IV.[16] That the Company’s servants, in the beginning, were not conversant in the affairs of the revenue, and stood in need of natives of integrity and experience to act in the management thereof.  On that ground, as well as in regard to the rank which Mahomed Reza Khan held in the country, and the confidence of the people in him, they, the President and Council, did inform the Court of Directors, in their letter of the 30th of September, 1765, that, “as Mahomed Reza Khan’s short administration was irreproachable, they determined to continue him in a share of the authority”; and this information was not given lightly, but was founded upon an inquiry into his conduct, and a minute examination of charges made against him by his rivals in the Nabob’s court,—­they having insinuated to the Nabob that a design was formed for deposing him, and placing Mahomed Reza on his throne; but, on examination, the President and Council declare, that “he had so openly and candidly accounted for every rupee disbursed from the treasury, that they could not, without injury to his character, and injustice to his conduct during his short administration, refuse continuing him in a share of the government.”

V. That the Company had reason to be satisfied with the arrangement made, so far as it regarded him:  the President and Council having informed them, in the following year, in their letter of the 9th of December, 1766, that “the large increase of the revenue must in a great measure be ascribed to Mr. Sykes’s assiduity, and to Mahomed Reza Khan’s profound knowledge in the finances.”

VI.  That the then President and Council, finding it necessary to make several reforms in the administration, were principally aided in the same by the suggestion, advice, and assistance of the said Mahomed Reza Khan; and in their letter to the Court of Directors of the 24th of June, 1767, they state their resolution of reducing the emoluments of office, which before had arisen from a variety of presents and other perquisities, to fixed allowances; and they state the merits of Mahomed Reza Khan therein, as well as the importance, dignity, and responsibility of his station, in the following manner.

“Mahomed Reza Khan has now of himself, with great delicacy of honor, represented to us the evil consequences that must ensue from the continuance of this practice,—­since, by suffering the principal officers of the government to depend for the support of their dignity on the precarious fund of perquisites, they in a manner oblige them to pursue oppressive and corrupt measures, equally injurious to the country and the Company; and they accordingly assigned twelve lac of rupees for the maintenance and support of the said Mahomed Reza Khan, and two other principal persons, who held in their hands the most important employments of that government,—­having regard to their elevated stations, and to the expediency of supporting them in all the show and parade requisite