whole sum should in the space of a few days have been paid off, when a receipt for the amount would have been granted to your excellency.

Perceiving, however, that your excellency, contrary to my expectation, delays to liquidate this just demand, I am constrained to represent to your excellency that if, in defiance of his lordship's remonstrances on this subject, your excellency longer defers the payment of this money, I shall, in order to realize it, be compelled to sequestrate a portion of your excellency's revenue.

From his excellency the vizier to licutenant-colonel Scott, resident. Dated 19 Suffer, 1216, or 2nd July,1801. I have received your letter regarding the thirty-eight lacks of rupees on account of the expenses of the army, and understand the contents. It cannot have escaped your recollection that, upwards of a twelvemonth ago, (when a demand was made upon me for the sum of seventeen lacks of rupees, on account of the expenses of the army which took the field to oppose Zemaun Shab, and to suppress the disturbance raised by vizier Alli), along with other matters, I stated to his excellency the most noble the governor-general, my inability to pay this sum. His lordship, during this long interval, not having replied to the above letter, I assured myself that the plea of inability to pay the money, as well as the other requests which formed the subject of the above letter, had been submitted to and approved of by his lordship.

The demand having been renewed, I have (up to the present date) paid the sum of fourteen lacks of rupees. God knows, that as far as lies in my power I have no desire to act in any instance in opposition to his lordship's pleasure. I am aware that my doing so would prove detrimental to myself, whilst I know that my present and future prosperity and security depend upon my consulting the pleasure of his lordship.

God forbid that I should harbour a design of acting in opposition to, or in defiance of, his lordship's pleasure, but in many transactions, proof being the primary consideration, I unequivocally declare (what I have already told you) that whatever sum of money may by argument be proved and demonstrated to be claimable from me, I will not fail to use every exertion within my power to liqui

1

dare the same, and shall with much pleasure send you the cash.

I assure myself from your friendship that you will not again accuse me (who, as far as in me lies have no such intention) of acting in defiance of his lordship's plea

sure.

No person can withhold from the company their just right, but far less one like myself, so connected with them by the bonds of union and friendship that no distinction of interest exists between us.

I do not by any manner of means refuse to satisfy this demand. Whatever sum of money shall by argument and demonstration be proved to be due from me on this account, without hesitation shall be paid; without proof I consent not.

From licutenant colonel Scott to the vizier, the 3d July, 1801.

The letter which I yesterday received from your excellency in reply to one addressed to you on the 16th of Suffer, demanding payment without intermission of the large balance of arrears on account of the additional troops serving in Oude, leaves me no other alternative than that of sequestrating a portion of your excellency's revenues for the liquidation of that just demand.

After the plain and detailed account of the expenses chargeable toyourexcellency, furnished in my letter of the 28th of Zukoud; after the intimation I gave to your excellency that that account had been prepared in Calcutta, and transmitted to me by command of his excellency the most noble the governor-general; after the sentiments conveyed to your excellency in his lordship's letter of the 27th May last, and the peremptory demand made on your excellency for the immediate payment of the whole arrears, amounting to the sum of 38,13,595 rupees, in his lordship's answer to your paper of requests, accompanied by arguments of unquestionable force and validity in support of the justice of the claim, what further proof can be necessary to establish the company's right to a reimbursement of expenses which have been actually incurred by the company in defence of your excellency's dominions? and what other meaning can be attached to your excellency's desire of having the justice of the claim established by further proofs, than a direct accusation against the honour and integrity of the representative of the British government in India, and after the com

munication,

ment of them, it has required great care and caution to suspend the act of establishing the company's authority in the territory proposed to be ceded to the honourable company, in a manner which should leave a full impression on his excellency's mind, that the object of your lordship's views neither is, nor ever can be relinquished.

3. To accomplish this purpose, it has been my endeavour, in two conversations which I have recently had with the vizier, to extract from him a consent to the territorial cession, in such terms as should allow of my making that consent the ground for a cessation of measures preparatory to the taking possession of the districts to be assigned to the company in commutation for the subsidy, and on which an amicable negotiation, for the security of the company's rights and interests, could be resumed and pursued.

4. On the 15th instant his excellency gave a consent to the cession, but in terms so ambiguous and conditional, that I did not think it advisable to impart to hin either your lordship's resolution of deputing the honourable Henry Wellesley to his court, or the intention of suspending my proceedings.

5. His excellency still adhered to his proposition of a temporary absence, during which the arrangement should be carried into effect; and declared that a new freary was unnecessary, the one existing being sufficient for maintaining the rela tive obligations of the two states. This declaration probably conceals a desire of avoiding the introduction of any stipulations which shall circumscribe his authority in the reserved part of his dominions.

6. His excellency honoured me with a visit on the 17th instant; and I would still have deferred a cominunication on the two points adverted to in the 4th paragraph of this dispatch, were it not that I could not conceive he was unacquainted with the intended mission of Mr. Wellesley, a circumstance pretty generally known in Lucknow, and were not a suspension of my precedings sufficiently in dicated by the relaxation in pt. secuting them.

7. On these considerations I acquainted his excellency, that though your lordshp could never depart from the demand of territorial security, yet, solicitous jo obtain it in the manner which would be least hurtful to his excellency's feelings,

and least prejudicial to his consequence in the eyes of his subjects, and of the other powers of Hindostan, your lordship had condescended to make another effort for the accomplishment of the objects, through the medium of the friendly nego tiation, and for this purpose had deputed your lordship's brother, the honourable Henry Wellesley, to his court. Without inquiring further into the intent and object of Mr. Wellesley's mission, his excellency consulted me on the cere mony of meeting Mr. Wellesley, whence I

infer, through his excellency affected ignorance, and even surprise at the communication, that he was previously acquainted with the intended delegation of Mr. Wellesley.

8. I gave his excellency to understand, that it was by no means your lordship's wish that the negotiation should be suspended, or the termination of it delayed until the arrival of Mr. Wellesley; on the contrary, very pressing considerations urged your lordship earnestly to desire that the business should be finally arranged and adjusted, without a moment's delay, so that the districts to be ceded might be ta ken possession of at the commencement of the year. I judged it peculiarly expedient to dwell upon this circumstance in the strongest and most explicit terms, in order, if possible, to restrain his excellency from demanding and receiving the usual peishgee, or advance from the aumils; but, to convince him that he could not succeed by delaying or postponing the arrangement for another year, I added, that whatever perplexities and inconveniencies might arise from taking possession of the countries after the commencement of the year, they would be encountered immediately on the close of the rainy sea

son.

His excellency upon this informed me, that he had prepared the draft of a paper, which should be sent for my consideration as soon as it could be copied.

9. I cannot entertain the sanguine hope that the contents of this paper will lead to anything conclusive; but it will, I trust, serve to keep the negotiation alive until the arrival of Mr. Wellesley; and it will further enable me again to demand accurate statements of the revenues of districts which are to form the territorial assignment.

10. I am now constrained to relate to your lordship an altercation which has taken place betwen the vizier and me, on a question which involves the public rights of the company. I was in hopes

that

that the reflection and prudence of the vizier would have precluded the necessity of making a formal detail of the circumstances to your lordship; but, as a literary correspondence has taken place on the subject, I deem it expedient to bring the whole to your lordship's notice.

11. In the course of my conference with the vizier on the 15th instant, I noticed to his excellency, that no part of the kist for June had yet been paid, and that the delay occasioned me some embarrassment; because, if I reminded his excellency of it his feelings were hurt, and if I waited till the pressing demands upon the treasury compelled me to require it, his excellency expressed his concern at not being earlier apprized of the public wants. To my utter astonishment his excellency assigned as a reason for not having sent the kist, that I had summoned some of his aumils, and directed them to desist from making payments into his excellency's treasury. I observed, that the orders which I had given to the aumils were chiefly confined to the maintenance of tranquillity, and to the encouragement of cultivation in their respective districts; and that in no instance had I even adverted, in the most distant manner, to the balance due to his excellency on account of the current year; had I even proceeded to the extreme measure of assuming the countries proposed to be ceded, his excellency was and must be responsible for the kist, and for the expenses of the additional troops until the period of collections should arrive.

12. To a desire which his excellency expressed, that I would revoke my orders to his aumils, I explicitly told him that it was impossible to do so on the condition of the payment of the kist, which, in the present stage of the business, was a matter totally distinct from the assumption or cession of the territory.

13. The kist not having been sent either on the 15th or 16th instant, at the opening of the conversation on the 17th, I again noticed the delay, and declared to his excellency that I could not, consistently with my duty, engage in conversa tion with his excellency upon any other subject, until I received from him full satisfaction in regard to the payment of the money so unquestionably the right of the company; and I persevered in this declaration, notwithstanding his excellency's repeated attempts to change the conversation. His excellency having at length

given what I understood to be a promise of the immediate payment of the kist, we proceeded to other topics. At the conclusion of the conference I renewed the subject, when his excellency assured me, that the public service should sustain no inconvenience from the want of money.

14. The 17th passed away without any intimation respecting the payment of the kist; but being Friday, on which day business is not usually transacted by his excellency's officers, I took no notice of the delay. The 18th, Saturday, having nearly closed in the same manner, I considered it the duty of your lordship's representative, intrusted with the care of the public rights in Oude, to make a peremptory demand on his excellency, in your lordship's name, for the instantaneous discharge of the kist, and expenses of the additional troops for June. I further considered the delay of his excellency in discharging this just demand under the above-recited circumstances, as so nearly approaching to a wilful and premeditated violation of his engagements with the company, as to warrant and call for a declaration, on my part, that unless I received satisfaction respecting the Kise before three o'clock in the afternoon of the 19th, I must abstain from all personal intercourse and communication with his excellency, excepting in points which might affect the tranquillity of these countries, until I should be instructed by your lordship in what manner to act in a case of so extraordinary and unforeseen an exigency.

15. It was with the most extreme reluctance that, under existing circumstances, I had recourse to a measure which I foresaw might put a stop to the pending negotiation, until I should be honoured with your lordship's commands; but I trust your lordship will perceive, that no other alternative was left to my choice for obtaining the public rights, consistently with the dignity of your lordship's govern

ment.

16. In every point of view in which I could place this transaction, it ap peared to me, that the conduct of the vizier must be considered as a manifest determination to set the power of the company's government at defiance, or to extort undue and unbecoming concessions from its representative.

17. If I had deprived the vizier of any of the resources applicable to the payment of the kist for June, his excellency might

have had grounds for declining to discharge it; but such was not the case, since I neither demanded money from the aumils on account of the company, nor directed them to desist from paying the balance due to the vizier's government on account of the current year; the utmost extent of my prohibition was a caution not to pay to the vizier the peishgce of the ensu year. If in my proceedings I exceeded the authority under which I acted, a reprosention from his excellency would have procured redress; but no action of mine could justify his excellency in withholding the payment of the indubitable rights of the company. The pretext which the vizier brought forward, in his conversation of the 15th, allowing it the full weight which he attaches to it, must fail in the justification of his conduct, for his excellency knew that even the terms proposed by him of suspending my proceedings, though not admitted as a condition on which the kist should be discharged, would be fulfilled. The truth is, his excellency saw the embarrassments to which I should be exposed by the delay in the payment of the kist, and wished to obtain a public triumph over me. But as in maintaining the dignity of my station I vindicated your lordship's government, I could not compromise the latter for any personal ease or convenience to myself.

18. The embarrassments I allude to particularly relate to the pecuniary engagements which I have entered into with the shroffs. In the full expectation of receiving the kist due from the vizier, I have, to effect the remittance to Cal. cutta, taken up bills from the bankers to the amount of several lacks of rupees more than there were assets in the treasury to discharge.

19. The letter which I intended addressing to the vizier was prepared yesterday, to the end that it might be delivered to his excellency early in the morning. Late in the evening of yesterday I received a letter from his exceliency, which, as it required from me the performance of an express condition in order to obtain the kist, made no alteration in my propo sed letter necessary. It was therefore inclosed in a second letter, and they were both presented to his excellency at 7 o'clock this morning by iny moonshee, who received an assurance that the kist should be sent.

20. His excellency having failed in a promise of the same nature, made directly

to myself, I thought it expedient to wait for more substantial security than his assurance, before I reported the circumstance to your lordship; and as the whole day of the 19th passed without any intimation of the kist, I was compelled to defer the dispatch of this letter.

21. This morning I again sent my moonshee to demand from his excellency an explicit declaration whether it was his intention to discharge the kist or not. His reply was, that the money was ready, and that as soon as I should direct the aumils' vakeels to attend at his durbar, as usual, the money should be sent. Having never in any shape interdicted the attendance of the aumils or their vakeels on his excellency, and as there has not been the smallest remission in their attendance at the durbar, the only interpretation which I could put upon the message was, a desire in his excellency that I should publish to the world, in the most humiliating way, that the British government had abandoned the equitable claim for the territorial security. Feeling that such publication would be incompatible with your lordship's views, and that the vizier had no right to such a concession, I instantly dispatched the moonshee again to require from his excellency a categorical answer to my question, whether it was his intention to pay the kist or not.

92. The moonshee having returned without bringing me any satisfactory reply, I am compelled to solicit your lordship's instructions for my conduct in this momentous crisis; in the mean time, should the kist not be sent immediately, I shall think it indispensable to act up to the declaration contained in my letter to his excellency, of refraining from personal intercourse or communication, excepting upon points which may involve the peace and good order of the country; and under this suspension of intercourse between the vizier and the British resident at his court, I shall not think it consistent to allow of any being held by the officers and Briush inhabitants at Lucknow, excepting by such of the former as may be on duty about his excellency's