Volume III Part 4 (1/2)

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.