DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.635#0224
WARREN HASTINGS 211
The financial embarrassments of the Company, in-
creased by the terrible famine of 1770, the wars with
Haidar Ali in Mysore and with the Mahrattas in
Bombay, had forced Hastings to call upon the Raja
for further monetary aid and a special contingent of
troops. The right of the sovereign power to exact
such aid from its vassals was indisputable. Under the
Mogul rule any disobedience to such demands would
have been visited with confiscation of the vassal's
possessions, and imprisonment, or death. But Chet
Singh, who was well informed of the dissensions in the
Council at Calcutta, and of the critical state of the
Company's affairs, hoped that with diplomatic pro-
crastination he might soon be in a position to defy the
British power. He paid the first year's subsidy with
an ill grace and protestations of poverty, the next
year's not until two battalions of Sepoys had been
quartered upon him, and the Company's troops in the
field had been reduced to dire distress for want of
money. The demand for a contingent of cavalry was
not complied with at all.
In 1781 Hastings felt himself strong enough to
bring the recalcitrant Raja to account. Francis, his
bitterest enemy, had retired to England after the
historic duel, to vent his malice with fresh schemes
and misrepresentations. The difficulties with Impey
and the Supreme Court, brought about by the foolish
attempt to impose the strict letter of the English law
upon Indian courts of justice, had been arranged satis-
factorily. On the other hand, the straits to which the
Company's finances had been reduced made it impera-
tive to raise fresh funds without further delay.
On the 7th July Hastings left Calcutta by river.
Q
The financial embarrassments of the Company, in-
creased by the terrible famine of 1770, the wars with
Haidar Ali in Mysore and with the Mahrattas in
Bombay, had forced Hastings to call upon the Raja
for further monetary aid and a special contingent of
troops. The right of the sovereign power to exact
such aid from its vassals was indisputable. Under the
Mogul rule any disobedience to such demands would
have been visited with confiscation of the vassal's
possessions, and imprisonment, or death. But Chet
Singh, who was well informed of the dissensions in the
Council at Calcutta, and of the critical state of the
Company's affairs, hoped that with diplomatic pro-
crastination he might soon be in a position to defy the
British power. He paid the first year's subsidy with
an ill grace and protestations of poverty, the next
year's not until two battalions of Sepoys had been
quartered upon him, and the Company's troops in the
field had been reduced to dire distress for want of
money. The demand for a contingent of cavalry was
not complied with at all.
In 1781 Hastings felt himself strong enough to
bring the recalcitrant Raja to account. Francis, his
bitterest enemy, had retired to England after the
historic duel, to vent his malice with fresh schemes
and misrepresentations. The difficulties with Impey
and the Supreme Court, brought about by the foolish
attempt to impose the strict letter of the English law
upon Indian courts of justice, had been arranged satis-
factorily. On the other hand, the straits to which the
Company's finances had been reduced made it impera-
tive to raise fresh funds without further delay.
On the 7th July Hastings left Calcutta by river.
Q