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196 mentioned) had been framed to prohibit, that the rate of interest was exorbitant, and as much as 24 per cent., and that the sixty lakhs had not been applied to the purposes for which they had been ostensibly borrowed. When these facts were realised, the Indian Government withdrew its countenance from the firm, the minister was directed to close his account there, and a tribute payable to the Nizám by the Company for the possession of the Northern Circars was capitalised into the necessary million, to liberate the court of Haidarábád from all further business with the house of Palmer and Co.

Until the scandal was revealed, Lord Hastings had all this time been firmly convinced that these financial transactions constituted the best and indeed the only feasible expedient for extricating the Nizám's principality from its embarrassments, and for re-establishing it in a state of solvency; in consenting to countenance a European house of business, he relied altogether upon the judgment of the former Resident, who strongly recommended the adoption of the course pursued, and whose official position, long experience, and intimate knowledge of the Nizám's affairs might be trusted to form a sound and impartial opinion on the subject. Such was the Governor-General's confidence in the discretion of the Political Agent and in his own decisions, that he was slow to believe that this opinion was faulty, or that he himself could be mistaken; and when Sir Charles Metcalfe represented the true state of the case, he came at first to the hasty