Page 98 - Gulf Precis(II)_Neat

Part IV—Chap. XXII. 70
jjTvf’ ?'vov?"’ 178. Mehdi Ali Khan was mado to retire from the Company’s service in
1603-ISM™ April 1803, and in his ptoco was appointed Mr. J. H. Lovett, a gentleman of
Services of Mehdi rank and position, as Resident at Rushiro.
ll Khan' 170. With regard to the assignment of a provision for Molidi Ali Khan and
his family, the Government of India stated in their letter dated 28th April 1803,
that although the conduct of Mehdi Ali Khan had on some occasions boon
indiscreet and improper, His Excellency ontertained a favourable opinion of
his general zeal and exertions for the promotion of the British interests, and
His Excelloncy in Council was happy to acknowledge that tho public sorvico
had occasionally derived considerable benefit from tho energy and ability of
Mehdi Ali Khan in the discharge of thedutios which had been assigned to him.
Tho Governor-General in Counoil thoreforo resolved to grant to Mehdi Ali
Khan a stipend of R800 per monsom during his life and live hundred Rupees
per mensem to his two sons or the survivors of them.
Selections No. 180. Mirza Mehdi Ali Khan died at Bombay on 25th July 1801 leaving
68 of 1801— two sons and several fomales of his family, who had no other prospect of support
1811 (M.S.). (as ho was said to have left little or no fortune) than tho pension settled on
Death of Mehdi
Mi Khan, 1804. them by the Government of India. Writing about a request made by him on
Despatch of hie his last moments, Mr. Duncan wrote the Governor-General on 25th July 1801:—
body to Najab—
Pensions to hie It was this old servant of this Hon’blo Company’s request to mo three days ago that his
eons. body might bo transported for burial to Nijeff, and as I could not rofuso what he was so earnest
in entreating and tho assuranco of which made his last momeuts easy to him, I trust Your
Excellency will approve of my carrying tho engagement thus contracted into effect. It will
not, it is understood, involvo an expenso of above twenty thousand rupees at the utmost, which
considering tho deceased’s services will not I hope bo objected to eithor by the Supreme Govern­
ment or the Court of Directors, who aro well apprized of liia meritorious exertions in the year
1798-1799 as appears by tho very honourable mention made thereof in the letter of that period
from the Secret Committee to the Resident at Bagdad which has long been before Your
Excellency.
181. Mr. Duncan recorded the following minute in regard to the proposed
funeral of Mehdi Ali Khan and his services to the Company :—
In my letter to His Excellency the Governor-General of tho 25th of last month, I have
advised him of the demise of Mirza Mohedy Ali Khan, and of the intention I entertained, in
compliance with his dying entreaty, to have his body transported to Nadjiff, in pursuance cf
which it has been already suitably embarked on board tho Crevla, and I have since accepted of
the offer of Mr. Heuskaw Junior lately returned from several mouths’ residence at Bushire to
proceed with the corpse to the place of his interment, on the sole condition of that gentle­
man’s expenses being defrayed, which ho has faithfully promised to keep within as narrow
limits as possible, with only such small additional remuneration as the experienced merit of his
services may, after the conclusion of the undertaking, appears entitled to. Mr. Honshaw’s
superintendence on this occasion will tend materially to ensure the regular orderly, decorous
attainment of the object, and probably promote, instead of counter-acting the keeping of the
whole expense within the sum allowed to, in ray address to the Governor-General, viz., from
16 to 20,000 rupees; which if noither the Supreme Government nor the Court of Directors
shall be pleased to sanction, I hereby engage to hold myself responsible to them, to tho amount
of, as a mark of attention, which I can nover regret, to have shewn to tho last solicitations of
an extraordinary man whose uncommon talents have during a period of about eighteen years
been in various instances ably applied to the promotions of the British interests in that quarter
of Asia, extending from the Ganges river to the Caspian and Red Seas, of which tho Company
at home have more than once expressed their sense ; accompanying their latest mention of
the subject in relation more particularly to the beneficial operation of bis great proceedings
in that quarter and to the increased vend he had made suoh progress in introducing, and was
so likely to establish, for our British woollens, with the expression of tho desire, that some
complimentary token of their approbation might be bestowed on him by this Government;
and as no good opportunity occurred of carrying this part of their orders into effect, they may
perhaps be pleased to consider it the more allowable to be put to some experiences in procuring
for him a coveted grave.
The pensions settled on him and his family by tho Supreme Government was in con-
sideration to his important political services in Persia, at tho period of our last g]0*10™
struggle with Tippoo Sultan by which it is ascertained, and has been repeatedly acknowledged
by every authority that he turned off the aims of Iemauu Shaw tho Abdallo King of Cabool
from co-operating with Tippoo, at that critical period of the British fortunes in India after that
monarch bad advanced with that decided and avowed intention beyond Lahore; for which the
deceased’s rewards have after all fallen, I am sorry to find, short of bis expectations consisting
a
of a now lapsed pension to himself of R800 per month (combining also a compensation for
the loss of his office of Commercial Resident at Bushire) aud of one of B0OU that becomes
payable sinoe his death to his two children, for otherwise he never received any salary or other

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