lodged with her train in a caftle called Bidgé Gur, in which were likewife depofited a large portion of the treasures of her fon, or more probably her own. To whomfoever they belonged was indifferent; for, though no charge of rebellion was made on this woman (which was rather fingular, as it would have coft nothing) they were refolved to fecure her with her. fortune. The castle was befieged by Major Popham.

There was no great reafon to apprehend that foldiers ill paid, that foldiers who thought they had been defrauded of their plunder on former fervices of the fame kind, would not have been fufficiently attentive to the spoil they were expreffly come for; but the gallantry and generofity of the profeffion was justly fufpected, as being likely to fet bounds to military rapacioufnefs. The Company's firft civil magiftrate difcovered the greatest uneafinefs, left the women should have any thing preferved to them. Terms, tending to put fome restraint on military violence, were granted. He writes a letter to Mr. Popham, referring to fome letter written before to the fame effect, which I do not remember to have feen; but it fhews his anxiety on this fubject. Hear himfelf:-" I think every demand she has made on you, except that of fafety and respect to her person, is unreasonable. If the reports brought to me are true, your rejecting her offers, or any negotiation, would foon obtain you the fort upon your own terms. I apprehend fhe will attempt. to defraud the captors of a confiderable part of their booty, by being fuffered to retire without examination. But this is your concern, not mine. I should be very forry that your officers and foldiers loft any part of the reward to which they are fo well entitled; but you must be the beft judge of the promised indulgence to the Ranny: what you have engaged for I will certainly ratify; but as to fuffering the Ranny to hold the purgunna of Hurlich, or any other zemindary, without being fubject to the authority of the zemindar, or any lands whatsoever, or indeed making any condition with her for a provifion, I will never confent."

Here

Here your Governor ftimulates a rapacious and licentious foldiery to the perfonal fearch of women, left these unhappy creatures fhould avail themselves of the protection of their sex to fecure any supply for their neceffities; and he pofitively orders that no ftipulation fhould be made for any provision for them. The widow and mother of a prince, well informed of her miferable fituation, and the cause of it, a woman of this rank became a fuppliant to the domeftic fervant of Mr. Haftings; (they are his own words that I read;) "imploring his interceffion, that she may be relieved from the hardships and dangers of her prefent fituation; and offering to furrender the fort, and the treasure and valuable effects contained in it, provided fhe can be affured of fafety and protection to her perfon and honour, and to that of her family and attendants." He is fo good as to confent to this, "provided fhe furrenders every thing of value, with the referve only of fuch articles as you fhall think necessary to her condition, or as you yourself fhall be difpofed to indulge her with. But should fhe refuse to execute the promise fhe has made, or delay it beyond the term of twenty-four hours, it is my pofitive injunction, that you immediately put a stop to any farther intercourfe or negotiation with her, and on no pretext renew it. If the disappoints or trifles with me, after I have fubjected my Duan to the disgrace of returning ineffe&ually, and of course myself to discredit, I fhall confider it as a wanton affront and indignity, which I can never forgive; nor will I grant her any conditions whatever, but leave her exposed to those dangers which fhe has chosen to risk, rather than truft to the clemency and generofity of our government. I think fhe cannot be ignorant of these confequences, and will not venture to incur them; and it is for this reafon I place a dependance on her offers, and have consented to fend my Duan to her." The dreadful fecret hinted at by the merciful Governor in the latter part of the letter, is well understood in India; where thofe who fuffer corporeal indignities, generally expiate the offences of others with their own blood.

However,

However, in fpite of all these, the temper of the military did, fome way or other, operate. They came to terms which have never been tranfmitted. It appears that a fifteenth per cent. of the plunder was referved to the captives, of which the unhappy mother of the prince of Benares was to have a fhare. This ancient matron, born to better things-[A laugh from certain young gentlemen]-I fee no caufe for this mirth. A good author of antiquity reckons, among the calamities of his time, Nobiliffimarum fæminarum exilia et fugas. I fay, Sir, this ancient lady was compelled to quit her house with three hundred helpless women, and a multitude of children in her train; but the lower fort in the camp, it feems, could not be reftrained. They did not forget the good leffons of the Governor General. They were unwilling "to be defrauded of a confiderable part of their booty, by fuffering them to pafs without examination.” They examined them, Sir, with a vengeance; and the facred protection of that awful character, Mr. Haftings's maitre d'hotel, could not fecure them from infult and plunder. Here is Popham's narrative of the affair:-"The Ranni came out of the fort, with her family and dependants, the 10th, at night, owing to which, fuch attention was not paid to her as I wifhed; and I am exceedingly forry to inform you, that the licentioufnefs of our followers was beyond the bounds of control; for, notwithstanding all I could do, her people were plundered on the road of moft of the things which they brought out of the fort, by which means one of the articles of furrender has been much infringed. The distress I have felt upon this occafion cannot be expreffed, and can only be allayed by a firm performance of the other articles of the treaty, which I fhall make it my business to enforce."

After this comes, in his due order, Mr. Haftings, who is full of forrow and indignation, &c. &c. &c. according to the beft and most authentic precedents established upon fuch occafions.

VOL. II.

G

A great

1

A great mafter, Mr. Haftings, has himself been at the pains of drawing a picture of one of these countries, I mean the province and city of Farruckabad. There is no reason to queftion his knowledge of the facts; and his authority (on this point at least) is above all exception, as well for the state of the country, as for the cause. In this minute of consultation, Mr. Haftings describes forcibly the confequences which arise from the degradation into which we have funk the native government."The total want (fays he, of all order, regularity, or authority, in his (the Nabob of Farruckabad's) government, and to which, among other obvious caufes, it may no doubt be owing, that the country of Farruckabad is become almost an entire wafte, without cultivation or inhabitants; that the capital, which, but a very short time ago, was diftinguished as one of the most populous and opulent commercial cities in Hindoftan, at prefent exhibits nothing but fcenes of the moft wretched poverty, defolation, and mifery; and that the Nabob himself, though in the poffeffion of a tract of country, which, with only common care, is notoriously capable of yielding an annual revenue of between thirty and forty lacks, (three or four hundred thoufand pounds) with no military establishment to maintain, scarcely commands the means of a bare subsistence."

This is a true and unexaggerated picture, not only of Farruckabad, but of at least three-fourths of the country which we poffefs, or, rather, lay wafte, in India. Now, Sir, the House will be defirous to know for what purpofe this picture was drawn. It was for a purpose, I will not fay laudable, but neceffary, that of taking the unfortunate prince and his country out of the hands of a fequeftrator sent thither by the Nabob of Oud, the mortal enemy of the prince thus ruined, and to protect him by means of a British Resident, who might carry his complaints to the fuperior Resident at Oud, or transmit them to Calcutta. But mark how the reformer perfifted in his reformation. The effect of the measure was better than was probably expected. The prince began to be at ease; the country

country began to recover; and the revenue began to be collected. These were alarming circumftances. Mr. Haftings not only recalled the Refident, but he entered into a formal ftipulation with the Nabob of Oud, never to fend an Englifh fubject again to Farruckabad: and thus the country, described as you have heard by Mr. Haftings, is given up for ever to the very perfons to whom he had attributed its ruin, that is, to the Sezawals or fequeftrators of the Nabob of Oud.

It is only to complete the view I propofed of the conduct of the Company, with regard to the dependent provinces, that I fhall fay any thing at all of the Carnatic, which is the scene, if poffible, of greater diforder than the northern provinces. Perhaps it were better to say of this center and metropolis of abuse, whence all the rest in India and in England diverge, from whence they are fed and methodized, what was said of Carthage, -de Carthagine fatius eft filere quam parum dicere. This country, in all its denominations, is about 46,000 square miles. It may be affirmed univerfally, that not one perfon of fubftance or property, landed, commercial, or monied, excepting two or three bankers, who are neceffary depofits and diftributors of the general fpoil, is left in all that region. In that country the moisture, the bounty of Heaven, is given but at a certain feafon. Before the æra of our influence, the induftry of man carefully husbanded that gift of God. The Gentûs preserved, with a provident and religious care, the precious deposit of the periodical rain in refervoirs, many of them works of royal grandeur; and from thefe, as occafion demanded, they fructified the whole country. To maintain these reservoirs, and to keep up an annual advance to the cultivators, for feed and cattle, formed a principal object of the piety and policy of the priests and rulers of the Gentû religion.

This object required a command of money; and there was no Pollam or caftle which, in the happy days of the Carnatic, was without fome hoard of treafure, by which the governors

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were