Colonization and Christianity: A popular history of the treatment of the natives by the; Europeans in all their coloniesHowitt, William
History
Colonization and Christianity: A popular history of the treatment of the natives by the; Europeans in all their colonies
Howitt, William
Indians, Treatment of; Indigenous peoples
disgust, or at least, regard for public opinion, at these unprincipled
proceedings, and the Rajah, through the means of Lord Paget was
restored, not however without having a certain quantity of troops
quartered upon him; a yearly payment of four lacs of pagodas imposed;
and being bound not to make any treaty or assist any power without the
consent of the English. He was, in fact, put into the first stage of
that process of subjection which would, in due time, remove from him
even the shadow of independence.
Such were the measures by which the Nabob of Arcot endeavoured to
relieve himself from his embarrassments with the English; but they
would not all avail. Their demands grew faster than he could find means
to satisfy them. Their system of action was too well devised to fail
them; their victims rarely escaped from their toils: he might help
them to ruin his neighbours, but he could not escape them himself.
During his life he was surrounded by a host of cormorant creditors;
his country, harassed by perpetual exactions, rapidly declined; and
the death of his son and successor, Omdut ul Omrah, in 1801, produced
one of the strangest scenes in this strange history. The Marquis
Wellesley was then Governor-general, and, pursuing that sweeping
course which stripped away the hypocritical mask from British power in
India, threw down so many puppet princes, and displayed the English
dominion in Indostan in its gigantic nakedness. The revenues of the
Carnatic had been before taken in the hands of the English, but Lord
Wellesley resolved to depose the prince; and the manner in which this
deposition was effected, was singularly despotic and unfeeling. They
had come to the resolution to depose the Nabob, and only looked about
for some plausible pretence. This they professed to have found in a
correspondence which, by the death of Tippoo Saib, had fallen into
their hands—a correspondence between Tippoo and some officers of the
Nabob. They alleged, that this correspondence contained injurious and
even treasonable language towards the English. When, therefore, the
Nabob lay on his death-bed they surrounded his house with troops, and
immediately that the breath had departed from him they demanded to see
his will. This rude and unfeeling behaviour, so repugnant to the ideas
of every people, however savage and brutal, at a moment so solemn and
sacred to domestic sorrow, was respectfully protested against—but
in vain. The will they insisted upon seeing, and it accordingly was
put into their hands by the son of the Nabob, now about to mount the
throne himself. Finding that the son was nominated as his heir and
successor by the Nabob, the Commissioners immediately announced to
him the charge of treason against his father, and that the throne was
thereby forfeited by the family. This charge, of course, was a matter
of surprise to the family; especially when the papers said to contain
the treason were produced, and they could find in them nothing but
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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