imself" (the administrator
forced by the said Warren Hastings on the present Rajah of Benares).
"The avowed principle on which he acts, and which he acknowledged to
myself, is, that the _whole_ sum fixed for the revenue of the province
_must_ be collected,--and that, for this purpose, the deficiency arising
in places where the crops have failed, or which have been left
uncultivated, must be supplied from the resources of others, where the
soil has been better suited to the season, or the industry of the
cultivators hath been more successfully exerted: a principle which,
however specious and plausible it may at first appear, _certainly tends
to the most pernicious and destructive consequences_. If this
declaration of the Naib had been made only to myself, I might have
doubted my construction of it; but it was repeated by him to Mr.
Anderson, who understood it exactly in the same sense. In the management
of the customs, the conduct of the Naib, or of the officer under him,
was forced also upon my attention. _The exorbitant rates exacted by an
arbitrary valuation of the goods_, the practice of exacting duties
_twice_ on the same goods, (first from the seller, and afterwards from
the buyer,) and the vexations, disputes, and delays drawn on the
merchants by these oppressions, were loudly complained of; and some
instances of this kind were said to exist at the very time I was at
Benares. Under such circumstances, we are not to wonder, if the
merchants of foreign countries are discouraged from resorting to
Benares, and if the commerce of that province should annually decay.
_Other_ evils, or imputed evils, have accidentally come to my knowledge,
which I will not now particularize, as I hope, that, with the
assistance of the Resident, they may be _in part_ corrected. One evil I
must mention, because it has been verified by my own observation, and is
of that kind which reflects an unmerited reproach on our general and
national character. When I was at Buxar, the Resident, at my desire,
enjoined the Naib to appoint creditable people to every town through
which our route lay, to persuade and encourage the inhabitants to remain
in their houses, promising to give them guards as I approached, and they
required it for their protection; and that he might perceive how earnest
I was for his observation of this precaution, I repeated it to him in
person, and dismissed him that he might precede me for that purpose.
But, to my great disappoi