'Precis Containing Information in regard to the First Connection of the Hon'ble East India Company with Turkish Arabia, as far as the Same Can Be Traced from the Records of the Bombay Government, together with the Names of the Several British Residents and Political Agents Who Have Been Stationed at Bagdad [Baghdad] and Bussorah [Basra] between A.D. 1646 and 1846, accompanied by Other Information' [‎100v] (204/226)

[ xxxii ]
From this Statement it appears that the amount of revenue, which
even in the present ruined condition of the Pachalic reaches the Treasury,
does not fall short of Raij Piasters 83,4912,000 or about £208,500 Ster
ling, and this not only after being subjected to the most sweeping- and
shameless system of peculation and fraud in collection, but after the
abstraction of an acknowledged sum of Raij Piasters 17,315,000, or about
£43,200 sterling paid in Pumlak or assignment of land in lieu of salary
to public officers and other annuitants.
The causes of this enormous reduction from the revenues of former
times and of the melancholy condition of this once rich and fertile
province are to be sought for alone in the total incapacity of its ruler,
and the vicious as well as inefficient nature of his Government. A short
sketch of the characters of both will assist in establishing this fact and
in illustrating the means of restoring the country to its natural produc
tiveness and prosperity.
Ali, the present Pacha, formerly Governor of Alleppo, and successor
of Daood Pacha at Bagdad, is about 50 yeai-s of age, of weak mind, and
feeble judgment, and so irresolute of purpose that neither his promises
nor commands can safely be deemed binding for an hour together. He is
selfish and indolent in the extreme, of gross appetites, and low propensities,
exceedingly avaricious and quite regardless of the nature of the means
by which money may be acquired. He is not naturally inclined either to
cruelty or injustice, but so intolerant of trouble or the fatigue of business
that he will sanction or overlook almost any crime committed by his
servants rather than submit to have his case disturbed by investigation,
and thus justice is virtually denied to the injured party. In point of
moral courage and decision, he is equally deficient, so that he is quite
unequal to act in the critical situations he is frequently placed in, and
which require a firmness and vigour of mind, of which he is utterly
devoid. The principal redeeming points in his character appear to be
a good natured and easy affability, and a degree of literary taste and
acquirements which would have fitted him rather for the quiet seclusion
of private life than for the bustling scene on which he has been thrown.
Unhappily the Pacha^s deficiencies are by no means compensated by
the talents or integrity of his servants. There is not in fact a single
person about him qualified to aid his master or benefit the public. His
Khayah is said to be a well-meaning man, but he is scarcely better quali
fied for business than his superior, and the only person of the smallest
ability about the Seray is the Geemrookehee or Custom Master, an
officer who has acquired a great and unaccountable influence over the
Pacha, but who unfortunately is still more remarkable for dishonesty
than for talent. The few of his former officers, who might have laid claim
to better report, were carried off by the plague or by assassination; those
of his predecessors, who might yet be useful, remaitf unemployed from
motives of policy and caution, and the whole of his existing establish
ment, both public and private, is contemptible and mean in the extreme.
An attempt to develope the whole system of fraud and peculation
which pervades every department of Government would be equally dis
gusting and unnecessary. A few instances will suffice to point out how
materially the revenues of the Pachalic arc affected by it.