The Sun.
London, England, 1824-09-28 00:00:00

I N 1) I A.

(EXTRACTS FROM HYDERABAD PAPERS.]

Extract Bengal Political C'omultations,Jan. 1, 1820.

Mr. STUART records the following Minute:—
MR. STUART'S MINUTE.

The Board are aware, that fiont time we received the Resi-
dent at Ilyderabad's Report of the arrangements concluded,
under his sanction, between the Nizain's Government and the
house of Messrs. William Palmer and Co. I have been strongly
impressed with the propriety and expediency of procuring
fuller information on the subject, before we committed the Go-
vernment, by any approbation, either express or tacit, of
the plan.

In the discussion of the question, it has been suggested, that
such an inquiry would be an undue interference with an inde-
pendent Government, which is free to conduct its internal ad-
ministration according to .its own discretion ; that having, in
the exercise of its independent potters, and for its own conveni-
ence and accommodation, entered into pecuniary arrangements
with Messrs Wm. Palmer and Co. the British Government have
neither title nor motive to inquire into the transaction.
If I could admit the facts upon which that view of the sub-
ject is founded, I should still feel myself obliged to oppose the
conclusion. _

Admitting.the Nizam's Government was, with respect even
to its internal administration, in the full exercise •;f an inde-
pendent authority, I should still have thought, that this Go-
vernment had a right to ask an account of any transaction be-
tween a Native allied Government and British subjects ; and I
should have further thought, that this Government had a clear
and powerful motive for inquiry, when it found British sub-
jects in possession of assignments upon the revenue of a native
Prince, to the annual extent of 30 lees of rupees.
But acknowledge I have fallen into great errors, if the Ni-
zam's Government he in the free exercise of its internal ad-
ministration.

Should I have formed a conception, in any degree accurate,
of the state of that wretched and distracted Government and
country, it is this:-The- imbecility and perverseness of the
reigning Prince have compelled the British Government, in ef-
fect, to set him aside, while the Government is carried on with
despotic authority by a Minister, who is the creature of British
influence, and wholly and entirely dependent on the British
power.
The extract which I have annexed to this Minute, from a
dispatch addressed to the Resident, in June 1817, to Sir Thos.
Dialop, will vouch for me, that I have not overcharged the
picture.
The transaction out of' which this discussion has arisen,
affords' in itself, the fullest evidence of that state of things.
The following account by the Resident, extracted from the
same dispatch, of a part of the troops for which the arrange-
ment is intended to secure funds, will , sliew that there has not
been much scruple in interfering with one branch of the
Nizam's Government—to wit, the organization and controul of
its military forces.
" The two battalions at Hyderabad compose the Russell
Brigade, which is commanded by Captain Hare, of the Com-
pany's army. The enclosed return exhibits the strength and
composition of this corps. The men are chiefly Ilindoos, na-
tives of the Company'a territories in Hindoostan. They are
disciplined, armed, clothed, and equipped, in all respects, like
our own troops : they are paid regularly, every month, out of
the Resident a treasury : they do no duty in the city, nor with
any other troops in the Nizam's service, nor have they any sort
of communication with any branch of the Nizam's Govern-
ment ; in fact, they belong to the Nizam's army in name alone :
they consider themselves as Company's troops, and for all prac-
tical purposes, they are as much so as those on our own imme-
diate establishment. I am persuasied that , your Excellency
will find this brigade equal to the native corps of the Company's
own army." It is evident, that the whole of the regular and
reformed troops are, in a great degree, subject to the same con-
troul by the Resident.
When the Resident described the Russell Brigade as belong.
controul; all the privileges,
meant to speak of power, authority,
ing to the Nizam's Government in name alone, he must have
in short, of a Government over its own forces. The Resident
knew that the charge of those troops falls upon the Nizam's
Government alone, and must be no inconsiderable burthen upon
his exhausted and impoverished dominions.
Tl 4 slightest attention to the Resident's Reports will evince,
that the arratigentents concluded with the Nizam's Govern-
Inent, for securing the pay of these troops, have been through-
out the fruit of British influence ; thrit theplan originated with
Captain Sydenham, the British Agent at Atirtinghigh, was tiriq
proposed to-the Minister by the Resident himself, and was evi-
dently pressed in a manner not to be resisted. " That arrange-
ment,' says the Reidtlent, in his letter of the 28th of April,
1819, " was first suggested by Capt. G. Sydenham to Messrs.
Palmer and Co., proposed by them to me, and mentioned by
me to the Minister. The discussions which took place upon
the atxbject of it between :Messrs. Paltrier and Company,
were.-carried on with: my full knowledge, and the con-
clusion of the arrangements had my entire concurrence, as 1
considered that the punctual payment of the regular and re-
formed troops was indispensable to their efficiency, and as I
knew that it could not be securely provided. for. ,by any other
means." In his first letter upon the subject, under date the
31st December 1810, reporting the arrangement, the Resident,
after observing uprin the difficulties which had arisen in pro-
viding funds: at Aurungabad, proceeded to state: " In conse-
quence of the repeated representations which I made to Rajah
Chundoo Loll on this subject, and the importance which he saw
attached to it, as the very foundation of the efficiency of the
whole establishment, he entered into un arrangement with the
house of Messrs. Wm Palmer and, Co. of Hyderabad, by which
they have engaged, on the security of orders to be granted on
the revenue of certain districts in Berar, to provide the monthly
'um of two Lacs of rupees," &c. &c. Upon the strength of these extracts, I feel iiiyaclf entitled to
assume, that with respect .these troops, at least, this
Government neeknot have been restrained, by any apprelien-
;ions.of an indiscreet or unwarranted interference in the con-
Cerria`of the Nizarn's Governinent, from instituting any inquiry
which might have been deemed expedient. In my judgment,
the sole question could be, whether die Government had suf-
ficient grounds for interposing.
But that was a point on which I could not bring myself to
doubt. When the Resident .had, with all the weight of the
British influence, pressed an arrangement upon the native State,
it appeared to me that he was bound by solemn obligations of
duty, to pity the most zealous attention to its interests, to de-
monstrate, in a manner beyond all doubt or suspicion, that the
measure had originated, and was prosecuted froth no other
motives than a disinterested regard fbr the wetrare of that Go-
vernment. In like manner I judged, that wi ay, the arranr-
ment was reported to this Government, we were bound, by
obligations equally cogent, to satisfy ourselves that the Rest-
dent had fully and carefully performed that duty.
I must do the Resident the justice to observe, that he ap-
pears to have viewed the matter in the same light. He is t#r
from holding up the arrangement as a spontaneous unbiassed
act of the lament's Government, into which he, as the British
Resident, had no right or motive to inquire. Ile explains the
following passage of his letter, dated the 211th April, 1819, that
he sanctioned the measure, because he regarded it under all the
circumstances, to be. advantageous. As I considered that the
punctual payment of the regular and reformed troops was indis-
pensable to theitot,fliciency, and as I knew that it could nut be
securely provided for by any other means. None of the native
bakers at Hyderabad could bare commanded funds adequate
for the purpose ; and even if they could their terms would
have been much higher than those of the present arrange-
ment." Unfortunately,. however, the information which the
Resident has furnished is too imperfect to enable this Govern-
ment to form a satisfactory judgment on the merits of the ar-
rangement, and is, in fact, more calculated to excite than re-
lieve anxiety:
The circumstance, that a capital like Hyderabad, native
bankers cannot be found possessing
adequate funds to make
an advance to the Government of two lacs of rupees
monthly, secured upon the growing revenue of the coun-
try, and the consequent utter dependence of the Resident
and the Nizam'a Government,
,for the payment of the troops,
upon the only British house of agency established in the coun-
try, is in itself sufficiently extraordinary and alarming. The
terms which, upon common mercantile principles, a mercantile
lima° poasessing
such an advantage over a Government will
demand, must be a natural subject of solicitude and inquiry.
But the Resident has entirely failed to mention the terms ; and
in the communication of the house the same omission is ap-
parent. All the information we have from the Resident on
durabnycenoentilvye,
ei
this important point is, that it' native bankers could have com-
manded
y those
are less
than those of the British house. We have no means of know-
ing ttermstheanre
would
ldruihnaovues, but
hbeent
hankers.
It certainly did very forcibly strike me, that the duty of this
Government could not permit us to sanction a transaction of
this nature, while we were left in such complete ignorance of
all the particulars essential to a just appreciation of its i s
and while all that did appear was calculated to awaken
merits
waken solici-
tude and doubt.
With that impression, I suggested, that the Government
should recur to the assistance of the Accountant-General, whose
experience in such mattes would enable him to offer the Go-
vernment valuable su rgestions on the bearing and tendency ndency of
the proposed plan, an in particular, to indicate any
points on