that the company should interpose their direct and active authority for remedying the evils and abuses existing in Oude. If, on your excellency's accession to the musnud, they did not assume that interference, it was in the strong hope that your excellency's wisdom, prudence, and exertions, would have been successfully ap plied to reduce to order this distracted country. These hopes being disappointed, can any reasonable expectation be formed of their being realized under another successor? and can it be conceived that the company's forbearance will be continued under such unpromising circumstances, or rather under a certainty of an aggravation of evils which must ultimately terminate in the ruin of the company's interests in Oude? Will it not then be a part of wisdom and paternal care in your excellency, whilst seated on the musnud, to concur and assist in framing an arrangement, which shall secure to your family and posterity the most solid and lasting advantages? The co-operation of your excellency's wisdom and experience would improve and perfect the proposed plan; the sacrifice which your excellency would make to your feelings, the respect and consideration due to the exalted situation which you fill, would have their fullest influence on the stipulations of the plan; the company will, upon all occasions, act with scrupulous justice and extensive liberality; but what successor could claim or expect in his own person those benefits which your excellency's adoption of the plan would transmit to him? Having offered my friendly opinions on the first plan, I shall now, in the same spirit of friendship, proceed to the second. The right of the company, under the circumstances of an acknowledged apprehension of the failure of resources, and a certainty of the approach of that event, to demand security for the funds necessary for defraying the expence of their defensive engagements with your excellency, is demonstrated in his lordship's letter by incontrovertible arguments, deduced from the principles of the soundest reason and justice. A cession of territory adequate to the funds is the only security which can be satisfactory; and whilst this act would furnish the security required, it would relieve your excellency from all future demands, and all anxiety would be effectually removed. I shall now offer to your excellency's reflection one more observation :-if your excellency's perseverance in refusing both propositions should compel his excellency the most noble the governorgeneral to resort to decisive steps for the purpose of averting those evils which must inevitably flow from such a determination in your excellency, I entreat your excellency to consider whether it will not be consistent with his lordship's wisdom, energy, and comprehensive justice, to reject all measures for the improvement of the revenues of this country, and promoting the happiness and security of its inhabitants, which may be partial in their extent and confined in their effects, and to adopt that plan which combines most advantages to every party interested in the prosperity of Oude, and which in its operation would be sure, general, and effectual. (Signed) WILLIAM SCOTT, Resident at Lucknow. (Copy.) To his excellency the most noble the marquis Wellesley, K. P. governorgeneral, &c. &c. &c. My Lord,-Par. 1. I do myself the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your lordship's letter of the 28th of April. 2. In the letter which I did myself the honour of addressing to your lordship, on the 4th instant, I reported the state of the negotiation to that day; and though the vizier, in a visit he made to me yesterday, declined, on the plea of indisposition, to engage in a discussion of the terms and arrangements of the territorial cession, yet I have every confidence that the consent given by his excellency to the measure will preclude the necessity of resorting to those extremities for securing the company's rights, authorized by your lordship, in the event of his excellency's refusal of both propositions. 3. The just preference given by your lordship to the proposition for transfer of the administration of the civil and military governments of Oude to the exclusive management of the company, the solicitude expressed by your lordship for the attainment of the object, and, if Ï may be allowed to add, my own anxiety for the accomplishment of it, as well from a sense of duty to your lordship as from the strongest conviction in my mind of its superior advant-ges, formed a com bination of the most powerful motives to actuate 1 4. Impelled by the irresistible force of these motives, I trust your lordship will believe, that every possible endeavour which zeal could dictate has been incessantly exerted to procure his excellenc'ys consent to the first proposition, and that they were not relaxed until the impracticability of succeeding was decidedly manifest. 5. His excellency has promised a conference with me to-morrow, which I trust will lead to a detail of the arrangements; the result of it I shall take the earliest opportunity of communicating to your lordship. Lucknow, I have, &c. 9th May, 1801. (Signed) W. Scott. Extract of a letter from Mr. Scort, resident at Lucknow, to the marquis Wellesley, dated Lucknow, 9th May, 1801. So fully sensible have I always been of the superior advantages which would result to every party interested in the welfare of Oude, from the adoption of the proposition for transferring the administration of the civil and military governments of this country to the exclusive management of the company, and so clearly do I foresee, and deeply lament, the effects of a continuance of the vizier's administration in the part of the country which will remain to him, whether relative to the mass of inhabitants, or to individuals dependent on his country, that I trust your lordship will give credit to the assurance which I have taken the liberty to offer, that my endeavours to obtain the vizier's acquiescence to the first proposition were unceasing, and not abated until the impossibility of procuring it was decidedly manifest. Every duty which I owe to your lordship and the public, every feeling of sensibility for others, and of anxiety to be assistant in the execution of so great a work, impelled me to labour the accomplishment of it by the exertion of all my faculties. 3. If the success has not been equal to the earnestness which actuated by endeavours, I have still some consolation in reflecting that the wisdom and energy of your lordship, whilst they secure the company's interest in Oude, will rescue a large portion of the inhabitants of this country from the grievous oppressions under which they labour. 4. In discussing the detail of the terri rorial cession, occasions may occur for pressing the vizier's acceptance of the first proposition, by dwelling on its advantages, and by demonstrating that it would relieve him from some embarrasments which the conditions of the territorial cession may produce. These occasions shall always be embraced, and pursued to the utmost extent of which they may be capable, although I can scarcely entertain a hope of effecting any change in a resolution apparently so fixed and determined. 5. My design, in thus addressing your lordship unofficially, is to offer to your lordship's consideration some points, con nected with the territorial cession, which have suggested themselves to my mind in contemplating the arrangement. 6. The countries to be received on the western side of the Ganges are com pletely bounded and separated from the remaining parts of the vizier's dominions by that river, and it would be advisable that the limits of the countries to be ceded on the eastern side should be ascertained, if possible, by some natural boundaries. In this view it was my intention to have taken what is called, in Rennel's map, the river of Gawrah for this boundary. This would include a small tract of country to the southward which does not properly belong to Rohilcund, but would exclude a large tract to the northward; and though probably in the actual land revenue no loss would be sustained, yet the town of Pelibeat being a great mart for trade from the hills, I am unwilling to relinquish that source of commerce, which may probably be improved to a considerable and beneficial extent; I shall endeavour, however, to comprehend the whole of the country lying to the westward of the above-mentioned river, without relinquishing any to the eastward, as it will secure the navigation of it to its junction with the Ganges opposite Kinnoge. 7. Some alterations will doubtlessly be necessary in the commercial treaty; but as it may require long and deep consi deration to arrange every part of a subject so intricate, it appears to me that the only stipulation immediately necessary. will be for the free and undisturbed navigation of the river Ganges, where it forms the mutual boundaries of the two states; that is, that each party shall engage to prevent their zemindars, situated as above, from obstructing the passage of boats boats proceeding up and down the river, and from demanding duties on boats which put to, in either of the countries, without intention of landing their goods. mil of Bareilly, who will probably feel the loss of his situation more severely than Almas will, or certainly ought to do, alter the repeated declarations which he has made to me of a desire to relinquish the management of the Dooab, and his apparently sincere solicitations for my assistance to release him from the charge. 11. Could the whole of the private accounts be obtained, they would not furnish a true criterion to act upon, since the aumils may not have used their power with impartiality, moderation, or discretion, it being a practice among them to make up from the weak what they cannot enforce from the strong; even Almas, on the frontiers of the Dooab, has often been obliged to compound with a powerful zemindar. 8. The present mode of collecting the revenues, and the total want, throughout the country, of any established courts of justice, or of any authority to decide in disputes of property between individuals, or in demands made by the aumils upon the zemindars, the adjustment of which is affected by the power which each can respectively command, are circumstances well known to your lordship. What mode of government, what system of revenue, and what administration of justice shall be introduced into the ceded countries, in the first instance ;-whether it shall be the whole code of regulations now established for the company's dominions, or whether a system not so widely different from the one which has prevailed in those countries for sucha length of time but the principles of which shall be calculated to lay a foundation for the gradual introduction of the ordinances and regulations framed for the government of the company's possessions, are points which the wisdom and penetration of your lord-les to which, particularly the last, in ship will decide. 9. It is generally understood, and may be confidently believed, that the whole of the collections, made in the country, are neither carried to the treasury of the state, nor appear in the aumil's public accounts, but that a portion is appropriated to the private advantage of the aumil, who may in fact be regarded as a contractor, bound to pay a certain sum to the government, but limited in his collections by no defined or settled rentroll furnished from any department of government; the amount collections is consequently at his own will, and as government has rarely interfered in or inspected the conduct of the aumils, this amount has been regulated according to the conscience or strength of the aumil. 10. The papers, therefore, which will be furnished from the vizier's offices will not exhibit a true statement of the collections which are made in the countries, this can only be granted by the aumils; and though Almas Ali Khan might feel some apprehensions in disclosing the real state of his collections, lest he might be called upon for balances, yet it is possible that under assurances of secrecy he may be prevailed upon to produce his private accounts. I do not at present entertain the same hopes from Mirza Mehedy, the au 12. With the exception of the two great jaghires of the nawaub Almas Ali Khan in Rohilcund, and of the nabob Findad Hussein Khan, in Furruckabad, I do not believe there are many of considerable amount possessed by other persons; but the land free of rent, under the denomination of charity lands, and maafy, are supposed to be to a large extent, and the many instances doubtful, and in many invalid, by having been granted on the sole authority of the aumil; a strict investigation into the validity of these titles, in the first introduction of the company's administration, would require to be managed with great integrity and delicacy. 13. There is a little more than three months remaining of the Fusly year, a consideration which of itself will urge me to prosecute the arrangements of the territorial cession with the utmost rigour, and to accelerate its completion to the utmost of my power, in order that the administration of the company may be introduced into the ceded countries by the time the period shall arrive for making the settlements, which is usually a month before the commencement of the new year. 14. In the foregoing I have purposely omitted any mention of the penal laws, that I might not interrupt the thread of the observations on the civil administration. The existence of any penal laws, in this country is faintly traced, and the execution of them feeble in the last degree. The total impunity with which murders and robberies are now frequently com mitted, and if noticed, generally punished with a short imprisonment, or a light fiue only, only, is certainly no argument for the continuance of the want of a police to guard the lives and properties of the inhabitants; and although men perpetrating these acts cannot be insensible to the criminality of them, yet inveterate habits, and the disposition of the people, may possibly require that the penalty attending the commission of certain crimes should be promulgated, and made generally known, before the penal code is enforced in its fullest strength. 15. The promptitude with which the natives of these countries, especially the Mahomedans, draw their swords in personal quarrels, which not uncommonly terminate in the death of one of the parties, is particularly applicable to the above obser vation. 16. I am fully sensible, my lord, that in the observations which I have taken the liberty to submit, I have offered little to remove any difficulties which may present themselves, and that very material points are omitted. The last defect I shall endeavour occasionally to supply, and in respect to the first, my chief object has been to set to view some circumstances which are immeditely connected with the acquisition and taking possession of the ceded countries. I have the honour to be, &c. &c. Lucknow, (Signed) W. SCOTT, 9th May, 1801. Resident at Lucknow. be set apart as security for the demands of the company. 3. I immediately prepared an answer to that article of the paper, and conmunicated to the vizier my intention of waiting on his excellency on the 12th instant, in reply to which message his excellency to call upon me. 4. In a long conversation on that day, after I had demonstrated that the stipulations above-mentioned would neither answer the purposes of the proposed arrangement, nor could be supported on any principles of reason or justice, his excellency declared his consent to cede to the company westward of the Ganges, together with the whole of his possessions in Rohilcund, but expressed a hope that your lordship, reflecting on the extent of country ceded, and the portion which would remain to him, would be satisfied with these territories, although the present produce of them might not be equal to the aggregate sums of the fixed subsidy, and the expences of the additional troops. 5. I informed his excellency, that until furnished with an accurate statement of the present produce of those countries, with the expenses of collection, it was not possible for me to judge how far they would be adequate to cover the pecuniary demands of the company on his government, and that my instructions from your lordship would not suffer me to yield any abatement, nor encourage a hope of your lordship's consenting to it. 6. The actual produce of these countries, according to information which I am possessed of, the accuracy of which, however, cannot be vouched for, is estimated as follows: The part of the Dooab held by Almas The remaining part of the Dooab, attached to Soubah Allahabad Kyraga Manda, the tract of country situated between the company's districts of Mirzapore and the Jum ma Bareilly Rehr 65,00,000 6,00,000 2,10,000 38,00,000 4,50,000 The tribute from Furruckabad 45,00,000 1,20,10,000 To which may be added customs, sayer collections, and duties on pilgrims, at Allahabad Allahabad, estimated at two lacks, making an aggregate sum of one crore twenty two lacks and ten thousand Lucknow sicca rupees, falling short of the demand of the vizier near eight lacks. The jumma of the country which would remain to his excellency, according to the information before me, may be estimated at one crore and ten lacks. 7. The above estimated sums, however, are the gross jumma, without any reductions on account of expences of collections; those under the present system may nearly be confined to the pay of the troops, there being little allowed on ac. count of civil establishments, which are defrayed from the excess of money collected by the aumils beyond that what is carried to the public treasury, consequent ly the vizier, if he dispense with the greatest part of the company's troops, which I understand to be his intention, will be at a considerable expence for some sort of armed men to realize his collections. 8. Another point contended for by his excellency was an abatement of the demand on account of arrears, and a reduction of it to the sum of seventeen lacks first mentioned. I repeated to him the explanations of the cause of the difference formally given in writing, and took the occasion to state that diminution of that demand was one of the benefits which would result to his excellency from his acceptance of the first proposition; but that his refusal of it precluded every hope of a concession on that point. His excellency, however, seemed determined to solicit the interposition of your lordship's liberality to release him from a part of that arrear, but promised to commence paying a portion of it immediately. Having yet paid only three lacks of rupees on account of last month's kist, it will be some time before he fulfils that promise. 9. These are struggles which it might be foreseen his excellency would resort to; but I am prepared by your lordship's instructions not to yield to them in any degree. There was another point which his excellency pressed with a peculiar earnestness-an engagement which should, in its terms, render the arrangement final and permanent; which should secure him from future demands; which should ensure to him the independent exercise of an exclusive authority in the remaining part of his dominions, and which should transmit those dominions to his posterity with the same exemptions, authority, and power. VOL. 9. 10. Although I personally gave his excellency ample satisfaction on that head, he this morning deputed to me molavy Suddun, who proposed two questions on the part of the vizier; one was, from what cause the demand of a territo rial cession exceeded in amount the monthly payments at present made on account of the additional troops? and the other, whether I would take upon myself to grant the security required by his excellency in regard to the stability of the ar rangement, and other points connected with that stability ? 11. The answer to the first question was plain-that of the additional force intended by your lordship for the security of these dominions a portion, viz. two regi ments of cavalry and a corps of artillery had not yet arrived. In discussing this point the molavy proposed that these two regiments should be dispensed with. 12. In answer to the second question, I informed the molavy, that if his excel lency consented to the cession of as much country as would, according to its present produce, after deducting the expences of collections, completely cover the company's demands on account of the old subsidy and the charges of the additional troops, I would engage for the security which he required, but that I could not enter into an engagement of the sort under a reservation of any part of the territory required. 13. A private conversation with mo lavy Suddun I had long desired; for though I had instructed my moonshce to embrace any opportunities which should present themselves of exciting the hopes and fears of the molavy, and had so far ob‐ tained, through that channel, a promise of assistance in the present nego,iation, as to lead me to place some dependence on his exertions, yet I was solicitous of discovering, from this advice, the real senti ments of the vizier on the first proposition, and of furnishing him with argu ments for removing the objections if poss sible. 14. After a cautious preface, I intro duced the subject of the first proposition, and extracted from the molavy, that the motives which chiefly determined the vizier against an acceptance of it were the disrepute which would attach throughout Hindostan to the voluntary relinquish ment of sovereign authority, and the introduction of the English courts of justice, which levelled all ranks and or ders of men. |