was again taken up, and a new fettlement made in confirmation of the former.

This took place in the year 1773, when Mr. Haftings, then prefident of the council of Calcutta, thought it neceifary to make a progress to the court of the Nabob vizier, as well, perhaps, to obtain fome perfonal explanations from him with respect to paft and current matters, as to form thofe new connections and arrangements, with refpect to revenue, troops, and the acquifition of territory, which were foon after displayed in their effects. Upon this occafion, a new treaty or inftrument, to the fame pur ort as the former, was concluded and ratified, between the Nabob vizier, and the Rajah Cheit Sing; but with this farther confirmation, and advantage to the Rajah, that the prefident, by himfelf figning and becoming a party to the prefent, thereby rendering the company actual guarantees, at all future times, to the due performance of the conditions. Indeed the neceflity of fomething ftronger than treaties to bind the faith, and to restrain the rapacity of the Nabob vizier, became upon that very occafion fully apparent; for notwithstanding the vaft advantages, which at the expence of his neighbours, as well as of his natural lord, the Mogul, were then thrown into his hands, he was exceedingly diffatisfied with Mr. Haftings, for not permitting him to extort ten lacks of rupees from the young rajah, as well as to firip him of two very ftrong forts, which conftituted the beft defences of his country. Upon this occafion, as on the former, the in

ftrument was made eternally binding upon the parties, and upon their mutual pofterity.

Upon the death of the Nabob vizier in the year 1775, and the acceffion of his fon and fucceffor Affoff Ul Dowlah, new arrangements took place between the company and that prince, which affected the whole government of his dominions. Among thefe the fovereignty of Benares, and its dependencies, was entirely given over and transferred to the com. pany; the Rajah Cheit Sing then ftanding exactly in the fame degree of relation and vaffalage to that body, in which he had before stood with the Nabob of Oude. Nothing could exceed the fatisfaction which this transfer of fovereignty, and entire emancipation from a capricious tyranny, afforded to the young Rajah and his family. They were now placed in the hands of their old friends, allies and pro. tectors, and the moft flattering profpects of lafting quiet, fecurity and happiness were in view.

Thefe hopes were confirmed, if they could be fuppofed to re. quire any confirmation by a letter from Mr. Haftings, who had been appointed to the new and high office of governor general. This letter teemed with fentiments of regard, honour and juftice, and authorized the British refident at the court of Benares to affure the Rajah that no farther tribute than that already ftipulated, should be exacted from him, and that it fhould not under any future change of government be enlarg. ed. A recommendation about the fame time, from the governor general and council to

the

the Rajah, that he should raise and fupport a body of 2,000 horfe, or rather, perhaps, that he fhould increase the cavalry already on his eftablishment to that number, as it was in no degree preffed as an obligation, but feems to have been merely propofed as a meafure of common utility, and a provifion against any future and unforeseen danger, could afford no caufe of apprehenfion, nor indicate any change in the Rajah's condition. It is not denied, that the Rajah of Benares continued to adhere to the engagements on his fide, by the punctual difcharge of the ftipulated revenue, nor that his conduct was in every respect highly fatisfactory, until new and unexpected demands occafioned fuch alteration in it, as proved at length the means of giving umbrage to the government of Calcutta. Upon intelligence of the war with France, it was determined by the governor general and council, in the month of July 1778, that the Rajah Cheit Sing thould be required to contribute an extraordinary fubfidy of five lacks of rupees, towards the expences which this new exigency would impofe on their government during the current year. It may be fuppofed, that the innovation thus propofed, and the danger of the precedent, affected the Rajah much more than the amount or value of the fum demanded. However that was, the governor general informs us in his narrative, that after many excufes, and proteftations of inability, the Rajah at length confented, with a very ill grace, to the payment, and discharged it with a worse.

The increafing exigencies and expences of a war, which was becoming general throughout India, were not likely to produce any remiffion of thefe demands, when once the ice was broken, and the precedent established. They were annually repeated; while the unwillingness of compliance, and the backwardness of payment, became every year more apparent, and afforded farther room for diffatisfaction. During the many ages in which the Hindoo princes and landholders have been doomed to fuffer the oppreffion and exorbitance of foreign power, a ftri&t concealment of their wealth, and a conftant plea of extreme poverty, have been the weak means which they generally adopted to elude the extortion and ' rapacity of their rulers. The Rajah of Benares reforted to this established practice; and even fo early as the payment of the second year's fubfidy, although he was known or fuppofed to be very rich, he affected to borrow money in fmall fums, and even to fell his plate and jewels, as demonftrations of his inability; and was ftill fo flow in his payments, that it was found neceffary to quicken him, by fending two battalions of fepoys to be quartered in

his dominions, and their pay to be charged to his account, until he had made good the whole.

The hird year's fubfidy was ftill worfe paid, and the fame remedy, of fending troops to live upon him, was again adopted. The Rajah then carried the plea of inability and poverty fo far, that [4] 4

when

when about one lack of rupees had with great difficulty been obtained from him, he wrote a letter himself to the governor general, foliciting forbearance with reipect to the remainder until the following year, when he promifed to pay it along with the ftipulated

revenue.

While a fubfidy of about fixty thousand pounds a year was extorted with fo much difficulty, it was not well to be fuppofed, that a demand made upon the Rajsh to furnith 2,000 cavalry for the fervice of the war, would have been attended with much effect; at Jeaft, without its being enforced by fome extraordinary degree of exertion. By Mr. Haftings's ftate of the tranfaction, which differs confiderably from that given by the Rajah, he baffled the demand by delay and evafion; he faid that the body of horfe which he had already on foot was fully employed in, and abfolutely neceffary to the collection of his revenues, without which he could not fulfil hia ftipulations with the company, and that he was utterly unequal to the expence of raifing a new corps. It is farther faid, that the demand was leffened to a thousand; that he at length promifed to fupply 250; but that neither man or horfe was ever fent. It is to be obferved, that the Rajah's horfe had done good and acknowledged fervice in a former war. So different are the fruits procured by violence, from those which are the pon aneous produce of good-will and affection.

It will scarcely be imagined, that as thefe unexpected demands ferved fucceffively to weaken the Rajah's opinion of his own fecu

rity, and to leffen his faith in the English, fo likewife, that they did not ferve equally to weaken his attachment, and to loosen his fidelity to the company. It was natural, that he thould look for new friends and connections; and that he thould endeavour to provide fome refource against the days of trouble and danger. Nothing could be more favourable to the encouragement and confirmation of fuch a difpofition, than the general ftate of India. The difaffection to the English was unfortunately general throughout all that vaft continent; they were in every fettlement, and on every side, engaged in the most dangerous wars; and while the fucceffes of Hyder Ally seemed to render their very exiftence in the Carnatic more than precarious, they no less diminished the reputation dread of their arms.

and

The countries immediately bordering on, or furrounding the Rajah's territories, were in a state of the most marked difaffection to the company, and fuch of them as were under its government, scarcely reftrained their violence, until a proper opportunity fhould offer for thaking off its yoke. The company's administration of the affairs of Čude, in concert with his weak fucceffor, ever fince the death of Sujah Ul Dowlah, had spread defolation, tumult and diforder through thofe extenfive dominions. All these things, together with the general alliance and confederacy which was known to be in contemplation for chacing them entirely out of India, ferved to render their affairs apparently defperate.

In these circumflances it is not much

much to be doubted, that fome of the charges laid against the Rajah Cheit Sing, might be well founded. That he perhaps en. tered into negociations with the native princes in the adjoining countries, for mutual fupport, and for acting on fome plan of general concert, in the defence of their refpective rights; and that he might have correfponded. with the dif contented Begums of Oude, or caballed with the difaffected Ra. jahs, in the neighbouring English governments.

The governor general ftates, that various accounts had been repeatedly tranfmitted to Calcutta, as well by the English refidents at Benares, as by feveral of the company's officers, from different parts of that country, of the fre. quent and ftrong marks of dif. affection that were thewn by the Rajah himself; but which were difplayed in a ftill higher degree by his officers, and by the people in general, Thefe charges, in. deed, fo far as they are fhewn, are laid in very loofe and general terms; without any specification of facts, dates, names, or circum. ftances. It is not lefs remarkable, that they are not included in the written complaints of his conduct, which the governor general fent to the Rajah himself upon the spot.

But however juft the charges of contumacy and difaffection laid against the Rajah might have been, and however neceffary, perhaps, in fome degree their correction, it is fully evident, that the enor. mous expences of the war had fo drained the treafury of Bengal, and the meaps of ftill feeding it

in all its parts went fo far beyond the revenues of the ftate, that the looking out for new fources of fupply was become a matter of great urgency. In fuch circum. ftances, the fuppofed wealth and real weakness of the Rajah, pointed him out as the immediate and proper object for fupplying the public neceflities.

Such was the fituation of the Rajah, and the fate of affairs in the country of Benares, before and about the time that the governor general fet out on his progrefs from Calcutta, upon the 7th of July 1781. He had, in that progrefs, other objects befides Benares in view. Order was, if poffible, to be reftored in the dominions of the Nabob vizier, and money, at all events, to be there procured. A feparate peace with Madajee Scindia was then likewife in agitation, through the intervention of Colonel Muir; and the governor general hoped that his approach to the fcene of negociation, might afford means for bringing it the more fpeedily to a conclufion. This was indeed an object of the first importance.

With respect to Benares, the governor general ftates in his nar rative of these transactions, that the difappointment of aid from the Rajah, though in a season of fuch extreme public diftrefs and danger, was still lefs a matter of confideration with him, than that those repeated acts of contumacy and difobedience of which he had been guilty, appeared evidences of a deliberate and fyftematic con. duct, aiming at the total fubverfion of the company's authority, and the erection of his own inde.

pendency