of all the proposed articles. You will, therefore, be pleased to convey this intimation to his excellency as soon as possible after the receipt of this dispatch, and urge his excellency to bring the negotiation to an immediate conclusion, according to the tenor of the instructions with which you have been furnished. 8. With respect to the two articles of agreement which you have proffered to his excellency the vizier, I am directed to inform you, that his lordship considers the first of them entirely unobjectionable; the second, his lordship observes, must be so modified as to conform to the terms upon which his lordship is disposed to guarantee to his excellency and to his posterity the dominion of his excellency's semaining territory, namely, the absolute extinction of his military power, and the establishment of such regulations of police within his excellency's dominions as may secure the possessions of the company from the detrimental effects of his excellency's ruinous and oppressive system of administration. I have the honour to be, &c. (Signed) N. B. EDMONSTONE, Secretary to Government. Fort William, 30th May, 1801. To lieutenant-colonel Scott, resident at Lucknow. Sir, I have the honour to transmit to you, by order of his excellency the most noble the governor-general, the paper of remarks adverted to in my address of the 3th ultimo, together with a Persian translation of the same, under his lordship's signature. His lordship directs that you take an early opportunity of presenting the Persian document to his excellency the vizier, accompanying its delivery with such representations as you have been directed to make, or as the circumstances may render expedient, without departing from the general spirit of his lordship's instructions. I have the honour to be, &c. &c. (Signed) N. B. EDMONSTONE. Secretary to Government. Fort William, 2d june, 1801. The governor-general is precluded, by the strongest obligations of public duty, from afixing his seal and signature to the article communicated from the nabob vizier, through the resident at Lucknow, under date the gd of Mohur:un, 1216. His lordship has demanded territorial security for the payment of the subsidy due by the vizier to the company as a matter of right and justice, which required no correspondent concession on the part of the company; his lordship, therefore, could not enter into the consideration of the preliminary conditional articles proposed by the vizier in this stage of the transaction, even if the substance of those articles had been exempt from objection: on the other hand, if the governor-general felt himself to be at liberty to enter into a negotiation respecting the conditions of a territorial cession, the tenor of the conditions contained in the proposed articles is so objectionable, in every point of view, that no consideration would induce his lordship to entertain for a moment a project disgraceful to the British character, ruinous to the authority and honour of the nabob vizier, and incompatible with the dignity and security of his excellency's parents and of his relations, and with the general happiness of his subjects. The governor-general will not depart from the demand which he has made upon the nabob vizier for the payment of the arrears due by his excellency on ac count of the additional troops which the fafety of the province of Oude has required the company to station in that country; and his lordship now positively requires the nabob vizier to pay into the hands of the resident at Lucknow the whole of that arrear, amounting to delay. without further The company has actually incurred and defrayed the whole charge of the additional troops, as stated by the resident to the nabob vizier; the right and duty of the company to station the additional troops in the vizier's dominions has already been fully proved and admitted by the vizier himself; the exigency of the company's affairs forbids further delay in the liquidation of this debt; the governor general therefore expect to learn, within the course of a few days, that the vizier his made provision for the discharge of its full amount; and his lordship requests that no further reference may be made to him on a question already decided. The governor-general will hereafter adjust, in concert with the nabob vizer, the proportion of the expences of the Persian embassies, to be charged to the vizier; but the governor-general desires that it may be understood to be his lord ship's fixed intention to insist on the company's right to require from the vizier a due proportion of that extraordinary charge incurred for the express purpose of augmenting the security of his excellency's dominions. The governor-general has read the remaining articles of the nabob vizier's proposition with the utmost degree of regret; his lordship is concerned to be under the necessity of declaring, that the nature of those articles is such as to impress upon his lordship's mind the most unfavourable apprehensions of the nabob vizier's intentions and views; several of these articles betray the most unjustifiable, undignified, and improvident jealousy of the company's authority and power, especially the 6th, 8th, 15th, 16th, and 17th, articles. From these articles it appears that the nabob vizier has already forgotten that the safety of his person, and the existence of his government, have been maintained exclusively by the British power, and by the presence of British troops. His excellency now seems disposed to gratify his unwarrantable suspicions at the hazard of the continuance of his authority over his subjects, and even of his personal safety, by removing the British forces from his territories, and by confiding his government and his life to those whose treason had repeatedly endangered both. It would be utterly repugnant to the justice and humanity of the company to uphold the various arbitrary powers and vexatious authorities for the establishment of which the vizier has solicited the sanction of the British government in the 1st, 4th, 5th 7th, and 13th, articles. The object of those articles appears to be, under the shelter of the British name, to cancel all the public debts of the state of Oude, to degrade and plunder the ancient and venerable remains of the family and household of Sujah Dowlah, together with whatever is respectable among the surviving relations and servants of nabob Asoph ul Dowlah; to involve the whole nobility and gentry of Oude in vexatious accusations and extensive pro scriptions, to deprive the established dependents and pensioners of the state of the means of subsistence; to frustrate every institution founded in the piety, munificence, or charity, of preceding governments, and to spread over the whole country a general system of rapa cious confiscation, arbitrary imprisonment, and cruel banishment. The governor-general, in the name of the company and of the British nation, not only refuses his sanction to every article of a system so adverse to the wis dom and justice of the great nation whose authority his lordship represents in India, but his lordship hereby enters his solemn protest against the evil and odious councils which have so far perverted the judgment of the nabob vizier as to engage his excellency to propose to the governor-general to sanction the misery and ruin of a whole people, by the signature of the representative of the British nation in India, and by the seal of the English East India company. His excellency must be aware that the slightest intimation of the existence of such designs would inflame, to the most alarming heights of passion and despair, that discontent wls.ch his excellency has so frequently represented to constitute the characteristic spirit of the people of Oude. The publication of the articles tender ed by his excellency to the governorgeneral, and still more any attempt to carry them into effect, would inevitably occasion the most dreadful convulsions in the province of Oude, and would for ever alienate from his excellency's person and government every sentiment of affection, obedience, or respect. The governor-general, therefore, not only expresses his anxious hope that the nabob vizier will never revive the project contained in the proposed articles, but his lordship most earnestly recommends it to his excellency to exert every possible precaution to prevent the tenor of those propositions from transpiring in his excellency's court, or among any description of his excellency's subjects. With regard to the permanance of any settlement to be now concluded with the British government, the articles already proposed by the resident are sufficient for that purpose; articles will also be admitted for the purpose of providing ample security for the maintenance of the authority of the vizier within his remaining territories, to the extent compatible with the general safety of the company's contiguous possessions. His lordship deems it unnecessary to add any further observations on the subject of the vizier's propositions; and he concludes by repeating, in the most express terms, his demand for an immediate fiquidation of the arrears of subsidy, and and for a speedy adjustment of a competent His Excellency the most noble the territorial security. A true copy. N. B. EDMONSTONE, (Private.) To Lieutenant-Colonel Scott, Resident at Lucknow. My dear Sis, Para. 1. The stipulations which his excellency the vizier has proposed in his preliminary articles, binding the company to maintain a specific number of British troops within the ceded territory, and excluding them from his own, have suggested to his lordship the expediency of explaining to you his sentiments respecting the state in which the company's defensive engagements are placed under an arrangement founded on the basis of a territorial cession. 2. His lordship conceives that the territorial cession imposes upon the company the whole burthen of responsibility and expence attending the defence of his excellency's remaining dominions, both now and in future. That it is an exchange of territory for protection, and is founded upon a principle totally different from that which at the conclusion of the treaty of 1798 regulated the stipulations respecting the augmentation or decrease of the British troops employed in the province of Oude, for the defence of his excellency's possessions. 3 His lordship conceives, that under the provisions of the territorial cession his excellency the vizier possesses no right to prescribe either the number or the disposition of the British troops to be employed in fulfilling our obligation, of which no part of the responsibility or of the expence rests with him. As the British government is alone responsible for the defence of the vizier's dominions and is chargeable with every expence, permanent or contingent, attending that engagement, the British government must alone decide both the number and disposition of the troops which may be necessary for that purpose. 4. His lordship is anxious that this principle should be fully understood by his excellency, whose right, under the provisions of a territorial cession, to interfere in the company's military arrangements for the defence of Oude, his lordship observes, can never be admitted. I am, &c. &c. (Signed) N. B. EDMONSTONE, Sec. to government. Fort William, 5th June, 1801. marquis Wellesley, K. P. governorgeneral, &c. &c. My Lord,-The unofficial letters which I have done myself the honour to address to your lordship, under dates the 14th and 23d instant, will have apprized your lordship of the embarrassments interposed in the way of the territorial arrangement, by the vizier's obstinate perserverance in submitting a paper of requests for your lordship's approval and confirmation. Every argument addressed to usage, to decorum, and to common sense, and every attempt to demonstrate the imprudence, inexpediency, and inutility, of bringing forward sentiments so undisguised in their tendency as are some of the articles, and so incapable in their nature of receiving your lordship's sanction, having been repeatedly urged, and exerted in personal conversations with his excellency, and through the medium of his confidential adviser, molavy Suddun, without the effect of prevailing on his excellency to withdraw them, I feel a necessity of transmitting to your lordship the paper under the formality of his excellency's seal. 3. The paper which had been carried away by molavy Suddun, on the 22d instant, was returned to me yesterday. evening, enclosed in a letter from the vizier. It has undergone some slight alterations without any change in substance, and the heading, which required the confirmation of your lordship's signature and seal, is omitted and transferred to the letter. 4. I would have made another personal effort to persuade his excellency to withdraw several of the exceptionable articles; but owing to his being unable to put on his cloaths, from some eruptions on his body, he declined seeing me, and deputed molavy Suddun. 5. Taking up his excellency's letter to me, I observed upon a part of it, which bespeaks the assistance of my friendship and regard, that I had given him the strongest proofs of both by the stand which I had made against transmitting the paper to your lordship, and by the means I had taken to convince his excellency's judgment of the measure he was pursuing. 6. The molavy observed, that his excellency, having withdrawn the articles which requires a diminution of the amount of the subsidy, or that the coun S tries to be ceded should be taken at an ancient jumma, the points now contended for in no shape affected the interests of the company, nor weakened the security of the territorial cession; and that the powers which he sought for were in fact already possessed by him, through the stipulations of the existing treaty. He fur ther observed, that though his excellency was determined to offer no resistance or opposition to any measure which your lordship might think proper to enforce, yet it was desirable, he presumed, that the arrangement should be concluded in an amicable manner, with the mutual consent of both states. 7. Conceiving that his excellency might possibly lay too much stress on the sentiment contained in the last observation, I explicitly declared to the Molavy, that however desirable might be an amicable adjustment, yet if his excellency, under that idea, trusted to the attainment of objects incompatible with the dignity, the reputation, and disinterestedness of the British government, I could assure him that he had not fairly estimated the principles and motives of your lordship's actions. I further noticed to the Molavy, and enjoined him to repeat the remark to the vizier, that I could not but entertain very serious doubts whether your lordship, after perceiving in a paper, bearing the formal attestation of his excellency's seal, the purposes to which his excellency intended to apply his power, would not be of opinion that the exercise of the exclusive authority, confirmed to him by one of the articles I had presented for his consideration, could not with prudence be entrusted to his hands. 8. After a long conversation the Molavy took his leave, with a promise to inform me if any thing which had passed this morning should induce his excellency to withdraw or qualify the requests. He has just returned, and assured me, that his excellency's obstinacy is unconquerable. 9. It does not seem necessary that I should trouble your lordship with remarks on any of the articles of the paper, excepting the eleventh. 10. The terms and expressions used in this article are such that I did not thoroughly comprehend the tendency of it, and therefore required an explanation from his excellency, which he gave to the following effect:-that as his territories # F VOL. 9. would be surrounded by those of the company, he expected that the rates of custom and merchandize, coming from any part of the company's possessions should be regulated upon a standard which would neither preclude the impor tation of them into his country, nor, when imported, prevent his levying a duty upon them, and that a standard for duces to be levied by the company on his exports should be fixed on the same principles. 11. Under the stipulations of the existing commercial treaty the vizier's government is entitled to duties upon all imported commodities, whether intended for consumption in his territones, or passing through them to foreign countries; and for the collection of these duties custom-houses are established at fixed places. 12. The execution of the stipulations was easy, and the consequences of them obvious, when the dominions of one state commenced where the other terminated but as the Ganges will now, for an extent of two hundred miles, form the neutral boundary of both states, some modification of the treaty will certainly be expe dient. 13. On the other part of the cleventh article, which relates to the exemption of duties on provisions for the cousumption of the troops, after observing that this exemption is not stipulated for by any article of the existing treaty, but rests on an agreement entered into with the vizier's ministers, during the government of the marquis Cornwallis, I shall take the liberty of troubling your lordship with a few reflections that have occurred to me on the usage, some of which are the result of experience in my present situation, and some of them arise out of the change of circumstances Low in contemplation. 14. The arucles exempted from duties by this agreement are.grain, cattic, goats, sheep, ghee, betel nut, and tobac co; and as the consumption of these articles, by the troops, and their numerous followers, particularly at the stations of Cawnpore and Futyghu, is very considerable, the revenues of the vizier's government, arising from the saver, are affected in proportion. The use of parwunnas, to cover these articles from duty, notwithstanding all the care that may be taken, is liable to much abuse, and is a source of frequent complaints on both sides. It may also be doubted whether the company's government, or the troops, de rive an advantage in any degree proportioned to the loss sustained by the vizier. 15. His excellency proposes that the exemption of duty on grain for the consumption of the troops employed in his dominions, shall still continue, but cease in respect to the station of Cawnpore; and although that station only is mentioned, I conclude that he embraces / in his design all the troops which may be stationed in the ceded countries. 16. The dominions of the two states will be so situated in respect to each other, that it may be presumed each country will have occasion to draw supplies of grain and various articles of provisions from the other, and there does not appear any good reason why the company's troops, or subjects, should enjoy the privilege of exemption from duties, unless it be mutual. In addition to this it may be observed, that were the exemption continued for the troops, it would be less practicable to limit it to that intended purpose than at present, because, under, pretence of supplies for the troops, larger quantities than requisite for that express purpose might be covered by purwunnas, and the excess subsequently vended in other parts of the country; a practice which is now complained of even whilst it is capable of being in a great measure checked by the vigilance of the officers of the vizier's government in the vicinity of the cantonments. 17. Upon the whole, it appears to my judgment that the exemption of duties on all articles of provisions designed for the consumption of the troops stationed in the ceded countries cannot be contended for, although it may be expedient to stipulate for a free intercourse and market for all articles of provisions between the subjects of the two states. 18. The papers which I have now the honour to transmit to your lordship, are copy and translate of a letter addressed by me to the vizier on the 22d instant, the object of which, after several ineffectual conversations on the paper of requests, was to discover whether his excellency was serious in his desire of having it forwarded to your lordship, by requiring that it should be authenticated by his seal; copy and translate of his excellency's letter received yesterday, in reply to the one above mentioned; and the paper of requests authenticated by his excellency's seal, with a translation of it. Your lordship will observe that there is a slight difference in the second article as it now stands, from that article I have the honour to be, &c. Lucknow, 28th May, 1801. Translation of a letter from lieutenantcolonel Scott, resident at Lucknow, to his Excellency the Vizier; dated 8th Mohurrum 1216, 22nd May, 1801. After compliments,-The practice observed on such occasions as this, the contracting parties having come to an agreement on the subject under discus. sion, a treaty is then drawn up to which they affix their respective seals. What your excellency requires, that his lordship, previous to the adjustment of the terms of the treaty, should affix his scal and signature to certain propositions, is widely different from the established practice; there are, moreover, certain of the said propositions which do not seem at all fit subjects for discussion, but should your excellency persevere in your wish to have them transmitted, I shall nevertheless, if your excellency will attach your seal and signature to them, submit them to the consideration of his excellency the most noble the marquis Wellesley; I must at the same time, however, intreat of your excellency, that this circumstance may not in any degree retard the business in hand. His excellency the vizier to lieutenantcolonel Scott in reply, dated 13th Moburrum (27th May). I have received your letter of the 8th Mohurrum, and return you my propositions, with some trivial corrections, having affixed my seal to them. I expect, from your friendship and regard, that you will transmit the paper to his excellency the most noble the marquis Wellesley, in order that having received his lordship's confirmation it may be returned without delay. It is by no means my wish that the paper, after having received his lordship's seal and signature, should be delivered to me previous to the adjustment of the terms of the treaty; on the contrary, as soon as the said paper shall have been returned to you, confirmed as above, and its arrival shall have been notified to me, we will in concert prepare a treaty, |