'would have thought it an honour to be called the Vizier of the king of England, and offered at one time to coin siccas in his Majesty's name.' On this footing he proposed to renew his old relations with the present ruler of Oudh, and to form. a defensive league with the Rájá of Berár. Every prince who sought our alliance on such terms might be aided by a contingent of British troops or Sepoys, in return for a sufficient yearly subsidy. By such means Hastings hoped to ensure the well-being of British India, and to counteract the designs of the Poona Government, whose intrigues with the French and the Nizám boded no small danger to the Company's rule. Here we have the first draught of that subsidiary system, which some of Hastings' successors carried out to issues far wider and more aggressive than he himself had either suggested or desired[1].
Before such a scheme could be put into practice, it was clearly needful that the Governor-General should be freed from the trammels which still surrounded him. 'An active and permanent form of government here, and a fixed channel of correspondence at home,' seemed to Hastings the main conditions of success. For the present, however, he could only broach the subject to a few particular friends, and await the issue of his efforts to obtain a fair hearing from the powers at home.
The crisis of his long struggle was soon to come. On the 19th June, 1777, the fateful despatches from
- ↑ Gleig.
