that similar practices have been introduced, and are now actually arried on, in Nellore, Arcot, and Trichinopoly." It was scarcely necessary to state that every one of those districts was specified in the treaty; but it was attempted to be argued by the nabob, that his granting assignments on the mortgaged districts was not a violation of the treaty, and that the only penalty for so doing was, in the event of those districts being assumed by the company, that the assignments should be of no value and of no effect. The fifth section of the eighth article of the treaty of 1792 was as follows: "In consequence of the measure whereby the districts mentioned in the schedule No. 2, become responsible for any arrears that may accrue in the payment of the above stipulated kists, the said nabob agrees that he will not grant tunkaws, or assignments, on any account, on the revenues thereof; And if, contrary to this condition, any turkaws or assignments should exist when the said districts, or any of them, shall be assumed by the said company, such tunkaws or assignments shall be declared by the said company, and the said nabob, to be of no value, nor shall they remain in effect." The honourable member said that he would not attempt to argue what should be the just construction of this clause; if necessary, he had no doubt that it would be ably and successfully argued by persons whose opinions would have more weight in the house than his could have; but he must be permitted to observe, that he thought his noble friend, lord Buckinghamshire, had put that construction upon it which was intended by lord Cornwallis, who framed the treaty, and that it was so understood at the time by the nabob: that he might not mis-state his noble friend, he should make use of lord Buckinghamshire's own words on this subject. "The 5th section of the 8th article of the treaty of 1792, is made to affect two parties, the nabob and the money-lender. If the former grants assignments on the mortgaged districts, he is liable to such penalties as generally attach upon a breach of engagement; if the latter advances his money upon securities on the districts in question, he hazards the loss of it, on their falling into our hands. How a clause, distinctly affecting two separate objects, can justly be construed to exonerate the one from all penalty, because its operation upon the other is specifically pro vided for, is beyond my capacity to discover." Upon

this authority, colonel Allan said, he had no hesitation in asserting, that the nabob, by granting assignments on the districts mortgaged to the company for the security of the subsidy, had violated the treaty of 1792. The government at home were decidedly of that opinion, for in a letter to Madras (June 1799), they observed, that "his highness has distinctly acknowledged that he is in the practice of raising money annually by assignments of the revenues of those districts, which form the security for the. payments of the company's subsidy; as the practice is unquestionably contrary to the letter, and subversive of the spirit, of that treaty, we direct that immediately on the receipt hereof, you adopt the necessary measures for taking possession, in the name of the company, of the whole, or any part, of the said districts, which shall appear to be so assigned." If then he had succeeded in shewing that the treaty of 1792 had been violated, the justice of the late arrangement in the Carnatic must be admitted. But the nabob not only violated the treaty by granting assignments on the mortgaged districts, but also by entering into a correspondence with Tippoo sultan, without the knowledge and consent of the British government. It had been asserted that an eager examination of the papers of Tippoo sultan, was among the first acts of the general staff, after the fall of Seringapatam. It chanced to be his lot, (colonel Allan said) to be the first British officer that entered the palace of Tippoo sultan; he was on the general staff, and in the confidence of the commander in chief, and had opportunities of knowing what was done. Tippoo sultan having been killed in the assault, his sons and generals, who commanded separate divisions of bis army, as soon as they were apprised of his death, surrendered themselves to general Harris; measures were immediately taken to secure the quiet possession of Tippoo's dominions. The records of the Mysore government were carefully preserved; they were examined, and the correspondence of the nabobs of the Carnatic baving been discovered, it was, of course, transmitted to the governor general. Of the nature and object of that corre spondence, the honourable member admitted that different opinions might be formed; but we know, he added, that by the treaty of 1792, the nabob was bound not to enter into any political correspondence with any native power, without the consent of the British government; and we

also know, that the nabob, in compliance with that stipu lation, was in the practice of sending to the government of Madras for their approbation, not only the drafts of the letters which he proposed writing to Tippoo, but also the letters which he received from the sultan. In the papers before the house there were numerous letters from the nabob to Tippoo, on the most trivial occasions, merely complimentary, all of which had been submitted to the inspection of the government before they were dispatched; thereby clearly shewing that the nabob did not consider himself at liberty to hold any correspondence whatsoever without the knowledge and consent of the British govern- \ ment. What were we then to infer, colonel Allan asked, when on the occasion, perhaps on the very day, on which the nabob had sent one of these complimentary letters to the government for their approbation, we find that he had also written a letter of a secret, and at least a mysterious nature, which he dispatched to Tippoo without their knowledge? Some of the communications made by the nabob through Tippoo's ambassadors were of a poli tical nature, apprising the sultan, that he was suspected by the British government of carrying on an improper negotiation with the Mahrattas; advising him to suspend his plans until a more favourable opportunity occurred; recommending him to be more guarded in his intercourse. with the French; and the house, he was sure, would not forget that Tippoo had sent ambassadors to France and to the Mauritius, to prevail upon the French to afford him military assistance. What also, he would ask, were we to infer from several meetings of the nabob with the ambassadors of Tippoo, from the communications made only under a solemn oath of secrecy, from a cypher evidently intended, if not for hostile, certainly for political pur poses? and all these too at a time when, it would be recollected, Tippoo was endeavouring, by every means, to unite all the Mahomedan powers in Hindostan, for the avowed purpose of expelling the English from India. But this was not all, for the house would observe, that in a conversation held by Mahomed Ally with one of the ambassadors, it is stated that the nabob reprobated the war carried on by lord Cornwallis, as a war undertaken for the subversion of the Mahomedan religion by that war Tippoo was reduced in power, wounded in pride, and he determined on revenge; he determined to support

the faith, and to exterminate the infidels (the English). There was also a remarkable passage in one of the letters from Umdit ul Omrah, which passage he desired might be repeated to the sultan. This paper was as follows: "In the preservation of thy person is the perpetual permanence of the faith; let him not remain who wisheth not thy preservation." The honourable member thought that no man would be bold enough to assert, that the nabob would have ventured to have submitted that letter to the inspection of the Madras government; and yet there were persons disposed to offer an excuse for every act of perfidy in the nabob, and to brand with odium the British name in India. For his part, it was enough that the correspondence found at Seringapatam was secret, and had been carried on by the nabob without the know ledge and consent of the British government: he thought no impartial man, who had perused the letters which were submitted by the nabob to the inspection of the Madras government, and had compared them with the let ters which had been found in Seringápatam, could lay his hand upon his heart and pronounce that correspondence to be innocent; the fair presumption was, that it was of a nature hostile to the British interests, and therefore it certainly was a violation of the treaty of 1792.

Having thus established the infraction of the treaty of 1792, by the nabob of Arcot, he would, with the leave of the house, advert to the policy of the transaction under consideration. Upon this point he should only remark, that the policy of some arrangement similar to that which had been adopted by lord Wellesley in the Carnatic, could not be doubted by any person, who had looked into the papers. As far back as 1774, the inconveniences and dangers resulting from the system of the nabob's administration had been often experienced by the govern ment of Madras, and as often represented to the court of directors. When Hyder Ally invaded the Carnatic in 1780, there was an instant stop to all payments from the nabob. In that dreadful exigency, so eloquently described by Mr. Burke in the speech to which he had be fore alluded, the assignment of the revenues of the Carnatic was obtained, without which all our revenues and credit must have been inevitably sunk to no purpose: of the importance of that assignment and of the danger of restoring the Carnatic to the nabob, lord Macartney was VOL. III.-1808. G

so deeply impressed, that, in one of his letters to the court of directors, he says: "from the moment you surrender the assignment, you cease to be a nation on the coast;" and in another, without the assignment, I see not a ray of hope for the preservation of the company, or the secu rity of the nabob." Lord Macartney justly considered the assigument as the rock of our strength in the Carnatic. No doubt can exist that the nabob's real interest. and happiness, as well as the general security, would have been best consulted by retaining it; and that the company, upon the same principle that they exercised the fight to wield the sword for the common good in time of war, might also have administered the revenues for the common good, in the time of peace. But he would not. rest entirely on the testimony of lord Macartney: lord Cornwallis perfectly coincided in opinion with lord Macartney as to the necessity of a radical reform; and under this impression had examined the whole system of our connection with the nabob, with a view to that object. The opinion of lord Cornwallis, the honourable member said, must have so much weight with the house, and with the country at large, that he was anxious to draw their attention to an extract of a letter from his lordship to the court of directors in the month of August, 1790: “I must freely own (says lord Cornwallis), that I could not venture to propose any plan, on the success of which I could have any firm reliance, unless the nabob could be induced, by a large annual revenue, regularly paid and properly secured to him, to surrender the management of his country for a long term of years to the company; the nabob's age, his long connection with us, his right to the pos session of the country (which, however, without our assistance, would have been but of little value to him), and exaggerated accounts of former services, may furnish topics for popular declamation, and may possibly engage the nation upon mistaken ideas of humanity to support a system of cruelty and oppression; but whilst I feel conscious that I am endeavouring to promote the happiness of mankind and the good of my country, I shall give very little weight to such considerations; and I should conceive that I had not performed the duty of the high office in which you did me the honour to place me, if I did not declare that the present mixed government cannot prosper, in the best hands in which your part of it can be