The Sun.
London, England, 1824-09-27 00:00:00

INDIA.

From the Sunday Newspapers.
[Tart EX AM I N ER.]
'LORD HASTINGS AND THE INDIA DIRECTORS.
An immense mass of papers are published by
•.-the East India Company, relative to certain_pecuniary transac-
thine which took place between a house of British Bankers at
at Hydrabad, and the Native Court of the Nizam, during the
Government of the Alarquisof HAsTillos; anti which seem to
have been looked upon by the Court of Directors at affecting
very seriously, if not his Lordship's personal character, at least
the correctness and
,general ments of his administration. It
appears from them that tithe house of Palmer and Co.,
Bankers, at Hydrabad, were countenanced by the Go-
.-vernment of" Lewd flutings, in advancing large sums by
way of lean to the Courtot Hydrabadt—that the Company at
home were not satisfied, either with the imperfect explanations
received from the Governor-General in Council relative to these
transactions, or with so much of the nature of them as could be
understood.from his dispatches; that Sir William Rumbohi, a
ward, or some. other intimate connexion of Lord Hastings, who'
had accompanied his Lordship to India, was a partner in the
Banking-house of Palmer and Co. ; that by an Act of Parlia-
ment no British silkiest can embark in pecuniary transactions
with any Native Power without incurring severe penalties ; that
in the opinion of the Court of Directors, a licence from the [len-
ge I Government tothe Ranking-house, exonerating them from
the risk of such penalties, was granted without an adequate
necessity, and was abused by the Bankers, in the terms of their
contracts with the 'Nizam, and in the exorbitant interest
for which they sedifttlated.—" to purposes Injurious to the
interests of our y, and discreditable to the British clia:
racier." The ground,on which the continuance (though not,
perhaps, the original employment) of those means of raising sup-
plies for a Native Power, are vehemently condemned on another
consideration, viz. their being destined to provide for ihe pay
and establishment of auxiliary native corps, disciplined after the
European manner, arid commanded by officers from Europe, an
object which, it appears from the correspendence, the Court of
Directors could not meditate without profound alarm. The cor-
respondence is maintained on the part of the Company in a tone
of severity almost unmeasured. In their letter of November
23, 1821, they tell the Governor-General that he has exhibited
." not an assumption of discretionary power, on the part of the
local Government, to suspend the execution of instructions from
home, hut ,an. assumption to do whas you please, and to com-
municate to ua just so much of what you have done as you may
se. fit. And on what ground does this assumption rest P That
we are not qualified to draw right conclusions from the tnfor-
illation which is,laid before us; but that, from ignorance of all
that we ought to know, it is not only unnecessary, but unsafe,
to put us in possession of the materials of knowledge. We
-should be unworthy of the station we hold, if we did not
strongly condemn such proceedings defended by such allege.
lions." This is pretty stifflanguage, and is accompanied by
the charge that Lord Hastings had, in subtance, though not
in words, lent the credit of the Company to the pecuniary
transactions with the Nizam. It is further stated, that Messrs.
Adam and Stuart had opposed, uniformly but vainly, the whole
course pursued by the Governor-General relative to these pro-
e-edings. The reply of Lord Hastings in 11123 is designed,
apparently, as a justification of his own official conduct, and a
reprehension of the Court of Directors. The defence of the
nets which were impugned by them is rested on the exigency
of the crisis—on the peril of the war which raged over central
India—on the intrigues at Hydrabad against the British irde•
rest—on the equity of the transactions in which the house of
Palmer had engaged—on the moderation of the tering which
they exacted—and on the necessities of the public aerVice.

tiUND A Y TIMER.]
'll-1111QUIS OF lIASTINOS.
W have not had leisure to investigate the
voluminous correspondence which has been published by the
Directors of the East - India Company, the contents of which
most seriously impeach the public and private conduct of the
late Governor-General, and fully bear out the statements we
made. some lime ago. We can only express our surprise that
the Ministry t.hould appoint. the Marquis to an important and,
responsible situation, while suet, charges.remain unanswered.
We shall not. allow the topics touched.uponin there. papers to
slumber in our hands.

[JOHN nur,r,.]
The papers which were moved for some-time'
time since at tile Eastindia House, on the subject Of Lord
Hastings administration, have ut length been delivered; and
the Government at Calcutta speak of the transactions of the
firm of William Palmer and Co. (in which house Sir William,
Rtunhold wax a partner) in unmeasured v.ius. Sir William'
is hi, some way connected with Lord Hastings' and was the
Lord'Ohamberbiln of his Excellency's household, Lord Hast-
ings has, replied to' all the charges and insinuations, and here
the' matter must rest, miles...persons are sufficiently desirous of
infsrmation.to wade through. hundreds of pups of documents.
give extracts front them .would be unfair to the parties.—to
give the whole of theta would be still more unfair to our readers.

[-THE 0 BSERVEIti
MARQUIS OF ImsTIN
DI RGECTOs ARS ND HE COURT OF
Nothing that has occurred SilleP the memorable
impeachment of ,Warren Hastings has excited so lively an im-
pression among the East 'lndia interest, Am the quarrel between
the late Governor-General and the Court of Directors. As our
readers must remember, This :Oink tnrined the subject of seve-
ral angry discussions at successive Courts of Proprietors; but
hitherto, we believe, the public has been unable to conceive any
adequate notion either of the magnitude of die offence imputed
to the Marquis of Hastings, or of the degree of bitterness
to which the epistolary altercation between that Nobleman'
anti his superiors (as they think themselves, and as perhaps
the public will think them) has proceeded. The matter has,
however, at length been put into a course of general investiga-
tion, and the country has now before it; in 84fi folio pages of
documents connected with the subject, publiihed by the Court
Of Directors, ample, if not very compendious, materials, from
which to form a judgment. The whole body of accusation, is,
however compressed into a political letter from the Members of
the Government at Calcutta., which, though far too long for the
limits of a weekly journal, forms a very -inconsiderable part of
the published documents. We could have wished to lay before
par readers both this letter and the later letter of the Marquis,
which are distinguished by haughtiness and petulance ; but for
the present, at least, we must confine ourselves to an abstract
Of the grounds of impeachment urged in the pOliticul letter.-
-The charge commences with the history of the house of "
Palmer and C 0.," at Hydrabad, which is described, almost in
direct terms, as one of those fictitious mercantile establishments
Mo common in India, in which die pretence of commerce is as-
sumed merely to veil the practice of the most rapacious and con-
suming usury. Tide house, it is asserted, having had very ex-
tensive usurious dealings with the Nizam of Hydrebad (the
local Sovereign), In the course of which it accumulated a claim
agninst . him, to the amount of sixty hies of rupees (about
330,11001. sterling), adopted into its firm, as a secret partner,
Mr. Russell, the Company's resident Minister at Hydrabad—
an officer, whose particular duty it was to protect the Nizam
from the fraudulenepractices of die Soucars, or British money-
Jenders ; and who was by statute positively forbidden to involve
himself in any mercantile transaction. 'the motive ascribed to
the house of Palmer, for seducing Mr. Russell into their firm,
is fully adequate. It is said, that the claim which Palmer and
c. had fabricated against the Munn was such as would
not bear examination, that it consisted of interest upon in.
t&est, usury upon'usury, and salaries, pensions, and gratui-
- tine, paid or to be paid to the members of the firm and their
dependents. The next preliminary allegation relates to the
adoption into the saute firm (of W. Palmer and Co.) of Sir
• William Rumbold, st ward of the %larquis of Hastings, and a
near relative of his Lordship, in order, as it is insinuated, to
dhtain the sanction.of the Governor-General to this fraudulent
claim upon the Nizam or Hydrabad, and to procure through
his infieence the authority of the Company for a new loan,
which should cover the old debt, and possess the security of
the Company 'it guarantee. These topics of charge, besides the
general imoutatiOn of connivance or neglect which they throw
upon the bite Governor.GeneeaLare attempted to be specially
brougat home to !Min—first, by a reference to his conduct
when some members of the Council suggested en investigation
into the connection SUpposeil to exist between Mr. Russell and
the house of Painter, upon which occasion the Marquis of 'Has-
tings, by the advice, as it is suggested, of Sir W. Rumbold,
re%sed to inquire into the tifiltir, upon the extrordinary ground
that it would be an improper intrusion upon the privacy of com-
mercial concerns ; secondly, the Noble Marquis is treated as
culpably partial to the house of Palmer and Co., In the matter
of die Lan, which is proved to have been clearly fictitioue and
delusive ; and contracted under the sanction of till Oneeen.
ment, after Its iniquitous purpose had been known do the whole
country. Sir 'William Rumbold's relationship 40, and de-
pendence upon, the Governor-General, es well fts his connec-
tion with the House of Palmer and Company re treated as
*knitted facts, and indeed they are all confeslN by Sir Wile
Liam, In a document published in the collection-. This is the
substance of the charge, which, merely on the, ground of ille-
gality, wears a very serious aspect; but there are some circuit].
?dances which will be thought to greatly aggravate it. The
claim, fabricated against the Nizam, Is said to have been con-
, cocted between the house of Palmer and the corrupted minister
,of that Sovereign, Chundco Lull ; it is said that the Nizam

wet purposely involved in difficulties by this faithless servant,
in order to urge him more earnestly to an arrangement with
the rapacious creditors, Palmer and Company, who, on their
side, pressed him with relentless cruelty; and, what ix much
the most melancholy part of the transaction, It is to be remem-
bered that the debt was not to fall upon the Nizam or his Ali.
nister, but upon the unhappy people under their Government,
who, according to the•istablished usage in India? were to be
tnortgeged for its discharge, until they should liquidate the
whole, in addition to their payment Of the Nizam a ordinary
revenue.

The following articles appeared in the Morning Post of this
day :---
Letters from St. Helena have been received to the Ist ult.
The Mexborough had arrived there on the 25th of the preced-
ing month from Madras and Bengal, and the Mary and George
the Fourth were hourly expected there, the latter having left
the Mauritius on the 30th of June."
" Private letters from Calcutta mention that the accounts of
the progress of the forces acting against the Burmese was such
as to leave no doubt of their ultimate success, and it was even
reported at the Presidency that an envoy from the Golden"
Monarch had been dispatched from Amaraporee for the pur-
pose of treating with the Bengal Government. On account of
drafting of the seamen on board the expedition against the Bur-
merse, there was scarce any to be got at Calcutta, which it was
thought would much retard the homeward bound ships."