He obtained from the sovereign the _dewanny_.

This is the great act of the constitutional entrance of the Company into the body politic of India.

It gave to the settlement of Bengal a fixed constitutional form, with a legal title, acknowledged and recognized now for the first time by all the natural powers of the country, because it arose from the charter of the undoubted sovereign.

The _dewanny_, or high-stewardship, gave to the Company the collection and management of the revenue; and in this modest and civil character they appeared, not the oppressors, but the protectors of the people.

This scheme had all the real power, without any invidious appearance of it; it gave them the revenue, without the parade of sovereignty.