rought which prevailed in the province
aforesaid, a remission of certain duties in grain was proposed by the
chief criminal judge at Benares; but the administrator aforesaid, being
fearful that the revenue should fall short in his hands, did strenuously
oppose himself to the necessary relief to the inhabitants of the said
city.

That, notwithstanding the cantonment of several bodies of the Company's
troops within the province, since the abolition of the native
government, it became subject in a particular manner to the depredations
of the Rajahs upon the borders; insomuch that in one quarter no fewer
than thirty villages had been sacked and burned, and the inhabitants
reduced to the most extreme distress.

That the Resident, in his letter to the board at Calcutta, did represent
that the collection of the revenue was become very difficult, and,
besides the extreme drought, did assign for a cause of that difficulty
the following. "That there is also one fund which in former years was
often applied in this country to remedy temporary inconveniences in the
revenue, and which in the present year does not exist. This was the
private fortunes of merchants and _shroffs_ [bankers] resident in
Benares, from whom _aumils_ [collectors] of credit could obtain
temporary loans to satisfy the immediate calls of the Rajah. These sums,
which used to circulate between the aumil and the merchant, have been
turned into a different channel, by bills of exchange to defray the
expenses of government, both on the west coast of India, and also at
Madras." To which representation it does not appear that any answer was
given, or that any mode of redress was adopted in consequence thereof.

That the said Warren Hastings, having passed through the province of
Benares (Gazipore) in his progress towards Oude, did, in a letter dated
from the city of Lucknow, the 2d of April, 1784, give to the Council
Board at Calcutta an account, highly dishonorable to the British
government, of the effect of the arrangements made by himself in the
years 1781 and 1782, in the words following. "Having contrived, by
making forced stages, while the troops of my escort marched at the
ordinary rate, to make a stay of five days at Benares, I was thereby
furnished with the means of acquiring some knowledge of the state of the
province, which I am anxious to communicate to you. Indeed, the inquiry,
which was _in a great degree obtruded upon me_, affected me with very
mortif