Hastings was desired to remove the Minister of the Nawab and appoint another, or take the collection of the revenue into his own hands. He resolved upon the latter, but thought it necessary to dissemble. He took counsel with Nuncomar, a Hindu of high rank, great wealth, and an intriguing spirit. He suffered him to believe that he was to succeed Mahomed Reza Khan as Minister. They plotted together for his overthrow; and when all was ready, Hastings ordered a body of British troops to surround the palace of the unsuspecting Minister, and bring him a prisoner to Calcutta. His friend, Sitab Roy, the Naib of Behar, was at the same time arrested and confined. Many months elapsed before they were brought to trial-the only excuse for which alleged by Hastings being that the influence of the deposed Minister was s great, th it was necessary to show the people it was broken ere could be brought to judgment. At length the day arrived, too long postponed. Nuncomar's proofs entirely failed, and both of the accused were honourably acquitted. A small pension for life was given to Mahomed Reza Khan; but, regardless of the stipulation he had made with Clive, that in any event he should have the reversion of the office he had held previously at Dacca, he was not allowed again to hold any post of consequence. Sitab Roy had for years been the cordial and fearless partisan of the English. He had rendered them many signal services; and when their factory at Patna was beleaguered, he had contributed to repel the assailants, extorting from his European comrades enthusiastic acknowledgments and praise. Too late he learned that his best days had been devoted to the humiliation of his race and creed; that no fidelity could insure him against bad faith, and no truthfulness against treachery. He was sent back to his province with a profusion of blandishments and gifts,

but his spirit was broken, and he survived only a few months.

Goodias, the son of Nuncomar, was appointed treasurer at Moorshedabad; and instead of the young Nawab's mother, Munny Begum, formerly a dancing-girl, and afterwards an inmate of the late Soubahdar's harem, was appointed guardian. The insulting nature of these appointments under the circumstances admitted of no dispute. They were justly characterised afterwards as savouring of the very wantonness of oppression, unless they were to be ascribed to the more cruel purpose of deliberately humbling in the eyes of a Mohammedan community what still remained of the semblance of native rule. "It was on Nuncomar's abilities, and on the activity of his hatred to Mahomed Reza Khan," that Hastings owns he had relied "for investigating the conduct of the latter, and by eradicating his influence, for confirming the authority which we had assumed in the administration of affairs."1 The work done, the tool was contemptuously thrown by. Nuneomar and Hastings had known each other years before as rivals in intrigue at Moorshedabad, and their distrust was mutual. The Brahmin found that he had been thoroughly duped, and his rage, though mute, was bitter and implacable. He had seen Mahomed Reza Khan preferred to him by Clive in the appointment he desired, and he had ever since plotted his overthrow. That accomplished, he had been taught to reckon on the reversion of the lucrative post; instead of which, it was abolished, and its profits swept into the stranger's lap. The nomination of his son to titular dignity, at a small salary, and without power, was not calculated to soothe him. He vowed unsleeping vengeance, and resolved to bide his time.

1 Despatch to Secret Committee, September 1772

Following quickly on these changes others came, chiefly of internal administration. Under the Act of 1773, a Board of Revenue was established at Calcutta, with provincial inspectors under them, whereby the entire management of the Dewanny was withdrawn from native hands. About the same time two new courts of justice, the Sudder Adawlut and the Nizamut Adawlut, were erected, for the trial respectively of criminal causes and civil suits. The local tribunals in Bengal were said to have fallen into decay, and justice between man and man, it was averred, was bought and sold. It is probably true that where servants or dependants of the new and encroaching power had disputes with natives, the latter should resort to means of corruption in self-defence; and instances of this kind becoming known, it was natural that unscrupulous and overbearing intruders should denounce the whole system to superiors so covetous of extended patronage and power. But what were young officials newly imported from England likely to know of the ordinary administration of law between man and man throughout the country?

G

CHAPTER VIII.

PUNCHAYET AND ADAWLUT.

1772.

"An intelligent native is better qualified to preside at a trial than we can ever be. A native of common capacity will, after a little experience, examine witnesses, and investigate the most intricate case, with more temper and perseverance, with more ability and effect, than almost any European. The Munsif (magistrate) is in the society of the parties, and they cannot easily deceive him. But if the cause comes before the Zillah Judge, besides the inevitable delay and expense at the outset, the conditions of the case are probably entirely changed, intrigue and counter complaints occur, the most impudent falsehoods are advanced with impunity, and, in the end, perhaps an erroneous decision is passed. But who shall distinguish between mistake and imposture? What English Judge can distinguish the exact truth among the numerous inconsistencies of the natives he examines? How often do these inconsistencies proceed from causes very different from those suspected by us? how often from simplicity, fear, embarrassment in the witness? how often from our own ignorance and impatience?"

-H. STRACHEY, 1802.1

THE HE spirit of conquest paused not at the palace gate. We have already heard it there, and marked its tone of scornful menace and imperious boasting. We must now observe its gait and mien in the Adawlut, in the Cutchery, in the Dewannee. How fared it with the rajahs, the talookdars, and the ryots ?

It will have been seen how the great lieutenants who were intrusted by the Court of Delhi with the rule of large provinces, succeeded in establishing for themselves

Circuit Judge-Fifth Report of Select Committee, p. 541, et seq.

almost independent governments. In a different sphere, the local chiefs in many instances had played successfully a similar game. Availing themselves of the embarrassment of their suzerains, they tried to emancipate their particular domains from those tributes that pressed most heavily upon them; though, in a majority of instances, a real as well as nominal fealty was kept up to the Soubadhar or the Mogul. The continual recurrence of war made this a matter of self-defensive necessity. A rajah desired to be independent within his own territories, and to administer the laws without the intervention of a distant and necessarily ignorant Court. But he knew how little he could stand alone against external enemies; and he willingly rendered for the protection afforded to his little principality, as an integral portion of some powerful state, that contributive aid which it in return demanded. The terms, indeed, of these mutual obligations were various, and depended much upon the strength of the rajahs and the position of their territories. Sometimes these chieftains were united among themselves by the ties of blood or friendship, and sometimes by the ties of neighbourhood and common interest. We may conceive how jealously such associations were regarded by the superior princes; we may also conceive how powerful and how beneficial they were capable of being made to those included in them. It was the confederacy of local power against centralised ambition, the strengthening of an authority which, though not theoretically responsible to the opinion of its subjects, was at least always present to receive information, generally identified with the interests. of the people, and seldom strong enough to defy with long impunity their prejudices or remonstrances. The peasant cultivator, when he tilled his farm, might grumble at the