44 
being taken off by preferment, and not 
by an axe,) but the wiser king thought 
that so able a patriot would be an use- 
ful courtier, and that he who could do 
so well at the bar might do more at the 
bench.” He accordingly was made a 
judge, and knighted; after which we 
learn that no one ‘was so firm to the 
prince’s prerogative.” 
ORIGINAL LETTER OF MR. TOPPING TO 
DR. LIND, ON THE STATE OF INDIA 
IN 1786. 
Madras ; 12th January, 1786. 
My dear Doctor, 
I have now been at this place, my 
dear friend, near five months, for I 
landed at Pondicherry the 18th of 
August last, after an unpleasant pas- 
sage, in a dirty French ship, of four 
and a half months, from L’Orient. 
Cavall has, I dare say, told you of the 
unfortunate loss of all my baggage in 
conveying it from London to the ship ; 
and how my telescope and sextant, 
with a collection of the best instruments 
that could be got went to the bottom, 
All this and more I wrote home ac- 
counts of some time ago, and do assure 
you [have felt and still feel the loss 
very severely, as you know nothing is 
to be got of that nature here. I had, 
however, a small sextant and a time- 
keeper by Arnold, both excellent, on 
the voyage with me; and I dare say, 
when you see Dalrymple, he will tell 
you that I did not neglect to make use 
of them. 
This country, my friend, is no lon- 
ger what it was, when you saw it. The 
war of 1780, the immediate effects of 
the villainy of that monster Rumbold 
has entirely desolated it. The reve- 
nues are diminished to near one-third 
of what they formerly were, although 
the poor inhabitants (now few in num- 
ber) are loaded with oppressive and 
impolitic taxes; for it is generally 
estimated that nine-tenths of the late 
population is now lost to the Carnatic. 
The greater part of these poor unfortu- 
‘nate creatures perished by famine, 
many fell by the sword, and a very 
considerable number were carried 
away by Hyder and Tippoo, to depo- 
pulate this, and increase the power 
and opulence of their own dominions. 
The mock-examination into Rumbold’s 
conduct, exhibited before the House 
of Commons, is a melancholy proof 
that no justice can preponderate in the 
scale against gold; and the enormous 
sum that merciless and insatiate wretch 
took, by every act of mean treachery 
Stephensiana, No. X. 
[Aug f,. 
or arbitrary violence, from the deftnce- 
less people of this unhappy country, 
enabled him to buy up all the virtue of 
those appointed to examine into his 
past conduct, as the reports those gen- 
tlemen gave in sufliciently demon- 
strate. 
There is not a man in this country, 
either European or native, that is not 
unanimous in execrating the flagitious 
author of so much misery to the inno- 
cent. And many persons are still 
ready to prove that Rumbold by his 
rapacity and mad extortion, brought 
Hyder, in 1780, into the Carnatic. 
He sent to demand ten lack of pagodas 
of that prince, at a time when the 
country, by his former base practices, 
was rendered defenceless ; for the na- 
bob, my friend, had seven regiments 
of cavalry in his pay, all which he was 
obliged to disband to gratify the private 
demands of Rumbold for money; and 
it is well-known that a country invaded 
by horse cannot be protected without 
cavalry. It would be entering upon a 
long and affecting scene were I to open 
to you every thing I have at different 
times heard of the late troubles and 
their causes. Their great spring was 
the rapacity of Rumbold. I heard a 
man of respectable authority declare 
the other day that he could prove that 
Rumbold had received in hard money 
from the Nabob alone, sixteen lack of 
pagodas, i. e. £640,000 sterling, be 
sides what he had nefariously obtained 
from the Rajah of Tanjour, Sitteram, 
Rauze, and others. 
Extravagant and incredible as these 
things may appear to you in England, 
there is no person here of the slightest 
insight that does not believe them to 
be strictly true; and, although invita- 
tions have been sent out to people in 
India to declare what they knew; and 
other pretended attempts have been 
made to come at the truth; yet with so 
little good-will has the business been 
undertaken, that villainy has hitherto 
come off triumphant. Were, however, 
proper persons, with proper and well- 
supported authorities, independent and 
unconnected with any one here, charged 
with the investigation of the business 
just mentioned, I will take upon me 
to affirm that their endeavours to come 
at facts, and to render justice, would 
not prove inefficacious in the end. 
Your old friend, the Nabob, is now 
superannuated—I mean as to inéel- 
lectual faculties, which are either gone 
entirely, or entirely drowned jn vene- 
real 
