about him, in a
manner subjugated,--a British Resident the master of his court: he is
set up as a pageant on this throne, with no other authority but what
would be sufficient to give a countenance to presents, gifts, and
donations. That authority was always left, when all the rest was taken
away. One would have thought that this revolution might have satisfied
these gentlemen, and that the money gained by it would have been
sufficient. No. The partisans of Cossim Ali wanted another revolution.
The partisans of the other side wished to have something more done in
the present. They now began to think that to depose Cossim instantly,
and to sell him to another, was too much at one time,--especially as
Cossim Ali was a man of vigor and resolution, carrying on a fierce war
against them. But what do you think they did? They began to see, from
the example of Cossim Ali, that the lieutenancy, the ministry of the
king, was a good thing to be sold, and the sale of that might turn out
as good a thing as the sale of the prince.

For this office there were two rival candidates, persons of great
consideration, in Bengal: one, a principal Mahomedan, called Mahomed
Reza Khan, a man of high authority, great piety in his own religion,
great learning in the law, of the very first class of Mahomedan
nobility; but at the same time, on all these accounts, he was abhorred
and dreaded by the Nabob, who necessarily feared that a man of Mahomed
Reza Khan's description would be considered as better entitled and
fitter for his seat, as Nabob of the provinces. To balance him, there
was another man, known by the name of the Great Rajah Nundcomar. This
man was accounted the highest of his caste, and held the same rank among
the Gentoos that Mahomed Reza Khan obtained among the Mahomedans. The
prince on the throne had no jealousy of Nundcomar, because he knew,
that, as a Gentoo, he could not aspire to the office of Subahdar. For
that reason he was firmly attached to him; he might depend completely on
his services; he was _his_ against Mahomed Reza Khan, and against the
whole world. There was, however, a flaw in the Nabob's title, which it
was necessary should be hid. And perhaps it lay against Mahomed Reza
Khan as well as him. But it was a source of apprehension to the Nabob,
and contributed to make him wish to keep all Mahomedan influence at a
distance. For he was a Syed, that is to say, a descendant of Mahomet,
and as such, though of the only ackno