ENGLAND. 7 61 
amiable and virtuous, and againft whom no delinquency 
was even pretended. The treafures of the Rannee being 
very confiderable, file was defirous to capitulate upon 
conditions, in order to fave fomething from the wreck of 
her fortunes. But Mr. Haflings wrote to the commander, 
major Popharn, “ 1 think every demand the Rannee lias 
made to you, except that of fafety and refpedt for her 
perfon, unreafonable. I apprehend that (lie will contrive 
to defraud the captors of a confiderable part of the booty, 
by being differed to retire without examination. But this 
is your confideration, and not mine. As to making any 
conditions with her fora provifion, I will never confent 
to it.” In a fecond letter he fays, “ If file delays the 
furrender beyond the term of twenty-four hours, it is my 
pofitive injunction that you put a flop to the negociation, 
and on no account renew it r nor will I grant her any con¬ 
ditions whatever; but leave herexpofed to thofe dangers 
flie has chofen to rifk, rather than trulh to the clemency 
and generofity of our government.” The caflle being 
accordingly furrendered within the time l'pecified, the 
articles of the capitulation, by which an allowance of 
fifteen per cent, was referved to the Rannee, were never- 
thelefs fliamefully and outrageoufly broken, the perfon 
of the Rannee and her attendants grofsly infulted, and 
their effects plundered. Notwithstanding the efforts and 
reprcfentations of major Pophani, the commander, a man 
of humanity and honour, no redrefs was obtained from 
the governor, who, now wholly intent upon the vindica¬ 
tion of his conduct, had caufed a great number of affida¬ 
vits and depolitions, aiming to prove the exigence of a 
confpiracy againft the Englifh government, to be taken 
by fir Elijah Impey, who happened at this time, in the 
courfe of an excurfion for the benefit of his health, to be 
fortunately refident at Benares. 
In his fubfequent narrative of this tranfaCtion to the 
court of directors, Mr. Haflings hefitated not to affert, 
“ that the rajah of Benares had no claim to the title or 
privileges of a prince ; that the deeds which palled be¬ 
tween him and the board, upon the transfer of the 
zemindary, in 1775, were not to be underftood to bear 
the quality and force of a treaty between equal ftates ; 
that the payments to be made by him were not a tri¬ 
bute, but a rent; that, being nothing more than a com¬ 
mon zemindar, he owed a perfonal allegiance, and an 
implicit and unreferved obedience, to the authority of 
the company, at the forfeiture of his zemindary, and even 
of his life and property.” Yet, perhaps, the records of 
hiflory do not exhibit a pofition more enormoufiy extra¬ 
vagant, than that the fovereign of a province in the in¬ 
terior parts of Hindoofiran, exercifing the powers of go¬ 
vernment over a happy and confenting people, fnould 
owe implicit and unreferved obedience to a company of 
traders inhabiting an ifland on the other fide of the globe ! 
After the depofition of the rajah Cheyt Sing, Mr. 
Haflings, in virtue of the commiflion with which he had 
inverted himfelf, inftantly exetcifed the fovereign autho¬ 
rity over the province of Benares. Setting alide all former 
agreements, though evidently made with the rajahs not 
in their perfonal but political capacity, he increafed the 
tribute, or dated rent-charge, from 260,000k to 400,000k 
per annum. Having bellowed the government on a youth, 
called Meliip Narrain, a defeendent by the mother from 
the rajah Bulwant Sing; lie, in addition to the tribute, 
imported filch heavy and grievous duties on merchandize, 
as threatened the abfolute annihilation of their commerce ; 
si targing moreover penlions on the revenues of the pro¬ 
vince, and fending large bodies of troops into the terri¬ 
tory of Benares, to be maintained by the oppreffed and 
impoverifhed inhabitants. The father of the new rajah, 
Durbitzee Sing, who was appointed guardian and admi- 
niftrator to his foil, was by Mr. Haflings, in a lhort time, 
deported from his office, on a vague and indefinite charge 
of mal-adminirtration and deficiency in his payments, and 
thrown into prifon. His property being confifcated, and 
Vol. VI. No. 389. 
his perfon endangered, he in a rtiort time died, over¬ 
whelmed with dirtrefs and ruin. 
“ When a new fyrtem was to be formed with the fuc- 
ceffior of Cheyt Sing, (fays Mr. Haflings,) I faw no ob¬ 
jection to making the company’s interefls my firft princi¬ 
ple of aCtion. The eafy accumulation of too much wealth 
had been Cheyt Sing’s ruin. It had buoyed him up 
with extravagant and ill-founded notions of independency, 
which I much wiflied to difeourage in the future rajah. 
Some part, therefore, of the fiiperabiindant produce of 
the country, I turned into the coffers of the company, by 
an augment .tion of the tribute.” Here the grand object 
of the British government in India, as adminiflered by 
Mr. Haflings, is undifguifedly avowed : the filling the 
company’s coffers w ith money, was by him held to be 
the firft principle of aftion. Happy would it indeed have 
been for the inhabitants of Hindocflan, if even this prin¬ 
ciple had been purfued by rational and politic means, 
fuch as would have fecured, unimpaired, the fources of 
profperity, though for the mere purpofe of fubfequent 
emolument. 
The treaty concluded in 1765 with the vizier Sujah ill 
Dowla, nabob of Oude, by the late lord Clive, left that 
province in a confiderable meafure dependent upon the 
company. From this period the decay and defolation of 
the vizierate commenced. The annual revenue, which was 
eftimated at more than three millions, had funk, in 1779, 
to lefs than or.e million and a half. The vizier had con¬ 
tracted to maintain, at his own expence, a brigade of the 
company’s troops in his fervice, for fo long time as he might 
deem them neceffiry for the defence of his country. But 
the court of directors, in their letter to the governor and 
council, of the 15th of December, 1775, exprefsly fay, “ If 
you intend to exert your influence, firft to induce the vi¬ 
zier to acquiefce in your propofal, and afterwards to com¬ 
pel him to keep the troops in his pay during your plea- 
fure, your intents are unjuft, and a correfpondent conduft 
would reflect great diftionour on the company.” In the 
mean while, the nabob Afoph ul Dotvla, who had fuc- 
ceeded his father in the vizierate, February, 1775, making 
very earned fupplication to be relieved from this burden, 
which the reduced date of his revenue rendered him ut¬ 
terly unable to fuppovt; Mr. Haftings declared, “ the 
relief defired was totally inadmiffiblefurther affirming, 
“ that the tone in which the demands of the nabob were 
afferted, gave caufe for the moft alarming fufpicions 
though it is difficult to conceive how language more fub- 
miftive and humble could have been adopted. 
“ During three years, (fays the nabob,), the expence 
occafioned by the troops in brigade, and others com¬ 
manded by European officers, has much diftreffed the 
fupport of my houfehold, infomuch that the allowances 
made to the l'eraglio and children of the decealed nabob, 
have been reduced to one-fourth of what it had been. 
The attendants and fervants of my court have received no 
pay for two years pall, and applications from my father’s 
private creditors are daily preffing upon me. All thefe 
difficulties I have for three years ftruggled through, and 
found this confolation therein, that it was complying 
with the plealwre of the honourable company, and in the 
hope that the fupreme council would make enquiry, from 
impartial perfons, into my diftrerted fituation: but I am 
now forced to a reprefentation. From the great increafe 
of expence, the revenues were neceffarily farmed out at 
a high rate, and deficiencies have followed yearly, till the 
whole country and cultivation is abandoned.” 
In 1781, a commiflion of delegation having been exe¬ 
cuted at Calcutta, inverting Mr. Haftings with the entire 
powers of the fupreme council, the governor-general re- 
folved to vifit the^ province in perfon. At a meeting 
which took place at Chunar, on the confines of Benares, 
a lecret treaty was concluded by the governor with the 
vizier, containing feveral articles of .1 very extraordinary 
nature. By this the claims upon the nabob, on various 
9 H grounds 
