Approved by the Board.
HENRY DUNDAS,
WALSINGHAM,
W.W. GRENVILLE,
MULGRAVE.
WHITEHALL, October 27, 1784.
No. 9.
Referred to from pp. [78] and [85].
Extract of a Letter from the Court of Directors to the President and Council of Fort St. George, as amended and approved by the Board of Control.
We have taken into our consideration the several advices and papers received from India, relative to the assignment of the revenues of the Carnatic, from the conclusion of the Bengal treaty to the date of your letter in October, 1783, together with the representations of the Nabob of the Carnatic upon that subject; and although we might contend that the agreement should subsist till we are fully reimbursed his Highness's proportion of the expenses of the war, yet, from a principle of moderation, and personal attachment to our old ally, his Highness the Nabob of the Carnatic, for whose dignity and happiness we are ever solicitous, and to cement more strongly, if possible, that mutual harmony and confidence which our connection makes so essentially necessary for our reciprocal safety and welfare, and for removing from his mind every idea of secret design on our part to lessen his authority over the internal government of the Carnatic, and the collection and administration of its revenues, we have resolved that the assignment shall be surrendered; and we do accordingly direct our President, in whose name the assignment was taken, without delay, to surrender the same to his Highness. But while we have adopted this resolution, we repose entire confidence in his Highness, that, actuated by the same motives of liberality, and feelings of old friendship and alliance, he will cheerfully and instantly accede to such arrangements as are necessary to be adopted for our common safety, and for preserving the respect, rights, and interests we enjoy in the Carnatic. The following are the heads and principles of such an arrangement as we are decisively of opinion must be adopted for these purposes, viz.
That, for making a provision for discharging the Nabob's just debts to the Company and individuals, (for the payment of which his Highness has so frequently expressed the greatest solicitude,) the Nabob shall give soucar security for the punctual payment, by instalments, into the Company's treasury, of twelve lacs of pagodas per annum, (as voluntarily proposed by his Highness,) until those debts, with interest, shall be discharged; and shall also consent that the equitable provision lately made by the British legislature for the liquidation of those debts, and such resolutions and determinations as we shall hereafter make, under the authority of that provision for the liquidation and adjustment of the said debts, bonâ fide incurred, shall be carried into full force and effect.
Should any difficulty arise between his Highness and our government of Fort St. George, in respect to the responsibility of the soucar security, or the times and terms of the instalments, it is our pleasure that you pay obedience to the orders and resolutions of our Governor-General and Council of Bengal in respect thereto, not doubting but the Nabob will in such case consent to abide by the determination of our said supreme government.
Although, from the great confidence we repose in the honor and integrity of the Nabob, and from an earnest desire not to subject him to any embarrassment on this occasion, we have not proposed any specific assignment of territory or revenue for securing the payments aforesaid, we nevertheless think it our duty, as well to the private creditors, whose interests in this respect have been so solemnly intrusted to us by the late act of Parliament, as from regard to the debt due to the Company, to insist on a declaration, that, in the event of the failure of the security proposed, or in default of payment at the stipulated periods, we reserve to ourselves full right to demand of the Nabob such additional security, by assignment on his country, as shall be effectual for answering the purposes of the agreement.
After having conciliated the mind of the Nabob to this measure, and adjusted the particulars, you are to carry the same into execution by a formal deed between his Highness and the Company, according to the tenor of these instructions.
As the administration of the British interests and connections in India has in some respects assumed a new shape by the late act of Parliament, and a general peace in India has been happily accomplished, the present appears to us to be the proper period, and which cannot without great imprudence be omitted, to settle and arrange, by a just and equitable treaty, a plan for the future defence and protection of the Carnatic, both in time of peace and war, on a solid and lasting foundation.