Note 255 — CHAP. VIII.

The following remarks on this title, communicated by David Haliburton, Esq., to his friend Sir John Malcolm, are too curious to be omitted.

"The title of Sabut Jung, viz. 'firm or steady in war,' was first given by the Nabob Mahommed Ali to Colonel Clive, in allusion to his memorable defence of Arcot some years before; but it was after his arrival in Bengal, in 1757, that he was best known there by that title, which was engraven on his Persian seal. One reason might be, that his own name of Clive is difficult to be pronounced in any of the languages of India. Even after a higher title, Zubdut-ul-Mulk, was conferred upon him by the Mogul Emperor, when he created him an Omra of the empire, Clive was better known through the country by the original title of Sabut Jung, which he had brought when he commanded the expedition from Madras.

"Mahommed Ali had, indeed, no right himself to grant titles. He had assumed for himself that of Suraj-u-Dowlah, which, he asserted, had been conferred on him by the Subadar of the Deckan, Nasir Jung; but it had not been acknowledged by those in the French interest, who had succeeded as Subadars of the Deckan. Be this as it may, Mahommed Ali retained that title of Suraj-u-Dowlah in his correspondence with the English. It is that even on his seals to the sunnuds for the lands he gave them near Madras, commonly called the Jaghire; and he never took any other, till he assumed that of Wala-Jah, by which he was known in his latter years.

"It is, however, remarkable, that the first title he had, of Suraj-u-Dowlah, was the same as that by which the Nabob of Bengal was known to the English, by whom he was dethroned in 1757; and perhaps was assumed by him with as little right as Mahommed Ali had: but certainly, of the two, he was placed in the higher situation, when he succeeded his grandfather Aliverdi Khan as Subah of Bengal and Bahar, which would command his procuring a high title from the Court of Delhi."