The landholders and
cultivators retire before them, and they are sure to be driven out by
the pestilence, with great loss of life, in a few months; and the
landholders refuse to pay anything for some years after, on the
ground that all their harvests were destroyed by the troops. The rest
of the Tarae lands ceded had little of tillage or population at that
time, and no government could be less calculated than that of Oude to
make the most of its capabilities. It had, therefore, in a fiscal
point of view, but a poor equivalent for its crore of rupees; but it
gained a great political advantage in confining the Nepaulese to the
hills on its border. Before this arrangement took place there used to
be frequent disputes, and occasionally serious collisions between the
local authorities about boundaries, which were apt to excite the
angry feelings of the sovereigns of both States, and to render the
interposition of the paramount power indispensable.
It was at Bhinga, on the left bank of the Rabtee River, in the Gonda
district, and eight miles north-east from Bulrampoor, that Mr. George
Ravenscroft, of the Bengal Civil Service, was murdered on the night
of the 6th May, 1823. He had been the collector of the land revenue
of the Cawnpore district for many years; but, having taken from the
treasury a very large sum of money, and spent it in lavish
hospitality and unsuccessful speculations, he absconded with his wife
and child, and found an asylum with the Rajah of Bhinga, on the
border of the Oude Tarae, where he intended to establish himself as
an indigo planter.
Pages:
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226