government and people, and with the gratitude due from him to the company.

3. The magnitude of the questions discussed in my letter to his excellency, the alarming facts submitted to his observation, and the necessary conclusion deduced from those facts, as well as from his excellency's reiterated declarations, might have been expected to engage his excellency's deliberate and sincere attention, and to have induced him to enter into the subject of my propositions with a spirit of candour and justice.

4. But his excellency his met my anxious endeavours to avert the evils now menacing his dominions, not by an open and distinct consideration of the alternative proposed to him, but by a studious suppression of the most material facts of the case, by an erroneous representa tion of the only argument which he has noticed, and by an evident design to evade the irresistible inference resulting from all the former communications which have passed with his excellency since the commencement of my administration.

5 The artful and uncandid manner in which his excellency has combined the several extracts which he has quoted from my correspondence, and from your letters and those of sir Alured Clarke, together with the inference which his excellency attempts to draw from those papers, manifests a design, on the part of his excellency, to evade the substance and spirit of all his communications to you, relative to the failure of his resour

ces.

of those licentious and disorderly troops whose disaffection has been proved in the very hour of trial, and whose turbulent spirit has repeatedly violated the peace of his country, defied his authority, and endangered his life.

8. It is, however, a source of satisfaction to me to reflect, that the removal of this cause of embarrassment is within his excellency's own power. His excellency's assertion, that his embarrassments have arisen from the charges of that part of his own troops which he has continued in his service, will enable you to renew, with peculiar advantage, your recommendation to his excellency to dismiss those troops without further delay; and I accordingly direct you to urge his excel-. lency with the utmost earnestness, assiduity, and perseverance, to carry into immediate effect this important and indispensable measure.

9. You will, however, be careful to avoid any argument, or any proceeding, which might induce his excellency to construe your earnestness upon this point into an admission of the truth of his excellency's assertion respecting the sole cause of his embarrassments; nor will you encourage any expectation in his excellency's mind that my public duty can permit me to rest satisfied with his excellency's adoption of my advice in the single instance of disbanding the remainder of his disorderly troops, while all the complicated evils resulting from the vicious system of the civil administration of his government shall continne in full operation.

10. The facts and conclusions detailed in my last letter to his excellency.ought to have convinced him that my deter mination, as expressed in that letter, was the result of the most mature reflection, arising from a deliberate and dispassionate conviction of the existence of an insuperable necessity, and confirmed by his excellency's representations, and by the progressive experience of every hour. A decision formed with such deliberation, founded on such principles, and directed to such objects, cannot be relinquished with levity or precipitation.

11. His excellency has not controverted one of the facts or principles on which the determination was founded. Recent events have enforced the spirit of both, and have manifested that the issue of all the propositions which I submitted to his excellency's acceptance, in my letter of the 224 January, must ultiD2

mately

mately involve the fate of his excellency's fertile, but declining dominions, the security of the company's contiguous provinces, and the happiness of a numerous and industrious, but suffering people.

12. Intrusted with the charge of such extensive interests, I am resolved never to recede from any measure evidently demanded by the exigency of my arduous duty; and I consider it to be my posítive duty to resort to any extremity rather than to suffer the further progress of that ruin to which the interests of his excellency and of the honourable company are exposed by the abuses actually existing in the civil and military admínistration of the province of Oude.

13. His excellency has not only admitted the existence of these evils, but has solicited the direct aid and interference of the British government, as the only mode of effectual remedy.

14. The transactions of every day within his excellency's dominions, furnish additional proof that these evils augment to such an alarming degree as must speedily impair the resources of the state, and must frustrate all his excellency's efforts to fulfil his engagements to the British government. The violent measures recently adopted by one of his xcellency's aumils, in the neighbourhood of Lucknow, for the purpose of extorting the revenue, exhibit a forcible example of the oppressions which pervade his excellency's dominions, and which are probably aggravated in proportion to the distance from the seat of government.

15. An immediate alteration in the system of management affords the only hope of providing either for the security of the company's military funds, or for any other interest implicated in the destiny of Oude.

16. The necessity of such a change his excellency has repeatedly admitted; he has accompanied that admission by an acknowledgment of his own utter inability to carry into effect this indispensable reform.

17. Under these circumstances, to introduce a wise and lenient system of administration, to diffuse happiness and prosperity among the inhabitants of his excellency's dominions, to restore the vigour of the public resources, and to provide for the internal and external security and tranquillity of the country, RO course now remains but the direct substitution of the company's management

in place of abuses which no exertion of his excellency's power can enable him to control.

18. It would be vain and fruitless to attempt this arduous task by partial interference, or by imperfect modifica tions, of a system of which every principle is founded in error and impolicy, and every instrument tainted with injustice and corruption.

19. The experience of every hour has served to confirm the truth of my former declaration, "that the province of "Oude cannot otherwise be preserved "than by the gradual and regular opera "tion of a system of administration, "founded on principles of substantial "justice and of comprehensive policy, "and enforced by all the power and energy of the British government."

20. The complete introduction of the British authority and management in the civil as well as the military adminis tration of the whole province of Oude, would evidently combine more advan tages to every party interested in the prosperity of that country than could be attained by any other arrangement.

21. By the stipulations which form a part of the first of the two propositions offered to his excellency's acceptance, his excellency would be relieved from the cares and hazard of a situation to which he has declared himself unequal, effectual provision would be made for his excellency's comfort, affluence, and dignity, and for the situation of his family.

22. The stipends of the familes of Sujah Dowlah, and Asoph ul Dowlah, and the existing pensions and jaghires of persons now entitled to those provisions, would be continued and secured, and his excellency would be relieved from the heavy, but just burthen of the debts of his predecessor.

23. The happiness of his subjects, and the prosperity of the country, would be established on a durable basis; the hazard of failure in the resources of the country, and the danger of internal commotion, and of external attack, would be effectually precluded.

24. Under the second proposition, although his excellency would be effectually secured against the attempts of any external enemies to disturb the tranquillity of his possessions, he would still be exposed to all the hazards of internal discord and popular disaffection; and although the dangers which now menance

a failure

a failure in the payment of the subsidy would be effectually precluded, the evils, abuses, and oppressions, of the civil administration would continue to operate with considerable violence in the territory remaining in his excellency's hands.

25. The foregoing considerations have determined me to make another effort to obtain his excellency's consent to the terms of the first proposition.

26. If his excellency should persist in his rejection of that salutary arrangement, the same considerations must confirm my resolution to adhere to the just and indispensable demand of territorial security.

27. I accordingly direct you to avail yourself of the earliest opportunity to renew the negotiation intrusted to your charge by my instructions of the 22d January. The foregoing observations will suggest the requisite arguments for the support of the first proposition in preference to the second. You will there fore press this important point upon his excellency with the utmost degree of earnestness; and you will endeavour to obtain his excellency's consent to enter into a negotiation for the conclusion of a treaty upon the basis of that which you have already proposed to him, or with such modifications as you have been authorized to make, or as circumstances may appear to you to render advisable, without departing from the general tenor and spirit of my instructions upon that head. In discussing this subject it will be proper to remind his excellency, that the first proposition is founded on his own deliberate and formal declaration that he was utterly unable to administer the affairs of his government -that "his mind was utterly withdrawn "from the government of a people who "where neither pleased with him, nor "he with them; and with whose "evil dispositions, enmity, disobe"dience, and negligence, he was com"pletely disgusted."

28. You will further express to his excellency my surprize, that under a manifest and increasing aggravation of all those circumstances of vexation and difficulty, of embarrassed resources, of internal discord, and of popular discontent and disaffection, which originally induced him to make a formal avowal of his own incapacity and disqualification, his excellency should now decline to enter into any discussion of his former

resolution; and although he originally solicited my attention to his desire of resigning the exercise of the government, at a moment when his abdication was entirely unexpected by me, that he should now reject every possible modification of his own suggestion, peremptorily declaring, that his consent to the first proposition is altogether impracticable.

29. Should his excellency, however, persist in his absolute rejection of that proposition, it will then become your duty to impress on his excellency's mind the unavoidable necessity of his acquiescence in the second proposition, as founded upon the most indisputable principles of right and justice.

30. With the view to assist your judgment in stating to his excellency the right of the company to demand territorial security for the payment of subsidy, I shall here advert to some of the leading principles on which that right is founded.

31. The evils and abuses of the existing system of administration in Oude have gradually impaired the resources of the state, and these causes of decay in the revenues of the country must continue to operate with increased and accelerated effect, and ultimately must his excellency from fulfilling his pecuniary engagements with the company.

disable

32. This argument is sufficiently proved by the actual state of the country and government; his excellency has, indeed, in his last letter omitted his accustomed complaints of the state of the country and government; but his repeated declarations to you and to me, respecting the confused condition of his affairs, and the distress and decline of his country, added to my positive knowledge, and to the public notoriety of the fact, justify a serious apprehension of the approaching failure in the resources on which the security for the payment of the subsidy must depend.

33. The punctuality of his excellency's present payments, on which his excellency founds a conclusion, that the necessity of a territorial cession is altogether precluded, neither diminishes the apprehension of his speedy failure, nor in any degree affects the right of the company to a satisfactory security against the operation of evils, of which the existence is evident, and the effect certain. It is evident, that to refrain from demanding adequate security, until the resources of the country shall actually have failed, would be to defeat all expec

tation

tation of attaining the security to which the company is entitled. The resources which had been found inadequate to the regular payment of the subsidy must prove still more insufficient to support the additional burthen of a heavy

arrear.

34. His excellency has indeed pledged his private resources, in addition to the resources of the state, for the payment of the arrears of his subsidy, but the extent of his excellency's private resources is uncertain, and while that species of security, from its nature, must be fluctuating and precarious, it must also depend on the resources of the country, and consequently must be affected by the same causes which produce a failure in the payment of subsidy.

35. Neither the letter nor the spirit of the existing treaty could justify the British government in delaying the demand of satisfactory security to a period of time when such a demand must prove altogether nugatory. The intention of the contracting parties could not have been to pledge their faith to an impracticable and fruitless stipulation. At the time when the treaty was concluded his excellency considered himself to be bound to secure the company against the evil effects of any possible failure in the payment of the subsidy.

36. On his excellency's accession to the musnud, a hope was entertained that his excellency would improve the resources of the country to a degree amply sufficient to secure the payment of the subsidy against any hazard of failure.

37. The disappointment of that hope Cannot exonerate his excellency from a responsibility which the altered state of circumstances hae rendered more urgent.

38. The intention of the British government could not have been to confine its claim of security to a period of time when the resources of the country should be inadequate to the payment of the subsidy, and to relinquish that claim when the approaching failure of the public resources should hazard the irretrievable loss of that important branch of the company's revenue.

39. This sight of demanding security is not confined to the extent of seventysix lacks, the amount of the former subsidy: it is equally applicable to the Funds necessary for defraying the expences of the additional force. cessity of stationing the additional force

The ne

in Oude is indisputable, and the con sequent rights of the company, under the existing treaty, arise from that necessity.

49. Whatever may be my confidence that his excellency will continue to discharge with punctuality the current kists of subsidy, while he can derive funds for the payment of them from the resources of his country, I cannot forget that the ruinous system of the existing administration, and the destructive operation of the evils, abuses, and oppressions which prevail throughout his country, deprive this excellency of all permanent security for the stability of those resources from which alone he now derives the means of fulfilling his pecuniary engagements with the company.

41. His excellency has virtually destroyed the force of any argument founded on the punctuality of his past payments, by admitting the ruinous state of his country, by acknowledging the apprehension of an impending failure of his resources, and by declaring his own incompetency to remove the causes of those evils.

From

42. With a view to evade a compliance with the proposition for a territorial security, his excellency has announced, in his letter to me, an expectation of deriv ing ample profits from bringing the country into a flourishing condition. an early period after his excellency's ac cession to the musnud, down to this day, his excellency has never ceased to complain of the disorders and confusion existing in his dominions; but hitherto no effort has been made on his excellency's part to improve the system of his civil administration, or to avert the evils and dangers of which he has expressed his apprehension, and of which he has repeatedly experienced the effects. It has always been evident to me, that those mischiefs were insurmountable by any exertion of his excellency's power. Under a similiar impression his excellency has deliberately avowed his despair of introducing any effectual reform into the system of his administration: after such a course of experience, and after such plain and repeated confessions, under the pressure of accumulated embarrassments, without any increase of power, without any additional means of action, without any change of principle or practice, his excellency, at this moment, suddenly an nounces an expectation of ample profits, by bringing the country into a flourishing condition.

ondition. His excellency cannot rea sonably hope to induce me, by this unsupported assertion, to rest the interests of the company in the province of Oude on a foundation so precarious and insecure as the expectation of an improvement obstructed by the whole system of his government, and by every relative circumstance in the state of his affairs.

43. His excellency has further stated, that his expectation of ample profits from the country would be entirely cut off, and that a heavy loss would accrue to him from what he has termed a separation of his territory.

44. His excellency cannot justly apply this phrase to an arrangement which would place a portion of his territory in the hands of those with whose interests his own are indissolubly united, whose justice placed him on the musnud, and whose power now supports him in that exalted station. He cannot reasonably consider it as a separation of territory, and a heavy loss to him, to consent to an arrangement under which the wise and benevolent administration of the honourable company would call forth all the resources of the ceded country, and would apply them to the defence of his remaining dominions, while the happiness and prosperity of the people, subject to the company's government, would be effectually secured.

45. As the districts to be ceded will be taken at the amount of their actual jumma, his excellency's finances would be improved in proportion to the amount by which the actual collections from the districts are inferior to their present jumma.

46. You have demonstrated to his excellency, in your memorial of the 16th March, the advantages which his excellency would derive with respect to the defence and security of his dominions from the local position of the districts proposed to be ceded, and you have proved the fallacy of the illusory expectation professed to be entertained by his excellency, of increasing the produce of those districts under his own management.

47. In discussing this subject with his excellency, you will not fail to place the same arguments in the strongest point of

view.

48. In your discussions with his excellency you will advert to the example of his highness the Nizam on a similar, though less urgent, occasion; and you will state to his excellency that, although

the hazard of failure in the Nizam's territorial revenues bore no proportion to the dangers which menace the most alarming defalcation in the revenues of Oude, yet the Nizam wisely considered, that by securing the funds for the payment of the subsidiary force beyond the hazard of failure, under a territorial grant, his highness provided the most effectual security for the protection and prosperity of his domi nions in the Deccan.

49. You will convey to the nawaub vizier my confident expectation, that under circumstances of infinitely greater urgency, and of more confirmed necessity, his excellency will not neglect to profit by this salutary example. In my reply to his excellency's last letter, which had already been transmitted to you by the Persian translator, I have entered into a detailed discussion of the preceding topics, and I have disclosed to his excellency my unalterable resolution never to recede from the demand of territorial security, if he should still persist in rejecting the terms of the first proposition.

50. Under this decided determination, any further reference to me from Oude is unnecessary; I therefore impower you to act under the instructions contained in this letter, without waiting for addi tional orders.

51. If, therefore, his excellency should persist in rejecting both propositions, you will inform him that any further remonstrance to me upon this subject will be unavailing:-that you are directed to insist upon the immediate cession of the territorial proposed to be transferred to the company; and that in the event of his excellency's refusal to issue the necessary orders for that purpose, you are authorized to direct the British troops to march for the purpose of establishing the authority of the British government within those districts.

52. I trust, however, that the argu ments which I have addressed to his excellency, and which you will personally enforce, according to the tenor of this dispatch, will induce his excellency to con-form to one of the two propositions submitted to his consideration, and that no necessity will occur of resorting to extremities for the security of the company's rights, and for the preservation of the combined interests of the two states in the province of Oude.

53. I was much gratified to be informed, by his excellency's last letter, that he is prepared to discharge the arrears due