o the Bengal provinces, he did not take for the Company the
viceroyalty, as Mr. Holwell would have persuaded, almost forced, the
Company to do; but, to satisfy the prejudices of the Mahomedans, the
country was left in the hands nominally of the Subah, or viceroy, who
was to administer the criminal justice and the exterior forms of
royalty. He obtained from the sovereign the _dewanny_. This is the great
act of the constitutional entrance of the Company into the body politic
of India. It gave to the settlement of Bengal a fixed constitutional
form, with a legal title, acknowledged and recognized now for the first
time by all the natural powers of the country, because it arose from the
charter of the undoubted sovereign. The _dewanny_, or high-stewardship,
gave to the Company the collection and management of the revenue; and in
this modest and civil character they appeared, not the oppressors, but
the protectors of the people. This scheme had all the real power,
without any invidious appearance of it; it gave them the revenue,
without the parade of sovereignty. On this double foundation the
government was happily settled. The minds of the natives were quieted.
The Company's territories and views were circumscribed. The arm of force
was put out of sight. The imperial name covered everything. The power of
the purse was in the hand of the Company. The power of the sword was in
effect so, as they contracted for the maintenance of the army. The
Company had a revenue of a million and a half. The Nabob had, indeed,
fallen from any real and effective power, yet the dignity of the court
was maintained. The prejudices and interests of the Mahomedans, and
particularly of their nobility, who had suffered more by this great
revolution even than the old inhabitants of the country, were consulted;
for by this plan a revenue of 500,000_l._ was settled on the
viceroyalty, which was thus enabled to provide in some measure for those
great families. The Company likewise, by this plan, in order to enjoy
their revenues securely, and to avoid envy and murmur, put them into the
hands of Mahomed Reza Khan, whom Lord Clive found in the management of
affairs, and did not displace; and he was now made deputy-steward to the
Company, as he had been before lieutenant-viceroy to the Nabob. A
British Resident at Moorshedabad was established as a control. The
Company exercised their power over the revenue in the first instance
through the natives, but the Br