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A gift
received by Mr. Hastings from the Rajah of Benares gave rise in their
minds to serious reflections on the condition of the princes of India
subjected to the British authority. Mr. Hastings was, at the very time
of his receiving this gift, in the course of making on the Rajah of
Benares a series of demands, unfounded and unjustifiable, and constantly
growing in proportion as they were submitted to. To these demands the
Rajah of Benares, besides his objections in point of right, constantly
sat up a plea of poverty. Presents from persons who hold up poverty as a
shield against extortion can scarcely in any case be considered as
gratuitous, whether the plea of poverty be true or false. In this case
the presents might have been bestowed; if not with an assurance, at
least with a rational hope, of some mitigation in the oppressive
requisitions that were made by Mr. Hastings; for to give much
voluntarily, when it is known that much will be taken away forcibly, is
a thing absurd and impossible. On the other [one?] hand, the acceptance
of that gift by Mr.


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