There were other objections to the proffered treaty of no small weight. The Jaipur court justly deemed one-fifth (eight lakhs) of the gross revenues of the crown, a high rate of insurance for protection; but when we further stipulated for a prospective increase[9.4.7] of nearly one-third of all surplus revenue beyond forty lakhs, they saw, instead of the generous Briton, a sordid trafficker of mercenary protection, whose rapacity transcended that of the Mahratta. Independent of these state objections, there were abundance of private and individual motives arrayed in hostility to the British offer. For example: the ministers dreaded the surveillance of a resident agent, as obnoxious to their authority and influence; and the chieftains, whom rank and ancient usage kept at court as the counsellors of their prince, saw in prospect the surrender of crown-lands, which fraud, favour, or force had obtained for them. Such were the principal causes which impeded the alliance between Amber and the Government-general of British India; but it would have marred the uniformity of Lord Hastings’ plan to have left a gap in the general protective system by the omission of Jaipur. The events rapidly happening around them—the presence of Amir Khan—the expulsion of the orange flag of the Mahratta, and the substitution of the British banner on the battlements of Ajmer—at length produced a tardy and ungracious assent, and, on the 2nd of April 1818, a treaty of ten articles was concluded, which made the Kachhwaha princes the friends and tributaries in perpetuity of Great Britain. =Disputed Succession.=—On the 21st of December of the same year, Jagat Singh died, and the choice of a successor speedily evinced to the ministers the impracticability of their exercising, as in days of yore, that “absolute power over their country and dependants,” guaranteed to them by the treaty.[9.4.8] Our office of arbitrating the differences between the Raja and [380] his vassals on the subject of the usurpations from the crown-lands, was easy, and left no unpleasant feeling; but when we intermeddled with the intrigues respecting the succession, our ignorance of established rights and usage rendered the interference offensive, and made the Jaipur chiefs repent the alliance which temporary policy had induced their prince to accept.