Rupees. Mr. Watts, as a Member of the 240,000 Committee Ditto, as a private donation 800,000 Memorandum-the sum of two lacs to Lord Clive, as Commander-in-Chief, must be deducted from this account, it being included in the donation to the army Mr. Sumner Mr. Holwell Mr. M'Guire General Caillaud Resolution in favour of Causim in 1760. Mr. Vansittart, 1762, received seven lacs, but the two lacs to Gen. Caillaud are included; so that ofily five lacs must be accounted for here Mr. McGuire 5,000 gold morhs Stipulation to the Army Rupees. £ 1,040,000 117,000 240,000 27,000 300,000 33,750 240,000 27,000 240,000 27,000 600,000 68,000 500,000 56,250 200,000 22,500 50,000 5,625 100,000 11,250 600,000 1,261,075 Resolution in favour of Jaffier in 1763. 22,500 1,238,575 28,000 270,000 30,937 180,000 20,628 130,300 15,354 134,000 15,354 200,000 22,916 500,000 58,333 75,000 8,750 200,269 2,500,000 291,666 1,250,000 145,833 437,499 Major Munro, in 1764, received from Bulwant Sing Ditto, from the Nabob The Officers belonging to Major Munro's family from ditto The Army, from the merchants at Benares Mr. Johnstone Mr. Leycester Mr. Senior Mr. Middleton Mr. Gideon Johnstone Nudjeem ul Dowla's Accession, 1765. East India Company Europeans Natives General Carnac received from Bulwant Sing, in 1765 Ditto from the king Lord Clive received from the Begum, in 1766 Restitution.-Jaffier, 1757. Mr. Spencer 200,000 Messrs. Pleydell, Burdett, and Grey, one lac each 300,000 237,000 112,500 172,500 20,125 122,500 14,291 50,000 5,833 139,357 Jaffier. 1763. Rupees. Peace with Sujah Dowla. 400,000 £ 10,000 3,000 3,000 46,666 62,666 23,333 35,000 27,650 13,125 80,000 9,333 200,000 23,333 500,000 58,333 90,999 1,200,000 600,000 250,000 100,000 2,150,000 62,500 375,000 600,000 975,000 5,000,000 583,333 East India Company Total of Presents, £2,169,665. Restitution, etc., £3,770,833. These are pretty sums to have fallen into the pockets of the English, chiefly douceurs, in ten years. Let the account be carried on for all India at a similar rate for a century, and what a sum! Lord Clive's jaghire alone was worth 30,000l. per annum. And, besides this, it appears from the above documents that he also pocketed in these transactions 292,3337. No wonder at the enormous fortunes rapidly made; at the enormous debts piled on the wretched nabobs, and the dreadful exactions on the still more wretched people. No man could more experimentally than Clive thus address the Directors at home, as he did in 1765: "Upon my arrival, I am sorry to say, I found your affairs in a condition so nearly desperate as would have alarmed any set of men whose sense of honour and duty to their employers had not been estranged by the too eager pursuit of their own immediate advantages. The sudden, and among many, the unwarrantable acquisition of riches (who was so entitled to say this?) had introduced luxury in every shape, and in its most pernicious excess. These two enormous evils went hand in hand together through the whole presidency, infecting almost every member of every department. Every inferior seemed to have grasped at wealth, that he might be enabled to assume that spirit of profusion which was now the only distinction between him and his superiors. Thus all distinction ceased, and every rank became, in a manner, upon an equality. Nor was this the end of the mischief; for a contest of such a nature amongst our servants necessarily destroyed all proportion between their wants and the honest means of satisfying them. In a country where money is plenty, where fear is the principle of government, and where your arms are ever victorious, it is no wonder that the lust of riches should readily embrace the proffered means of its gratification, or that the instruments of your power should avail themselves of their authority, and proceed even to extortion in those cases where simple corruption could not keep pace with their rapacity. Examples of this sort, set by superiors, could not fail being followed, in a proportionate degree, by inferiors. The evil was contagious, and spread among the civil and military, down to the writer, the ensign, and the free merchant."-Clive's Letter to the Directors, Third Report of Parliamentary Committee, 1772. The Directors replied to this very letter, lamenting their conviction of its literal truth.-"We have the strongest sense of the deplorable state to which our affairs were on the point of being reduced, from the corruption and rapacity of our servants, and the universal depravity of manners throughout the settlement. The general relaxation of all discipline and obedience, both military and civil, was hastily tending to a dissolution of all government. Our letter to the Select Committee expresses our sentiments of what has been obtained by way of donations; and to that we must add, that we think the vast fortunes acquired in the inland trade have been obtained by a scene of the most tyrannic and oppressive conduct that was ever known in any age or country!" But however the Directors at home might lament, they were too far off to put an end to this "scene of the most tyrannic and oppressive conduct that was ever known in any age or country." This very same grave and eloquent preacher on this oppression and corruption, Clive, was the first to set the example of contempt of the Directors' orders, and commission of those evil practices. The Directors had sent out fresh covenants to be entered into by all their servants, both civil and military, binding them not to receive presents, nor to engage in inland trade; but it was found that the governor had not so much as brought the new covenants under the consideration of the council. The receipt of presents, and the inland trade by the Company's servants went on with increased activity. When at length these covenants were forwarded to the different factories and garrisons, General Carnac, and everybody else signed them. General Carnac however delayed his signing of them till he had time to obtain a present of two lacs of rupees (upwards of 20,0007.) from the reduced and impoverished Emperor. Clive appointed a committee to inquire into these matters, which brought to light strange scenes of rapacity, and of "threats to extort gifts." But what did Clive? He himself entered largely into private trade and into a vast monopoly of salt, an article of the most urgent necessity to the people; and this on the avowed ground of wishing some gentlemen whom he had brought out to make a fortune. His committee sanctioned the private trade in salt, betel-nut, and tobacco, out of which nearly all the abuses and miseries he complained of had grown, only confining it to the superior servants of the Company and he himself, when the orders of the Directors were laid before him in council, carelessly turned them aside, saying, the Directors, when they wrote them, could not know what changes had taken place in India. No! they did not know that he and his |