Page:The Marquess of Dalhousie.djvu/172

164 Neither have they any claim on its charity, because the income left to them is amply sufficient.'

The Chiefs not only oppressed their subjects, but many of them were sunk in debt and bankruptcy. By the middle of the century the end of the old system had obviously come: and it must have come whoever might have then been at the head of the British Government. The great Muhammadan State of Southern India affords a striking example of the miseries to both the Prince and the people involved by the pecuniary embarrassments of a native Court. In 1799, the Nizám had been permitted to participate largely in the division of territory consequent upon the death of Tipú Sultán, and the downfall of Seringapatam. By the treaty of 1800, the Nizám agreed to furnish to us in time of war 6,000 infantry and 9000 cavalry; and to support us in the field with the whole force of his dominions. The troops thus supplied proved very inefficient in the first Maráthá War, and various schemes were proposed from time to time for their reform with little success. Eventually, after a mutiny in 1813, new battalions were raised, who were armed, clothed, and equipped as the Company's troops, but paid from the Nizám's treasury in fulfilment of the treaty.

In course of time the Nizáms, like other of the native Princes, felt the deteriorating influence of