Ledger and Sword (Volume 2); Or, the Honourable Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies (1599-1874) - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VIII. King George and the Company. The apparent contradiction between word and intent pervaded not merely the correspondence of the Company's servants in India, but the despatches which issued from Leadenhall Street concerning Mohammed Ali. Thus in the instructions issued to the three commissioners, dated the 15th September, 1769, they are enjoined "to provide effectually for the honour and security of their faithful ally, Mohammed Ali, Nawab of Arcot". The Presidency is blamed for its injustice to that prince and its conduct stigmatised as a "flagrant breach of repeated orders". "When we reflect," continues the Court, "on the long experience we have had of Mohammed Ali's faithful attachment to the English Company, we are surprised at the idea entertained by the Governor and Council, in their letters of the 8th March and 21st June, 1768, to reduce him to a mere nominal Nawab. The sanction of the Treaty of Paris, by which treaty public faith became the guarantee of the Nawab's title, will be of little use to him if notorious infringements of the rights and powers usually inherent in and dependent on such title, should be by us countenanced and permitted to take place. More especially as, perhaps, we might thereby involve ourselves in the very disagreeable 1769 MADRAS COUNCIL CONDEMNED 269 necessity of answering at some future period, for the infraction of a public treaty of the consequences thereof."1 When news of the peace with Haider Ali reached England, the Company deprecated it. Such a treaty, exclaimed the chairman, could only be justified by extreme necessity. In their subsequent despatches, the Court of Directors severely reprimanded the Madras Council for their attitude towards Mohammed Ali. They had "pompously appointed him Phousdar of Mys...