Chap. VI 1 1. J SURAJAH DOWLAH, NABOB OF BENGAL. 529
only of three daughters, whom he married to his three nephews. The tragical ad. :m. death of the youngest at Patna lias already been recorded. The eldest, Nuazish Mahomed, who was governor of Dacca, and the second, Syed Ahmed, who for many years had been governor of Pui'neah, where by good conduct he recovered the character which he had lost by his disastrous government of Orissa, died of fever, within a few months of each other, just before their uncle was seized with i
his last fatal illness. The only sm'viving members of the nabob's family were his eldest daughter, Gheseety Begum, the widow of Nuazish Mahomed, and two grandsons : the one Shokut Jung, the son of Syed Alimed, whom he succeeded in the government of Pumeah, and the other Sm'aj-ad-Dowlah, or, as he is usually called, Siirajah Dowlah, the son of Zyn Addeen, and the successor to surajah the nabobship. This youth, who has already been seen ungratefully taking up apiwinua arms against his gi'andfather, was stained with many other crimes. Several guc^jeslo-! ^ assassinations were known to have been perpetrated at his instigation; and there was no kind of vice with which he had not grown familiar. AH Verdy was not ignorant of his real character, and truly described it on his death-bed, when, on being asked by some of his women to recommend them to the care of his successor, he answered with a ghastly smile, that " if he should for three days behave dutifidly to his grandmother, then they might entertain hopes of his tenderness."
The irrational partiality which Ali Verdy entertained for this worthless youth was his gi*eatest folly, and the iniquity of appointing him to succeed him in the government, while aware how incapable he was of discharging its duties, is one of the blackest stains on his memory. The inhabitants of Bengal, though shocked at the crimes which the nabob committed in usurping the government, and in ridding himself of his enemies when they threatened to bg too strong for « him, felt that on the whole he had ruled tlum wisely and justly, and were sin- cerely attached to him. It was a poor retiun for their attachment to place them at the mercy of an ignorant, rapacious, heartless profligate.
Dui'ing the sixteen yeara of Ali Verdy's government, the Ejist India Com- state of the pany had not much reason to complain. Like the inhabitants generally', they presidency suffered by the unsettled state in which the country was kept by intestine dis- verdy. .sensions and Mahratta incursions; but their prialeges were respected, and the few irregular contributions exacted from them amounted to so smaU a percen- tage on their investments, as not seriously to affect the profits. We have seen that during the general alarm produced by the Mahrattas, Ali Verdy allowed the Mahratta Ditch to be dug and the factory of Cossimbazar to be put in some state of defence. He was not disposed, however, to permit any encroachment on his prerogative, and peremptorily prohibited the British and French, when at war, from carrying on any hostiUties within his dominions. It would even seem that he eyed the progress of the European companies with a degi-ee of suspicion, and had a presentiment of the ascendency which they were destined Vol I. 67
