144 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
leading to one of the most invidious of those charges 
brought against the persecuted Governor-General, by 
which his enemies thought to accomplish his ruin, — 
a short account of it may not be uninteresting to the 
reader. 
Cheit Singh was constituted Zemeendar of Benares 
by Mr. Hastings, in 1770, under stipulations which 
decidedly rendered it a feudal tenure. By the pro- 
visions of this tenure, he was to pay certain sums 
into the Company’s treasury, as occasion might require, 
for the protection which he enjoyed under their go- 
vernment. His father, Munsuram, originally pos- 
sessed but half of the small village of Gungapoor, in 
the province of Allahabad ; but, by gradual additions, 
and by the policy of a crafty ambition, he finally laid 
the foundation of the Zemeendary of Benares, which 
his son and successor, Bulwunt Singh, in thirty years, 
considerably enlarged, and increased greatly in import- 
ance. He, however, was much indebted for the ad- 
vancement of his prosperity and influence to the pro- 
tection of our government in India. Cheit Singh, his 
son, when he succeeded his father, was confirmed in 
the Zemeendary, and admitted to much more extensive 
privileges than had been before enjoyed by the pre- 
vious Zemeendars, through the intervention and under 
the especial sanction of Mr. Hastings, but upon the 
implied condition of his contributing to the exigencies 
of the government under which he ruled. He be- 
came a feudatory, not by a slavish compulsion, but by 
a wise choice, in order to avail himself of the ad- 
vantages which such a tenure secured, in guaranteeing 
to him the protection of the British Government. He 
