In view of the evils growing out of an arrangement which tended to divorce the substance from the show of power, the Court of Directors had at last resolved to take the government of the country into their own hands. On the 24th Aprils Hastings received the letter in which they announced their intention to 'stand forth as Diwán,' and to entrust their own servants with 'the entire care and management of the revenues' of Bengal. Hastings was enjoined to remove Muhammad Raza Khán from office, and to bring him down to Calcutta to defend himself from certain charges of embezzlement and oppression into which enquiry must be made. Similar measures were to be taken against Shitáb Rái[1]. Before many days both these gentlemen had been escorted down to Calcutta, where they remained 'in an easy confinement' pending the issue of a trial conducted by the Governor himself. With the Council's sanction, Middleton was placed in charge of Muhammad Raza's post. Both the prisoners were assured by Hastings of the deep regret with which he obeyed the commands of his masters in England, and of his own desire to give them all facilities for their defence.
Meanwhile, matters of yet more pressing importance engaged his thoughts. For some years past the land revenue, the one great customary source of fiscal wealth in India, had yielded very little profit to the real masters of Bengal. Whoever gained by it, the Company were defrauded of their rightful share. The
- ↑ Auber.
