lse policy, cruel, inhuman, and
oppressive. Having, however, forgot all attention to the princes and the
people, they remembered that they had some sort of interest in the
trade of the country; and it is matter of curiosity to observe the
protection which they afforded to this their natural object.

Full of anxious cares on this head, they direct, "that, in reducing the
polygars, they [their servants] were to be _cautious_ not to deprive the
_weavers and manufacturers_ of the protection they often met with in the
strongholds of the polygar countries"; and they write to their
instrument, the Nabob of Arcot, concerning these poor people in a most
pathetic strain. "We _entreat_ your Excellency," (say they,) "in
particular, to make the manufacturers the object of your _tenderest
care;_ particularly when you _root out_ the polygars, you do not deprive
the _weavers of the protection they enjoyed under them_." When they root
out the protectors in favor of the oppressor, they show themselves
religiously cautious of the rights of the protected. When they extirpate
the shepherd and the shepherd's dog, they piously recommend the helpless
flock to the mercy, and even to the _tenderest care,_ of the wolf. This
is the uniform strain of their policy,--strictly forbidding, and at the
same time strenuously encouraging and enforcing, every measure that can
ruin and desolate the country committed to their charge. After giving
the Company's idea of the government of this their instrument, it may
appear singular, but it is perfectly consistent with their system, that,
besides wasting for him, at two different times, the most exquisite spot
upon the earth, Tanjore, and all the adjacent countries, they have even
voluntarily put their own territory, that is, a large and fine country
adjacent to Madras, called their jaghire, wholly out of their
protection,--and have continued to farm their subjects, and their
duties towards these subjects, to that very Nabob whom they themselves
constantly represent as an habitual oppressor and a relentless tyrant.
This they have done without any pretence of ignorance of the objects of
oppression for which this prince has thought fit to become their renter;
for he has again and again told them that it is for the sole purpose of
exercising authority he holds the jaghire lands; and he affirms (and I
believe with truth) that he pays more for that territory than the
revenues yield. This deficiency he must make up fr