Yet the
preservation of such a power in such a degree of subordination, with the
criminal jurisdiction, and the care of the public order annexed to it,
was a wise and laudable policy. It preserved a portion of the government
in the hands of the natives; it kept them in respect; it rendered them
quiet on the change; and it prevented that vast kingdom from wearing the
dangerous appearance, and still more from sinking into the terrible
state, of a country of conquest. Your Committee has already reported the
manner in which the Company (it must be allowed, upon pretences that
will not bear the slightest examination) diverted from its purposes a
great part of the revenues appropriated to the country government; but
they were very properly anxious that what remained should be well
administered. In the lifetime of General Clavering and Colonel Monson,
Mahomed Reza Khan, a man of rank among the natives, was judged by them
the fittest person to conduct the affairs of the Nabob, as his Naib, or
deputy: an office well known in the ancient constitution of these
provinces, at a time when the principal magistrates, by nature and
situation, were more efficient.
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