" And the said tribute was, in
consequence of this arrangement, not paid to the Nabob, but to the
British Resident at Oude; and the same being therefore under the
direction and for the sole use of the Company, and indeed the prince
himself wholly dependent, the representatives of the said Company were
responsible for the protection of the prince, and for the good
government of the country.
II. That the said "Warren Hastings did, on the 22d of May, 1780,
represent to the board of Calcutta the condition of the said country in
the following manner.
"To the total want of all order, regularity, or _authority_ in his
government [the Furruckabad government], among _other obvious causes_,
it may, no doubt, be owing, that the country of Furruckabad is become
_an almost entire waste, without cultivation or inhabitants_; that the
capital, which but a very short time ago was distinguished as one of the
most _populous and opulent_ commercial cities in Hindostan, at present
exhibits nothing _but_ scenes of the most wretched poverty, desolation,
and misery; and the Nabob himself, though in possession of a tract of
country which with only common care is notoriously capable of yielding
an annual revenue of between thirty and forty lacs [three or four
hundred thousand pounds], with _no military establishment to maintain,
scarcely commanding the means of bare subsistence_.
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