? he said, Yes, he was: he was recommended by Sir Thomas Rumbold; and one recommendation, as well as I can recollect, went through me.—Being asked, What was the reason of his being recommended? he said, He undertook to pay off the Rajah's debts, and to give security for the regular payment of the Rajah's instalments to the Company.—Being asked, Whether he offered to give any security for preserving the country from oppression, and for supporting the dignity of the Rajah and his people? he said, He does not know that he did, or that it was asked of him.—Being asked, Whether he was a person agreeable to the Rajah? he said, He was not.—Being asked, Whether he was not a person who had fled out of the country to avoid the resentment of the Rajah? he said, He was.—Being asked, Whether he was not charged by the Rajah with malpractices, and breach of trust relative to his effects? he said, He was; but he told the Governor that he would account for his conduct, and explain everything to the satisfaction of the Rajah.—Being asked, Whether the Rajah did not consider this man as in the interest of his enemies, and particularly of the Nabob of Arcot and Mr. Benfield? he said, He does not recollect that he did mention that to him: he remembers to have heard him complain of a transaction between Kanonga Saba Pilla and Mr. Benfield; but he told him he had been guilty of a variety of malpractices in his administration, that he had oppressed the people, and defrauded him.—Being asked, In what branch of business the Rajah had formerly employed him? he said, He was at one time, he believes, renter of the whole country, was supposed to have great influence with the Rajah, and was in fact dewan some time.—Being asked, Whether the nomination of that man was not particularly odious to the Rajah? he said, He found the Rajah's mind so exceedingly averse to that man, that he believes he would almost as soon have submitted to his being deposed as to submit to the nomination of that man to be his prime-minister.

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1

Right Honorable Henry Dundas.

2

Sir Thomas Rumbold, late Governor of Madras.

3

Appendix, No. 1.

4

The whole of the net Irish hereditary revenue is, on a medium of the last seven years, about 330,000l. yearly. The revenues of all denominations fall short more than 150,000l. yearly of the charges. On the present produce, if Mr. Pitt's scheme was to take place, he might gain from seven to ten thousand pounds a year.

5

Mr. Smith's Examination before the Select Committee. Appendix, No. 2.

6

Appendix, No. 2.

7

Fourth Report, Mr. Dundas's Committee, p. 4.

8

A witness examined before the Committee of Secrecy says that eighteen per cent was the usual interest, but he had heard that more had been given. The above is the account which Mr. B. received.

9

Mr. Dundas.

10

For the threats of the creditors, and total subversion of the authority of the Company in favor of the Nabob's power and the increase thereby of his evil dispositions, and the great derangement of all public concerns, see Select Committee Fort St. George's letters, 21st November, 1769, and January 31st, 1770; September 11, 1772; and Governor Bourchier's letters to the Nabob of Arcot, 21st November, 1769, and December 9th, 1769.

11

"He [the Nabob] is in a great degree the cause of our present inability, by diverting the revenues of the Carnatic through private channels." "Even this peshcush [the Tanjore tribute], circumstanced as he and we are, he has assigned over to others, who now set themselves in opposition to the Company."—Consultations, October 11, 1769, on the 12th communicated to the Nabob.

12

Nabob's letter to Governor Palk. Papers published by the Directors in 1775; and papers printed by the same authority, 1781.

13

See papers printed by order of a General Court in 1780, pp. 222 and 224; as also Nabob's letter to Governor Dupré, 19th July, 1771: "I have taken up loans by which I have suffered a loss of upwards of a crore of pagodas [four millions sterling] by interest on an heavy interest." Letter 15th January, 1772: "Notwithstanding I have taken much trouble, and have made many payments to my creditors, yet the load of my debt, which became so great by interest and compound interest, is not cleared."

14

The Nabob of Arcot.

15

Appendix, No. 3.

16

See Mr. Dundas's 1st, 2d, and 3d Reports.

17

See further Consultations, 3d February, 1778.

18

Mr. Dundas's 1st Report, pp. 26, 29, and Appendix, No. 2, 10, 18, for the mutinous state and desertion of the Nabob's troops for want of pay. See also Report IV. of the same committee.

19

Memorial from the creditors to the Governor and Council, 22d January, 1770.

20

In the year 1778, Mr. James Call, one of the proprietors of this specific debt, was actually mayor. (Appendix to 2d Report of Mr. Dundas's committee, No. 65.) The only proof which appeared on the inquiry instituted in the General Court of 1781 was an affidavit of the lenders themselves, deposing (what nobody ever denied) that they had engaged and agreed to pay—not that they had paid—the sum of 160,000l. This was two years after the transaction; and the affidavit is made before George Proctor, mayor, an attorney for certain of the old creditors.—Proceedings of the President and Council of Fort St. George, 22d February, 1779.

21

Right Honorable Henry Dundas.

22

Appendix to the 4th Report of Mr. Dundas's committee, No 15.

23

"No sense of the common danger, in case of a war, can prevail on him [the Nabob of Arcot] to furnish the Company with what is absolutely necessary to assemble an army, though it is beyond a doubt that money to a large amount is now hoarded up in his coffers at Chepauk; and tunkaws are granted to individuals, upon some of his most valuable countries, for payment of part of those debts which he has contracted, and which certainly will not bear inspection, as neither debtor nor creditors have ever had the confidence to submit the accounts to our examination, though they expressed a wish to consolidate the debts under the auspices of this government, agreeably to a plan they had formed."—Madras Consultations, 20th July, 1778. Mr. Dundas's Appendix to 2nd Report, 143. See also last Appendix to ditto Report, No. 376, B.

24

Transcriber's note: Footnote missing in original text.

25

Lord Pigot

26

In Sir Thomas Rumbold's letter to the Court of Directors, March 15th, 1778, he represents it as higher, in the following manner:—"How shall I paint to you my astonishment, on my arrival here, when I was informed, that, independent of this four lacs of pagodas [the Cavalry Loan], independent of the Nabob's debt to his old creditors, and the money due to the Company, he had contracted a debt to the enormous amount of sixty-three lacs of pagodas [2,520,000l.]. I mention this circumstance to you with horror; for the creditors being in general servants of the Company renders my task, on the part of the Company, difficult and invidious." "I have freed the sanction of this government from so corrupt a transaction. It is in my mind the most venal of all proceedings to give the Company's protection to debts that cannot bear the light; and though it appears exceedingly alarming, that a country on which you are to depend for resources should be so involved as to be nearly three years' revenue in debt,—in a country, too, where one year's revenue can never be called secure, by men who know anything of the politics of this part of India." "I think it proper to mention to you, that, although the Nabob reports his private debt to amount to upwards of sixty lacs, yet I understand that it is not quite so much." Afterwards Sir Thomas Rumbold recommended this debt to the favorable attention of the Company, but without any sufficient reason for his change of disposition. However, he went no further.

27

Nabob's proposals, November 25th, 1778; and memorial of the creditors, March 1st, 1779.

28

Nabob's proposals to his new consolidated creditors, November 25th, 1778.

29

Paper signed by the Nabob, 6th January, 1780.

30

Kistbundi to July 31, 1780.

31

Governor's letter to the Nabob, 25th July, 1779.

32

Report of the Select Committee, Madras Consultations, January 7, 1771. See also papers published by the order of the Court of Directors in 1776; and Lord Macartney's correspondence with Mr. Hastings and the Nabob of Arcot. See also Mr. Dundas's Appendix, No 376, B. Nabob's propositions through Mr. Sulivan and Assam Khân, Art. 6, and indeed the whole.

33

"The principal object of the expedition is, to get money from Tanjore to pay the Nabob's debt: if a surplus, to be applied in discharge of the Nabob's debts to his private creditors." (Consultations, March 20, 1771; and for further lights, Consultations, 12th June, 1771.) "We are alarmed lest this debt to individuals should have been the real motive for the aggrandizement of Mahomed Ali [the Nabob of Arcot], and that we are plunged into a war to put him in possession of the Mysore revenues for the discharge of the debt."—Letter from the Directors, March 17, 1769.

34

Letter from the Nabob, May 1st, 1768; and ditto, 24th April, 1770, 1st October; ditto, 16th September, 1772, 16th March, 1773.

35

Letter from the Presidency at Madras to the Court of Directors, 27th June, 1769.

36

Mr. Dundas's committee. Report L, Appendix, No. 29.

37

Appendix, No. 4. Report of the Committee of Assigned Revenue.

38

Mr. Barnard's map of the Jaghire

39

See Report IV., Mr. Dundas's committee, p. 46.

40

Interest is rated in India by the month.

41

Mr. Dundas's committee. Rep. I. p. 9, and ditto, Rep. IV. 69, where the revenue of 1777 stated only at 22 lacs,—30 lacs stated as the revenue, "supposing the Carnatic to be properly managed."

42

See Appendix, No. 4. statement in the Report of the Committee of Assigned Revenue.

43

The province of Tinnevelly.

44

Appendix, No. 5.

45

See extract of their letter in the Appendix, No. 9.

46

"It is certain that the incursion of a few of Hyder's horse into the Jaghire, in 1767, cost the Company upwards of pagodas 27,000, in allowances for damages."—Consultations, February 11th, 1771.

47

Proceeding at Madras, 11th February, 1769, and throughout the correspondence on this subject; particularly Consultations, October 4th, 1769, and the creditors' memorial, 20th January, 1770.

48

Appendix, No. 7.

49

For some part of these usurious transactions, see Consultation, 28th January, 1781; and for the Nabob's excusing his oppressions on account of these debts, Consultation, 26th November, 1770. "Still I undertook, first, the payment of the money belonging to the Company, who are my kind friends, and by borrowing, and mortgaging my jewels, &c., by taking from every one of my servants, in proportion to their circumstances, by fresh severities also on my country, notwithstanding its distressed state, as you know."—The Board's remark is as follows: after controverting some of the facts, they say, "That his countries are oppressed is most certain, but not from real necessity; his debts, indeed, have afforded him a constant pretence for using severities and cruel oppressions."

50

See Consultation, 28th January, 1781, where it is asserted, and not denied, that the Nabob's farmers of revenue seldom continue for three months together. From this the state of the country may be easily judged of.

51

In Mr. Fox's speech.

52

The amended letter, Appendix, No. 9.

53

Appendix, No. 8.

54

Mr. Petrie's evidence before the Select Committee, Appendix, No. 7.

55

Appendix, No. 7.

56

Mr. Dundas.

57

See Report IV., Committee of Secrecy, pp. 73 and 74; and Appendix, in sundry places.

58

Mr. Smith's protest.

59

Madras correspondence on this subject.

60

Appendix, No 6.

61

Right Honorable William Pitt.

62

Appendix, No. 10.

63

Dated 13th October. For further illustration of the style in which these letters were written, and the principles on which they proceed, see letters from the Nabob to the Court of Directors, dated August 16th and September 7th, 1783, delivered by Mr. James Macpherson, minister to the Nabob, January 14, 1784. Appendix, No. 10.

64

Appendix, No. 6.

65

Second Report of Select (General Smith's) Committee.

66

Mr. Dundas.

67

Six Reports of the Committee of Secrecy.