1775] DISPUTE WITH THE GOVERNOR OF THE MANILLAS. £ 1,238,575 200, 269 437,499 143 made by private trade was in addition to the enormous sums given. Lord Clive calculated the duty on salt, betel-nut, and tobacco at £100,000 per annum to the Company. This he supposed equal to half the profits of the trade itself; and if he was as near in this, as he was in his calculation of the 600,000 dewannee, which is a reasonable supposition, the 600,000 sum thus received from the inland trade in ten years would be two millions, which, added to the sum proved to be received, makes the whole sum to be £24,640,621 sterling.* 90,999 £3,167,342 To these sums are to be added £300,000 for Lord Clive's jaghire for ten years; and what was CHAPTER XXVIII. JUDGES APPOINTED IN BENGAL. -BALAMBANGAN.-INTERNAL DISSENSION AT MADRAS. To preserve coherency in our narrative of the unjust conquest of Tanjore, we have somewhat anticipated the course of events elsewhere. For the better exercise of justice in India, in March, 1774, "the king was pleased to grant, direct, and appoint," that there should be, within the factory of Fort William, at Calcutta, a court of record, which should be called "The Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William, in Bengal "-— the said court to consist of one principal judge, who shall be called the "Chief Justice," and three other judges, who should be called "Puisne Justices;" and he was pleased to appoint Elijah Impey, Esq., of Lincoln's Inn, to be Chief Justice; Robert Chambers, of the Middle Temple, Steven C. Le Maistre, of the Inner Temple, and John Temple of Lincoln's Inn, Esqs., to be Puisne Justices of this court, "with power to perform all civil, criminal, and ecclesiastical jurisdiction." In the midsummer of the same year the Company had a dispute with the Governor of the Manilas concerning their settlement at Balambangan, a rich and fertile island, fifteen miles distant from the northern extremity of Borneo, and to the west of Banguey Island. It is about fourteen miles long, by about four broad, and had been ceded by the King of Sulu to the Company, who built a factory upon it in 1773 under a Mr. Harboard. To the latter the Spanish governor of the Manilas sent a most peremptory message, that if he did not, immediately on receipt of the notice, retire with all the English who were with him on the island, he would send a sufficient force to bring him away, and destroy all such works and fortifications as he had erected." The petty King of Sulu had granted the Company this island as an act of gratitude. He had been at war with the Spaniards, and having been taken prisoner by them in a sea-fight, had been detained for thirteen years a captive at Manila, till our capture of that place; and the idea of a settlement on the island of Balambangan was warmly encouraged by the Governor and Council of Madras. ! Mr. Harboard declined to accede to the peremptory orders of the Spaniard, and it was urged, that by the Treaty of Munster in 1648 (the only treaty existing between the English and the Spaniards, which explains and regulates the rights and limits of the latter in the East Indies), the Spaniards had no right to extend their Asian navigation further than they had at that time. carried it; and consequently they could have no claim to the island of Balambangan. Nevertheless it was seized by the Sulu people at the instigation of the Spaniards, our people escaped with difficulty, and their property, to the value of £200,000, was destroyed or captured. The island remained uninhabited and desolate until 1803, when a new settlement was made upon it; but proving expensive, without promising to be of any real advantage, it was withdrawn, and once more the isle became a wilderness. In the year 1776 the Company's ships were ordered to complete their complement of men, "Hist. Transactions in the Indies," London, 1776. + Dalrymple's "Clear Proof," &c., 1774. was opened, both broadsides being engaged till night fell. By sunrise the conflict was renewed, and, sword in hand, Bruelle beat off many attempts to board him; but though the enemy, many of whose craft he had disabled, strove hard to cripple him by carrying away a mast, with both tiers of his guns spouting shot and fire, he bore under a press of sail right through them, and bearing on his course, reached Batavia safely on the 25th of January. When he left the Mahratta fleet astern, blood was dripping from all their scuppers, and amid the cries he heard were the voices of many he affirmed to be Europeans. In electing a new governor for Madras in 1775, the Court of Directors, whose attention had been so pointedly called by Sir Robert Fletcher and others, to the unjust and iniquitous affair of Tanjore, by a small majority carried the nomination of Mr. Rumbold; but it was afterwards voted at a Court of Proprietors, also by a small majority, that the directors should appoint Lord Pigot, who had signed the treaty of 1762, and had ever disapproved of all that had been done in infraction of it. The friend and correspondent of Clive, he had held the post of governor till 1763, when he returned to England a man of wealth, influence, and of the highest consideration, which had raised him first to a baronetcy, and then to an Irish peerage, as Baron Pigot of Patshul. He wished to reform the presidency of Madras, as his friend Clive had reformed that of Bengal. His election was secured; but before his departure from England, the Court of Directors "passed sentence of condemnation on the policy which had been pursued by the presidency, and declared their opinion that, on account of oppressions exercised by the Nabob of the Carnatic, the Tanjoreans would submit to any power rather than his." On the 11th of December, 1775, Lord Pigot took his seat as Governor of Madras at Fort St. George, and found, that in the matter confided to him, he was obstructed by all kinds of difficulties and intrigues, but the restoration of the Rajah Toolajee to his territories, as they existed in 1762, was keenly taken in hand by him. Yet some additions of importance were added to the old treaty of that year. The rajah was to bind himself to permit Tanjore to remain garrisoned by the Company's troops; to assign lands for their maintenance; to pay the tribute of the nabob, and assist that prince in war with such forces as he might require, with the concurrence of the Company. It was also arranged that, without the sanction of the latter, he should form no treaty with any foreign power. The luckless rajah, now a helpless prisoner, was only too glad-though by these terms reduced to vassalage-to submit to almost any stipulation that restored him to freedom and his territories; but the nabob took a very different view of the affair, though Lord Pigot held several interviews with him, and with delicacy broke the subject gradually. Tanjore, the nabob urged, belonged to him by right, and his claim thereto had been recognised by the King of Great Britain, who, in a letter delivered by his plenipotentiary, had congratulated him on the rapid success of his expedition against that place. Moreover, the rajah had forfeited all right to Tanjore by daring to alienate any portion of its territory, and by entering into treasonable correspondence with the enemies of the Company, of which he (the nabob) had ever been a faithful ally, and he begged the continuance of their friendship, with their favour and their pity upon his grey hairs. Yet this plausible Asiatic but a few months before, had been entertaining in secret the ambassadors of our foeman, Hyder Ali, with a glowing picture of the mutual delight to be experienced by them, when they should behold from his mansion in Madras, and "from the terrace on which they were then seated, the expulsion of the last infidel Englishman over the surf which foamed at their feet." * On finding that his hypocritical appeals were made in vain to Lord Pigot, the nabob urged his inability to pay his English creditors, to whom he was largely indebted, if the revenues of Tanjore, the chief source of this security, were taken from him. His next plea was delay; but, obviating every difficulty, Lord Pigot, after the subject had been fairly broached, lost no time in restoring the rajah, for the crops were then on the ground, and it was of the utmost importance that they should be reaped for his benefit. Under Colonel Harper, a body of the Company's troops, as a preliminary, entered the city of Tanjore, and, much to the disappointment of Sir Robert Fletcher, who had resumed the office of commanderin-chief at Madras, Lord Pigot took upon himself the honour of the re-instalment, the Council having invested him with full powers to do so. Lord Pigot entered the capital city on the 8th of April, 1776; the rajah's restoration was proclaimed amid salutes of artillery, and in the depth of his emotion in a glowing address that teemed with words of joy, he exclaimed, “Had I a thousand tongues, I could not express my gratitude." * Auber. 1776.] DISSENSIONS IN THE MADRAS COUNCIL. He was but too thankful to agree to the somewhat humiliating stipulations by which his throne was restored to him. He placed his whole territory under the protection of the Company's troops, and instead of assigning a grant of land for the maintenance of the garrison at Tanjore, he undertook to defray it by an annual payment of £160,000 sterling. Returning to Madras, Lord Pigot on the 5th of May reported to the Council his proceedings at Tanjore, and though approbation was expressed of them generally, it soon became obvious that much difference of opinion existed regarding the details, and "in this new shuffling of the cards, each party began to accuse the other of foul play, and of personal, and the most interested motives. Fierce quarrels ensued, and some of the revolutionary tricks which they had been playing in the divans of nabobs and rajahs came to be repeated in their own council chamber." A civil servant of the Company named Mr. Paul Benfield, whose salary was so small as to be inadequate for his ordinary expenses, now asserted that he held assignments of the revenues of Tanjore to the amount of £160,000 for money lent to Toolajee, and on the growing crops, to the value of £72,000, for cash lent to individuals. Lord Pigot on receiving this statement—a somewhat startling one to be made by an underpaid junior civilian-simply replied that he would lay it before the Council. The latter body requested Benfield's vouchers for this debt, but he had none to produce, and referred them to the records of the kutcherry, or office, for the obligations, and also to the nabob, who said he would acknowledge the debt; but when the £72,000 came to be scrutinised, it sank down to £12,000, and it was also found that Benfield was not the principal creditor, but the agent or representative of those creditors by whom the £12,000 had been lent; and then it became but too apparent that the whole claim was a gigantic attempt to swindle, got up too probably by a collusion with the nabob, to cheat the rajah. Upon this view, without asserting it, the Council acted, by deciding to decline compliance with Benfield's request, as the claims brought forward were totally unconnected with the government. This was on the 29th of May, and four days after, the inconsistent Council voted by a majority that the decision should be reconsidered, on the quibbling pretext that they thought Mr. Benfield had demanded payment, whereas it appeared that he merely requested it; and to make matters worse, they insulted Lord Pigot by deciding in opposition to him, that the nabob was entitled to 147 make assignments on Tanjore; that such documents were public claims, and that Toolajee be instructed to recognise the validity of all pledges in corn held by Benfield. Most violent were the dissensions which now ensued between Lord Pigot and the Council; and others followed fast. Colonel Harper had been left in command at Tanjore, but a Colonel Stuart chose to assert that the post, as the most important held by the Company's troops, was his in right of seniority; and in this matter, which a reference to the dates of their respective commissions would have set at rest, he was vigorously supported by Sir Robert Fletcher, who still cherished his grudge against Lord Pigot, and "who, having found himself once more in his proper element, in the midst of strife, had leagued with the majority.” The necessity for a European resident at Tanjore was generally admitted; but the nomination caused violent discussion. Mr. Russell was proposed by Lord Pigot, who thought that gentleman would carry out his own proper plans; and because he did so, others in a spirit of opposition proposed that Colonel Stuart should hold the joint offices of civil, or resident, and military commandant; and consequently he was at once appointed. More violent and unseemly disputes occurred for several days, before Colonel Stuart's instructions were approved of, and an order was issued to Colonel Harper desiring him to hand over his command at Tanjore to that officer. The president refused to sign either the instructions or the order, and until he did so the two documents were valueless. On the 22nd of August the Council met again, when the old majority produced a minute containing a series of proposals to the effect "that the vote of the majority constitutes an act of government, without the concurrence of the president by signature or otherwise, and that it was unconstitutional for the president to refuse either to put the question or to execute the decisions of the majority." Lord Pigot proposed on all the petty matters in dispute, to refer to the Court of Directors; but this idea was not accepted, and the majority resolved that if his lordship still persisted in declining to sign the required papers, that the secretary should do so in the name of the Council; and on this, the most extraordinary proceedings took place. After the order empowering the secretary to act thus was fully written out, and two of the Council had appended their signatures thereto, Lord Pigot seized the document, and drawing forth another, said that he had a charge to present. |