Page:History of the French in India.djvu/438

 tjjj: fall of dupleix. chap, countries and fortified places dependent on the Karnatik ; IX ' that for Muhammad Ali there should be provided 1753. a suitable governorship in some part of the Dakhan under the mutual guarantee of the French and English Companies ; that he should be considered quit of all monies due by him to the treasury of the Dakhan; and that the Raja of Tanjur should be maintained in the possession of his territories under the guarantee of the two Companies. Such were the French proposi- tions, extremely moderate, even conciliatory, in their outward form, but in reality no less favourable to French, than were the counter-proposals to English, interests. The French scheme, in fact, must be ex- amined rather with reference to what it omitted than to its contents. We find in it no mention of the Subadar of the Dakhan, none of the Nawwab of the Karnatik. But, the rival candidate for the last-named appointment being in it provided for, the intention was clear to take it for granted that Salabat Jang would be acknowledged as Subadar and his nominee, Dupleix, as Nawwab of the Karnatik. Exactly then as the English proposition claimed all that the English had been contending for, so did this of the French ask everything that Dupleix had demanded from the very beginning. The English commissaries received the French propositions in silence, but at the next meeting of the conference they declared that their instructions forbade their even discussing any articles, until the two which they themselves had pre- sented should have been subscribed to by the French deputies. To this the French would by no means agree. They challenged Mr. Vansittart and Mr. Palk to show them any patent conferring upon Muhammad Ali the office of Nawwab of the Karnatik ; they showed them that it was not an hereditary office ; that the father of Muhammad Ali had been appointed by the Subadar of his day; and that his successors had, on his demise, given the office, originally to Chanda Sahib, and secondly