It would be scarce possible to enumerate all the inconveniences
to which the Rajah was liable _in his former situation_, or to estimate
the precise effect which they produced on his revenue and on the gross
amount of his expense; but it may be easily conceived that both were
enormous, and of a nature the most likely to lessen the profits of
government, instead of adding to them." And in justification of his
proposal of giving the Rajah the symbols of sovereignty in the power of
life and death, and in the coining of money, as pledges of his
_independence_, he states the deplorable situation of princes reduced to
dependence on the Vizier or the Company, and obliged to entertain an
English Resident at their court, in the following words: "It is proposed
to receive the payment of his [the Rajah's] rents at Patna, because that
is the nearest provincial station, and because it would not frustrate
_the intention of rendering the Rajah independent_. If a Resident was
appointed to receive the money, as it became due, at Benares, _such a
Resident_ would unavoidably acquire an influence over the Rajah, and
over his country, _which would in effect render him the master of both_.
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