t _obvious_ support _alone_ that he could maintain
his authority and influence." And in his instructions to his secret
agent, Major Palmer, dated 6th of May, 1782, to ease his mind and remove
his jealousy with regard to British interference, he did instruct him,
"that much delicacy and caution will be required in your declarations on
this subject, lest they should be construed to extend to an immediate
change in the administration of his affairs, or the instruments of it.
Their persons must be considered as _sacred, while_ they act with the
_participation of our influence_. This distinction the Nabob
_understands_; nor will it be either necessary or proper to allude to
it, unless he himself should first introduce the subject." And the said
Hastings did assume, as to a dependant of the lowest order, to prescribe
to him the conditions on which he is to hold his place,--to threaten him
with scrutinies into his conduct, with dismission, with
punishment,--that he was guilty of falsehood and duplicity, and that he
had made his master assert what was true to be false,--that he suspected
he had withheld from his master what he ought to have paid to him,--that
the event of his having _prevailed_ on the Nabob to intrust him as
aforesaid was, according to his, the said Hastings's, own letter,
written to the said Hyder Beg Khan himself, "an accumulation of
distress, debasement, and dissatisfaction to the Nabob, and of
disappointment and disgrace to me. Every measure which he had himself
proposed, and to which he had solicited my assistance, has been so
conducted as to give him cause of displeasure; there are no officers
established by which his affairs could be regularly conducted; mean,
incapable, and indigent man have been appointed aumils of the districts,
without authority, and without the means of personal protection; some of
them have been murdered by the zemindars, and those zemindars, instead
of punishment, have been permitted to retain their zemindaries with
independent authority; all the other zemindars suffered to rise up in
rebellion, and to insult the authority of the sircar, without any
attempt made to suppress them; and the Company's debt, instead of being
discharged by the assignments, and extraordinary sources of money
provided for that purpose, is likely to exceed even the amount at which
it stood at the time in which the arrangement with his Excellency was
concluded. _The growth of these evils was early made known