The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke
Chapter 55 : 2.[6] Appendix, No. 2.[7] Fourth Report, Mr. Dundas's Committee, p. 4.[8] A witnes

2.

[6] Appendix, No. 2.

[7] Fourth Report, Mr. Dundas's Committee, p. 4.

[8] A witness examined before the Committee of Secrecy says that eighteen per cent was the usual interest, but he had heard that more had been given. The above is the account which Mr. B. received.

[9] Mr. Dundas.

[10] For the threats of the creditors, and total subversion of the authority of the Company in favor of the Nabob's power and the increase thereby of his evil dispositions, and the great derangement of all public concerns, see Select Committee Fort St. George's letters, 21st November, 1769, and January 31st, 1770; September 11, 1772; and Governor Bourchier's letters to the Nabob of Arcot, 21st November, 1769, and December 9th, 1769.

[11] "He [the Nabob] is in a great degree the cause of our present inability, by diverting the revenues of the Carnatic through _private channels_." "Even this peshcush [the Tanjore tribute], circ.u.mstanced as he and we are, he has a.s.signed over to others, _who now set themselves in opposition to the Company_."--Consultations, October 11, 1769, on the 12th communicated to the Nabob.

[12] Nabob's letter to Governor Palk. Papers published by the Directors in 1775; and papers printed by the same authority, 1781.

[13] See papers printed by order of a General Court in 1780, pp. 222 and 224; as also Nabob's letter to Governor Dupre, 19th July, 1771: "I have taken up loans by which I have suffered a loss of _upwards of a crore of paG.o.das_ [four millions sterling] _by interest on an heavy interest_."

Letter 15th January, 1772: "Notwithstanding I have taken much trouble, and have made many payments to my creditors, yet the load of my debt, _which became so great by interest and compound interest_, is not cleared."

[14] The Nabob of Arcot.

[15] Appendix, No. 3.

[16] See Mr. Dundas's 1st, 2d, and 3d Reports.

[17] See further Consultations, 3d February, 1778.

[18] Mr. Dundas's 1st Report, pp. 26, 29, and Appendix, No. 2, 10, 18, for the mutinous state and desertion of the Nabob's troops for want of pay. See also Report IV. of the same committee.

[19] Memorial from the creditors to the Governor and Council, 22d January, 1770.

[20] In the year 1778, Mr. James Call, one of the proprietors of this specific debt, was actually mayor. (Appendix to 2d Report of Mr.

Dundas's committee, No. 65.) The only proof which appeared on the inquiry inst.i.tuted in the General Court of 1781 was an affidavit of _the lenders themselves_, deposing (what n.o.body ever denied) that they had _engaged_ and _agreed_ to pay--not that they _had_ paid--the sum of 160,000_l._ This was two years after the transaction; and the affidavit is made before George Proctor, mayor, an attorney for certain of the old creditors.--Proceedings of the President and Council of Fort St. George, 22d February, 1779.

[21] Right Honorable Henry Dundas.

[22] Appendix to the 4th Report of Mr. Dundas's committee, No 15.

[23] "No sense of the common danger, in case of a war, can prevail on him [the Nabob of Arcot] to furnish the Company with what is absolutely necessary to a.s.semble an army, though it is beyond a doubt that money to a large amount is now h.o.a.rded up in his coffers at Chepauk; and tunkaws are granted to _individuals_, upon some of his most _valuable countries_, for payment of part of those debts which he has contracted, and _which certainly will not bear inspection, as neither debtor nor creditors have ever had the confidence to submit the accounts to our examination_, though they expressed a wish to consolidate the debts under the auspices of this government, agreeably to a plan they had formed."--Madras Consultations, 20th July, 1778. Mr. Dundas's Appendix to 2nd Report, 143. See also last Appendix to ditto Report, No. 376, B.

[24] Transcriber's note: Footnote missing in original text.

[25] Lord Pigot

[26] In Sir Thomas Rumbold's letter to the Court of Directors, March 15th, 1778, he represents it as higher, in the following manner:--"How shall I paint to you my astonishment, on my arrival here, when I was informed, that, independent of this four lacs of paG.o.das [the Cavalry Loan], independent of the Nabob's debt to his old creditors, and the money due to the Company, he had contracted a debt to the enormous amount of sixty-three lacs of paG.o.das [2,520,000_l._]. I mention this circ.u.mstance to you _with horror_; for the creditors being in general _servants of the Company_ renders my task, on the part of the Company, _difficult and invidious_." "I have freed the sanction of this government from so _corrupt_ a transaction. It is in my mind the most venal of all proceedings to give the Company's protection to debts that cannot bear the light; and though it appears exceedingly alarming, that a country on which you are to depend for resources should be so involved as to be nearly three years' revenue in debt,--in a country, too, where one year's revenue can never be called _secure_, by men who know anything of the politics of this part of India." "I think it proper to mention to you, that, although _the Nabob reports his private debt to amount to upwards of sixty lacs_, yet I understand that it is not quite so much." Afterwards Sir Thomas Rumbold recommended this debt to the favorable attention of the Company, but without any sufficient reason for his change of disposition. However, he went no further.

[27] Nabob's proposals, November 25th, 1778; and memorial of the creditors, March 1st, 1779.

[28] Nabob's proposals to his new consolidated creditors, November 25th, 1778.

[29] Paper signed by the Nabob, 6th January, 1780.

[30] Kistbundi to July 31, 1780.

[31] Governor's letter to the Nabob, 25th July, 1779.

[32] Report of the Select Committee, Madras Consultations, January 7, 1771. See also papers published by the order of the Court of Directors in 1776; and Lord Macartney's correspondence with Mr. Hastings and the Nabob of Arcot. See also Mr. Dundas's Appendix, No 376, B. Nabob's propositions through Mr. Sulivan and a.s.sam Khan, Art. 6, and indeed the whole.

[33] "The princ.i.p.al object of the expedition is, to get money from Tanjore to pay the Nabob's debt: if a surplus, to be applied in discharge of the Nabob's debts to his private creditors."

(Consultations, March 20, 1771; and for further lights, Consultations, 12th June, 1771.) "We are alarmed lest this debt to _individuals_ should have been the _real_ motive for the aggrandizement of Mahomed Ali [the Nabob of Arcot], and that _we are plunged into a war_ to put him in possession of the Mysore revenues _for the discharge of the debt_."--Letter from the Directors, March 17, 1769.

[34] Letter from the Nabob, May 1st, 1768; and ditto, 24th April, 1770, 1st October; ditto, 16th September, 1772, 16th March, 1773.

[35] Letter from the Presidency at Madras to the Court of Directors, 27th June, 1769.

[36] Mr. Dundas's committee. Report L, Appendix, No. 29.

[37] Appendix, No. 4, Report of the Committee of a.s.signed Revenue.

[38] Mr. Barnard's map of the Jaghire

[39] See Report IV., Mr. Dundas's committee, p. 46.

[40] Interest is rated in India by the month.

[41] Mr. Dundas's committee. Rep. I. p. 9, and ditto, Rep. IV. 69, where the revenue of 1777 stated only at 22 lacs,--30 lacs stated as the revenue, "_supposing_ the Carnatic to be _properly_ managed."

[42] See Appendix, No. 4, statement in the Report of the Committee of a.s.signed Revenue.

[43] The province of Tinnevelly.

[44] Appendix, No. 5.

[45] See extract of their letter in the Appendix, No. 9.

[46] "It is certain that the incursion of a _few_ of Hyder's horse into the Jaghire, in 1767, cost the Company upwards of paG.o.das 27,000, _in allowances for damages_."--Consultations, February 11th, 1771.

[47] Proceeding at Madras, 11th February, 1769, and throughout the correspondence on this subject; particularly Consultations, October 4th, 1769, and the creditors' memorial, 20th January, 1770.

[48] Appendix, No. 7.

[49] For some part of these usurious transactions, see Consultation, 28th January, 1781; and for the Nabob's excusing his oppressions on account of these debts, Consultation, 26th November, 1770. "Still I undertook, first, the payment of the money belonging to the Company, who are my kind friends, and by borrowing, and _mortgaging my jewels, &c._, by _taking from every one of my servants_, in proportion to their circ.u.mstances, by _fresh severities_ also on my country, _notwithstanding its distressed state_, as you know."--The Board's remark is as follows: after controverting some of the facts, they say, "That his countries are oppressed is most certain, but not from real necessity; _his debts, indeed, have afforded him a constant pretence_ for using severities and cruel oppressions."

[50] See Consultation, 28th January, 1781, where it is a.s.serted, and not denied, that the Nabob's farmers of revenue seldom continue for three months together. From this the state of the country may be easily judged of.

[51] In Mr. Fox's speech.

[52] The amended letter, Appendix, No. 9.

[53] Appendix, No. 8.