it has been maintained, together with all 8. The operation of these evils has 9. The vizier must now be prepared for the active and decided interference of the British government in the affairs of his country. His excellency has repeatedly complained to me, and to the British resident at his court, of the ruinous condition of the internal government of Oude. He has repeatedly and earnestly solicited my direct interference, and has declared such interference to be indispensably necessary for the purpose of effecting a complete reform in his affairs. In the month of November, 1709, his excellency was so convinced of the incurable defects of his government, and of his own utter inability to administer it, that he signified to me, in the most formal manner, his deliberate determination to descend from the Mus nud, and to return into private life. He enmity, disobece ce, and negligence, ment. 10 His excellency's life has been lately attempted under circumstances of the most formidable description; active and general support has been afforded by his subjects to the imposter who lately assumed the name of Vizier Alli; and the acknowledged temper of his excellency's people, combined with the state of his government, exposes his situation every hour to increased anxiety, embar rassinent, and hazard. 11. Having maturely considered these circumstances with the attention and deliberation which the importance of the subject requires, I am satisfied that no effectual security can be provided against the ruin of the province of Oude, until the exclusive management of the civil and military government of that country shall be transferred to the company, under suitable provisions for the maintenance of his excellency and of his family; no other remedy can effect any considerable improvement in the resour ces of the state, or can ultimately secure its external safety and internal peace. 12. Under this conviction, and with a view to the preservation of the com mon interests of the company and of the vizier, I have determined to propose to his excellency a new treaty and arrange. ment similar to that concluded in Novemhis ber, 1799, between the company and Bis highness the rajah of Tanjore, and also conformable to the plan of the treaty proposed to his excellency by me, in my letter of the 9th February, 18co, at the period of his excellency's proposed abdication of the government; a copy of the treaty with the rajah of Tanjore is en closed I desire that you will frame, from the articles of that treaty, and from the treaty submitted to the vizier in the month of December, 1799, the plan of such an arrangement as, while it shall effectually secure all the political benefits described in the eighth paragraph of this dispatch, shall also consult, as far as may be compatible with that primary object, the inclination and prejudices of the vizier. Having framed such a treaty you will submit it to his excellency, and at the same time you will earnestly exhort him to consider the propositions contained in the new arrangement with calm and dispa sionate deliberation. 13. If his excellency should manifest a disposition to adopt the general frame of the proposed arrangement, but should appear desirous of introducing any par ticular modifications into the proposed treaty, you will receive whatever propositions his excellency may offer for that purpose, and you will communicate them to me without delay, adding such observations as may occur to you for my information. 14. On the other hand, if his excellency should unfortunately be persuaded by the interested councils of evil. advisers, absolutely to reject the proposed treaty, you will then proceed to inform his excellency, in firm but respectful language, that the funds for the regular payment of the subsidy, to the full extent of the augmented force, must be placed, without a moment of delay, beyond the hazard of failure. 15. For this purpose you will require his excellency to make a cession to the company, in perpetual sovereignty, of such a portion of his territories as shall be fully adequate, in their present impoverished condition, to defray those indispensable charges. This cession must be framed upon the same principle which has formed the basis of the late treaty between his highness the soubadar of the Deccan and the company, by which his highness has ceded to the company, in full sovereignty, a country rated at the annual revenue of sixty-two lacks of ru pees in commutation for a subsidy of about forty lacks of rupees. 16. With respect to the countries to be ceded, it is sufficiently evident that no other portion of the vizier's dominions possesses so many porical advantages as would be derived to the company from the possession of the Doab. The cession of that province, including the tribute from Funck bad, must therefore be required in the first instance. In selecting the other districts which may be necessary (after deducting the charges of collection) to complete the amount of augmented subsidy, it will be advisable to regulate the demand in such a manner as shall place the vizier beyond the reach of foreign connections and foreign dangers. For this purpose the new possessions of the company should be so arranged as to surround whatever territory may remain to his excellency; with this view the country to be acquired in addition to the Doab must be Rohilcund. The cession of these two provinces may be made with less violence to the pride or prejudices of the vizier, inasmuch as they were actually added to the possessions of his family by the British arms. In this respect the arrangement proposed to the vizier is similar to that concluded with the nizam; the greater part of the countries recently ceded to the company by the nizam having been originally acquired from the power of Mysore by the assistance of the company. 17. If the present produce of these two provinces, after deducting the char ges of collecting, should be deemed unequal to the amount of subsidy to be defrayed, the deficiency must be sought in the countries bordering on the district of Juanpoor, and for this purpose, either Azim Ghur or Goruckpoor, or both, must be required. 18. Under such an arrangement the territories which would remain to the vizier would probably be sufficiently protected by the position which the company's troops would necessarily occupy for the defence of the ceded countries, and no division of military force would be required for the express purpose of protecting the vizier's territory; the contmuance, however, of a regiment of native infantry at Lucknow might be expedient, as a protection to the person of the vizier, and a security for the peace of the city. If at any time the state of his excellency's remaining territories should require the presence of any part of the British force, you would be empowend to issue the requisite orders for that purpose. 19. If the vizier should manifest a disposition to accede to the first proposal, contained in paragraph 11 of this dispatch, the transler of the government will be considerably faciliated by the carly adoption of effectual measures for the purpose of conciliating the minds of all persons whose interests or personal consideration may be affected by the dissolution of the existing government; with this view it will be proper that suitable supends, or pensions, should be settled on the principal nobles and officers at present dependent on the court of Lucknow, as well as on all military officers of rank, and par icularly on those of the cavalry, who may lose their employment in consequence of the change of government, or of the reduction of the actual military establishments of Oude; accordingly you will state for my information and ultimate orders, your sentiments with regard to the persons for whom it may be expedient and just to provide, and you wil suggest the amount and mode of the provision to be made for the several classes or descriptions of claimants. In the mean while it the state of the negotiation with the vizier for the relinquishment of the civil and military administration of his dominions, according to the plan of the treaty of Tanjore, should, require your attention to the object of providing for individuals before you can receive any detailed instructions from me on the subject, you will promul gate, in the most distinct manner, such general and particular assurances in the name of the British government as shall appear to you calcuated to tranquillize the minds of those affected by the change of the administration. 20. In considering the measures to be adopted with the views stated in the preceding paragraph, it will occur to you that no proceeding can be more caleulaved to conciliate all desenptions and classes of people, than a liberal attention to the religious establishments and charitable foundations of the country. I accordingly au horize you, in the case supposed, to take the necessary steps for affording to the people of Oude the most ample satisfaction on this subject; and I desue that you will furnish me with a statement of such public endowments of both the Hindoo and Mohammedan religion, as you may propose to confirm or to extend. 21. You will receive from the secretary in the secret department a letter from me to his excellency the vizier, explanatory of the measures necessary to be adopted under these orders; you will deliver my letter to his excellency as soon as you may find a seasonable opportunity after the receipt of this dispatch. I am, &c. &c. &c (Signed) WELLESLEY. Fort William, January 22d, 1851. A true Copy. (Signed) N.B. EDMONSTONE. Sec. to Govt. To the Vizer. Written 224 January, 1801. Lieutenant-colonel Scou bas furnished me with copies of the letters, and with a report of the different conferences which have lately passed between your excellency and him, on the subject of the subsidy payable by your excellency on account of the additional Brush troops,, of which you have recently received the aid for the protection of your excellen cy's dominions, in conformity to the treaty of 1798, and to my letter addressed to your excellency on the 5th Nov. 1:99. Your excellency has distinctly and repeatedly admitted the existence of those dangers which I have endeavoured to remove by a seasonable augmentation of the efficient military strength of Oude; and I have already demonstrated the right and duty of the Brush government to secure the external defence and internal tranquillity of your excellency's dominions by such an augmentation. I have also proved the obligation to which your excelency is subject, by treaty, of providing the necessary funds for the punctual discharge of the expence incident to the augmented force, and your excellency has not contested the justice or necessity of the motives and principles which have regulated my proceedings on these occasions. But although your excellency has not controverted any of the principles on which this important measure has been founded, I observe, with infinite concern, that you have suggested the probability of a failure on your part in providing the necessary funds for the regu lar payment of the additional troops fur nished ished within the last year for the defence of your excellency's dominions. If the alarming crisis be now approach ing in which your excellency can no longer fulfil your public engagements to the company, it will be matter of additional regret to me that your excellency's neglect of my repeated advice will prove the principal cause of your distress. Your excellency's exertion in the reform of your own useless, dangerous, and expensive military establishments, especially of your cavalry, unfortunately has not kept pace with my efforts to place the security of your excellency's person and government beyond the reach of every danger, foreign and domestic. The augmented charges arising from the additional British force, specified in my letter to your exellency of the 5th November, 1799, would have been in a great degree provided for by the amount of the reductions which might have been effected in your own establishment, if your excellency had vigorously and cordially co-operated with me in the salutary and economical measure of disbanding your own undisciplined, licentious, and disaffected troops. Your excellency, however, having pursued a course entirely opposite to your interests and to my advice, by counteracting to the utmost of your power the progress of a reform which y you had declared to be indispensable, the natural consequences of such a policy are now necessarily felt by you, and it is now become my duty to interpose effectually for the protection of your interest, as well as those of the company. But in reviewing the actual state of your affairs, your excellency has now publicly admitted the existence of additional evils of the utmost magnitude, and of the most alarming tendency. It appears by your excellency's statement, not only that you are embarrassed by the continuance of the charge of a large portion of your own troops, but that the general resources of your dominion actually declined with a rapidity menacing the joint interest of your excellency and of the company, in the province of Oude, with utter and speedy destruction. Your excellency is already apprized that I have long lamented the various defects of the system by which the affairs of your government are administered; conscious of the same defects, your excellency has repeatedly expressed a wish for the advice and assistance of the British government in correcting them; I have never been indifferent to your excellency's wishes on this subject, or insensible to the urgent necessity of an effectual change in the administration of the af fairs of Oude. - Circumstances suffi ciently known to your excellency have hitherto prevented me from executing all the dictates of my duty with respect to that distressed country. I have hitherto been compelled to limit my efforts to a partial reform of your excellency's military establishments; providing for the security of your excellency's "dominions and government to the extent of furnishing an efficient and respectable military force for their defence and support, and of commencing a proportionate reduction in your excellency's military establishments. It was always evident that these precautions must prove fruitless if the defects of 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 longer period will not only render your excellency unable to discharge the subsidy on account of the additional troops, but the resources of your excellency's country will be exhausted to such a degree as to preclude the possibility of your discharging the former subsidy. Your excellency has observed, that the difficulty with which the collections are made is no secret. This alarming fact has never been a secret to me; I am equally well apprized that these difficulties are experienced not only with aumils long established in the country, but that every settlement with a new aumil is concluded for a diminished jumina; the causes of this increasing defalcation of revenue are equally notorious, and daily acquire new strength. Had your excellency's territories been subject to the frequent or occasional devastations of the enemy; had they been visited by unfavourable seasons, or by other calamities which impair the pubic prosperity, the rapid decline of your revenues might be imputable to other causes than evil administration. But, under the favour of providence, no such visitations have afflicted the provinces of Oude, while the powerful protection of the British forces has maintained your excellency's dominions, together with all the company's possessions in this quarter of India, secure from the ravages of war, in the enjoyment of undisturbed tranquillity and peace. What other causes country, and of the military, for promoting the security and ease of the ryots; the prosperity of the country, ard the tranquility of the people;" and you again required that the resident might be ored to assist you in all matters, to the end that you right be "thereby enabled to carry on the affairs "of your government in a manner to 46 p.oduce ease and satisfaction to your "mind." In the mouth of November, 1799, your excellency was so convinced of the incurable defects of your government, and of your own utter inability to administer the affairs of it any longer, that you signified to me, in the most formal manner, your deliberate determi nauon to descend from the musrud, and to return into private life. You solemuly avowed, not in a moment of temporary anxiety and vexation, but after the most deliberate reflection," that your mind was utterly withdrawn from "the government of a people who were than evil administration must I must again remind your excellency, that you have repeatedly complained to me, and to the resident, of the ruinous condition of your internal government; you have repeatedly and earnestly solicited my direct interference, and you have declared it to be indispensably necessary for the purpose of effecting a complete reform in your affairs. In August, 1798, your excellency informed me that the frame of your government, which had for a long period of time been very loose and confused, was become in "the last degree ineffective and irregular;" adding a request, that I would instruct the company's resident at Lucknow to afford your excellency his effectual aid in establishing your authority on a new basis. In June 1799, you repeated to me, by letter, the assurances of your anxiety to establish a systematic settlement of the neither pleased with you, nor you with "them; and with whose evil disposi tions, enmity, discbedience, and negli gence, you were completely disgusted." This resolution, adopted with so much deliberation, was suddenly abandoned. I should have rejoiced, if the sudden change of your highness's resolution could have been traced to any improvement in the general administration of your affairs, to any augmentation of your means of conducting the government, and to the consequent establishment of reciprocal confidence and attachment between your excellency and your people. But this hope is precluded by your excellency's own recent statement of the condition of your revenues, and the renewed and aggravated symptoms of the most alarming disaffection towards your excellency's person and government. Your excellency's life has lately been attempted under circumstances of the most formidable nature; active and general support has been afforded by your subjects to an imposter who recently assumed the name of vizier Ally, and the acknowledged temper of your people, combined with the state of your govern ment, expose your situation every hour to increased hazards, anxiety, and embarrassment. Having maturely considered the state and condition of Oude, with all the attention and deliberation due to the importance of the subject, I am satisfied that no effectual security can be taken against |