Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/62

54 succession of three Nabobs, who, availing themselves of the general confusion of the empire, had acquired a greater stability in their office than is the usual lot of governors in Indostan. The Nabobs of this family, considering the sovereignty as a kind of inheritance, had not conducted themselves in their administration with that spirit of ravage, which is the usual consequence of uncertain and transitory possession. The revenues of the Carnatic depend upon the harvests of grain, and these on the quantities of water, which are reserved to supply the defect of rain during the dry season of the year: for this purpose vast reservoirs have been formed, of which not only the construction, but even the repairs in cases of inundation require an expence much beyond the faculties of the farmer or renter of the land. If therefore the avarice of the prince with-holds his hand from the preservation of these sources of fertility, and at the same time dictates to him an inflexible resolution of receiving his usual incomes; the farmer oppressed, oppresses the labourer, and the misery of the people becomes complete, by the vexations of collectors exercised in times of scarcity, of which the cruel parsimony of the prince has been the principal cause.

It is not therefore to be wondered at that 'the province which had felt the good effects of a mild and generous administration, from the reigns of the family of Sadatulla Khan, should behold with regret the introduction of any stranger whomsoever to govern the Carnatic. The young son of Subder-ally was the only person whom the province wished to see their ruler.

In deference to this affection, and from the danger of shocking it at once too violently, Nizam-al-muluck gave out that he intended to confer the Nabobship of Arcot on this youth, as soon as he should arrive at the age of manhood. At the same time he gave An'warodean Khan all the powers necessary for governing the Carnatic during this interval, and committed the young prince to his care, with the authority of a guardian. From the palpable impropriety of reposing so delicate a trust in the very person to whom the greatest advantages would accrue from an unfaithful discharge of it, Nizamal-muluck may be suspected of having dissembled throughout this