the principle of it was calculated to promote his ease and peace of mind; whilst he made no objection to the several stipulations of it excepting one; and whilst he had so frequently acknowledged that the evils existing in every part of his administration and dominions were incurable by any exertions of his own, it was imposible, I observed, to conceive that the rejection of the plan was the free result of his own mature judgment, but the effect of that influence and ascendency which certain interested persons possessed over his mind, persons who were actuated in the advice which they gave to him not by motives of regard for his excellency's honour or happiness, not by considerations for the welfare of his family, or his subjects, but by the sordid apprehension of being deprived of their shares of the peculations on the public treasury, and of the spoils extracted from his subject. His excellency replied, that whatever were his motives for rejecting the plan, his determination was unalterable. 5. I then proceeded to state to his excellency the observations which your lordship had suggested in regard to the introduction of the system of British jurisprudence, its gradual operation, and the liberal toleration with which it was enforced; his excellency said, that he was not unacquainted with the general management of the company's country, nor with the administration of justice as practised in their possessions, but that it would be unbecoming in him to comment on the effects; the increased population in the company's dominions, the improvement of the situation of all descriptions of people, and the happiness and security which they enjoyed under the company's government, in comparison with the subject of any other state in Hindostan, were, I observed, the best comments on the effects of that govern ment. 6. I then stated to his excellency that the general tenor and spirit of his articles of stipulations had excited the greatest surprise and concern in your lordship's breast, and that I was commanded by your lordship to communicate to his excellency your lordship's absolute rejection of the whole of them; his excellency replied, that has his paper contained conditions on which alone his consent to the territorial cession could be granted, your lordship's rejection of them allowed him no other alternative than that of passive obedience to whatever measures your lordship might resolve on. 7. To this declaration of his excellency, I observed that the perseverance manifested by him, against all my remonstrances, in transmitting a paper of stipulations which his own good sense must have told him were in their nature and tendency wholly inadmissible, had induced me long ago to represent to his excellency, both personal and through Molavy Sudden, that his only object in bringing them forward was to obtain a refusal, and thereby to render his conditional consent to the territorial cession illusory, and that his ready recurrence to his former protestation of submission confirmed me in the opinion that it was an expedient for that purpose only--his excellency denied that such were his motives. 8. I next proceeded to state to his excellency the terms upon which your lordship is disposed to guaranty to his excellency, and to his posterity, the dominions of his excellency's remaining territory. They were enumerated in the following order and manner; 1st. The continuance of the company's right to station the British troops in any part of his excellency's dominions; 2nd. The restriction of his own military establishment to an extent absolutely necessary for the collections of the revenues, and for the purposes of state; and 3dly. The introduction of such regulations of police, under the controul of the company's officers, as should be calculated to secure the internal quiet of his excellency's country, and the orderly and peaceable behaviour of his subjects of every description. 9. I reasoned upon the several articles as follows:-the obligation of the company to defend his excellency's dominions against all enemies, internal and external, required and implied the right comprehended in the first; the same obligations rendered an extensive military establishment in his service useless, dangerous, and an unnecessary expense; the contiguity of the company's possessions to those of his excellency must render them susceptible of injury and disorder, from the disturbances and insurrections so frequent in his own. I moreover added that unless the subordination of his officers, and the obedience of his subjects, were secured by some wise and strong regu. lations, it would be impossible to calculate, with any degree of certainty, upon the amount of the force that should be appli cable gable to oppose the designs of an invading enemy; since a portion of the company's troops might, under such an exigency, be required to preserve the internal tranquillity of his dominions. 10. His excellency's reply to this was striking; and whilst it is not my intention to aggravate his expressions, it is my duty to relate them as literally as possible. The power of stationing the company's troops in any part of his dominions, he conceived, from some former discourse with me, would be relinquished, excepting in cases were the requisition might proceed from himself; that the introduction of that as an absolute condition, together with the others, formed a combination of circumstances the objects of which would be open to the comprehension of a child, and that it was impossible for him to agree to a territorial cession on such terms. 11. I intreated his excellency to reject from his mind such unjustifiable suspicions, and to summon all the good sense which he possesses, and reflect on the consequences of a refusal of the propositions which your lordship had prepared with so much thought and deliberation. He said he by no means meant to impute precipitancy to your lordship's resolution, but if your lordship's reflection suggested measures to which he could not accede, the utmost which he expected from him submission to those measures, and he at hat if your lordship would give him his dismission, and allow him to proceed on his proposed pilgrimages, or whether that was permitted or not, the whole of his territorial possessions, and of his treasures, were at the disposal of your lordship's power, he neither had the inclination nor the strength to resist, but he could not yield a voluntary consent to propositions so injurious to his reputation. was 12. After remonstrating upon such language, as inconsistent with prudence, with the dignity of his situation, and with a due regard to the interests of his family, I asked his excellency if I was to consider what he had delivered as an answer to be conveyed to your lordship; his excellency replied that it had been repeated more than once in the course of the conversation, but that if a further confirmation of his resolution was required, he would declare it on the koran. 13. In speaking of the arrears of subsidy his excellency contended, that he was not bound to defray any expense for additional troops beyond the period of their being assembled to oppose the menaced invasion of Zemaun Shah. To demonstrate the fallacy of such reasoning, I asked him what limitation of time could be put to the views of Zemaun Shah, and drew to his recollection the intrigue of Ambajee, discovered by the seizure of vizier Alli's papers; but not to rest the justice of the company's claim on particular cases, I adverted to the treaty, and to the reasoning which had been employed to demonstrate the right of the company, in virtue of their defensive engagements with his excellency's government, to determine the number of troops necessary for the protection of his dominions, and the obligation which he was under of defraying the expenses; his excellency, after observing that the excess of troops was continued when vizier Alli was delivered up again, declared that his treasures were at your lordship's command. 14. In explanation of his excellency's reference to a former discourse with me, relative to the company's troops to be stationed in his dominions, I must beg leave to acquaint your lordship, that it was always my intention to preserve the right of the company in that respect, as well as to stipulate for the limitation of troops to be maintained by the vizier's government. I had been cautious in bringing them directly forward lest his excellency should demand the continu. ance of a larger portion of the company's troops in his dominions than could be easily spared from the necessary services in the ceded districts. 15. Whether the vizier be actually determined to adhere to that passive line of conduct which he has so frequently avowed in preference to yielding his consent to one of the propositions, or whether it be an artifice, founded on a belief that your lordship will refrain from having recourse to extremities, to elude an acquiescence, it is not possible for me with certainty to affirm; but no person could be more apparently decided on a resolution than was his excellency in his convertion with me yesterday morning, and not satisfied with the declarations which he had reiterated to myself, he sent for my moushee after my departure, and repeated to him the same declarations. 16. Molavy Sudden is apprized of my being in possession of authority from your lordship to march the troops into the countries to be ceded, in order to establish the company's authority, and I only with held the communication from his excel lency dency to ascertain whether your lordship's remarks on his paper of requests shall occasion any relaxation in his apparent obstinacy. 17. I have made several attempts to open an intercourse with Ruttun Chund, but such is the jealousy of the two favorites in regard to each other, and such his excellency's vigilance over both, that it is impossible to procure a personal conversation with either, unless he is deputed to me by his excellency. I hope, however, that I have at length opened a channel for communication with Rut tun Chund. In respect to the molavy, either his sincerity or his influence with the vizier must be suspected. My moonshee yesterday morning, in consequence of directions from me, engaged him in a conversation, when I had retired with the vizier, and informed him of the light in which your lordship had viewed his excellency's paper of requests. The molavy made the strongest assurances of his having predicted to the vizer your lordship's tora! disapprobation of the paper, and of his having used, in addition to the arguments with which I had furnished him, all his powers of persuasion to retract the requests. 18. It is my intention to prepare a memorial to the vizier, recapitulating the substance of some part of my conversation, and representing to his excellency, that if he entertains the belief of evading or postponing the settlement of the affairs of his country, under the specious show of submission, the deliberate, the decided, and repeated assurances of your lordship's unalterable resolution to apply an elfectual remedy, without delay, to the existing abuses in the province of Oude, ought to satisfy his excellency that such a belief must be totally erro neous, and that should your lordship be ultimately compelled to have resourse to extremities for preserving the united interests of his excellency and the company in Oude, his excellency must be respon sible for any disorders and disturbances, and for any failure in the revenues, which may arise from the want of his co-operation. 19. I have this instant received a letter from the vizier, saying that, probably, his paper of requests had been returned to me from your lordship, and desiring that as it was now useless, it might be restored to him. In reply I have informed his excellency that the paper has not been returned, but that I was in hourly expec tation of a statement of remarks which your lordship has been pleased to prepare upon it. I have the honour to be, &c. &c. (Signed) Lucknow, 8th of June, 1801. To Lieutenant Colonel Scott, Resident at Lucknow. Sir,-Para. 1. I have received your letter of the 8th instant, in reply to which I think it necessary to dispatch, by express, the following instructions for your immediate direction. 2.-You will persevere, with the utmost degree of assiduity and firmness, in requiring from the nabob vizier the instantaneous liquidation of the whole arrear due by his excellency on account of the augmentation of the army in Oude. For this purpose you will inform his excellency that you have received my orders to forward to me, by express, a daily report of the sums paid into your treasury by his excellency on account of the ba lance. You will further apprize his excellency that if any additional delay should be created by him in the discharge of this just demand, you have received authority and directions from me to sequestrate a sufficient portion of his excellency's revenue for the satisfaction of the company's claims The various pretexts which his excellency now opposes to a claim of which he has repeatedly acknowledged the justice, reduce me to the necessity of proceeding to measures of compulsion for the recovery of the public rights entrusted to my charge. 3. In pursuance of the spirit of this order you will sequestrate the revenue of whatever district will appear to you to be most convenient for the purpose, obser ving that the temporary sequestration of revenue for the discharge of the arrear of a part of the subsidy, is to be kept completely distinct from the permament territonal cession for the future security of the whole subsidy. 4. I am anxious to learn what progress has been made in the further reduction of the vizier's military force, and I earnestly desire that you will suffer no consideration to delay for a moment the completion of that most necessary reform; it is therefore my wish that you should make me a weekly report of the progress of the reduction of his excellency's troops. It may be useful that the vizier should know know that you have received orders from me to this effect. 5. I entertain a confident expectation that the remarks which I have forwarded to you upon the paper of requests lately received from the vizier, will have brought his excellency to a sense of his duties; if, however, I should be disappointed in this hope, I authorise and direct you to proceed, as soon as you may judge convenient, to establish the company's authority within the whole line of territory described in my recent instructions, with this addition, that, under the present circumstances of the case, I think it will be necessary to take possession of the whole of the two districts of Azimghur and Goruckpoor, instead of adopting the partial line of demarcation, drawn through those districts in my re cent instructions. 6. It is become matter of serious consideration, whether the conduct of the vizier may not require the speedy adoption of a more comprehensive arrangement for the complete establishment of the company's authority over every part of the territory of Oude. In the mean while the completion of the territorial cession, as stated in my recent instructions, will facilitate any further settlement which may be deemed cxpedient. 7. I take this opportunity of apprising you that it is my intention to visit the upper provinces during the approaching season, and that with this view I hope to be able to embark on the river before the close of the present month. This intelligence will probably afford the vizier a fresh pretext for procrastination and evasion, but I desire that you will proceed to execute my orders without reference to any subterfuge which his excellency may hereafter attempt to practise. It is indeed doubtful whether I may think it expedient either to pay any visit to his excellency, or to receive any from him during the actual crisis of affairs. 8. His excellency's object in desiring that his paper of requests should be restor ed to him is sufficiently obvious. I conclude you have retained an attested copy of that paper of which you have sent me the original. If it should become necessary to assume the districts without his excellency's consent, I desire you to consider whether it may not be expedient to furnish the begum, Almas Ali Khan, Hussein Reza Khan, and the principal personages in Oude, with attested copies of such parts of that paper as tend to disclose the comprehensive project of confiscation, proscription, and tyrannical violence entertained by his excellency against his own family, nobility, and people. 9. If you should concur with me in opinion that such a communication to the persons named and described in the preceding paragraph might be useful, I ́author ze you to make it at the period of time, and to the extent, which you may judge advisable. I am, &c. WELLESLEY. (Signed) Fort William, 15th June, 1801. My dear sir,I have been favoured with your letter of the 5th instant. In consequence of a which requisition from me to the vizier, that he would commence liquidating the company's demand on him for areas of subsidy, his excel lency, in the hist week of this month, sent two lacks of rupes on that account: son.e days after he commenced paying the kist for the preceding month, but as the money did not come in with a dispach, or in quantities proportioned to the heavy demands upon this treasury, and as I had reason to suspect that his design was to spin out the time until the next kist should be duc, I repeated the demand for the payment of the arrears, and pressed for a more speedy discharge of the kist. His excellency affected to be hurt at being called on for the payment of the kist, and returned my letter, noucing also that the terms which I had used in it, in giving a receipt for the two Licks on account of the arrears, did not correspond with those which he had used in sending the money. This is one of the tricks which his excellency has frequendy had recourse to for the purpose of trying to obtain some concession from me; they have never succeeded; and on the present occasion I returned the letter with a still more peremptory demand for the pay ment of the whole amount of the arrear without a moment's delay. His excellency also mentioned in his letter an intention of replying to lord Wellesley's letters, and of preparing a rejoinder to his lordship's answer on his article of requests, presented to him on the 11th instant. To this intimation I replied, that I trusted his excellency's answer to his lord 'ship's demand for the payment of the arrears would be a communication of his having discharged a considerable portion, and of his determination to continue the payments without intetinission until the whole debt should be cleared off; since an answer of any other tenor after his lordship's final sentiments had been so repeatedly conveyed to him would be only an useless trouble. On the subject of his intended rejoinder I replied, that it was my hope that his lordship's remarks on his excellency's paper had made such an impression on his mind as to suppress for ever any further mention of it; I beg you will assure lord Wellesley that my demands for the payment of the money shall be unceasing and suited to the dignity of his lordship's government. The negotiation is now in a state which occasions me a good deal of anxiety, and this is aggravated by an apprehension that the endeavours which I have used to influence the vizier's mind through the agency of Molavy Sudden, although my arguments, as addressed to his excellency, were not of a mollifying quality, have produced the effect of hardening his resolution of passive submission, under a conception that the solicitude shewn to obtain his consent implies an unwillingness, if not a repugnance, to proceed in the business without it. I have, however, prepared a paper which will, I trust, convince his excellency that he is deceiving himself by such an idea, and that it is indispensable for him to resume the discussion of the territorial cession with a sincere and earnest desire of bringing it to a speedy conclusion. The explanation of his lordship's sentiments respecting the state in which the company's defensive engagements will be placed under an' arrangement founded on the territorial cession, shall be duly regarded. I received the proposed stipulation of the vizier in regard to the constant maintenance of a specific number of British troops within the ceded territory, as one of those vexatious and childish articles which his excellency has introduced for the sake of teazing, and not as one that he would think of contending for when the several provisions should assume the shape of a formal treaty. I inclose to you a small paper of intelligence from the vizier's secret durbar; the intention therein mentioned of depuing Molavy Sudden, I understand, is postponed in consequence of the reports now in circulation of lord Wellesley's design of honouring this part of the country with his presence. It has ever been a prevalent desire of his excellency to negotiate immediately with his lordship, and whilst such an expectation exists, it will be his study to procrastinate and evade a final arrangement. I am, my dear sir, &c. (Signed) Lucknow, W. SCOTT, Resident, Lucknow. 5th June, 1801. Inclosed is a private letter from lieute nant-colonel Scott to Mr. Edmonstone, dated 5th June, 1801. The vizier yesterday communicating his sentiments to Molavy Sudden, observed that there was much room both for hope and fear; to which Molavy Sudden answered that as yet nothing had been done, that if his excellency would give him his dismissal he would proceed, and satisfactorily accomplish his excellency's affairs and wishes. That he pledged himself to this point, provided that his excellency would furnish him with such letters as he might wish to the governor-general, and to the other gentlemen, and that he would give him his dismissal; his excellency observed that he was his hand, his tongue, and hiseyes, and that if he sould dismiss him he would be able to do nothing; that he must remain entirely inactive, and that derangement would ensue to his affairs; that if the pending negotiation did not oppose an obstacle, he would certainly have allowed him to go. Molavy Sudden again repeatedly endeavoured to persuade him, and said, that when the affair should once pass out of their hands, nothing could afterwards be done; his excellency answered, that upon receiving an answer from Calcutta he would do whatever might be advisable; to which Molavy Sudden answered, that nothing could possibly be settled by writing; that it was utterly im possible. A true copy. N. B. EDMONSTONE, Secretary to government. (Signed) |