We have left Mahmed-reza-qhan under arrest, and with an English guard upon him. He was in suspense between fear and supplication, when there came a second order from the Governor to bring him down to Calcutta; and thither he was sent under the same guard, which had been already charged with him; it A. D. 1771. was in the year of the Hedjrah 1186. A vast concourse of people, whether from a principle of time-serving, or from a regard to the known adage, the night is pregnant; what shall it bring forth to-morrow? attended him as far as Palassy, from whence they returned; but numbers, who wanted to be before­hand with their rivals, went as far as Calcutta, from whence, on finding his affairs desperate, they returned, after a short stay. Insomuch that none remained with him, but a certain number of persons attached to him personally. Here it must be observed, that Calcutta is an immense city, not unlike the ocean; no one cares for another in the English territory; and as Mahmed-reza-qhan was now within the Company’s precincts, he experienced daily a gradual diminution of that regard and those honors which had been hitherto constantly paid him. The attention to his concerns diminished every day; his answers and demands were postponed and set by; and other business taken in hand. Meanwhile Djon-gram, who was a warm friend to him, and a stranger to Shytab-ráy, finding difficulties in supporting the former, contrived to involve the latter in Mahmed-reza-qhan’s misfortunes (although probably there was no such order from Europe); and he managed so dexterously, as to have such an order sent to Azim-abad. But such was the obliging behaviour of the Radjah’s, and such his art of conciliating the minds of every one, and of giving satisfaction to all, that Mr. George Vansittart, to whom the order was addressed, contented himself with advising him to repair to Calcutta before such a day; and he carried his regard so far, that without informing him of the purport of his orders, he only advised him, as a friend, to take such a journey; nor did he disclose the matter to him until about the end of the month of Sefer, in the year 1186. So that Shytab-ráy arrested and sent to Calcutta. there elapsed a whole month betwixt his arrest and that of Mahmed-reza-qhan’s. The Radja, on the appointed day, got into his Badjara, and proceeded on his journey to Calcutta. Mr. Vansittart having appointed a company of Talingas to do him honor, gave secret orders to the Soobadar, that is, to the Com­mander of it, to let him proceed as far as the confines of the Government of Azim-abad, after which he was himself to embark on the same Badjara, by way of attendance; but without depart­ing from the usual custom of paying his bow in the morning, or of shewing every mark of respect and regard, until he had carried him to Calcutta. Shytab-ráy having been in this manner conducted to that city, landed at the house which he had always used. But the detail of the answers and questions relative to these two prisoners, is not public; nor is it come to light how that affair ended. Whenever it comes out, properly attested, mention shall be made of it in the continuation of these sheets, if it pleases God.

After about two months more the Members of the Council The Council of Azim-abad appointed to take charge of the finances of that province. of Moorshood-abad, and of Azim-abad, received an order of the Council of Calcutta, by which Radja Shytab-ráy and Mahmed-reza-qhan were declared dismissed from their respective offices of inspection over the Imperial Qhalissah, (that is, over the estimate and collection of the Imperial revenue), with injunction to those two provincial Councils, to take that business into their own hands. The next day, in the morning, Mr. Vansittart having assembled in the Imperial castle the principal men of the city, and the heads of offices, repaired himself thither, with his Council; and having retired with them into a room apart, he translated the supreme orders in Persian, and gave them to the Moonshy or Secretary, Seradj-eddin-mohamed-qhan, with orders to read them in a loud voice to the whole assembly; to which he was to explain them distinctly, article by article. The purport was, “That Maharadja Shytab-ráy had been dismissed from the office of Divan of the Imperial Revenue; and that the Council of Azim-abad had been appointed to rule in his stead; to whose orders, of course, the officers of that office were to pay obedience; but that the said Maharadja having been confirmed in his office of the management of the Nizamet, they were therefore to acknowledge his authority in that branch.” From that period, the Members of the Council have continued in the management of the Qhalissah, or office of finances, singly, and in full authority, without the assistance of any Hindostani Nâib, or deputy; and although it is certain that, long before this period, and so early as Mir-djaafer-qhan’s demise, the English had ever borne a sovereign sway in every thing, and had enjoyed full power everywhere, yet upon the whole the management of the finances was in the hands of Mahmed-reza-qhan, and of Shytab-ráy; nor was it but some years after, that is, on the arrival of Governor Hushtin in the A. D. 1771. year 1186 of the Hedjrah, that the English gentlemen have accustomed themselves to govern without the assistance of an Hindostanee Nâib, or of any other creditable man from the natives; excepting however some clerks, and some other dependants of Mahmed-reza-qhan’s and of Shytab-ráy’s, which were kept as registers and detail-men, but still under the absolute controul and the sole direction of the gentlemen of the Council It is true that the English retain at Calcutta a Gentoo, who is son of D8l8b-ram, and grandson to Radja Djanki-ram, one of Aaly-verdy-qhan’s Ministers; but it is only for show; and although he bears the name of Divan of the Imperial Qhalissah, he is in fact no more than a clerk to Mr. Doocreel, (Ducarel), and to every Englishman that shall be appointed real Divan or Superintendent of that office. Who knows what shall happen next? We have seen stranger things than that.

For on the beginning of the year 1195, Qhyaliram went to Calcutta, where he took a lease of the revenues of Azim-abad, partly on his own account, and the rest on account of Radja Caalyan-sing, son to Shytab-ráy; but he was hardly returned, when there arose feuds and heart-burnings between them both. In a little time Qhyaliram, and after him Sadooram, were sent into confinement, and disgraced, so as to lose all credit; by which revolution Caalyan-sing was left in the vortex of necessity and embarrassment, endeavouring in vain to collect the balances due from the districts of those two Gentoos, and from his own.

“The world is undone by the men of the world,

The pretence is Siavush and Afrasiab*.”

When Mahmed-reza-qhan and Shytab-ráy arrived, under a guard of English soldiers, at Calcutta, the Governor was prepar­ing to take a journey to Moorshood-abad, in order to acquire a knowledge of the affairs of Bengal, and to put them under proper management. But first of all, in compliance with the instructions arrived from his country, he suppressed the Council of twelve that had hitherto presided over the affairs of all Bengal; and in their stead he established a Committee of five, of which himself was the head. Mr Barwell, who arrived at the end of the year, was the fourth of that Council, but at the end of a twelve month, he went home. The names of the three others I do not know. The ten or twelve former Councillors were ordered to oversee the Company’s mercantile affairs, but under the controul of the Committee. Committee signifies an assembly that has full authority to bind and lose all matters, high or low, relative to this country, whether for making conquests, for waging war against obstinate Princes at the head of armies, or for making peace with those who are abandoned by fortune, and submit to their fate. All these matters, and many more of that importance, are all determined in that assembly, in such a manner as they think convenable. The Governor, after having taken these arrangements, set out in the month of the first Rabi, of the year 1186, and came by himself, or only with some Members of the Committee, to Moorshood-abad, where he spent about two months and-a-half in putting in order the affairs of the country, and in dismissing or confirming some officers and other persons who had been concerned in raising or depressing Governor Hushtin reduces the Navvab’s allowance from twenty-four lacs a year to sixteen. Mahmed-reza-qhan’s power; after which he returned to Calcutta. He reduced the Nazem’s, or Nominal Navvab’s allowance, from twenty-four lacs a year to sixteen; and out of regard to Mubarec-ed-döwlah’s tender age, he left the disposal of that sum to Menny-begum’s discretion. It was destined to defray the household expenses of the young Navvab’s, as well as some articles of luxury and parade, customary with the Princes of these countries; likewise to pay a number of pensions to Mir-djaafer-qhan’s relations, and to the women with whom he had cohabited, as well as to some of the descendants of Aaly-verdy-qhan; lastly, to afford some resource to a number of deserving persons, to whom much attention had always been paid by former Nazems. In the like manner, a small sum was allowed for the subsistence of some families allied to that of the young Prince’s. A like sum was made up for the decayed families of Azim-abad, different from the salary allowed to the Nazem of that place, who is now Shytab-ráy’s son. But as this sum is not confounded in that allowed to the Nazem, it is regularly paid to the proper persons, without any charges; whereas that of Moorshood-abad being not kept distinct from the Nazem’s allowance, it falls within the disposal of his officers, and of his Nâib, all men, who being changed or dismissed every second or third year, (whilst those actually in office are perpetually busy in undermining each other’s dependants and friends), unavoidably become covetous, and think of nothing but of the various arts of filling their own purses, without minding the pensioners, who are always left in the lurch. For these poor people, who are numerous, and the remaining stock of the ancient nobility, being kept out of their pensions, some for sixteen and some for twenty-five months together, lose very often the whole of their arrears; it being customary to make them sign a receipt in full, under solemn promises of their being henceforward paid regularly, and afterwads to inform them that upon inquiry, it is found that the treasury is unable to discharge the balances due; but most assuredly would be put for the future upon a better footing; and the officers and clerks, having thereby got a release, fall anew in the practices of their predecessors. So that those ill-fated men, and especially the Moorshood-abad pensioners, who in these hard times have not a single resource under the canopy of the Hindostany heaven, are reduced to such miseries, as God relieve mankind from; nor do their circumstances, or the sufferings of the wretched, affect in the least either the Nazem’ or his Nâib, or the Begums, or any of the men in power, or any of the officers of justice; and yet, were even that sum which is fixed, to be distributed properly, and according to the rules of of common sense and commiseration, numbers of people would thereby get a sufficient subsistence, and pass their lives in some comfort. But such is their hard fate, that their rulers and administrators, regardless of the tears of mankind, and unmindful of the fear of God, remain entirely insensible; being themselves incapable of any sense of honour, and fearless of any danger from the publicity of the facts; whilst, in matters which cannot con­duce to either their happiness in this world, or their safety in the other, they spend thousands and thousands, nay lacs and lacs, and never abate from their vanities and misdemeanours; as we shall mention shortly, if it pleases God, when we shall by-and-bye say something of their lives, although only as one would mention an unity out of a thousand, or shew a sample out of a heap. But this is enough at present upon so disagreeable a subject; let us revert to politics.