the battalion arrived from Allahabad, and of two battalions arrived from Hyderabad, were allowed to be placed to the debt of the sircar.-Now that you write to have the charges of other new troops, which you wish to introduce, added to the debit of the state, when the reduction of the military has not yet supplied resources for the payment of the charges of the former new troops, how can I take upon myself to defray the charges of these new troops without subjecting the sircar to the imputation of a breach of taith?

2. When it was first proposed to disband the half of the cavalry what discontent and disappointment prevailed among the rassalabs, to a degree that induced them to proceed to violence. Now that it is proposed to disband the whole of the cavalry, only consider, when the aumils showed so much opposition to the disbandment of half the cavalry, what opposition will they not make to the reduction of the whole? Nav, they will make a plea of the want of sufficient controul, and consequent disorder, in the country, and fail in the payment of their rents.

3. Owing to the former and present reductions a large body of men will be deprived of their subsistence, and wander over the country-What will be the end and consequence of this?

4. Let assets be pointed out and fixed once for all, for the realization of what it is intended to demand, so that henceforward all cause of anxiety upon that head may be removed for ever, and no question of increase, nor any altercation upon the subject ever after arise, for these repeated altercations are productive of anxiety and vexation.

5. In the time of the late nabob Asoph ul Dowlah the amount of the kists was four lacks sixty-two thousand eight hundred and thirty three rupees, the delay and the importunity that constantly occurred in obtaining payment of that amount need not be told. In my time the increase that has been made to the kist is well known to you; you have likewise, no doubt, heard what heavy additional expences I was subjected to, exclusively of the kists, on account of donations, &c. and the augmentation of pensions and jaghires of various persons. To answer all these heavy demands upon me is very difficult; I am constantly in fear and apprehension, lest on account of the want of resources to supply all these, heavy expences any delay should occur

To the Vizier. 5th of Rujeb, 230 November, 1800. 1. I have been honoured with your excellency's letter of 29th of Jummaudee ul Sannee, with its enclosure, and should have replied to it before, but was prevented by want of leisure to enter so fully into every part of it as I wished.

2. The professions which your excellency makes of undeviating and implicit attention to the recommendation of lerd Wellesley I have the most perfect re liance in, because they must be founded on a conviction in your excellency's mind, that they originated in, and are dictated solely by a regard for your excellency's happiness, for the improvement and prosperity of your excellency's government, and for the immediate and permanent security of your dominions against ali contingencies.

3. Although when I applied to your excellency for the payment of the kist, and for the money on account of the additional troops, it had been due some days, yet, considering the punctuality which marks your excellency's payments, I should not then have troubled you had it not been for the heavy demands on the treasury in consequence of the relief of the troops. The balance on account of the Allahabad fortifications, your excellency knows, was due nine months ago: but adverting to the extraordinary expences your excellency was exposed to in the payment of the arrears due to the troops disbanding, and not having immediate occasion for the money, I suffered it to remain, and only now called for it because the exigencies of the company's government required this resource.

4. Your excellency observes, that the difficulty with which the collections are made is no secret, as well as that they are not effected without much exertion and expedients, and that on this account apprehensions are frequently excited in your excellency's breast, lest in a time

of

place your excellency's country beyond the reach of surprize either from foreign or domestic enemies.

The plain inference from this information is, that his Lordship, though fully impressed with the necessity of an augmentation to the full extent proposed, sent at first only a part, because a part only was then disposable, and not that the delay in introducing the remainder had my connection with the dismission of your own troops.

It was, it is truc, supposed that your excellency would be enabled to defray the expence of the additional troops by the dismission of the greatest part of your own, and it was my hope that great progress might have been made in the dismissions before the remainder of the proposed augmentation should arrive in these dominions, and I cannot but add that reductions to a far greater extent than have taken place might long ago have been accomplished had your excellency cordially joined with me in giving execution to the plans proposed.

Answer 2d. The dissatisfaction of the Rassallahs at the orders for the dismission of half the horsemen, and the resistance of some of them to the measure, instead of being brought forward as an argument against the dismission of the whole, ought to be considered as an additional motive for it, since it is an additional proof of their insolence and disobedience. The inutility of the horsemen in their present state being universally confessed by the Aumils, the dismission of them cannot, with any reason, be pleaded as an excuse for the faiJure of their collections; on the contrary, as a plan which I submitted to your excelJency would furnish them with useful, effective, and obedient men, instead of disaffected, disorderly, and fictitious men, their means of realizing the collections would be proportionally increased.

3. I have not heard of any disturbances in the country in consequence of the dismissions which have hitherto taken place, and I am confident that there is more danger and more mischief to the country to be apprehended from their being continued in your excellency's service than in their dismission. Such of them as have good claims from long and faithful service would, in your excellency's justice and liberality, meet a provision for life, or until otherwise employed; and I must again repeat an observation which I made to your excellency, that in the execution of a general

reform it would be becoming your excellency to consider the situation of your own subjects in preference to foreigners.

4. A paper which I presented to your excellency, with Lord Wellesley's let ter of the 5th November, 1799, contained a statement of the precise numbers of the additional force which his lordship judged necessary for the effec tual protection of your excellency's dominions, together with the expence of each description of troops. It is not pos sible to foresee whether any exigencies may in times hereafter arise to render a further occasional or permanent force necessary, but if your excellency is desirous of stipulating for the permanent defence of your dominions on certain conditions, in a manner that shall be satisfactory to both parties, I shall be ready to deliberate with your excellency upon such a plan.

5. The pecuniary embarrassments experienced by the former government arose not from the want of resources to defray the necessary expences, but from an early dissipation and w. nt of economy. This dissipation and expence being carried beyond the means of supplying them, and the expences never diminished, though the resources were unequal to them, recourse was had to the ruinous plan of borrowing money at an exor bitant interest, which swallowed up all the revenues.

In the enumeration of your excellency's increased expences I do not perfectly comprehend what is meant by present; if it means a small gratuity to your excellency's troops on your accession, it ceased with the occasion, and is not a permanent charge. If her highness the begum's jaghie be increased, it is not augmented to the degree she possessed at the beginning of Aseph ul Dowlah's reign, and besides, provides for many expences which every motive of justice and respect for your ancestors would compel your excellency to discharge. I know not whose salary has been increased since your excellency's accession, but some of the expence which your excellency was bound to by the treaty, is now done away; for instance, the pension to the vizier Ally. True translation. (Signed)

Copy.

W. SCOTT.

To Lieutenant Colonel W. Scott, Resident at Lucknow.

Sir,--Para, 1. Having reviewed the series

of

of your correspondence since the commencement of the reform to the vizier's military establishments, my attention has been particularly directed to the declaration made by his excellency in his letter to you of the 29th of Jummadee ul Sanne, relative to a probability of a failure on his excellency's part in providing the necessary funds for the regular payment of the additional troops furnished within the last year for the defence of his excellency's dominions.

2. If the alarming crisis be now approaching in which his excellency can no longer fulfil his public engagements to the company, this calamity must be imputed principally to his excellency's neglect of my repeated advice and earnest representations. The course of your correspondence manifests that the exertion of his excellency in the reform of his own useless, dangerous, aud expensive military establishments, especially of his cavalry, has by no means kept pace with my efforts to place the security of his excellency's person and government beyond the reach of foreign and domestic danger. The augmented charges arising from the additional British force specified in the dispatch to you from the Secretary in the secret depart meat, of the 5th of November, 1799, would have been amply provided for by the amount of the reductions which might have been effected in his excellency's establishment, if his excellency had vigorously and cordially co-operated with me in the salutary and economical measure of disbanding his own undis ciplined, licentious, and disaffected troops.

3. I am perfectly satisfied that every exertion has been employed by you to accelerate the execution of my orders, and that his excellency's systematic counteraction is the sole cause of the delays which have arisen; his excellency having, to my knowledge, used every means within his power to frustrate the progress of a reform which he himself had invited, and which he had declared to be indispensable to the security of his person, and to the prosperity of his dominions.

4. The natural consequences of such a policy on the part of the vizier are now necessarily felt by his excellency; and it is now become the duty of the British government to interpose effectually

for the protection of his interests, as well as those of the company, which are menaced with common and speedy destruction by the rapid decline of the general resources of his excellency's dominions.

5. The vizier is already apprized that I have long lamented the various defects of the system by which the affairs of his excellency's government are administered, Conscious of the same defects his excellency has repeatedly expressed a wish to reform them by the assistance of the British government. I have never been indifferent to his excellency's wishes on this subject, or insensible of the urgent necessity of an effectual change in the administration of the affairs of Oude, but circumstances well known to you have hitherto prevented me from executing all the dictates of my duty, with respect to that distressed country, and have compelled me to limit my efforts to a partial reform of his excellency's military establishments, providing for the security of his excellency's domi. nions and government, to the extent of furmshing an efficient and respectable force for their defence and support, and of commencing a proportionate reduction in his excellency's military establishments.

6. It was always evident that these precautions must prove fruitless if the defects in the civil administration of Oude should be suffered progressively to impair the fundamental resources of the state. The continuance of the present system for a much longer period of time will not only render his excellency unable to discharge the subsidy on account of the additional troops, but will exhaust the resources of the country to such a degree as to preclude the possibility of realizing the former subsidy.

7. The causes of this increasing defal cation of revenue are manifest, and daily acquire new strength. Had the terri tories of Oude been subject to the fre quent or occasional devastations of an enemy, had they been visited by unfa vourable seasons, or by other calamities which impair the public prosperity, the rapid decline of the vizier's revenues might be imputed to other causes than a defective administration; but no such calamitous visitations have afflicted the province of Oude; while, in consequence of the protection which it derives from the presence of the British forces,