One of the chief causes of the discord which prevailed in Bengal was the exemption from duties on their private trade, claimed by the Company's civil servants, who at that period were remunerated by their trade rather than their salaries. The system of collecting customs on the transit of goods in the interior of the country prevailed all over India; and in Bengal much inconvenience was felt, and many quarrels arose, from the number of tolls and inspections to which the Company's goods were liable, in common with all others, in their transit to and from the marts of purchase and sale. To obviate these, it was arranged with the Nabobs, in explanation of the Emperor's firman, that the Company's flag and dustuck[[217]], in their boats and other conveyances, should secure their goods from search; and as their trade consisted solely of goods from foreign parts for sale in the country, or of country goods for foreign exportation, the privilege only partially interfered with the trade of the interior. While the Nabobs and their officers were in full power, any abuse of this privilege was easily checked. But when, after the accession of Meer Jaffier, the English had become all-powerful, and it was dangerous to interfere with their acts, or to question their proceedings, the Company's servants, who had still the privilege of trading on their own account, not only covered their private adventures, by passports under the Company's name, but all their servants and dependents claimed an exemption from internal duties on the same plea, and besides entered deeply into the internal trade of the country. During the vigorous administration of Clive such attempts had been rare; but when all fear of correction was lost in the increasing weakness of his successors in the government, men set no limits to their efforts to enrich themselves. The Nabob's revenue was injured, and his authority insulted, in every quarter of his dominions, by the exemptions claimed for the trade of European agents, and the respect demanded for the persons of the lowest of their servants. Against their pretensions and excesses he made the most forcible remonstrance, but in vain. Many of the persons of whom he complained were members of Council; and it was not surprising, therefore, that difficulties should occur in any attempt made by the Governor to check and reform such abuses. Cossim Ali became impatient of delay; and finding his representations produce no effect, and that the orders of the government were either evaded or disobeyed, he himself took, and authorized measures of violence, that increased the discontent and hostility of the party opposed to Mr. Vansittart; many of whom were the persons chiefly benefited by the abuses complained of, who represented him as leaving British subjects and public servants of the Company at the will and mercy of a capricious tyrant whom he had unjustly raised to the throne.
To remedy these evils, Mr. Vansittart negotiated a treaty, by which, while some advantages were left to the servants of the Company, many of the privileges they had claimed were done away. This treaty, though exceptionable in some of its clauses, might have operated well, had Mr. Vansittart's Council been disposed to listen to reason, and had Cossim Ali been more temperate. Trusting to his judicious and active administration of the customs as one of the sources out of which he was to discharge the heavy pecuniary obligations under which he had come to the English, he adopted the strictest measures for enforcing their collection. The adjudication and enforcement of all fiscal demands by the articles of the treaty had (unfortunately as affairs stood) been left to the Nabob's officers. Numerous collisions instantly ensued in all parts of the country. "In truth," says Mr. Verelst[[218]], a dispassionate observer, "it soon became a personal quarrel. Meer Cossim, in the orders issued to his officers, distinguished between the trade of his friends, and of those who opposed him, treating individuals with indecent reproach." The opponents of Mr. Vansittart, who thought their interest injured, and who now formed the majority of Council, combined in measures which soon led to an open rupture.
So excessive were the claims made by the English and their native servants, for carrying their goods free from the duties paid by the Nabob's own subjects, that the whole commerce of the country was thrown into confusion, and ruin was threatened to the Nabob's finances. As a measure of justice to his own subjects, and to prevent the daily breaches of the peace which occurred, he saw no remedy left, but to abolish all customs in his dominions. An order was accordingly issued abolishing all tolls and customs for the space of two years.
This act of the Nabob, though extorted by necessity, and so injurious to his own revenue, was loudly exclaimed against as an infringement of his engagements with the Company; and two agents[[219]] were sent to demand its annulment. But before they could adjust differences, events were brought to a crisis, principally through the impressions made upon the Nabob's mind by the conduct of the majority of the Council.[[220]]
Mr. Vansittart informs Lord Clive of his measures for regulating trade; but states his apprehensions of the result. These were but too fully verified. The Nabob, alarmed by the assembly of all the Council from the out-stations, and outraged by their seizure of some aumils (or revenue officers) for the performance of his orders, became most violent, and was rendered more so from the daily reports of the conduct of Mr. Ellis, chief of Patna, who, from the first, had been the determined opponent of his elevation. A knowledge of the disposition, and a belief of the hostile intentions of this public agent, led him to stop two boats proceeding to Patna with arms; and he added to this act of aggression a demand for the removal of Mr. Ellis, and the English detachment from Patna. This conduct was regarded as very little short of an open declaration of war; and as such, it was treated by the majority of the Council, who issued orders to Mr. Ellis, giving him the power (if he thought it right to exercise it) to anticipate the Nabob's hostile designs by seizing upon the citadel of Patna. The reins of government had fallen from the hands of Mr. Vansittart, and were guided by a selfish and sordid majority.
It was in vain that Mr. Vansittart and Mr. Warren Hastings protested against giving such discretionary power to a man known to be so violent. They too truly anticipated the result. At the very moment Cossim Ali (alarmed at having proceeded too far) released the boats, he heard of the Fort of Patna being surprised and taken by the English troops, acting under the orders of Mr. Ellis. Though it was immediately re-taken by his troops, Cossim Ali's rage, at what he deemed a treacherous commencement of hostilities, knew no bounds; and throwing away the scabbard, he became furious in his resentment against the whole English nation, and all who had adhered to them. Mr. Amyatt[[221]], one of the deputies sent to Monghyr, was murdered on his way back to Calcutta. To Ram Narrain's death was added the execution of the two Hindu Seits (or bankers), who had always been supposed attached to the English interests; and notwithstanding the entreaties and threats of the Governor, and the more direct menaces of Major Adams, commanding the British forces, he glutted his vengeance with the deliberate murder of Mr. Ellis and all the English (except one) who had been taken prisoners at Patna. Their numbers amounted to one hundred and fifty, of whom fifty were military or civil officers.
Subsequently to this act of atrocity[[222]], Cossim Ali and the German[[223]], Sumroo, (who had been the instrument of the massacre,) fled before the British troops, and found refuge in the territories of Oude. Sujah-u-Dowlah, the prince of that country, not only refused to deliver them up on the demand of the British commander, but, acting as an ally of Cossim Ali, advanced to attack the English army, then under Major Munro, from whom he received a signal defeat at Buxar. He was afterwards pursued into his own country, and again discomfited, though he had been joined by the Mahratta chief, Mulhar Row Holkar. So situated, this ruler adopted a very politic and decided course. He would not, he said, bring a stain upon his honour, by surrendering men who had sought his protection; but he commanded Cossim Ali and Sumroo to quit his dominions, and repaired to the British camp, throwing himself entirely upon the clemency of his enemy. To this he was chiefly induced by the accounts which had been received of the return of Clive, whom he could not hope to oppose, and whose resentment he hoped to disarm by unqualified submission. His conduct and character were represented in the most favourable light by Major Carnac, who earnestly recommended that he should be treated with generosity, and confirmed in his dominions. Such a measure, this sensible and liberal officer remarked, would be more beneficial to our interests and reputation, than any change we could make in this quarter of India.
The events that have been described led to the re-elevation of Meer Jaffier to the Musnud; and we must, therefore, shortly revert to the history of that prince.
Before Clive left India, Meer Jaffier had committed many acts that might have been construed into infractions of the treaty with the English, and more, that, strictly viewed, would have proved him ill suited for the high station to which he had been raised: but Clive considered that his conduct was less to be attributed to his character, which was weak and vacillating, than to the galling nature of his dependent condition; and as the relations between the Nabob of Moorshedabad and the English could not be changed, without danger to the very existence of the latter, he judged wisely, that, while Meer Jaffier abstained from hostility, however glaring his defects, any change in the head of the native government would be impolitic, and attended with consequences alike injurious to the reputation and interests of the British government.
The departure of Clive was the most serious of all misfortunes to Meer Jaffier. He required the most liberal toleration that enlarged policy could give to his measures. He had, besides, a respect for the character and a dread of the displeasure of Clive, which operated as a check upon his excesses. Mr. Holwell (the temporary successor to Clive) could not succeed to his influence over the mind of the Nabob, whose want of personal deference must have aggravated the bad impressions the new governor appears to have previously entertained of his character. But, though Mr. Holwell has laboured to prove that Meer Jaffier, subsequent to his combination with the Dutch, carried on a correspondence with the Shah-Zada hostile to the English, the fact is not clearly established; and if it were, the sound principles that regulated the conduct of Clive would have led to its being passed over. The unhappy death of Meeran, however, was the event which tended most to accelerate the revolution. It threw, as has been shown, the army and country into equal confusion; and the step taken by the Nabob of elevating his nearest connection[[224]] and most efficient military leader, Cossim Ali, to the condition before held by his son, proved the proximate cause of his ruin.