Why could Henry Verelst and his troops not reach Manipur?
Answers
Answer:
On the 26th of Jan uary, 1767, Lord C live departed from Fort
W illiam , leavin g his friend H arry Verelst to succeed him in the P re s i-
dency and G overnorship of Bengal.
•AccDrding to the accepted version of the history of the English in
B en gal, the C om pany rem ained content with the gift of the D iw ani in
17 6 5 , and it w as not until 17 7 2 that any attem pt w as made to set up a
ra m p lle n t English adm inistration in B en gal. T o quote Lord M acaulay
again " the only branch of politics about which the E n glish functionaries
busied them selves {i.e. up to 1772) was negotiation with the native
princes. T h e police, the adm inistration of justice, the details of the
collection of the revenue, were alm ost entirely neglected.” From the
previous chapters of the present work it will have been seen that this
view ignores altogether the history of the Ceded D istricts of Bengal,
where the C om pany, from the very first moment of their possession, had
been exceed ingly active in the matter of the details of the revenues. It
is not possible to defend M acaulay’s statem ent by pleading that the
Ceded D istricts w ere com paratively of sm all account. A gain if stress
be laid on the fact that even in the Ceded D istricts the authority of the
Nazim in crim inal ju stice was m aintained, it must be replied that in this
respect M acaulay’s choice of the year 1772 is indefensible, for the Nazim
retained that last vestige of sovereign pow er until the time of Lord
Cornw allis. A fter g iv in g weight to the consideration of the history of
the Ceded D istricts