facts submitted to your observation, and the necessary conclusions deduced from those facts, and from your own reiterated declarations, might have been expected to have engaged your excellency's deliberate and sincere attention, and to have induced you to enter into the subject of my propositions with a spirit of candour and justice. With what_sentiments, then, must my mind be affected when I perceive that your excellency has met my anxious endeavour to avert the evils now menacing your dominions, not by an open and distinct consideration of the alternative proposed to you, but by a studious suppression of the most material facts of the case; by an erroneous representation of the only argument which you have noticed, and by an evident design to evade the irresistible inference resulting from your excellency's former communications both with colonel Scott and with me? Deeply lamenting the temper and disposition of mind in which your excellency appears to have entered into this most arduous discussion, my most painful regret has been occasioned by the conclusion of your excellency's letter, in which you have peremptorily rejected, without qualification, both the propositions which I had submitted to your choice, for the preservation of the combined interests of the company and of your excellency in the province of Oude. suaded to reject that salutary and advantageous proposal, the funds for the payment of the subsidy must be placed, without a moment of delay, beyond the hazard of failure; and I concluded by declaring to your excellency my determination to adhere with firmness to the tenor of that letter, as containing principles from which the British government never could depart. I lament that the facts and conclusions detailed in that letter should not have convinced your excellency that my determination was the result of the most mature reflection, arising from a deliberate and dispassionate conviction of an insuperable necessity, and confirmed by your excellency's own representations, and by the progressive experience of every hour; and, consequently, that a decision formed with such deliberation, founded on such principles, and directed to such objects, would not be relinquished with levity or precipitation. Your excellency has not controverted one of the facts or principles upon which that determination was founded. Recent events have enforced the spirit of both; and have manifested that the issue of these propositions must ultimately involve the fate of your fertile but decaying dominions, the security of the company's provinces, and the happiness of a numerous and industrious, but suffering people.-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. The unhappy counsels which have induced your excellency to adopt this precipitate and inconsiderate measure leave me no alternative but that of becoming an inactive spectator of the ruin I therefore now declare to your excelof your excellency's and of the honour- lency, in the most explicit terms, that able company's interests in the province I consider it to be my positive duty to of Oude, or of resorting to the most resort to any extremity rather than to decisive steps for the purpose of averting suffer the further progress of that ruin those evils which must inevitably flow to which the interests of your excellency from your excellency's adherence to and the honourable company are exposed, your apparent determination of rejecting by the continued operation of the evils both the propositions which I have sub-and abuses actually existing in the civil mitted to your consideration. In my last letter to your excellency, I reviewed the embarrassed situation of your affairs, and the distressed condition of your country; and I expressed my unalterable conviction, that no effectual security against the ruin of the general interests of the province of Oude could be provided, otherwise than by the adoption of the first plan proposed for your excellency's consideration. I further informed your excellency, that if you should unfortunately be per and military administration of the province of Oude. With this view I have repeated my former instructions to lieutenant-colonel Scott, and I have directed him again to offer the two propositions contained in my last letter to your excellency's most serious consideration. I trust that your excellency, in your answer to this letter, will signify your acquiescence in one or other of the propositions submitted to you; and I enter tain a confident hope of having the satis faction faction to learn by your next dispatch that the necessary arrangements have actually been commenced, if not concluded, for carrying into effect that proposition which may be most acceptable. to you. I have judged it expedient to introduce these general observations at the commencement of this letter for the purpose of impressing your excellency with a solemn conviction of the importance of the occasion, and with a just sense of my fixed and unalterable resolution to apply an effectual remedy, without delay, to the existing abuses in the province of Oude. I now proceed to reply more particularly to the statements contained in your excellency's letter, of the ; the manner in which your excellency has combined the several extracts which you have been pleased to quote from my correspondence, and from the letters of sir Alured Clarke and of lieutenantcolonel Scott, together with the inference which you draw from those papers, would warrant an apprehension that the substance and spirit of all your excellency's late communications to lieutenantcolonel Scott, relative to the failure of your resources, had entirely escaped your memory. Your excellency has hitherto, described your embarrassments to have arisen not merely from the charge of that part of your excellency's troops which you have thought fit to continue in your service, but principally from the defective state of the collections, and from the ruinous condition of the country. Independently of your excellency's repeated acknowledgment of the decline of your resources and revenues, and of the evils and abuses which pervade every branch of the administration, your excellency, in your letter to lieutenant-colonel Scott, of the 29th, (adverting to the means of providing funds for the payments of the subsidiary force) has distinctly stated that your apprehension of the failure of the necessary funds arose not from the continued charge of your own useless and dangerous troops, (the immediate reduction of which was obstructed solely by your excellency's intervention) but from the precarious state of the collections. I here transcribe your excellency's expressions from that letter: "The state of the collections of the country is not unknown to you; you "know with what difficulties and exer consequently impeached." By this just and candid declaration, your excellency has directly admitted the notorious and undeniable fact, that the apprehended failure of your resources is to be ascribed to the precarious realization of your revenues, and to the declining assets of the country. This declaration on the part of your excellency is a clear admission that the security of the united interests of your excellency and the honourable company, in providing for the defence of your excellency's territories, is exposed to imminent hazard. tions they are realized; and hence Your excellency, however, in the letter to which I now reply, appears to have lost sight of the facts thus explicitly avowed; and, entirely omitting all reference to the declining state of the collections, and to the abusive administration of the government of Oude, you now seem disposed to rest your complaint solely on the charges of that remaining portion of your troops, whose dismission from your service has been delayed exclusively by your own unfortunate and erroneous policy, in direct opposition to my advice. I admit, with real concern, that your excellency's embarrassments are greatly aggravated by your determination to retain in your service a considerable proportion of those licentious and disorderly troops, whose disaffection has been proved in every hour of trial, and whose turbulent spirit has repeatedly violated the peace peace of the country, and endangered your authority, and your life. It is, however, a source of great satisfaction to me to reflect, that the removal of this cause of embarrassment is within your excellency's own power; and I have directed the resident to take the most effectual means of affording immediate relief in this respect, by accelerating the dismission of the remainder of your excellency's troops. I have no doubt that whatever accidental counteraction or difficulty may have occurred to prevent the resident's success in completing the proposed reduction of your excellency's troops, will now be altogether removed, and that your excellency will henceforth unite cordially and zealously with lieutenant-colonel Scott in the final and complete accomplishment of a measure, the delay of which your excellency now declares to be the principal, if not the sole, cause of your embarrassments. It is indeed evident, that the resources expected from the reduction of your troops cannot prove effectual while your excellency shall continue to delay the dismission of so large and expensive a part of your military establishments. But I must recal to your excellency's recollection the fact which you have so emphatically acknowledged on former occasions, that the principal source of all your difficulties is to be found in the state of the country. I have repeatedly represented to your excellency the effects of the ruinous expedient of anticipating the collections; the destructive practice of realizing them by force of arms, the annual diminution of the jumma of the country, the precarious tenure by which the aumils and farmers hold their possessions, the misery of the lower classes of the people, absolutely excluded from the protection of the government, and the utter insecurity of life and property throughout the province of Oude. Your excellency has not only admitted the existence of these inveterate evils, but has solicited the aid and interference of the British government, as the only mode of effectual remedy. The transactions of every day in your 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 your excellency's efforts to fulfil your engagements with the British government Your excellency has recently seen, within a few miles of your capital, an aumil employing the military force under his command to seize a number of Zemindars, who, with their families and the inhabitants, have deserted the villages which the aumil proposed to destroy by fire. If such violent means of extorting the revenues are employed under the walls of your excellency's palace, what must be the condition of your more remote subjects? From such a system the general desolation of the country must rapidly ensue; and while the revenue and popu lation of the districts are failing in every direction, on what foundation rests the security for the payment of the subsidy to the company? 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 involved in the fate of Oude. The necessity of such a change your excellency has repeatedly admitted, and you have accompanied that admission by an acknowledgment of your utter inability to carry into effect this indispensable reform. If any other proof were required of your excellency's inability to introduce such an effectual reform, that proof is to be found in the progressive and hourly aggravation of all the inveterate evils and abuses of the former government, notwithstanding the solicitude which your excellency has upon all occasions professed for the attainment of an improved system of administration. Under these circumstances, to introduce a wise and lenient system of administration, to diffuse happiness and prosperity among your subjects, to restore the vigour of your resources, and to provide for the internal and external security and tranquillity of the country, what means remain but the substitution of the company's management in place of abuses which your excellency's hands cannot controul. It would be vain and fruitless to attempt this arduous task by partial interference, or by imperfect modifications of a system of which every principle is founded in error and impolicy, and every instrument tainted with injustice and corruption. After long and mature consideration, I offer to your excellency a renewal of my former former declaration," that the province of "Oude cannot otherwise be preserved "than by the gradual and regular operation "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." The complete introduction of the British athority and management in the civil as well as military administration of the whole province of Oude would evidently combine more advantages to every party interested in the prosperity of that country than could be obtained by any other arrangement. By the stipulations which form a part of the first of the two propositions offered to your excellency's acceptance, your excellency would be relieved from the cares and hazards of a situation to which you have declared yourself to be unequal. Effectual provision would be made for your comfort, affluence, and dignity, and for the situation of your family; the sons of your deceased father, the widow of your late brother, and his reputed children, would be maintained from the resources of the state; the existing pensions and jaghires would be continued to the persons now entitled to those provisions; your excellency would be exonerated from a heavy but just burthen, the debts of your predecessor. The happiness of your subjects and prosperity of your 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 no longer excite alarm; but whatever may be your excellency's sentiments with respect to the first proposition, the right of the company to demand a cession of territory, adequate to the security of the funds necessary for defraying the expence of our defensive engagements with your excellency, is indisputable. For the purpose of affording to your excellency a more distinct view of the company's right to demand a cession of territory, I shall here state some of the leading principles on which that right is founded. The evils and abuses of the existing system of administration have gradually impaired the resources of the state, and these causes of decay in the revenue of the country must continue to operate with increased and accelerated effect, and ultimately must disable your excellency from fulfilling your pecuniary engagements with the company. This argument is sufficiently proved by the actual state of the country and government. In your last letter your excellency has indeed omitted your accustomed complaints of the state of the country and government; but your excellency's repeated declarations to lieutenant-colonel Scott, and to me, respecting the confused condition of your affairs, and the distress and decline of the country, added to the notoriety of the fact, justify a serious apprehension of the approaching failure of those resources on which the security for the payment of the subsidy must depend. The punctuality of your excellency's present payments neither diminishes these apprehensions, nor, in any degree, affects the rights of the company to a satisfactory security against the operation of evils, of which the existence is evident and the effect certain; to refrain from demanding adequate security until the resources of the country shall actually have failed, would be to defeat all expectation 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. Your excellency, indeed, has pledged your private resources in addition to the resources of the state, for the payment of the arrears of subsidy; but the extent of your 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 con sequently must be affected by the same causes which produce a failure in the payment of the subsidy. Neither the letter nor the spirit of the existing treaty could justify the British goverment in delaying the demand of satisfactory security to a period of time when such a den and 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, your excellency considered yourself to be bound to secure the company against the evil effects of a failure of the payment of the subsidy; your excellency's accession to the musnud afforded a strong hope that your your prudence and exertions would improve the resources of the country to a degree amply sufficient to secure the payment of the subsidy against any hazard of failure. The disappointment of those hopes cannot exonerate your excellency from a responsibility which the altered state of circumstances has rendered more urgent. The intention of the British govenment 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 those resources should hazard the irretrievable loss of that important branch of the company's revenue. This right of demanding sausfactory secu rity is not confined to the extent of the established sum of seventy-six lacks of rupees. It is equally applicable to the funds necessary for defraying the expences of the additional force. The necessity of stationing the additional force in Oude has been proved already, and the consequent rights of the company under the existing treaty, arise from that necessity; entertaining these sentiments, and having satisfied my judgment of the justice and necessity of the measures founded upon them, I was deeply concerned to read the unqualified peremptory expressions by which your excellency has signified your absolute rejection of both my propo sitions and especially of the first. Your excellency will be pleased to recollect that this proposition is founded upon your own deliberate and formal declaration, that you were utterly unable to adininister the affairs of your goverment; that 64 your mind was utterly withdrawn from "the goverment of a people who were "neither pleased with you, nor you with "them; and with whose evil dispositions, "enmity, disobedience, and negligence, you were completely disgusted."The fist proposition might seem to be acceptable to a prince who had declared his determined resolution to abandon the cares and hazards of public life, to descend from the musnud, and to return to a private station. to Your excellency must expect me express some degree of surprise, that, under a manifest and encreasing aggra vation of all those circumstances of vexation and difficulty, of embarrassed resources, of internal discord, of popular discontent and disaffection, your excel lency should now decline to enter into any discussion of your former resolution: and although you originally solicited my attention to your desire of resigning the exercise the government, at a moment when your abdication was entirely unexpected by me, that you should now reject every possible modification of your own suggestion, peremtorily declaring that your consent to the first proposinon is altogether impracti"cable." I have already adverted to the inference which your excellency has drawn from the punctuality of your payments, "that the necessity of territorial security is wholly precluded." Your excellency must have observed that my solicitude is directed to future events, and to the necessary and inevitable consequences of the distressed condition of the country, and of the encreasing detalcation of the public resources. That your excellency will continue to discharge with punctuality the current kists of subsidy as long as you can derive sums for the payment of them, from the resources of your country, I as fully convinced; but no der the ruinous system of the existing administration, under the operation of the evils, abuses, and oppressions, which prevail throughout your country, on what security does your excellency rely for the permanence of those resources from which alone your excellency is now enabled to full your pecuniary engagements with the company? Your excetlency has virtually destroyed the force of any argument founded on the punctuality of your past paviments, by admitting the ruinous state of the country, by acknowledging your apprehension of an impending failure of your resources, and by declaring your own incompetency to iemove the causes of these evils. Your excellency in your last letter, is pleased to state that you expect to de"rive ample profits from bringing into a flourishing condition this country "which has so long been in a state of "waste and ruin"" From an early period after your excel. lency's accession to the musnud, down to this day, your excellency has never ceased to complain of the disorders and confusion existing in your dominions. Hitherto no effort has been made on your part to improve the system of your civil adininistration, or to avert the evils and dangers of which you have expressed your apprehension, |