§ A Memorial of the several persons whose names are there-under subscribed, being Creditors of his excellency the late Rajah of Tanjore, in the East Indies, was presented and read; selling forth,
§ "That, in the year 1788, his Excellency Ameer Sing was placed on the Musnud, or succeeded to the government of the districts of Tanjore, with the consent and by the means of the government of Madras or Fort Saint George; that, during the war with Tippoo Sultaun, the Madras government assumed the collection of the revenues of the Tanjore country, but, at the termination of that war in 1792, those districts were again restored to the said Rajah; a treaty was also then formed with him by the most noble the marquis of Cornwallis, on behalf of the East India 121 Company, by which the entire sovereignty of that country was ceded to the said Rajah, on the condition of his paying in cash, by monthly kists or instalments, the sum of star pagodas 460,000, or thereabouts, until the year 1795, after which period he was to pay the sum of star pagodas 630,000, or thereabouts; that the memorialists further beg leave to represent, that some of them are soucars or native bankers, and that others of them were dealers in silk goods, in gold and silver, jewels and precious stones, &c.; that their ancestors had pursued the same profession; and that the said Rajah Ameer Sing, on the said countries being restored to him, had no money in his treasury; and that, as his revenues were collected in the produce of his countries", that produce could seldom or never be realized into cash in time to pay his money engagements; and that consequently the said Rajah applied to the memorialists to borrow money from them in anticipation of his revenues, and to purchase merchandise for the use of his family and the dependants on his palace; and that the memorialists, having always experienced in the said Rajah a disposition to comply with all his engagements with them, did accordingly advance him sums of money on loan, and sold him various kinds of merchandise; that the memorialists beg leave further humbly to represent, that, by orders from the right hon. lord Hobart, then governor of Madras, the said Rajah was made a prisoner in the month of December 1795, and a military guard was placed over his palace, and his ministers and confidential servants were separated from him, and confined as close prisoners, and the Madras government assumed the management of his revenues, although the said Rajah had punctually discharged the kists stipulated in the treaty of lord Cornwallis; and the memorialists are yet unacquainted with the cause of these proceedings towards the said Rajah; that the said Rajah, after finding himself unable to satisfy the urgent demands of the memorialists, expressed his sorrow on that account to the then British Resident, Mr. Macleod, and bewailed his misfortunes chiefly because of the distress in which they would involve the memorialists; and in consequence of which the said Resident men reported to the Madras government the amount then due to the Rajah's creditors; that the memorialists further beg leave to represent, that, in 122 some months after the said Rajah had been thus deprived of his countries, they were restored to him by orders of the then governor general, sir John Shore, bart, but that, in the following year, the said Rajah Ameer Sing, on the plea of his not being the legitimate heir, was deprived of the Musnud of Tanjore, that his excellency the Rajah Surfogee was appointed by the Madras government to succeed, and with whom the Madras government immediately formed a treaty, by which he relinquished, for himself and his heirs, &c. in favour of the hon. East India Company, all his rights to interfere in the collection of the revenues, on the condition of receiving an annual allowance in money: that the memorialists further beg leave to represent, that his excellency the Rajah Ameer Sing, having been thus deprived of his countries (although he had been placed as the legitimate heir on the Musnud by the British government, about ten years preceding) and consequently with" out the means of satisfying the debts due to the memorialists, they then entreated the Madras government to lake into consideration their distressed situation, and respectfully represented, that, as it had possessed itself of the countries which had been pledged to the memorialists as a security for their advances, they relied with confidence that the justice of the Madras government would not permit the memorialists to suffer by the change which it had been pleased to make in the government of that country; that, in consequence, the hon. the Court of Directors was pleased to order the claims of the memorialists to be investigated, and that, in pursuance of these orders, a committee, consisting of three of the hon. company's civil servants, was appointed by the Madras government to carry these orders into execution; that the said committee, by public advertisements in the years; 1802 and 1803, invited all creditors to prefer their claims on the said Rajah Ameer Sing, and that the claims of the memorialists were rigorously examined and compared with the records of the Tanjore palace, and the proceedings of the said committee were transmitted, in the year 1803, by the Madras government to the hon. Court of Directors, and duly received by them: the memorialists further beg leave to represent, that, since the proceedings of the said committee were transmitted to England, they have repeatedly addressed the Madras government, 123 as well as the hon. Court of Directors, with regard to the said cláims, and have, by means of their agent in London, presented, through the hon. Board of Control, several memorials to the hon. Court of Directors, without being able to receive any reply; and that the claims of the memorialists, at the period of deposing the said Rajah Ameer Sing, or the amount stated to be due to Ameer Sing's creditors in the final report of the said committee, did not exceed one half of one year's revenue of his countries; that the hon. the East India Company have continued, since the deposition of the said Rajah, to collect the revenues of those rich and fertile districts, yielding about ten lacs of pagodas annually; that, in proof of what is stated in this memorial, they refer to the records of the Madras government, in possession of the hon. Court of Directors; and that, although many of the memorialists have been reduced from affluence to the greatest distress, in consequence of having been thus deprived of their property, yet the memorialists have waited without any success for above 14 years, with the utmost patience, the result of their respectful solicitations to the hon. the East India Company; but, as they now despair of obtaining from the hon. Court of Directors of the East India Company that justice to which they are entitled, and which they have so long in vain solicited, they have determined thus to submit their case to the British nation, through their representatives in parliament assembled; and therefore praying, that the House will adopt such measures as will tend to a speedy adjustment of their claims."
§ Ordered to lie upon the table