1 ( 39).
2 of the age, and watched over by such a succession of eminent men as —
3 Close, "Webbe, Wilks and Malcolm. His Treasury was full to overflow-
4 ing ; ‘and, what was regarded as a perfect, though latterly oppressive,
5 system of fiscal administration was ready-made to his hand. The bright-
6 ést hopes therefore were felt regarding the future career of himself and
7 his people, and it-may safely be said that no Native Prince with whom
8 we have had connection has entered upon his reign und®r such happy
9 auspices. It was too soon found that all these anticipations would be
10 disappointed. Not more than a twelvemonth had passed before the
11 Honorable Mr. Cole,,who had succeeded Sir John Malcolm as Resident,
12 penned the first of a series of representations to the Madras Government
13 of the downward course which the Rajah was pursuing ; and, as early as
14 1817, Sir Thomas Munro, in writing to the Marquis of Hastings on the
15 affairs of India generally, mentions that the Rajah of Mysore “ is indo-
16 “lent and prodigal, and has already, besides the current revenue, dissi-
17 pated about.sixty lakhs of Pagodas of the treasure laid up by the late
18 “ Dewan. He is mean, artful, revengeful and cruel. He does not take
19 “ away life, but he inflicts the most disgraceful and inhuman ‘punish-
20 “ments, on men of every rank, at a distance from his capitai where he
21 “ thinks it will remain unknown to Europeans ; and, though young, he
22 “ is already detested by his subjects.”
23 From this time the downward course was steadily pursued. The
24 representations of the Resident and of the Madras Government, were
25 either utterly disregarded or treated with simulated attention, while
26 every artifice of falsehood and misrepresentation was resorted to to blind
27 them to the true state of affairs. The vast treasure which the dubious
28 policy of Poorniah had wrung from the people was speedily squandered,
29 and not on the country whose resources had been exhausted to supply it,
30 but on the foul creatures whom such a Prince soon gathers round him,
31 and on the foreign usurers and dealers in shawls and jewels who flocked
32 to Mysore as to an assured prey. In the meantime the Government
33 had become throughout venal and corrupt; no efficient controul was
34 exercised over the district officers; the highest offices were put up to
35 sale; valuable lands were alienated to propitiate brahmins ; Rew taxes
36 and monopolies were invented to be bestowed like pensions on pimps
37 and parasites ; the people vexed and fretted by the swarm of petty rulers
38 and monopolists could obtain no redress ; there was no security for pro-
39 perty, and nothing that was fit to be called the administration of justice.