Volume IX Part 11 (1/2)

FULL VINDICATION OF FYZOOLA KHaN BY MAJOR PALMER AND MR. HASTINGS.

I. That, in the course of the said negotiation for establis.h.i.+ng the rights of the Nabob Fyzoola Khan, Major Palmer aforesaid did communicate to the Resident, Bristow, and through the said Resident to the Council-General of Bengal, the full and direct denial of the Nabob Fyzoola Khan to all and every of the charges made or pretended to be made against him, as follows.

”Fyzoola Khan persists in denying the infringement on his part of any one article in the treaty, or the neglect of any obligation which it imposed upon him.

”He does not admit of _the improvements reported to be made_ in his jaghire, and even a.s.serts that the collections this year will fall short of the original _jumma_ [or estimate] by reason of the long drought.

”He denies having exceeded the limited number of Rohillas in his service;

”And having refused the required aid of cavalry, made by Johnson, to act with General G.o.ddard.

”He observes, respecting the charge of evading the Vizier's requisition for the cavalry lately stationed at Daranagur, to be stationed at Lucknow, that he is not bound by treaty to maintain a stationary force for the service of the Vizier, but to supply an aid of two or three thousand troops in time of war.

”Lastly, he a.s.serts, that, so far from encouraging the ryots [or peasants] of the Vizier to settle in his jaghire, it has been his constant practice to deliver them up to the Aumil of Rohilcund, whenever he could discover them.”

II. That, in giving his opinions on the aforesaid denials of the Nabob Fyzoola Khan, the said Palmer did not controvert any one of the constructions of the treaty advanced by the said Nabob.

That, although the said Palmer, ”from general appearances as well as universal report, did not doubt that the jumma of the jaghire is _greatly increased_,” yet he, the said Palmer, did not intimate that it was increased in any degree near _the amount reported_, as it was drawn out in a regular estimate transmitted to the said Palmer expressly for the purposes of his negotiation, which was of course by him produced to the Nabob Fyzoola Khan, and to which specifically the denial of Fyzoola Khan must be understood to apply.

That the said Palmer did not hint any doubt of the deficiency affirmed by Fyzoola Khan in the collections for the current year: and,

That, if any increase of jumma did truly exist, whatever it may have been, the said Palmer did acknowledge it ”to have been solemnly relinquished (in a private agreement) by the Vizier.”

That, although the said Palmer did suppose the number of Rohillas (employed ”in ordinary occupations) in Rampoor alone to exceed that limited by the treaty for his [Fyzoola Khan's] service,” yet the said Palmer did by no means imply that the Nabob Fyzoola Khan _maintained in his service_ a single man more than was allowed by treaty; and by a particular and minute account of the troops of Fyzoola Khan, transmitted by the Resident, Bristow, to the said Palmer, the number was stated but at 5,840, probably including officers, who were not understood to be comprehended in the treaty.

That the said Palmer did further admit it ”_to be not clearly expressed_ in the treaty, whether the restriction included Rohillas of all descriptions”; but, at any rate, he adds, ”it does not appear that their number is formidable, or that he [Fyzoola Khan] _could by any means subsist such numbers as could cause any serious alarm to the Vizier_; neither is there any appearance of their entertaining any views beyond the quiet possession of the advantages which they at present enjoy.”

And that, in a subsequent letter, in which the said Palmer thought it prudent ”to vindicate himself from any possible insinuation that he meant to sacrifice the Vizier's interest,” he, the said Palmer, did positively attest the new claim on Fyzoola Khan for the protection of the Vizier's ryots to be wholly without foundation, as the Nabob Fyzoola Khan ”had proved to him [Palmer], by producing receipts of various dates and for great numbers of these people surrendered upon requisition from the Vizier's officers.”

III. That, over and above the aforesaid complete refutation of the different charges and pretexts under which exactions had been practised, or attempted to be practised, on the Nabob Fyzoola Khan, the said Palmer did further condemn altogether the principle of calculation a.s.sumed in such exactions (even if they had been founded in justice) by the following explanation of the nature of the tenure by which, under the treaty of Lall-Dang, the Nabob Fyzoola Khan held his possessions as a jaghiredar.

”There are no precedents in the ancient usage of the country for ascertaining the _nuzzerana_ [customary present] or _peshcush_ [regular fine] of grants of this nature: _they were bestowed by the prince as rewards or favors_; and the accustomary present in return was adapted to the dignity of the donor rather than to the value of the gift,--_to which it never, I believe, bore any kind of proportion_.”

IV. That a sum of money (”which of course was to be received by the Company”) being now obtained, and the ”_interests both of the Company and the Vizier_” being thus much ”_better promoted_” by ”_establis.h.i.+ng the rights_” of Fyzoola Khan than they could have been by ”_depriving him of his independency_,” when every undue influence of secret and criminal purposes was removed from the mind of the Governor-General, Warren Hastings, Esquire, he, the said Hastings, did also concur with his friend and agent, Major Palmer, in the vindication of the Nabob Fyzoola Khan, and in the most ample manner.

That the said Warren Hastings did now clearly and explicitly understand the clauses of the treaty, ”that Fyzoola Khan should send _two_ or _three_ [and not _five_] thousand men, or _attend in person, in case it was requisite_.”

That the said Warren Hastings did now confess that the right of the Vizier under the treaty was at best ”but _a precarious and unserviceable right_; and that he thought fifteen lacs, or 150,000_l._ and upwards, an ample equivalent,” (or, according to the expression of Major Palmer, _an excellent bargain_,) as in truth it was, ”for expunging an article of such a tenor and so loosely worded.”

And, finally, that the said Hastings did give the following description of the general character, disposition, and circ.u.mstances of the Nabob Fyzoola Khan.

”The rumors which had been spread of his hostile designs against the Vizier were totally groundless, and if he had been inclined, he had not the means to make himself formidable; on the contrary, being in the decline of life, and possessing a very fertile and prosperous jaghire, it is more natural to suppose that Fyzoola Khan wishes to spend the remainder of his days in quietness than that he is preparing to embark in active and offensive scenes which must end in his own destruction.”

V. Yet that, notwithstanding this virtual and implied crimination of his whole conduct toward the Nabob Fyzoola Khan, and after all the aforesaid acts systematically prosecuted in open violation of a positive treaty against a prince who had an hereditary right to more than he actually possessed, for whose protection the faith of the Company and the nation was repeatedly pledged, and who had deserved and obtained the public thanks of the British government,--when, in allusion to certain of the said acts, the Court of Directors had expressed to the said Hastings their wishes ”to be considered rather as the guardians of the honor and property of the native powers than as the instruments of oppression,”

he, the said Hastings, in reply to the said Directors, his masters, did conclude his official account of the final settlement with Fyzoola Khan with the following indecent, because unjust, exultation:--