THE LUCKNOW BANKERS AND THE COURT
OF DIRECTORS.

ASUF-UD-DOWLAH, the Vizier of Oude, sat upon the musnud, or throne, of that kingdom from 1774 to 1797. He was an extravagant and debauched prince, and, though engaged in few or no wars, contracted large debts. For those debts he gave acknowledgments, which have since been called bonds (though they might with more propriety be called notes of hand), to such individuals as lent him money, or otherwise administered to his wants and pleasures. Among his numerous creditors were the bankers, Monhur Doss and Seetul Bahoo.

Loans to native princes are usually made at an exorbitant rate of interest (at least two or three per cent. per month); because the lenders know that they have no security for repayment except the honesty, solvency, and extended life, of the sovereign borrower.

After the lapse of a few years Asuf-ud-Dowlah's creditors became desirous of realizing their profitable loans; and, as the British resident had of course great influence at the court of Lucknow, they applied to him to support their demands. But Lord Cornwallis, when Governor-general of India, had issued orders that "the resident at Lucknow should not in future solicit the vizier or his minister for the payment of private debts." Consequently, the resident refused to interfere.

After some time, however, the vizier himself made proposals to his native creditors to settle their several debts; reducing very considerably (as usual on such occasions) the amount of their respective demands, and arranging to pay the amount by six annual instalments. All the native ereditors, exeept Monhur Doss and Seetul Bahoo, accepted those proposals. The same proposals were made to the European creditors, General Martine (an old Company's officer residing at Lucknow), Mr. George Johnstone (assistant to the resident at the court of Oude), and some others. The European gentlemen, however, contrived to get better terms than those offered to, and accepted by, the native creditors; whereupon, Monbur Doss and Seetul Bahoo, who had not yet accepted the terms offered the other native creditors, demanded the same composition as had been allowed (from whatever motives) to the European creditors.

The Court of Directors have always held (in common with former Boards of Control), that the bankers, Monhur Doss and Seetul Bahoo, had no better claim to British interference than the other native creditors (with whom they considered that a fair compromise had, under all the circumstances of the case, been made), and, consequently, that they could not equitably interfere in behalf of Monhur Doss and Seetul Bahoo, without interfering in behalf of the other native creditors also, who (from the decease of the vizier between the payment of the first and second instalments) have never, even to this day, received more than one-sixth part of their adjudged debts. The present Board of Control, on the contrary (enlightened, it would appear, by Mr. Prendergast, the agent of Monhur Doss and Seetul

Bahoo),* insist that there is a broad difference between the two cases; that Monhur Doss and Seetul Bahoo had refused the proffered composition on their claims, whilst the other native creditors had accepted it.

It is obvious, however, that this argument applies only to the proportionate amount of the claims of the several creditors, not to the right that each have to be paid, or assisted by the British government in obtaining payment. For, let it be supposed, that the bankers Monhur Doss and Scetul Bahoo, had accepted the terms offered to the other native creditors, or that the other native creditors had, with them, insisted upon and obtained the same terms as the European creditors, and that the vizier had died before having liquidated all their debts, Monhur Doss and Seetul Bahoo would then stand precisely in the same predicament with other native creditors, both as respects their rights and their claims to British interference: that is, they would have no claim at all to any such interference. Even the European creditors had no claim to the interference of the British Government, as they knew when they lent the money (if ever they did lend any); and, in fact, the vizier's settlement with them was spontaneous, as well as with his native creditors. Why he gave better terms to the one than to the other, is equally beyond the knowledge of the home-authorities, and beyond their competence to inquire. The probability is, that, from the influence of these Europeans at the vizier's court, they got far more than they were entitled to; yet it is now proposed by the Board, that the bankers, Monhur Doss and Seetul Bahoo, or rather their heirs and executors, shall get the same, with interest, up to the present time.

No just reason can be adduced for separating the claim of Monhur Doss and Seetul Bahoo from that of other native creditors, except as respects the calculation by which the amount is to be regulated. They have equal rights to, perhaps, unequal proportionate amounts of their respective claims; but exactly the same claim to the interference of the British Government. Nevertheless, the Board propose to interfere in behalf of Monhur Doss and Seetul Bahoo (represented by Mr. Prendergast), but to throw the other native creditors, who have no persevering European representative to urge their claims, overboard altogether.

So far the case has been argued, upon the assumption that all the native creditors had a just claim upon the present vizier for the amount of their respective demands, with an accumulating interest, calculated according to the custom of India. But it should be considered, in the first place, that all interest is usury, according to the Mahomedan law, and not recoverable either in foro conscientiæ, or in foro justitiæ; and, in the next place, if interest be allowed on the plea of native usage, native usage must also be admitted to regulate the liability of heirs and representatives to pay either the principal, or the interest, of the debts contracted by their predecessors. By the Mahomedan law, the brother of a deceased debtor is not bound to

• Mr. Prendergast was a free-trader, who, somehow or other, found his way to Lucknow, contrary to the Court's orders, and there entered largely not only into trade, but into the politics and intrigues (they are the same things in native governments) of the Court of Oude.

pay the debts of that brother, even though he inherit his estate; and the same law prevails in England. Still less is the grand-nephew bound to pay the debts of his grand-uncle, as in the present case. Any interference, amounting to compulsion, on our part, to enforce such payments, is therefore plain tyranny.

Let it, however, be admitted that the grand-nephew is bound by law or usage to pay the debts of his grand-uncle, the same law and usage must regulate the amount of interest to be paid on each particular occasion. Now, it is notorious that when natives lend money, as they always do, at exorbitant and illegal interest (which interest is not, and cannot, be claimed as interest, but is wrapt up and hidden in the pay-obligation, that is, in bonds renewed at short dates), they always calculate upon the probability of not being paid any, or but a small portion, of their cumulative debt, either from the death, insolvency, or dishonesty of the party borrowing. Consequently, when that party really sets about paying off his debts, he makes, and is allowed to make, a certain equitable abatement on account of his unexpected punctuality.

This was the case with the native creditors of the vizier Asuf-ud-Dowlah, except only the bankers Monhur Doss and Seetul Bahoo; who, buoyed up with the hope of obtaining, through some secret influence, the same favourable terms of arrangement as the European creditors had obtained, rejected those offers which had been accepted by other native creditors: which offers, so made and accepted, must be supposed to have been arranged according to the law and usage of the country.

Nevertheless, the Board insist, 1st. That Monhur Doss and Seetul Bahoo shall have all the advantage of European punctuality and of native interest; 2dly. That they shall have the aid of the Company's government to enforce their claims, although neither the European nor the native creditors have ever yet had it; and 3dly. That the other native creditors (whose original claims appear to be as valid as those of Monhur Doss and Seetul Bahoo) shall be left to their fate.

Now, if the British Government are to interfere at all, in compelling a native sovereign (king, he is called) to pay the private obligations of his grand-uncle, after his father and uncle have refused, and been allowed by the British Government to refuse, to pay them, it seems to be, at least, but just to direct that the validity of the several obligations (granted in some instances, perhaps, to bona fide lenders, but in others to gamesters, cockfighters, pimps, and catamites) shall be thoroughly investigated (which it never has been), and their origin and amount ascertained, with a view to an equitable calculation of the interest, if any, to be allowed upon each of them. This was done in the case of the Carnatic debts, ninetenths of which were, in consequence, rejected, as having originated in fraud, corruption, and injustice.

Yet, because the Court of Directors conscientiously refuse to sign an order for compelling the King of Oude to pay the demands of Monhur

Doss and Seetul Bahoo, principal and interest, without investigation (a compulsion which all former Courts of Directors, all former Boards of Control, and all Governors of India, have held to be equally impolitic and unjust), the present Board of Control are about to send them all to Newgate, unless Parliament interfere for their protection.

London, 25th March, 1834.

S.

Miscellanies, Original and Select.

PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES.

Royal Asiatic Society.-A general meeting of this society was held on the 1st March; the Right Hon. Charles W. Williams Wynn, M.P., President, in the chair.

The following donations were laid on the table, and thanks were ordered to be returned to the respective donors.

From James Prinsep, Esq., F.R.S, his Views of Benares, Part III. From Pro. fessor G. Seyffarth, F.M.R.A.S., his Beitrage zun keuntniss der Literatur, Kunst, &c. des Alten Egypten. 4to. From Ensign William Broadfoot, of the Bengal European regiment, an Assamese hat, used in the rains and also worn by the boatmen about Sylhet; a Khasia shirt, a red cloth belt, with brass paun-box, &c., a bag of netted cord for holding areca-nut, the tinder-box, &c. ; a two-handed sabre, brass mounted; a dow, or hatchet for cutting wood; two bows of bambú, with strings of the same; eight arrows, for practice, for the chase and for war; and a quiver of basket-work. From Thomas Newnham, Esq., M. R.A.S, a small cylinder, of baked clay, from Babylon, with inscriptions in the cuneiform character.

James Bird, Esq., surgeon on the Bombay Medical establishment, elected at the last meeting, having made his payments and signed the obligation-book, was admitted a resident member of the society.

Mr. Bird then continued the reading of his introduction to the History of Guzerat, the conclusion of which was deferred to the next meeting.

15th March.-The Right Hon. Sir Gore Ouseley, Bart., Vice-President, took the chair at the meeting this day.

An extensive and most valuable collection of printed books, Oriental manuscripts, original drawings, maps, plans, surveys, &c. &c., presented to the Society by Lieut. Colonel Doyle, who has lately been appointed to an important situation in the government of Jamaica, was laid on the table.

The printed books are chiefly in the Russian language, and comprise the works of some of the most esteemed authors of that nation, besides which are included the travels of Chardin, Kotzebue, Pallas, Klaproth, &c. &c. Among the Oriental manuscripts is a superb copy of the Sháh Námeh, formerly in the Imperial Library at Delhi, and which contains, besides impressions of the signets of the Emperors Baber, Humayun, Akbar, Jehangir, Sháhjehán and Aurungzeb, an autograph of Sháhjehán; a beautifully-written copy of the Bostán of Sádí, richly illuminated; a poem in praise of the Marquess of Hastings, Governor-general, richly illuminated; the Borhan-i-Kati; the History of the Nawab of Oude; the Arabian Nights' Entertainment; the Odes of

Hafiz, &c. A volume of drawings representing the Avatárs of Vishnu, the different classes of religious devotees in India, &c.; another containing costumes of the natives of India, and a third similar drawings of the Georgian, Persian, and other costumes and scenery. The general statement of the collection is as under:-187 volumes of printed books; 173 maps and plans, chiefly original, of India, Russia, &c.; 18 Persian MSS., many of extreme beauty and value; 3 volumes and a large portfolio of draw. ings; 62 sketches, loose prints, &c. A Persian dress, and a large collection of Indian journals.

On the motion of the Right Hon. the Chairman, seconded by the Right Hon. Sir Alexander Johnston, V.P. R.A. S., it was resolved unanimously:

"That the cordial thanks of the Society be especially communicated to Lieut. Colonel J. Doyle, for the munificent and important donation presented by him this day to the Society, together with the expression of its deep regret at learning that it is about to lose the services of so zealous and efficient an associate." Colonel William Miles, of the Bombay military establishment, and member of the Bombay Branch R.A.S., being proposed in conformity with the XIth article of the Regulations, was immediately ballotted for, and elected a resident member of the society.

Henry Newnham, Esq., of the Bengal civil service, Lieut. George Broadfoot, of the Madras Native Infantry, and Ensign William Broadfoot, of the Bengal European regiment, were balloted for and elected resident members of the society. E. I. Dawkins, Esq., H.B.M., resident in Greece, Thomas Gordon, Esq., colonel in the Greek service, and James Pringle Riach, Esq., surgeon on the Bombay establishment, were elected corresponding members of the Society.

Mr. Bird concluded the reading of his introduction to the History of Gu

zerat :

Resuming the narrative at the point at which we broke off, in the report of the 15th of February, it commences with the ninth and tenth expeditions of Mahmud of Ghizni, the former of which was directed against the fort of Kalunjur, and the latter to the temple of Somnath in Guzerat. The object of the attack on Kalunjur was to revenge the death of the Rájá of Kanouj, who had submitted to the Mahommedans and accepted their alliance, and had been slain, in consequence, by Nandaraya of Kalunjur. The expedition against Somnat❜h was, as is well known, the last in which Mahmúd was engaged. The author then gives some particulars of the origin of the sanctity attached to this temple, and the nature of the worship there followed, which was that of Siva, under the symbol of the Linga or Phallus, This symbol was one of the twelve most famous Lingas, anciently set up in different parts. It was broken in pieces by Mahmúd himself, and, the fragments were ordered to be conveyed to Ghizni and thrown in the court-yard of the great mosque: the story of the jewels found in the belly of the idol, however, is treated as the invention of some narrator who loved fiction more than truth. Four years subsequent to this period, Mahmúd expired. The author proceeds to describe the extent and condition of the Gaznevide empire at his death, and delineates the character of his successors, whose weakness and incapacity shortly encouraged the Hindús to rise against their power. This leads to a sketch of the state of India at that epoch, and its distribution amongst its Hindú rulers, of whom the Rajpúts occupy a large share of attention. The decline of the Gaznevide dynasty is then traced and the rise of the house of Ghór, whose contests with the celebrated and chivalric Hindú sovereign, Prithi Rájá, are detailed at length. The extension of the Moslem conquests to the borders of China and in Hin