XXIX 



truth of which dailj experience convinces us. The system of oppres- 

 sion, which obtained in the last Government, and the frequency of 

 destructive wars, have entailed upon them a state of poverty from which 

 nothing but the operation of time, under the foatei'ing influence of 

 moderate taxation, mild laws and the impartial distribution of justice, 

 can relieve them. Far removed from the seat of Government and 

 seldom obtaining substantial redress, even though their complaints 

 should reach the throne, patient of injury because hopeless of relief, and 

 rarely possessing the means by which the venal award might be pro- 

 cured, they were subjected to the unrestrained hand of oppression, 

 which, insatiable in its grasp, preyed indiscriminately on their property, 

 palsied the very nerve of industry, and implanted in their minds a 

 distrust of the intentions of their rulers, which better treatment and 

 more attention to their circumstances have scarcely been able to eradi- 

 cate. The undistinguishing ravages of war, ever fatal to the industrious 

 husbandman, brought with them an accumulation of distress. Exposed 

 from their centrical situation to the incursions of contending armies and 

 the depredations of unprincipled Poligars, equall}^ mistrusting the power 

 that invaded and the friends who ought to protect them from violence, 

 they had no safety but in flight, no security but what was afforded by 

 inaccessible mountains, from the tops of which they beheld the destruc- 

 tion of their former habitations. — {Mr. Graham, Assistant Collector, 

 Salem District— 1797 .) 



Malabar (acquired in 1792 from Tippu Sultan). — '' Malabar," says 

 Mr. Brown, Commercial Resident, " when Hyder invaded it, was divided 

 into a number of petty Rajahships, the government of which being per- 

 fectly feudal, neither laws nor a system of revenue were known amongst 

 its inhabitants. Owing to the quarrels between the different rajahs 

 and the turbulent spirit of the Nair chiefs, who were frequently in arms 

 against each other, the state of the country was little favorable to the 

 introduction of order or good government. Malabar, however, was 

 then a country very rich in money. For ages the inhabitants have 

 been accumulating the precious metals that had been given them for the 

 produce of their gardens. Hyder's only object, in the cnnntries that he 

 conquered, was to acquire money, and, provided he got plenty of that, 

 he was very indifferent as to the means which his officers took to obtain 

 it. Immediately after the conquest of Malabar, vast sums were extorted 

 from its inhabitants by the military officers and by the Canarese Brah- 

 mins placed over the revenues. Of these extortions Hyder received a 

 share ; and no w^ant of a system of revenue was felt until these sources 

 began to fail. When he found the assets from Malabar fall short of its 

 charges, he listened to proposals from the rajahs to become tributaries. 

 An estimate of the revenue was made by the abovementioned Brahmins, 

 who, as many of them were to remain with the rajahs as spies on their 

 actions, took care that the estimate should be so formed as to leave a 

 large sum to be divided between them and the ra,jahs. By this new 

 order of things, these latter were vested with despotic authority over the 

 other inhabitants, instead of the very limited prerogatives that they 

 had enjoyed by the feudal system, under which they could neither 

 exact revenue from the lands of their vassals, nor exercise any direct 



