THE

BENARES MAGAZINE.

MARCH, 1850.

ture.

I.

LORD WILLIAM BENTINCK.

(Continued from page 98.)

I now digress again, to bring on the tapis another personage, who however is essential to the completion of the picAs the weary traveller to the Upper Provinces is jolted along the dusty road in his palanquin (it is so up to the date of this present writing, though now they are beginning to talk about rail-roads,) about four miles from the Muddunpoor bungalow, and on the left hand side, will be seen the rural palace of the Rajahs of Deo. The family is of ancient and of high blood, being of the class of Chouhan Rajpoots; and since the advent of the English to India, it has ever been the most steadfast of our allies. The heads of this family have maintained the singular custom of separating themselves from their wives after the birth of a son; so that there is no danger of the inheritance being divided, or of there being a disputed succession. This fact I have myself seen in the persons of three generations; the Rajah Gunsham Singh, the Rajah Metterbhan Singh, his son, and the present estimable youth who holds the Raj. I have known them all well, and highly did I esteem those who have left this world. Of the above, Metterbhan Singh was my personal friend and companion, and a worthier, braver, and more honorable man, never trod this world. He, poor fellow, at the time of the outbreak in Chota Nagpore, went at my request to the assistance of our troops, with about two hundred followers, well armed, many of whom were horsemen.

VOL. III.

Α

While with the force, he gained the same high opinion from every one, as he had from us; but he was soon removed by consumption, leaving his disconsolate father (soon to follow him,) and a little boy, the present Rajah. It is not, however, of my respected friend Metterbhan Singh that I have now to speak; it is of his father, the Rajah Gunsham Singh, a perfect soldier in his bearing, and as such ever appearing in visits with his sword by his side. He, too, in his day had fought for the English, and he boasted that his father Chatterputty Singh had stood by the British, at the time when the standard was raised against us at Benares by the Rajah Chyt Singh, and when very few of our soi-disant allies were found to be faithful. Gunsham Singh's personal history is connected with this paper, and must, therefore, be slightly sketched.

Many years previously to that when Lord William Bentinck visited us, there had been a disturbance in the country lying beyond Chota Nagpore, called Singbhoom, into which, in consequence, Major Roughsedge, the Political Agent, and Commandant of the Ramgurh Local Battalion, marched ; and he was accompanied by Gunsham Singh, then a man in the prime of life, and his irregular troops. The mountaineers shewed fight, and aided by their hills and an unhealthy climate, made a very troublesome resistance. Some sharp encounters, however, made them feel that they had met their masters, and negotiation completed what arms had begun. Very favourable terms were given, for had the Lurka Coles held out, compulsion would have been, as it was subsequently found out to be in the Chota Nagpore affair, a very tedious matter. In bringing things to a conclusion, the Rajah Gunsham Singh and his force were instrumental, and it was, therefore, proposed to reward him for his loyalty, and for the expenses which he had incurred. Some forty miles or thereabouts to the southward of Sherghatty, and not far from the banks of the Soane, lies the pergunnah of Palamo, a wild and hilly country, nothing valuable in point of revenue in comparison to its soil, and inhabited chiefly by a set of men, termed Khairwar and Bhairo; they call themselves Rajpoots, but are very little more removed from a condition of barbarism, than their neighbours of Chota Nagpore. The pergunnah belonged to a Rajah, who engaged to pay the Government assessment on it. The assessment itself was light, and under proper management would have been easily made good; but the Khairwars and Bhairos were turbulent people, who would not pay their quota without compulsion, while the

Rajah, being a silly, weak and dissolute man, and moreover altogether in the hands of his corrupt dependents, had neither physical nor moral force to bring to bear on them. The consequence was that this pergunnah was a perpetual source of annoyance to the Government and its authorities, by always falling in balance. Every measure was resorted to by which, as it was hoped, the Rajah might be induced to alter his system, and to pay his revenue regularly; but when at last it was found that all persuasion was useless, and that the balance was rapidly increasing without a hope of its being realized, the estate was, according to the law, put up for sale by auction. The well-known turbulence, characteristic of the Palamo population, was of itself sufficient to deter purchasers from coming forward; but besides this, those who might have otherwise been inclined to purchase well knew that were they to buy, the Rajah's interest, such as it was, would be thrown into the scale against them. The estate was, therefore, exposed for sale in vain; when, at last, the Collector seeing that the Rajah could not manage his property, and that no one else dared to buy it, adopted the only method which yet remained to him, and purchased it on behalf of the Government. The Rajah was dispossessed of all his powers, and the collection of the revenues transferred to the hands of the Government servants. Thus Palamo fell into the hands of the Government, and its Rajah was, in consideration of his rank, though by no means entitled to the favour, pensioned.*

It so happened that my friend the Rajah Gunsham Singh's ancestors had some latent claim to control over the pergunnah of Palamo. Whether this claim was well-founded or not, I cannot say; but as it originated before the English established their dominion here, and when might was right, it is more than probable that it was not based on sound justice. Gunsham Singh thinking that such an opportunity as the present was not to be lost, came forward, and, advancing his obsolete claim, begged, that as the Government had now full power to do him justice, they would bestow the pergunnah

* I have mentioned all these things because there are those who have termed the people of India unsusceptible of a feeling of gratitude. The truth of the case is, that nine-tenths of the Rulers are unknown to the ruled, and are consequently misunderstood; and among the Rulers how few are there who really understand the character of the people. The consequence is that the people do not comprehend that much which is done for their benefit is really so intended; but if they be once convinced of this, they will not be deficient in gratitude.