CHAP. VII.

Journey of the Governor-General to the Upper Provinces-History of the Company's Connexions with the Rajah of Benares-Requisitions upon the Rajah-Resolution to relieve the Company's Necessities by forcible Exaction on the Rajah-The Governor-General arrives at Benares-The Rajah put under Arrest-A tumultuous Assemblage of the People-An Affray between them and the Soldiers-The Rajah escapes -War made upon him, and the Country subdued -Condemnation of Mr. Hastings by the Directors-Double Negotiation with the Mahrattas of Poonah-Treaty of Peace.

BOOK V. IT was immediately subsequent to these great changes CHAP. 7. in the financial and judicial departments of the go1781. vernment, that the celebrated journey of the Gover

nor-General to the Upper Provinces took place. Important as was the business, which at that time pressed upon the attention of the government, when war raged in the Carnatic, when the contest with the Mahrattas was carried on in two places at once, and when the Supreme Council was so greatly reduced in numbers that, upon the departure of the GovernorGeneral, one member alone, Mr. Wheler, was left to conduct the machine of government, it was to be concluded, that matters of great concernment had withdrawn the Governor-General from the principal scene of intelligence, of deliberation, and of action.

Rajah of Benares.

315

СНАР. 7.

The transactions which he had in view were chiefly BOOK V. those proceedings which he meditated with regard to the Rajah of Benares, and the Nabob of Oude. The 1781. government was distressed for money, and the intention was avowed of making those tributary Princes subservient to its supply. The Governor-General departed from Calcutta on the 7th of July, 1781, and arrived at Benares on the 14th of August. To understand the events which ensued, it is necessary to trace, from its origin, the connexion which subsisted between the English and the Rajah.

After the shock which the empire of the Great Mogul sustained by the invasion of Nadir Shah, when the subahdars and other governors, freed from the restraint of a powerful master, added to the territory, placed under their command, as much as they were able of the adjacent country, the city and district of Benares were reduced under subjection to the Nabob of Oude. This city, which was the principal seat of Brahmenical religion and learning, and to the native inhabitants an object of prodigious veneration and resort, appears, during the previous period of Mahomedan sway, to have remained under the immediate government of an Hindu. Whether, till the time at which it became an appanage to the Subah of Oude, it had ever been governed through the medium of any of the neighbouring viceroys, or had always paid its revenue immediately to the imperial treasury, does not certainly appear. With the exception of coining money, in his own name; a prerogative of majesty, which, as long as the throne retained its vigour, was not enfeebled by communication; and that of the administration of criminal justice, which the Nabob had withdrawn, the Rajah of Benares had always, it is probable, enjoyed and exercised all the powers of government, within his

BOOK V. own dominions. In 1764, when the war broke out CHAP. 7. between the English and the Subahdar of Oude, 1781. Bulwant Sing was Rajah of Benares, and, excepting

the payment of an annual tribute, was almost independent of that grasping chief, who meditated the reduction of Benares to the same species of dominion which he exercised over the province of Oude. The Rajah would gladly have seen the authority of the English substituted in Oude to that of the Vizir, whom he had so much occasion to dread. He offered to assist them with his forces; and, to anticipate all jealousy, from the idea of his aiming at independence, expressed his willingness to hold the country, subject to the same obligations under them, as it had sustained in the case of the Nabob; and so highly important was the service which he rendered to the Company, that the Directors expressed their sense of it in the strongest terms.1 When peace was concluded, the Rajah was secured from the effects of the Nabob's resentment and revenge, by an express article in the treaty, upon which the English insisted, and the guarantee of which they solemnly undertook. Upon the death of Bulwant Sing in the year 1770, the disposition of the Vizir to dispossess the family, and take the province into his own hands, was strongly displayed, but the English again interfered, and compelled the Vizir to confirm the succession to Cheyte Sing, the son of the late Rajah, and his posterity for ever, on the same terms, excepting a small rise in the annual payment, as those on which the country had been held by his father. In the year 1773, when Mr. Hastings paid his first visit to the Nabob of Oude, the preceding agreement was renewed and confirmed. "The Nabob," said Mr. Hastings,

In their Bengal Letter, 26th May, 1768.

English and the Rajah of Benares.

317

66

pressed me, in very earnest terms, for my consent, BOOK V. that he should dispossess the Rajah of the forts of CHAP. 7. Leteefgur and Bidgegur, and take from him ten lacs 1781. of rupees, over and above the stipulated rents; and he seemed greatly dissatisfied at my refusal." Mr. Hastings, however, insisted that all the advantages which had been secured to Bulwant Sing, and confirmed by the Nabob's own deed to Cheyte Sing, should be preserved; and he expressed, in the same letter, his opinion both of the faith of the Vizir, and the independence of the Rajah, in the following terms: "I am well convinced that the Rajah's inheritance, and perhaps his life, are no longer safe than while he enjoys the Company's protection; which is his due, by the ties of justice, and the obligations of public faith: and which policy enjoins us to afford him ever most effectually: his country is a strong barrier to ours, without subjecting us to any expence; and we may depend upon him as a sure ally, whenever we may stand in need of his services." It was established accordingly, that " no increase of revenue should ever thereafter be demanded."

When the Company's new government, established in 1774, resolved upon forming a new arrangement with the son and successor of the Vizir, lately deceased; the interest, whatever it was, which was possessed by the Vizir in the territory of the Rajah Cheyte Sing, was transferred from that chief to the Company. Upon this occasion, it was resolved, not only that no infringement should take place of the previous rights and privileges of the Rajah, but that other advantages should be annexed. Mr. Hastings took the lead in this determination; and earnestly

Secret Consultations, Fort William, 4th Oct. 1773; Extract of the Governor-General's Report; Second Report of the Select Committee, 1782, p. 12.

To pre

BOOK V. maintained the policy of rendering the Rajah totally CHAP. 7. independent in the government of Benares, under no1781. thing but the payment of a fixed and invariable tribute. To this, with only a nominal modification, the Council agreed. It was a primary object, professed by all, that the Rajah should be completely secured from all future encroachments, either upon his revenue, or his power; and an unanimous resolution was passed, that, so long as he discharged his engagements, "no more demands should be made upon him, by the Honourable Company, of any kind; nor, on any pretence whatsoever, should any person be allowed to interfere with his authority." clude all ground for such interference, the right of coining money, and of administering penal justice, was transferred to him. Mr. Hastings proposed that the Rajah should pay his tribute, not at his own capital of Benares, but at Patna, which was the nearest station for the business of government, within the territory of the Company. And the reason which he suggested is worthy of record: "If a resident was appointed to receive the money, as it became due, at Benares; such a resident would unavoidably acquire an influence over the Rajah, and over his country; which would in effect, render him master of both. This consequence might not, perhaps, be brought completely to pass, without a struggle; and many appeals to the Council, which, in a government constituted like this, cannot fail to terminate against the Rajah And, by the construction, to which his opposition to the agent would be liable, might eventually draw on him severer restrictions; and end in reducing him to the mean and depraved state of a mere zemindar." The chain of acknowledgments is in

Minute in Council of the Governor-General on the 12th of June 1775,