BY WARREN HASTINGS.

APPX. A.] 397 Date, to the Rights of the Zemindars who have inherited Lands from their Ancestors, encourages us to solicit your Compassion for the antient Proprietors of the Twenty-four Pergunnas, or Calcutta Lands, which became the Company's Zemindarry by the Treaty of Plassey, and from which they were consequently dispossessed. A small Part of their Lands were before that Time united with the Zemindarries of Burdwan and Nuddea, whose Zemindars are amply provided for. The other Zemindars and Taalindars (sic) have continued since that Time in a State of extreme Indigence. Some of them have large families to maintain. It has been the usual Rule of the Mogul Government, when any Zemindar was divested of authority, to allow him a Substance out of the Rents of his Zemindarrie proportioned to the annual Income of it. This Proportion commonly ammounted to One Tenth. We would not recommend so large an Allowance for these people. We are persuaded that they will be contented with a much more moderate income, and receive it with Gratitude. As this Indulgence has been extended to all the other Zemindars in both the Provinces since they were placed under your Government, We have judged that this Representation of the Case of those who alone have been excluded from it would not be unacceptable to you.

As the Settlement of the Province of Bahar had been made for a Term of Years, and therefore did not require any immediate Alteration, We shall wait to finish the whole of our Regulations. in Bengal before we attempt any Innovation in that Province. The only point on which We think We can give you any previous Intimation of our future Proceedings in those Parts is, that we deem it proper to unite the Collections with those of Bengal, and establish the same Regulations in both Provinces, as soon as We can do it with conveniency, and without adding to our present Embarrassments.

In the Proceedings of our Committee of Revenue of the 10th May is recorded the Particulars of a Dispute which subsisted between the late Council of Revenue at Moorshedabad and the Supervisor of Dinagepore, Mr. Henry Cottrell, the Consequence of which was the recalling the latter from his Appointment. The several Arguments urged against his Conduct by the Council of Revenue at Moorshedabad, as well as his Letter in Vindication of himself, appear fully in the above Proceedings; and we must

beg leave to refer you to them, that you may form such a Judgement of this Affair as your Candor and Justice may point out. We are, with great Respect, Hon'ble Sirs, Your most faithful humble Servants,

(Signed)

WARREN HASTINGS.1

R. BARKER.

W. ALDERSEY.

THOMAS LANE.

RICHD. BARWELL.

JAMES HARRIS.

H. GOODWIN.

FORT-WILLIAM, the 3d November 1772.

1 The chief portions of this letter are from Warren Hastings' own

pen.

APPENDIX B.

THE GREAT FAMINE OF 1770, DESCRIBED BY EYE-WITNESSES.

SECTION I.-Selections from General Letters from Bengal (the more important in full).

25th September 1769.-Paras. 20 to 27. Devastations of the enemy and want of rain for many months had rendered grain so exceedingly scarce at Madras, that that Government had become apprehensive of the most distressing consequences. Measures were taken to supply their wants from Bengal, but scarcity had prevailed also in Bengal. The Lord Holland was lost on her way down to Madras with a cargo of rice, and a second supply would be forwarded.

30th September 1769.—Para. 53. Revenues of the provinces of Bengal and Behar were expected to fall short, owing to the very unusual scarcity of grain.

23d November 1769.-Paras. 8 to 10.-8. It is with great concern, Gentlemen, that we are to inform you that we have a most melancholy prospect before our eyes of universal distress for want of grain.1 Owing to an uncommon drought that has prevailed over every part of the country, insomuch that the oldest inhabitants never remembered to have known anything like it, and as to threaten a famine.

9. As there is the greatest probability that this distress will encrease, and a certainty that it cannot be alleviated for six months to come, we have ordered a stock of grain sufficient to serve our army for that period, to be laid up in proper storehouses; and we have taken and shall pursue every means in our power to relieve the miserable situation the poor inhabitants must be involved in from this dreadful calamity; but we cannot This letter is not signed by the Governor, Mr. Verelst.

flatter ourselves that all our endeavours will prevent very fatal effects being felt, or that human means can check its baneful influence.'

Para. 10 anticipates a falling off of the revenue, and a probable necessity for an abatement; but excepting this (which was most imperfectly carried out), no specific relief measures are specified, nor were any undertaken till long after.

25th January 1770.-Paras. 48 to 50.-48. 'We are sorry to acquaint you that the apprehensions which we expressed to you in our letter of the 23d November last regarding the consequence of the uncommon drought that hath prevailed are confirmed, and this general calamity is severely felt in all the provinces. The Collector-General hath laid before us a representation on this occasion from the Raja and Resident of Burdwaun, proposing a remission to be made in the rents this year; and so sensible are we of the melancholy truth of what they set forth, that we have been induced to grant a remission to the farmers of the Burdwaun province of about 2 or 3 laacks of rupees, taking care that they also extend it to the ryuts; and at the time of granting it, bring both the farmers and ryuts under engagements that the same shall be replaced, at certain periods, along with their rents of next year'-[In reality, less than a single lac, or only £8218, was remitted, and even this had to be paid up at the commencement of the next year (vide post. pp. 403 and 406)]; and we have desired the Collector-General to adopt this system in the Calcutta lands, which equally require the same indulgence.

49. By this method we hope to relieve the farmers and the ryuts, who in this time of dearth and distress claim all the indulgence and assistance that we can afford; and we also hope that, by this method, you will only suffer a temporary inconvenience, not a total loss, and that if the next should be a plentiful year these remissions will be recovered.'

4th February 1770.-Para. 5. 'In Bengal we have not yet found any failure in the revenue or stated payments; but we must not flatter ourselves, in a country where the labourer depends merely on the coming in of the harvest, not on any established or accumulate property, that he can always pay the full demands of Government; neither can we, with any regard to justice or consequences, insist on it.'

9th May 1770-Secret.-Para. 3. If the internal prosperity

APPX. B.]

DESCRIBED BY EYE-WITNESSES.

401

of these provinces corresponded with our external security, we should be happy; but it is far otherwise. Not a drop of rain has fallen in most of the districts for six months. The famine which has ensued, the mortality, the beggary, exceed all description. Above one-third of the inhabitants have perished in the once plentiful province of Purneah, and in other parts the misery is equal. The Supravisor of Behar has represented to our Resident, that the harvest, which in that province is gathered during the months of March and April, has yielded but a scanty return; that the price of grain has risen even since the harvest; and that it is absolutely necessary to remove the brigade from Bankypore beyond the Curamnapa, to save the lives of many poor people who might be subsisted from what the brigade consumed. Though it was the last necessity that induced the Supravisor of Behar to make this proposal, yet your orders against it are so strong, the season so fatal to Europeans on a march, the policy of keeping our troops as near as possible to the Presidency so obvious, and the consequences of being involved in the same difficulties with the king from which we have been but lately freed so much to be dreaded, that however advisable it appears in other respects, we could not with propriety adopt that method of relief. We have, however, consented to remove two battalions and the cavalry from the cantonments to the Fort of Buxar, there to encamp, which will be attended with some alleviation to the distresses of Patna,' and with no disagreable consequences to your political interest. On the contrary, since the king and vizier have resumed an intimate correspondence and intercourse with us, we have thought it no unfavourable occasion to bind them faster to us, by interpreting this motion of your troops into a zeal for their honour and support against all aggressors.'

28th June 1770.-Para. 2. 'Few alterations have happened during this short interval. The famine of which we have already given you an unexaggerated description has continued to rage with all its fatal consequences; and notwithstanding all our efforts to administer relief by public contribution to the poor, remission of the collections, and importations from the neighbouring provinces, we have beheld the calamity daily increasing. Your revenues must suffer from it both now and in future; but no 1 But in the same degree an aggravation of the distress at Buxar, in the very centre of the most cruelly stricken districts.

VOL. I.

2 C