Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/679

 CiiAP. XIL] NABOBSHIP OF MEER JAFFIEl?. 645

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CHAPTER XII.

Meer Jaffier nabob, and Clive governor of Bengal — Attempt upon it by the Mogul's son — Hostilities with the Dutch — Departure of Clive — His successors, Hohvell and Vansittart — Meer Jaffier deposed, and Meer Cossim appointed nabob — Meer Cossim deposed, and Meer Jaffier reinstated — Nugum- ud-Dowlah titular nabob — Clive's second government — Dewannee of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa granted to the Company.

LIVE had found it a comparatively easy task to put Surajali a.d 1:57. Dowlah to flight and phiee Meer Jaffier on the musnud. To keej) him there, and induce him to govern with wisdom and vigom*, was a task of greater difficulty. This was })artly owing to the indifferent character and very moderate abilities of the new nabob, but still more to tiie circumstances in which he was placed. His fellow- NaiwUship conspirators naturally expected to share largely in the fruits of his success, and jamer took offence when the rewards which they received fell short of the extravagant value which they attached to their services. The distribution of large sums of money had been anticipated ; but in the very first days of the government, the greater part of what had been found in Surajali Dowlahs treasury had been required to meet the first instalments due to the Company, and pay the enor- mous sums granted or extorted imder the name of presents to their sei''anis. Thus, at the outset, when nothing but a liberality approaching to lavishness could have gratified the selfishness of the nabob's courtiers, and conciliated the good-will of the population generally, he was compelled either to practise a niggardliness which made him contemptible, or to have recourse to measures of extoi'tion which made iiim detested. When pursuing the object of his ambition, Meer Jaffier had readily promised everything that was asked of him. The performance was then both distant and conditional, and many things might occur before it could either be asked or enforced ; and he had imagined, as Oraie cxpressl}' states,' that " his liberalities to individuals, who were the heads of the English nation, would relax their strictness in the public terms." In plainer words, he thought that the large sums which he had given as presents would have operated as bribes, and disposed the recipients to overlook defalcations where the interests of the Com]-tany only were concerned. Great, therefore, was his disappointment, not unmingled with indignation, when he found Clive sternly insisting "on the payments of the treaty monies as they became due."

There was another kind of interference which touched the nabob more nearly, and is said to have been regarded by him with abomination. The authority of a nabob within his own province was absolute, and Meer Jaffier, when seated

' Military Transactions, vol. ii. page 195.