western provinces; and the cumbrous machinery of previous enactments swept away. These changes were accompanied by the great boon of directing the vernacular language of suitors or witnesses to be employed on all occasions instead of Persian, which, used by the Mahomedans, was as unintelligible to the people at large as English, and was indifferently comprehended, in most instances, by the judges. William In the year 1832, the affairs of Messrs. William Palmer & Co., of Hyderabad, again occupied the attention of the GoPalmer & Co. vernment in England, and with so remarkable a result that, as an item in the history of the company's administration, it cannot be passed by. The Marquess of Hastings, chafing under the aspersions and insinuations of the Court of Directors, defended himself ably on his return in the House of Lords; and the whole question was re-opened in the Court of Proprietors, in a debate which lasted six days. Mr., afterwards Sir Henry, Russell, spoke at great length on the second day. He showed incontrovertibly, that the dealings of Messrs. Palmer & Co. with the Nizam, so far from being extortionate, had been liberal and fair; and that their rates of interest were greatly less than those prevailing in the country. He had been Sir Charles Metcalfe's predecessor at Hyderabad ; and his statement of facts threw a flood of light on the whole of the loan transactions. As regarded William Palmer & Co., the revelation had indeed little immediate effect; but while Mr. Kinnaird moved that there was nothing in the Hyderabad papers which affected the character of the governor-general, the resolution was met by Mr. Astell with a counter motion, that while there was no ground for imputing corrupt motives to Lord Hastings, the dispatches sent to him should be confirmed. These very dispatches had covertly, if not indeed openly, attributed the basest motives to the governor-general; and their confirmation by these proceedings added insult to injury. At most, the Court's proceedings closed with a Scotch verdict of 'not proven,' leaving all the animus of the charges virtually increased. Soon afterwards, Lord Hastings accepted the humble post of governor of Malta; but the injury inflicted had been too deep and too wanton to be long endured, and he died on August 24, 1827, of a broken heart. Was the sum of 20,000l. voted afterwards to his son, then a minor, any reparation for the cruel injury? Yet had any concession been made to the noble marquess, it would have involved the reversion of the acts against William Palmer & Co., and against them the Court of Directors was as yet strong and virulent. The question of justice to the firm was eventually agitated, both in England and in India, up to 1830; but it was in vain Use of the vernacular languages. Sir H. Russell's speech. Proceedings in the Court of Pro prietors. Opinion of England. Situation of to the house. that the twelve judges of England recorded their opinion that there was no illegality in the rates of interest, or in the transactions of Messrs. Palmer & Co. Equally vain, that the twelve this opinion was confirmed by the most celebrated of counsel of the day. The prohibition at Hyderabad continued in force; and its effects are best explained the debtors by a letter from Moneer-ool-Moolk, the prime minister, who was a large debtor, to the executive minister, Chundoo Lall. 'If,' he wrote, 'the order prohibiting any money transactions with them (W. P. & Co.), and the proclamation describing the claims as void, had not arrived, my debt to them would have been completely and fully paid; but how could I, in defiance of the prohibition, and of such a proclamation, pay them?' This was the situation in which not only Moneer-ool-Moolk, but many other large debtors to the house, were placed. They dared not pay. Measures of of Control. In 1832 the President of the Board of Control took up the question in earnest, and required the directors to prepare a dispatch, by which the prohibition against the firm the Board should be removed; but the court were still resolute not to disturb the policy on which they had acted for ten years; and a dispatch, which was in fact a repetition of former opinions, drawn up on March 20, 1832, was transmitted to the Board of Control for approval. It was not, however, approved. On the contrary, thirty-three out of thirty-seven paragraphs were rescinded, and a new draft sent to the court for adoption. The principle expressed was perfectly fair and open. It required the interposition of the Government of India, the authors of the wrong, to bring about a settlement with the Nizam, by means of a commission or an umpire. The amended dispatch was, however, rejected by the court; and after a tedious correspondence, which led to no result, the Board of Control applied for a writ of writ of mandamus, to the King's Bench, to compel its mandamus. adoption. On the issue of the writ, the dispatch was admitted under protest, by ten of the directors, who had maintained the most obstinate and inveterate opposition. As an event of historical importance, this memorable transaction, into which the court had been plunged by a prejudiced minority, was Effects of the very momentous; for it proved, as might and ought to struggle. have been anticipated, its real inherent weakness in any struggle with the ministry of the Crown, and seriously impaired its power both in England and in India, which hitherto had been controlled, but never broken. The consequences were not immediately apparent; but they continued to progress in importance and magnitude, until the independence of the court had been weakened, if not SS destroyed for all essential purposes of government, and resulted, after a hundred years' existence, in its final extinction. Measures As soon as the dispatch reached India, the governor-general appointed an umpire, Mr., now Sir, John Macleod, taken on the an able member of the Civil Service, who proceeded to Hyderabad, and, after a long investigation, made an award in favour of the principal private claim of Messrs. Palmer dispatch in India. & Co., that against Moneer-ool-Moolk, which amounted to at least twenty-one lacs of rupees. The amount awarded was immediately paid, and enabled the house to discharge the new obligation it had entered into with its creditors. Here, however, the direct effect of the dispatch ceased. It was considered that a precedent had been established, under the provisions of which the remainder of the private claims, the most material being for loans to individuals granted by the house under the guarantee of the executive minister, could be now prosecuted in the local courts. The trustees of the house had little hope that these courts would exercise sufficient independence of character to investigate the claims; but they performed their duty fearlessly and conscientiously, and decrees were obtained on several suits for the aggregate sum of nine lacs, which were recognised by the executive minister, in the sequestration of the estates of the principal defendants. No other results, however, followed; the awards remained unpaid, and the courts being unable to enforce their awards or procure their enforcement, refused to entertain further suits. Equally fruitless were the efforts of the trustees to obtain satisfaction in any form from the government of the Nizam. It must be admitted, however, that it has never denied, though it has evaded, its responsibility; and perhaps, when time has obliterated the remains of original prejudices, it may be stimulated by the government of the Crown to a final act of satisfaction and justice, in favour of the descendants of those who were utterly ruined. Decree against Moneer-oolMoolk. Other claims referred to local civil courts. In 1832, the management of the affairs of the State of Mysore was assumed by the Government of India. It will be remembered that, on the capture of Seringapatam, and death of Tippoo Sooltan, the rajah, then a boy, had been presented with the original dominions of his dynasty; and that Poornea, the able minister of Tippoo, assisted by English commissioners, had been appointed to their administration. In 1811, when the circumstances of the State were in the highest degree prosperous, and there were seven millions sterling in the treasury, the rajah, then only sixteen years old, was suffered to declare his maextravagance jority and to assume the government. He proved to be intractable and wastefully extravagant; and by 1832, Wasteful of the rajah. Affairs of not only had his treasure been expended on profligate associates and in the wildest profusion, but the State had become deeply encumbered. He had been repeatedly warned; and most impressively by Sir Thomas Munro, in 1825; but without effect, and in 1830, the greater part of his dominions, unable to en- Insurrection dure the perpetual extortion practised, broke into of the people. insurrection. It was quelled by a Madras force; but the conviction remained, that the British Government could not be identified with the rajah's malpractices, that the people had had just cause for revolt, that the employment of force against them was only justifiable by the excesses that had been committed, and that the enforcement of the provisions of the treaty were indispensable. It was notified, therefore, to the rajah, that for the The rajah is future, a fifth part of the revenues, about 40,000l. per pensioned. year, would be paid to him, and that the administration of his dominions, in all departments, would be carried on by English officers. Under these arrangements the country became tranquil and prosperous, and the benevolent measures of the chief commissioner, Sir Mark Cubbon, are remembered with gratitude and affection. In the same year-1832-the small principality of Cachár, on the north-east frontier of Bengal, was formally annexed to Cachar the British dominions, upon the spontaneous request of aunexed. the people, whose rajah had been assassinated, and who had left no successor. The province is now the seat of extensive tea cultivation, and has been reclaimed, in a great degree, from its original wild character. CHAPTER XI. THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD WILLIAM BENTINCK (concluded), 1833 TO 1835. north-west THE year 1833 was marked by several great and beneficial measures, among which the land settlement of the north- Land settlewest provinces takes a prominent place. Many previous ment of the attempts had been made towards a solution of the various provinces. questions regarding tenures and assessments, and Regulation VII. of 1822, the able work of Mr. Holt Mackenzie, laid the foundation of what was to follow. During his tour of the north-west provinces, the governor-general invited the freest discussion of the subject by all ranks of the civil service, and in March 1833, the new regulation was passed in Council, and the execution of it committed to Mr. Robert Mertins Bird. By the provisions of this Education. Act, all village lands were surveyed, and every field, or portion of land, cultivated or waste, defined; all proprietary rights were registered, and all lands assessed, the rate to continue for thirty years. When it is considered that these operations concerned no less than 23,000,000 of people, and extended over nearly 50,000,000 of acres of land, and yet were completed with all the minuteness and care of the survey of a private estate in England-the momentous character of the whole may be estimated; with the amount of genius and perseverance necessary for its accomplishment. Yet it must be recorded, that Mr. Bird's great services passed away without reward, and without the public recognition which they had so eminently deserved. The supremacy of Oriental learning was still maintained in Calcutta, and was not overcome without a severe contention. Up to 1833, Sanscrit, Arabic, and Persian had been supported by the profound Orientalists of the period, in whose sight the obscure hymns of the Vedas, the graceful episodes and fables of the Máhábhárut and the Rámáyun, and the bygone sciences of Sanscrit and Arabic authors, possessed a charm far exceeding the extension of the true knowledge and brilliant and exact sciences of England. Able men argued on their respective sides with great pertinacity. Dr. H. H. Wilson led the van of the Orientalists, and was opposed by Sir Charles Trevelyan, Mr. Brian Hodgson, and Dr. Duff of the Scotch Church, with a host of others; and the question was finally debated in Council, where Mr. Macaulay gave pure Orientalism its death-blow. Then the English language, with its flood of light and truth, was opened to the people of India, as well by the recognition of the language itself in public educational establishments, as by its extension by translation into the vernacular of every province: but the school of the Scotch mission, with upwards of a thousand native day scholars, instructed in Christian doctrine as well as English literature, was of all the most effectual refutation of the abstract love of Sanscrit and Arabic, by which the interesting period of transition from old things to new is marked. The charter to the company, extended, in 1813, for twenty years, expired in 1833, and with it, their monopoly of trade with China. It was impossible for Parliament to withstand the clamour of the English nation, which was directed against the continuance of that remnant of the company's exclusive privileges, in any form. The new charter was Mr. Bird's services. The company's charter and monopoly. The Govern ment of India limited to the administration of India for a further to continue for twenty years. period of twenty years; and henceforward the Court of Directors became an administrative body only, subject to the Board of Control, in many respects with greater stringency |