upees. This sum from the first was
not punctually paid, and for the last two years it had been withheld
altogether. The ostensible reason for this was as follows: In the year
17713 Shah Alum, at the instigation it is said of Sujah Dowla, Vizier
and Nabob of Oude, who wished to recover possession of Allahabad and
Corah, threw himself into the arms of the Mahrattas. Towards the close
of the year 1771 the Mahratta chief carried the poor Mogul in triumph to
Delhi, and soon after he was hurried by them into the field of battle.
Supported by them he invaded Rohilcund, a country which was equally
coveted by the Nabob of Oude, to whom the Rohillas applied for
assistance. Sujah Dowla not only promised to assist them himself, but
likewise to gain for them the more potent co-operation of the company.
Accordingly he intimated to Sir Robert Barker, the general who commanded
the company's forces, and to the governor and council at Calcutta, that
to allow Shah Alum any stipend would be only furnishing the means of war
to the rapacious and turbulent Mahrattas. Previous to this the payment
of the stipend had been suspended upon various pleas, but this afforded
ground for stopping it altogether. Shah Alum and the English were
therefore brought into direct collision. At this moment Major John
Morrison, who had previously resigned his commission in the company's
service, repaired to Allahabad to try his fortune with Shah Alum.
Morrison was at once raised to the rank of general, and he soon
persuaded the Great Mogul to appoint him his ambassador and
plenipotentiary to his Britannic Majesty, George III., under the promise
of obtaining him a larger sum from the King of England than that
which the company had withheld from him. Morrison was furnished with
proposals, the chief of which were these:--"The Great Mogul, Shah Alum,
as undoubted lord and sovereign of Hindustan, &c, and as having full
right so to do, would transfer to his Britannic majesty, Bengal, Bahar,
and Orissa, with all that the company possessed in those parts, and
which was all forfeited by them, upon condition that his Britannic
majesty would pay the pecuniary homage of thirty-two lacs, and aid the
Great Mogul with troops and arms." At this time the British parliament
were calling the territorial rights of the company in question, and was
even meditating the taking those rights to itself, and the reduction
of the company to a mere trading body. Had Morrison, indeed, arrived
in