_ a year at the
lowest, though the expense of the same would probably have been much
more: which extravagant demand the said Hastings could only have made in
hopes of provoking the Rajah to some imprudent measure or passionate
remonstrance. And this arbitrary demand of cavalry was made, and
peremptorily insisted on, although in the original treaty with the said
Rajah it was left entirely optional whether or not he should keep up any
cavalry at all, and in the Minute of Consultation it was expressly
mentioned to be thus optional, and that for whatsoever cavalry he, the
said Rajah, should furnish, he should be paid fifteen rupees per month
for each private, and so in proportion for officers: yet the demand
aforesaid was made without any offer whatsoever of providing the said
payment according to treaty.
X. That the said Hastings did soon after, but upon what grounds does not
appear by any Minute of Council, or from any correspondence contained in
his Narrative, reduce the demand to fifteen hundred, and afterwards to
one thousand: by which he showed himself to be sensible of the
extravagance of his first requisition.
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