A Bill for the Better Government of the Territorial Possessions and Dependencies in India.

[ONE OF MR FOX’S INDIA BILLS.]

And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the Nabob of Arcot, the Rajah of Tanjore, or any other native protected prince in India, shall not assign, mortgage, or pledge any territory or land whatsoever, or the produce or revenue thereof, to any British subject whatsoever; neither shall it be lawful to and for any British subject whatsoever to take or receive any such assignment, mortgage, or pledge; and the same are hereby declared to be null and void; and all payments or deliveries of produce or revenue, under any such assignment, shall and may be recovered back, by such native prince paying or delivering the same, from the person or persons receiving the same, or his or their representatives.

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No. 4.

Referred to from pp. 64 and 73.

(COPY.)

27th May, 1782.

Letter from the Committee of Assigned Revenue, to the President and Select Committee, dated 27th May, 1782; with Comparative Statement, and Minute thereon.

To the Right Honorable LORD MACARTNEY, K.B., President, and Governor, &c., Select Committee of Fort St. George.

MY LORD, AND GENTLEMEN,—­

Although we have, in obedience to your commands of the 5th January, regularly laid before you our proceedings at large, and have occasionally addressed you upon such points as required your resolutions or orders for our guidance, we still think it necessary to collect and digest in a summary report those transactions in the management of the assigned revenue which have principally engaged our attention, and which, upon the proceeding, are too much intermixed with ordinary occurrences to be readily traced and understood.

Such a report may be formed with the greater propriety at this time, when your Lordship, &c., have been pleased to conclude your arrangements for the rent of several of the Nabob’s districts.  Our aim in it is briefly to explain the state of the Carnatic at the period of the Nabob’s assignment,—­the particular causes which existed to the prejudice of that assignment, after it was made,—­and the measures which your Lordship, &c., have, upon our recommendation, adopted for removing those causes, and introducing a more regular and beneficial system of management in the country.

Hyder Ali having entered the Carnatic with his whole force, about the middle of July, 1780, and employed fire and sword in its destruction for near eighteen months before the Nabob’s assignment took place, it will not be difficult to conceive the state of the country at that period.  In those provinces which were fully exposed to the ravages of horse, scarce a vestige remained either of population or agriculture:  such of the miserable inhabitants as escaped the fury of the sword were either carried into the Mysore country