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
terms of fidelity and respect towards the English government. But the
English had resolved that the charge should be a sufficient charge, and
the young prince manfully resisting it, they then declared him to be
of illegitimate birth,—a very favourite and convenient plea with them.
On this they set him aside, and made a treaty with another prince, in
which for a certain provision the Carnatic was made over to them for
ever. The young nabob, Ali Hussein, did not long survive this scene of
indignity and arbitrary deposition—his death occurring in the spring
of the following year.
Such was the English treatment of their friend the Nabob of Arcot;—the
Nabob of Arcot, whose name was for years continually heard in England
as the powerful ally of the British, as their coadjutor against
the French, against the ambitious Hyder Ali, as their zealous and
accommodating friend on all occasions. It was in vain that either
the old Nabob, or the young one, whom they so summarily deposed,
pleaded the faith of treaties, their own hereditary right, or ancient
friendship. Arcot had served its turn; it had been the stalking-horse
to all the aggressions on other states that they needed from it,—they
had exacted all that could be exacted in the name of the Nabob from
his subjects—they had squeezed the sponge dry; and moreover the time
was now come that they could with impunity throw off the stealthy
crouching attitude of the tiger, the smiling meek mask of alliance, and
boldly seize upon undisguised sovereign powers in India. Arcot was but
one state amongst many that were now to be so treated. Benares, Oude,
Tanjore, Surat, and others found themselves in the like case.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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