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194 an extent, that it was found necessary to confide the administration to the only native who seemed fitted to undertake it, a man named Chandu Lal. It soon became apparent that the new minister, though capable and industrious, was rapacious and extravagant, and, as a consequence, the finances of the state fell into the utmost confusion, the inhabitants were plundered and overburdened with exactions, and society became demoralised and was on the verge of dissolution. Sir Charles Metcalfe, who had been appointed Resident, November 1820, when this disorder was at its height, endeavoured to control the minister, but with little success, and the financial distress augmenting, it became a question whether the state would not be involved in bankruptcy.

Meanwhile Chandu Lal had contracted heavy debts with an English firm which had been established at Haidarábád under the name of Palmer and Co. It was represented that this house was ready to advance loans at a more reasonable rate of interest than the native bankers were willing to do, and on this supposition, considerable sums had been lent to the Nizám to relieve him of the embarrassments of his position. By an Act of Parliament, passed in 1796 for the purpose of checking abuses which had been occasioned by Europeans in their pecuniary dealings in India, it was declared illegal for British subjects to offer loans to native princes, except with the express permission of the Governor-General; in 1816, Lord Hastings, having been led to believe that the transactions of