To the Vizier. Dated June the goth, 1801.

I confidently hoped that your excellency, having deliberately and maturely considered his excellency the most noble the marquis Wellesley's remarks upon your excellency's paper of requests, would have evinced a sincere desire to bring the pending negotiation to a speedy conclu

sion.

Not, however, perceiving any such disposition in your excellency, I have, in the inclosed memorial, stated such remarks upon the negotiation on foot as suggested themselves to my mind, and I have at the same time carnestly to recom mend that your excellency would consider longer delay as highly inexpedient. (Signed) W.SCOTT,

Resident, Lucknow.

MEMORIAL.

Presented to his excellency the Nawaub Vizier on the of June, 1801,, by lieutenant-colonel Scott, resident at Lucknow.

The sentiments and resolutions deli vered by your excellency, in the conversation which I had the honour to hold with your excellency on the 7th instant, seem to me to have been designedly calculated to put a stop to the progress of the negotiation which has been so long on foot.

Charged as I am by the British government with the conduct of a negotiation so important to the combined interests of the company, and of your excellency, and seeing as I do a fixed determination in your excellency to evade and frustrate the object of that negotiation, your excellency must not be surprised if, in the course of the following observations, some of them should seem to question the wisdom, the justice, and the sincerity of the counsels by which your excellency is go

verned.

of a prince whom the power of the company had placed over them with extensive authority. For the fulfilment of this duty his excellency the marquis of Wellesley, governor-general, with a consideration for your excellency's ever exalted condition, with a retrospective reflection on the splendour of your ancestors, and with a provident foresight for the welfare and happiness of your illustrious family,joffered for your consideration a proposition which, whilst it applied an effectual remedy to the evils and abuses prevailing in Oude, permanently secured the honour, the dignity, and affluence of your excellency, and of your posterity. But his lordship, with that wisdom and energy which has marked all his actions since he assumed the management of the British affairs in India, implicitly declared to your excellency, that if you should be unfortunately persuaded to reject that proposition which combined the greatest advantages to all persons concerned in the welfare of Oude, he could not suffer the company's interests to be involved in the impending ruin.

Whilst your excellency admits that the principle of the first proposition is calculated to secure your personal ease and peace of mind; whilst you have made no objections to the stipulations of it, excepting to one; and whilst you have so frequently acknowledged that the disorders and mischiefs existing in every branch of your administration are of a magnitude not to be overcome by any exertions of your own power, it is not possible to conceive that your rejection of the first proposition is the deliberate and dispassionate result of your own mature judgment. It is the effect of the influence and ascendancy which certain persons possess over your counsels, persons not actuated in their advice by a regard for your excellency's honour, reputation, or happiness, not by any consideration for the welfare of your excellency's family or subjects, but by the sordid apprehension of being deprived of their shares of the peculations of the revenues of the state, and of the spoils extracted from your oppressed people.

On the other hand, if the rejection of the first proposition be the result of your own mind, no part of your excellency's conduct, since you were exalted to the musnud, can sustain the belief that it is founded on the only rational and praiseworthy motives for which a retention of

power can be coveted, a desire of exert ing it for the security and improvement of your dominions, and the prosperity of your subjects; although perhaps, your excellency is not accustomed to hear the language of truth, yet it cannot have escaped your reflection that an aumi let loose on a district, with no superintendence or controul over his conduct, with no other commands than to pay into the treasury, with regularity, the kists agreed upon, with no security for the permanence of his situation but what arises from gratifying the avaricious demands of persons in office, or possessing influence about the court, as no other limit to his tyrannical oppressions and arbitrary exactions than the extent and efficiency of his force: hence the frequency of those tumults, and of those contentions in the mofussil, which troops are called upon to suppress, is to be accounted for.

It is evident that in a country where there exists no regulations of police, where all sorts of crimes, if noticed, are compromised for a fine, the lives and property of the people are at the mercy of the desperate robber. It requires no loud clamours to be informed that persons about the court, who have long derived their only subsistence from the bounty of the state, must execrate the man by whom it is withheld.

This is the present picture of Oude, and I only desire that it may be contrasted with that of the company's provinces, to show the effects of that government, and of that system of jurisprudence which your excellency, out of respect, refrained from commenting upon.

I must now observe upon your excellency's conduct in regard to the second proposition.

In giving a consent to the territorial cession your excellency accompanied it with preliminary and conditional articles, and in opposition to all my remonstrances against the act itself, as being contrary to reason and usage, and in defiance to all my representations against the general substance of these articles, your excellency persisted in your desire of having them transmitted to his excellency the governor-general.

The inference which I drew from this perseverance was, that your excellency meant to clog your consent with stipula tions which, you were sensible, the wisdom and justice of the British government could never accede to. Your excel

lency,

lency's conditional consent to the measure, and that it would fall to the ground on the rejection of stipulations which you might think proper to propose, however unwarrantable and unjust; and as your excellency could not yourself cherish this belief, you could hardly expect to impose it on the understanding of lord Wellesley.

Your excellency declares that, although you cannot give your voluntary consent to either of the plans under the terms proposed, you possess neither the inclination nor the power to oppose the introduction of such measures as his lordship may think proper to enforce. This is not the language of a manly submission to the superior judgment and discernment of those whose advice and assistance your excellency has so repeatedly solicited, it is the concealed language of a misplaced confidence in forbearance; but if your excellency entertains the hope of evading or postponing the settlement of the affairs of your country, under this specious show of resignation, the deliberate, the decided, and repeated assurances of his lordship's unalterable resolution to apply an effectual remedy, without delay, to the existing abuses in the dominions of Oude, ought to satisfy your excellency that such a belief is erroneous.

It is undoubtedly his lordship's wish that your excellency should not only assent to the measures proposed, but that you should afford your cordial assistance in carrying them into execution; but to convince your excellency that his lordship's determination is not to be diverted from having recourse to decisive steps (should your excellency's perseverance in the unhappy counsel which you have adopted render it indispensable), I must now explicitly inform your excellency that I am in possession of instructions under his lordship's signature, providing for such an event.

Before carrying these instructions into effect, I feel it a duty incumbent on me again to call upon your excellency, in the most solemn manner, to resume the dis cussion of the negotiation, with a sincere and earnest desire of bringing it to a speedy conclusion; and if your excellency reject this solemn requisition, to protest in the name of the British government against those counsels by which your excellency is induced to neglect my repeated remonstrances on the means which your excellency has had recourse to for evading conclusive adjustment of the terms of a territorial

a

territorial cession, and to declare that your excellency must be responsible for any disorders and disturbances, and for any failures in the revenues, which may arise from the want of your co-opera

tion.

Your excellency desires that the territorial arrangement may be conclusive against future demands on account of the company's defensive engagements with your excellency, and further, that the dominion of the territories which will remain to your excellency may be gua ranteed to your excellency and your posterity by the company, with the independent exercise of your authority in them.

On the first point, ample security has been offered your excellency; and the maintenance of your excellency's authority in your remaining territories will be provided for to an extent compatible with the general safety of the company's contiguous possessions.

The limitations required are as indispensable for the security of your excellency's person and government, as they are for the preservation of the company's rights, and the safety of their posses

sions.

The obligation of the company to defend your excellency's dominions against all enemies, external and internal, requires and implies the continuance of the power of stationing the British troops in such parts of the country as to the judgment of the company's government shall seem expedient.

The same obligation renders the maintenance of a military establishment by your excellency, to an extent beyond what is absolutely necessary for the collections of the revenues, and suitable to the purposes of state, an heavy and useless burden upon your excellency's finances, whilst the want of discipline, of subordination, and of attachment to your excellency's person and government, manifested by the troops in your service, in various instances, attest the danger to be apprehended from them on every occasion of emergency, whether of foreign invasion or domestic tumult.

Adverting to the relative situation of the company's possessions with those of your excellency, to the general spirit of disaffection, and the turbulent disposition of your excellency's subjects, to the abuses, the evils, and the weakness of your excellency's administration, there is the greatest cause for apprehending that

the state of your excellency's territory will interfere with the internal tranquillity and good order of that possessed by the company. It will moreover be impossible to calculate, with any degree of certainty upon the amount of the force which shall be applicable to oppose the designs of an invading enemy, since a portion of the company's troops may, under such an exigency be required to keep in awe your own mutinous troops and rebellious subjects.

To guard against these dangers to the company's possessions, his excellency the most noble the governor-general thinks it his duty to insist upon the establishment of some regulations of police in your excellency's reserved dominions, which shall be calculated to secure the subordination of all your officers, and the peaceable and orderly behaviour of your subjects of every description. His lordship, conceiving that no regulations, however wisely framed, can be put in practice, and enforced by any persons whom your excellency might select and nominate to such trusts, proposes that they shall be carried into execution under the controul of the officers of the com

pany.

On these terms his excellency the most noble the governor-general is willing to guarantee to your excellency, and to your posterity, your remaining territo rial possessions. A true copy. (Signed) N. B. EDMONSTONE, Secretary to Government.

To lieutenant-colonel Scott, resident at Lucknow.

Sir,-Para. 1. I am directed by his excellency the most noble the governorgeneral to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 21st instant.

2. His lordship desires me to signify to you his entire approbation of the measures which you have adopted, and of the firmness which you have maintained for the purpose of carrying into effect his lordship's equitable and important views at the court of Lucknow.

3. His lordship approves the memorial which you addressed to his excellency, and is disposed to hope that the declarations which it contains will have the effect of convincing his excellency that however great may be his lordship's reluctance to proceed to extremities, that reluctance is insufficient to restrain his lordship from the adoption of whatever measures may

appear

appear indispensable for the security of the rights and interests of the British nation in India; and his lordship trusts that under this impression his excellency may be induced to yield his acquiescence to the measure in agitation.

4. His lordship is anxious in a high degree that the proposed arrangement should be effected by the means of an amicable negotiation; and it will probably conduce, in an essential degree, to this issue, to extinguish in his excellency's mind all hope of influencing his lordship's resolution by withholding his consent to a territorial cession.

5. With this view his lordship has determined to direct his brother, the honourable Henry Wellesley, to proceed immediately, with the utmost practicable expedition, to Lucknow, for the express purpose of confirming to his excellency his lordship's determination to adhere to his declared purpose.

6. His lordship desires that you will either notify this intention, and the object of it to his excellency, or that you will suppress all mention of Mr.Wellesley's mission, according as you may judge most expedient; but in neither case are you to relax your endeavours in the mean time to bring the negotiation to a satisfactory conclusion,

7. His lordship will address a letter to his excellency upon the subject of the honourable Mr. Wellesley's mission, which will be forwarded to you as speedily as possible, in order to be delivered eventually to his excellency.

I have the honour to be, &c. (Signed) N. B. EDMONSTONE, Secretary to Government.

Fort William, 30th June, 1801.

A true copy:

(Signed) N. BEDMONSTONE, Secretary to government.

His lordship being anxious to preclude any such impression upon your mind, has authorized me to assure you, that the measure in question originates in motives wholly distinct from any reference to the character of your proceedings. His lordship is of opinion that the zeal, ability, and prudence which you have manifested in conducting the negotiation committed to your charge, could not be exceeded; and the hope of producing a superior impression upon the vizier's mind by the delegation of Mr. Wellesley, is founded solely on this consideration, that Mr. Wellesley's near connection with his lordship is calculated to give additional weight to his lordship's representations, and the deputation of his own brother tends to convince his excellency, more effectually than any think else,(except the presence of his lordship himself,) of the importance which his lordship attaches to the objects of the negotiation, and of his extreme solicitude to attain them. In fact, the sole purport of Mr. Wellesley's mission is to corroborate your acts, and to add, by the impression which his presence may be expected to produce, to the effect of your measures and your representations, and to supply as much as possible the defect of his lordship's presence.

I have, &c. (Signed) N. B. EDMONSTONE.

1st July, 1801.

A true copy. (Signed) N. B. EDMONSTONE, Sec. to government.

My lord,-Para. 1. I was yesterday morning honoured with the receipt of your lordship's commands of the 15th instant, and this morning waited upon the vizier, and made a full and explicit communication to his excellency upon the three following points of your lordship's instructions; namely, the instantaneous discharge of the large balance due from him to the company on account of the augmentation of the British force in Oude; or in the event of the smallest delay, the sequestration of a sufficient portion of his excellency's revenues for the satisfaction of the company's claims. 2dly, The immediate further reduction of his excellency's military establishments. And, G

gdly,