r 77,627 rupees, in the name of one
Porran Paul, for the remainder of such contribution, or unjust profit.

Such were the allegations of the petition relative to the unjust
exaction. The harsh means of compelling the payment make another and
very material part; for the petitioner asserts, that, in order to
recover the amount of these bonds, guards were placed over him, and that
Mr. Barwell by ill usage and oppressions recovered from him at different
times 48,656 Arcot rupees, besides 283 rupees extorted by the
guard,--that, after this payment, two of the bonds, containing 36,313
rupees, were restored to him, and he was again committed to the charge
of four _peons_, or guards, to pay the amount of the remaining two
bonds. The petition further charges, that the said gentleman and his
people had also extorted from the petitioner other sums of money, which,
taken together, amounted to 25,000 rupees.

But the heaviest grievance alleged by him is, that, after the sums of
money had been extorted on account of the farms, the faith usual in such
transactions is allowed not to have been kept; but, after the petitioner
had been obliged to buy or compound for the farms, that they were taken
from him,--"that the said Richard Barwell, Esquire, about his departure
from Dacca, in October, 1774, for self-interest wrested from the
petitioner the aforesaid two mahls, (or districts,) and farmed them to
another person, notwithstanding he had extorted from the petitioner a
considerable sum of money on account of those purgunnahs."

To this petition your Committee find two accounts annexed, in which the
sums said to be paid to or taken by Mr. Barwell, and the respective
dates of the several payments, are specified; and they find that the
account of particulars agrees with and makes up the gross sum charged in
the petition.

Mr. Barwell's immediate answer to the preceding charge is contained in
two letters to the board, dated 23rd and 24th of March, 1775. The answer
is remarkable. He asserts, that "the whole of Kaworke's relation is a
gross misrepresentation of facts;--that the simple fact was, that in
January, 1774, the salt mahls of Savagepoor and Selimabad became _his_,
and were re-let by _him_ to this man, in the names of Bussunt Roy and
Kissen Deb, on condition that he should account with him [_Mr. Barwell_]
for profits to a certain sum, and that he [_Mr. Barwell_] engaged for
Savagepoor _in the persuasion of its being a very profitabl