Page:The Marquess of Hastings, K.G..djvu/203

Rh the firm with the court of Haidarábád were beneficial to the latter and to the Company, granted the necessary consent; but he also stipulated that the Supreme Government could not undertake any pledge for the security of the sums advanced, or become entangled in discussions with the Nizám for the recovery of the debt.

In May, 1820, Chandu Lal proposed for the Resident's sanction the negotiation with Palmer and Co. of a much larger loan than usual, amounting to sixty lakhs of rupees, and asserted that the money was required for objects that clearly seemed to benefit the Nizám. The necessary authority was granted, but on the facts becoming known to the Court of Directors, they, remembering past abuses, disapproved of all the transactions with the firm in question, and directed that the Governor-General's consent should be withdrawn. These instructions were obeyed; but the suspicions of Sir Charles Metcalfe, (who by this time had reached Haidarábád), being aroused, he proceeded to examine into the affairs of the principality, and he was startled to find that the large sums obtained from Palmer and Co., which reached to nearly a million sterling, were wasted, and had been improperly applied, and that the exactions made upon the wretched inhabitants were still continued with unrelenting rigour. Thereupon a strict inquiry was instituted, and it was then ascertained that the dealings of this financial house formed no exception to those which the Act (already