anything more than a personal annuity; and from first to last all mention of heirs is carefully excluded[1]. The records show that the ex-Peshwá, Bájí Ráo, was well aware of this.
Bájí Ráo lived until 1851, leaving to his adopted son, Náná Sáhib, an immense fortune admitted to amount to £280,000, and believed by the Government of the North-western Provinces to greatly exceed that sum. The Government of India at once acknowledged the adopted son's title to this splendid heritage, and out of its own beneficence added to it the Jághír, or grant of land, on which his father had resided in the North-western Provinces. But the pension, paid out of the taxpayers' pockets, lapsed upon the death of the annuitant. In these arrangements Dalhousie carried out the views of the Local Government of the North-western Provinces. The Secretary to the Government of India thus summed up the matter: 'For thirty-three years the Peshwá received an annual clear stipend of £80,000, besides the proceeds of the Jághír. In that time he received the enormous sum of more than two millions and a half sterling. He had no charges to maintain, he has left no sons of his own, and has bequeathed property to the amount of twenty-eight lacs to his family. Those who remain have no claim whatever on the consideration of the Government.
- ↑ Aitchison's Treaties and Engagements, vol. v, p. 73, ed. 1876.
