1843.] Mineral Resources of India. 545 



to have been fixed only with respect to existing aurungs : new ones 

 might be founded and brought into operation by the enterprize of 

 individuals on their payment of a consideration to Government. The 

 farmers of the existing aurungs, among whom the Rajah of Beerbhoom 

 was the principal one without comparison, do not seem to have been 

 at all consulted as to the lease. They could not therefore have had 

 any right to the mineral product beyond what was specifically grant- 

 ed by Government, for the amount of consideration received. I am 

 anxious to draw attention to this fact, as this very pergunna of Mul- 

 larpore became subsequently the scene of a hotly contested law- suit, 

 involving the tenures of these loha mahals. 



The next attempt was more fortunate. It was by Messrs. Motte 

 and Farquhar. In all similar transactions of that period, one partner 

 was, for obvious reasons, chosen from among the influential residents 

 of Calcutta. His watchful presence at the focus of intrigue was 

 required to defeat the machinations of interested parties, and enable the 

 others, the working bees, to pursue their speculations in comparative 

 quietness. To this patron, his clients could with ease afford a share of 

 the proceeds at a time when the profits of trade were enormous, and he 

 returned them, what was then indispensable — political protection. 

 Thomas Motte, the patron of the firm in the present case, was the 

 Superintendent of Police in the city, and an intimate friend of Warren 

 Hastings. He had been employed in 1766 by Lord Clive, on a mission 

 to Sumbhulpore, to open a trade in diamonds with that country ; a previ- 

 ous attempt by Captain Mallock, under the direction of Henry Vansit- 

 tart having failed. Motte's endeavours were equally unsuccessful, — a 

 result which he attributed to the indolence of the inhabitants, and the 

 iron rule of the Mahrattas, who at the period held the country as 

 far as the Soobunreeka. An account, interesting in all its features, of 

 this expedition drawn up by Motte, appears in the Asiatic Annual 

 Register for 1799. He was an enterprising character, though he 

 did not seem to take much interest in the iron speculation about to 

 be narrated : and from some of the partizan pamphlets that were 

 showered about so thickly during Hastings' trial, I learn that he must 

 have died a little before it, broken in spirit and fortune. 



John Farquhar is not unfamiliarly known to many of my readers as the 

 individual who subsequently purchased Fonthill Abbey, from the cele- 



