2. Barwell* s letter, 21 Jan 1766. BPP.IX.80° 3* BSC 10 Feb 1766. 4o Barwell*s letter,21 Jan 1766. BPP,IX,80.
152
calculated te fix the yoke of slavish dependence, for let me ask, who is there that will dare te breathe a wish or utter a thought that may render him obnoxious to a man or set of men who have it in their power to ruin all his future prospeots**. and yet this is a very natural
consequence whenever this settlement shall be cursed with a villain who shall act behind or hide behind such a skreen as is this Moorish
government"o 1 He added t
MIn such case where then is the poor sufferer to seek redress*..Is he to look for it from the Boardf Yes* And the Board possibly shall so far heed his representations so as to sacrifice a worthless Phousdar or a Zemindar"* 2
Barwell was voicing a personal anger, but the frustating situation created by Clive's measures affected all the junior Company servants and free
merchants* A general resentment was thus growing against the system on which Reza Khan's power and position was built*
Verelst was obliged , as a close associate of Clive, to adopt and
continue the policy he had inherited, and in consequence he also inherited the hostility of Clive*b orltios* Barwell observed in a letter he sent home on 9 December 1767s
"Since l/.r* Verelst's accession to the government the system has been regarded which his Lordship thought proper to adopt, and, as the Direc tors themselves by their silence on some points and acquiescence on others have encouraged, if not entirely approved, the extortion of any arbitrary power the Governor, whoever he may be must prove dead indeed te ambition not te seize the opportunity that is offered him te render his will and pleasure alone the principle of governing"* 3*
But Verelst had to pursue Clive’s policy without Clive's strength* Clive had come armed with extraordinary emergency powmrs conferred on him by the Proprietors* Verelst succeeded to the government when the emergency was ever0 Clive could count on unquestioned support of the Directors at home, Verelst could not* Clive had had a free hand te adopt any measure that he deemed
necessary, while Verelst had a line of conduct predetermined for him without the necessary means of executing it* All that he could hope for as a Clive man was support from a pro-Clive direction which by this time was under very severe attack*
Verelst not only lacked solid support from England, his hand was also weakened in India, mainly by the changes in the power of the Select Committee* 1. Barwell'a letter t* Beauaont, 1 Jan 1767, BPP. IX,111. . . 2. laid. 3. lichari to WtiU-OloBarwell, 9 Dee 1767. BPP,X,9.
Of the original Committee of 1765 *Clive, Sumner and Camac had gone, while Sykes, more of an embarrassment than an aid, was at Murshidabad* Richard Becher, it is true was sent out by the Directors to strengthen Verelst, and Cartier, the second in Council generally supported Verelst, though he was no politician and so rather a lightweight* Colonel Smith, later made Briga- dier-General,did not long continue a supporter] while in January 1769 Sykes left for England* Moreover the Directors, by mistake or deliberate policy,
further weakened the Committee by their conflicting orders about its functions* Clive had vested it with extra-ordinary authority and made it politically superior to the Ceunoil*But the Direoters , in a letter of 12 January 1768;plaoed the political activities of the Committee and the expenditure of the Diwani revenues under the direction of the Council0 A further letter of 16 March 1768 from the Directors confirmed the change and extinguished the extraordinary powers of the Select Committee* Thereafter- the Council took charge of many of the subjects previously the Select
Committee's exclusive cenoem, and from 22 August 1768 the Council began to sit also as a Secret Committee* Reza Khan who had so long to deal with the Select Committee alone thereafter came increasingly under the Council's control*
Verelst had had to face some interested opposition within the Select Committee, but now he had xo deal with a larger Council, composed of comparatively junior servants of the Company* How this reacted upon his authority can be seen in the question of a successor for Sykes at Murshida bad* Sykes had given notice of his intended resignation on 14 October 1768, and the question was raised in the Council on 18 November whether the pest of Resident at the Durbar, because of its importance, should automatically go to the second in Comncil , in this case Cartier* No unanimity could be reached and the question was deferred while the members of the Council were circulated for their opinions as te whether the second should be stationed permanently in Calcutta or not, and whether if the second were posted out of 1*Smith had a dispute with Verelst ever his designation0CliTe was President
and Cemmanderwin-Chief* After Clive's departure Verelst claimed the supre me command over the Company's troops as President, while Smith claimed , to be recognised: as the Commandei^in-chief* The Colonel had ultimately to accept the position of Ceamander-iiw chief under the Presidency*
(Barwell's letter of 9 Deo 1767* BPP* X, 11)*The Directors ordered on 30 June 1769 saying that "our Governor irf to all Intents and Purposes the Commander in Chief of our Forces" but Verelst was "not himself to held*** a Warrant for appointing General Court's Martial" exoept in Ceuncilo
Calcutta, Cartier should lie offered' Murshidabad* The question seemed ene ef principle but it was evidently linked with that ef the aotive support en which Verelst could depend in his transaotiens In Council0 Verelst,Barwell hinted, was interested in having Cartier eut ef Calcutta se as te give kin a sure wgrking majority en the Seloot Committee] and the reoerd ef voting in the question would sees te confirm Barwell* Verelst, Becher and Sykes voted
2
for Cartier*s posting te Murshidabad, Colonel Smith, Charles Floyer , James Alexander, Claud Russell, Francis Charlton voted against* Cartier, though not very enthusiastic about going te Murshidabad, had asked that he should be nominated Resident, if there were no ether reason than his being the Second in Council te make it inadmiss&ble * but the Council chose Beoher, thus removing another aotive supporter ef Verelst from the Ceunoil*^
Reza Khan was te find that Verelst, as his governorship continued,
became less and leas able te suppert and protect him against the pressure ef private interests* Immediately however, his position was more directly
threatened by his Indian rivals* Soon after Clive left repeated attempts were made against the life of Nabakrishnaf who had been appointed the Company* s political Banian by Clive's government* The method aaopted was te vise English law as then administered in Calcutta by the Mayor's court, and behind the move was Nandkuaar, backed by ether Europeans and Indians* The attempt was frustrated and Nandkumar was officially censured and threatened with
withdrawal of English protection and handing over te Resa Khan* But almost simultaneously with the attaoks on Nabakrishna, came others upon Reza Khan, first against his continuance in power and then against his life* Whether 1. In a letter dated 6 Sep 1766 sent heme, Barwell said that Verelst and
Becher expected te be majority after the departure upcountry of Cartier an« Russell on a deputation to Shuja ud daulah (BPP,X,34)•Russell, who happen* ed te be acting member ef the Select Committee in the vacancy ef its two members, Sykes and Smith,being permanently posted eut of-Calcutta had
incurred Sykes* displeasure by enquiring when he would resign the chiefship ef Kasimbazar which had been ordered by the Directors0He hag also offended Verelst somehow(Barwell' s letter 9 Deo 1767»BPP,X,11-12) oAldersey got the Kasimbazar post and Russell was disappointed*But in the appointments made in 1768, Verelst was beaten when he failed te get the Second's post at Kasimbazar for Maddison and Reid,one of the sufferers under Clivefi got the acting chiefship at Chittagong* As Barwell says,both Becher and Verelst had promised Chittagong to Barwell (BPP,X, 54) *Cartier was not always helpful* 2. Charles Fleyergd oritie ef Reza Khan.kad keen superseded ky Ruaheld, a x It w * Clive* • delng. (Ceurt’s letter 16 liar 1768)
there was any connection between the conspiracies against the two very powerful native instruments ef Verelst*s government is anybody's guess, for no clues have been found to discover the hands which acted against Reza Khan,
In September 1767* Colonel Smith sent from Allahabad two letters bearini what were apparently Reza Khan's sealso These were found in a bamboo case near the body of a dead man, one of the two messengers said to bo attacked by
robbers in the province of Kora^ The letters Supposedly bearing Reza Khan's seals were addressed, one to Jawahlr Singh, the Jat chief, and another to a Govindram, an inhabitant of Akbarabad or Agra,^If they had been genuine they would oertainly have destroyed all trust in the Khan*
The alleged letter te Jawahir Singh, the Jat chief, began with a reference te earlier letters about the "situation in this country, the
superiority of the Nazarenes /"the Christians or English^, the designs laid for the expulsion of the evil minded tribe, the league formed with the
Afghan raiders for the ohastisement and dispersion of those who are in your 2
quarter"o It also spoke ef the earlier messages sent through representatives, The preamble which followed the above introduction read i
"Seeing that the ordering and regulating the affairs of the /"kughalJ
Empire and the extermination of the traitors of this realm are points which it becomes and behoves all the Grandees of the Throne and every noble of consequence in Kindest an to pursue as his particular cause, I am well persuaded that in consequence of your well-wisher's overtures you will think seriously of this cause and the means of destroying this enormous evils",3
The letter went on g
"The your well-wisher has by a course of long services made this tribe /the English^as it were his own and procured the administration of
everything in these Subahs to himself | yet there i c is no dependence to be placed on the words and professions of these insidious word-breaking and rapacious people i In so much that I who have expended immense sums, what from my own house and patrimony and from the revenues of the country, merely for the gratification and use ef their principals and agents, I who have consumed my time in attaching affections and seething the heart ef each individual, I who have
labored with all ay abilities and still continue to labor for them, net withstanding all that I have dene I have net found one of them sincere nor have I confidence in my mind, no not the smallest for they to this hour keep up ay enemy in hope among themselves" ,4
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Allege* letter ef Reza Khan t# Jawahlr Singh. BSC 1} Oot 1767.