in such a style of lofty defpotism, as I believe has hitherto been unexampled and unheard-of in the records of the Eaft. The troops were continued. The gradual relief, whofe effect was to be fo dif tant, has never been fubftantially and beneficially applied-and the country is ruined.

Mr. Haftings, two years after, when it was too late, saw the abfolute neceffity of a removal of the intolerable grievance of this licentious foldiery, which, under pretence of defending it, held the country under military execution. A new treaty and arrangement, according to the pleasure of Mr. Haftings, took place, and this new treaty was broken in the old manner, in every effential article. The foldiery were again fent, and again fet loofe. The effect of all his manoeuvres, from which it seems he was fanguine enough to entertain hopes, upon the state of the country, he himfelf informs us, "the event has proved the reverse "of his hopes, and accumulation of distress, debafes

ment, and diffatisfaction to the nabob, and dif

appointment and difgrace to me.-Every measure [which he had himself propofed] has been fo "conducted as to give him caufe of difpleafure; "there are no officers established by which his af"fairs could be regularly conducted; mean, in"capable, and indigent men have been appointed. "A number of the diftricts without authority, "and without the means of perfonal protection;

"fome

"fome of them have been murdered by the ze"mindars, and those zemindars, instead of pu"nishment, have been permitted to retain their "zemindaries, with independent authority; all "the other zemindars fuffered to rise up in rebellion, and to infult the authority of the fircar, "without any attempt made to fupprefs them; "and the company's debt, instead of being dif charged by the affignments and extraordinary "fources of money provided for that purpose, is likely to exceed even the amount at which it stood at "the time in which the arrangement with his excellency <c was concluded." The house will smile at the refource on which the directors take credit as fuch a certainty in their curious account.

This is Mr. Haftings's own narrative of the effects of his own fettlement. This is the ftate of the country which we have been told is in perfect peace and order; and, what is curious, he informs us, that every part of this was foretold to him in the order and manner in which it happened, at the very time he made his arrangement of men and meafures.

The invariable courfe of the company's policy is this: Either they fet up fome prince too odious to maintain himself without the neceffity of their affiftance; or they foon render him odious, by making him the inftrument of their government. In that cafe troops are bountifully fent to him to VOL. IV. maintain

E

maintain his authority. That he should have no want of affistance, a civil gentleman, called a resident, is kept at his court, who, under pretence of providing duly for the pay of these troops, gets affignments on the revenue into his hands. Under his provident management, debts foon accumulate; new affignments are made for thefe debts; until, step by step, the whole revenue, and with it the whole power of the country, is delivered into his hands. The military do not behold without a virtuous emulation the moderate gains of the civil department. They feel that, in a country driven to habitual rebellion by the civil government, the military is neceffary; and they will not permit their services to go unrewarded. Tracts of country are delivered over to their difcretion. Then it is found proper to convert their commanding officers into farmers of revenue. Thus between the well paid civil, and well-rewarded military establishment, the fituation of the natives may be eafily conjectured. The authority of the regular and lawful government is every where and in every point extinguifhed. Disorders and violences arife; they are repreffed by other disorders and other violences. Wherever the collectors of the revenue, and the farming colonels and majors move, ruin is about them, rebellion before and behind them. The people in crowds fly out of the country; and the frontier is guarded by lines of troops,

troops, not to exclude an enemy, but to prevent the escape of the inhabitants.

By these means, in the course of not more than four or five years, this once opulent and flourishing country, which, by the accounts given in the Bengal confultations, yielded more than three crore of Sicca rupees, that is, above three millions fterling annually, is reduced, as far as I can difcover, in a matter purposely involved in the utmoft perplexity, to lefs than one million three hundred thousand pounds, and that exacted by every mode of rigour that can be devifed. To complete the business, most of the wretched remnants of this revenue are mortgaged, and delivered into the hands of the ufurers at Benares (for there alone are to be found fome lingering remains of the ancient wealth of thefe regions) at an intereft of near thirty per cent. per annum.

The revenues in this manner failing, they feized upon the estates of every perfon of eminence in the country, and under the name of refumption, confifcated their property. I wish, Sir, to be understood universally and literally, when I affert, that there is not left one man of property and substance for his rank, in the whole of these provinces, in provinces which are nearly the extent of England and Wales taken together. Not one landholder, not one banker, not one merchant, not one even of those who usually perish

laft, the ultimum moriens in a ruined state, not one farmer of revenue.

One country for a while remained, which flood as an island in the midst of the grand waste of the company's dominion. My right honourable friend, in his admirable fpeech on moving the bill, juft touched the fituation, the offences, and the punishment of a native prince, called Fizulla Khân. This man, by policy and force, had protected himfelf from the general extirpation of the Rohilla chiefs. He was fecured (if that were any fecurity) by a treaty. It was ftated to you, as it was ftated by the enemies of that unfortunate man-" that "the whole of his country is what the whole country of the Rohillas was, cultivated like a

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garden, without one neglected fpot in it."Another accufer fays, "Fyzoolah Khan, though "a bad foldier, [that is the true fource of his misfortune] has approved himself a good aumil; having, it is fuppofed, in the course of a few

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years, at least doubled the population and revenue "of his country."-In another part of the correspondence he is charged with making his country an afylum for the oppreffed peasants, who fly from the territories of Oude. The improvement of his revenue, arifing from this fingle crime, (which Mr. Haftings confiders as tantamount to treason) is ftated at an hundred and fifty thousand pounds a year.

Dr.