116

AUGMENTATION OF TROOPS IN OUDE.

[CHAP. dom, which was certain to be the first object of spoliation, more especially as the discontented Rohillas in its northern districts would not fail to join their fellow-countrymen in the camp of the invader. Sir James replied that the rabble of troops maintained by the Vizier was not merely useless, but dangerous, and that if he were required to march against Zemaun Shah, he should be as unwilling to leave them behind, as to leave a fortress in the possession of an enemy. Sadut Ali was bound by the treaty which seated him on the throne to provide seventy-six lacs of rupees a-year for the subsistence of British troops, 13,000 in number, employed in the defence of his country. The home authorities had more than once informed the Governor-General that they considered this force too small for the protection of the kingdom, and that it could be rendered secure only by the substitution of a well organised force commanded by their own officers, for the disorderly regiments of the Vizier. Lord Wellesley, who fully concurred in these views, had frequently brought the subject before the Nabob. On his return to Calcutta, in November, 1799, he renewed his representations in greater detail. The British Government, he said, was bound to defend the Nabob Vizier's territories against all enemies; the present British force was insufficient for this purpose, and required a large augmentation. The treaty had provided for this contingency, out of the revenues of the country. The cost of additional troops would amount to fifty lacs of rupees a-year, and the proper course for the Nabob to adopt was to discharge his own disorderly troops, and thus effect a saving equivalent to the new demand.

The Nabob proposes to abdicate, 1800.

The proposed reform would have transferred the entire military power of Oude to the Company, which was precisely the object which Lord Wellesley had in his eye, but which the Nabob was most anxious to prevent. To evade the question, he proposed to retire from the Government. The refractory and perverse disposition of the people, he said, combined with the want of zeal and fidelity

xx.]

NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE NABOB.

117

Neither was he

From the first

in his servants, had filled him with disgust. pleased with his subjects, nor they with him. he had been indisposed to the cares of government, and he was not reconciled to them by experience. He expected that one of his sons would be placed on the throne, as a matter of course, to perpetuate his name, and that suitable allowances would be granted to the other members of the family. As for himself, the treasure which he had accumulated-estimated at a crore of rupees-would procure him all the gratification he could desire in a private station. Lord Wellesley eagerly caught at the proposal of the Nabob Vizier, and hastened to inform the Court of Directors that he intended to turn it to account, and establish the Company's exclusive authority in Oude. He informed the Nabob that he was fully prepared to sanction the proposed abdication, provided he took up his residence in the British dominions, and vested the government of Oude absolutely and permanently in the Company, but he could not permit the public treasure, which belonged to the state and was liable for its obligations, to be removed.

He withdraws

1800.

But the Nabob Vizier had never seriously conhis abdication, templated the resignation of his kingdom to his son, and still less to the Company. His ruling passion was avarice, and nowhere could it be more amply gratified than on an Asiatic throne. On the receipt of Lord Wellesley's proposal, he assured the Resident that he would not bring on himself the odium and disgrace of having sold his country for money, and had therefore abandoned all thought of retirement. Lord Wellesley expressed great indignation at the insincerity and duplicity, as he termed it, of the Vizier, and charged him with having made a proposal which was from the first illusory, and designed only to defeat the reform of his military establishment by artificial delays. The GovernorGeneral resolved to proceed at once to action. Several regiments were ordered to move to different stations in the Oude territories, and the Nabob was called on to make provision for their maintenance, according to the terms of the treaty. He

118

NABOB'S SUBMISSION.

[CHAP.

immediately addressed a memorial to the Governor-General, acknowledging that he was the creature and dependent of the · Company, but remonstrating against a measure to which he had never given his consent. The seventh article of the treaty, he said, provided that no augmentation of the British force should be made without necessity, yet a large increase was now needlessly forced upon him. By the seventeenth article he was to enjoy full authority over his household affairs, his subjects, and his troops; whereas he was now required to relinquish the control of the military force in his dominions, which would not fail to annihilate his authority, and expose him to the contempt of his people. This remonstrance excited the highest displeasure of Lord Wellesley, who ordered it to be returned to the Nabob, as being deficient in that respect which was due to the first British authority in India, and he was informed that "if he should think proper again to impeach the honour and justice of the British Government in such terms, the Governor-General would consider how such unfounded calumnies and gross misrepresentations, both of facts and arguments, ought to be noticed.”

Submission of the Nabob

Second demand, 1800.

The Nabob Vizier yielded to necessity, and began to disband a part of his own troops, in order to obtain funds for the payment of the British regiments. But, in November, 1800, he was required to make provision for a second body of troops, "to complete the augmentation." He pleaded the extreme difficulty with which the collections were realized, and refused to become responsible for any further payments till he was assured that his resources were sufficient to meet them, lest he should be chargeable with a breach of faith. At the same time, he ordered a schedule of his revenues to be drawn up by his treasurer, and submitted through the Resident to Lord Wellesley, who, on receiving the statement, replied that "if the alarming crisis be now approaching in which his Excellency can no longer fulfil his public engagements to the Company. it became the duty of the British Government to interpose effectually for the protection

xx.]

FURTHER DEMAND ON THE NABOB.

119

of his interests, as well as those of the Company, which were * menaced with common and speedy destruction by the rapid decline of the general resources of his Excellency's dominions." The Resident was then instructed to propose either that he should resign the entire management of the civil and military government to the Company, a suitable provision being made. for his own maintenance and that of his family, or that he should cede to the Company in perpetual sovereignty a section of his territories sufficient to cover the expense of the entire British force. The Nabob manifested the strongest repugnance to both proposals, and a tedious correspondence ensued, which was marked, on the part of Lord Wellesley, by that imperious tone which had characterized the transaction throughout. The Nabob, unable to obtain any relaxation of the demand, entreated Lord Wellesley to allow him to go on pilgrimage, the pretext by which Hindoos and Mahomedans endeavour to escape from an embarrassing position. The whole of his territories and treasure, he said, was at the disposal of the Company, and he had neither inclination nor strength to resist them, but he could not yield his consent to a proposal so injurious to his royal character. Lord Wellesley was desirous, if possible, to avoid the appearance of a compulsory cession of territory, and despatched his brother and private secretary, Mr. Henry Wellesley, to Lucknow, in the hope that the presence of a member of his own family would overcome the repugnance of the Nabob. Every form of ingenuity was exhausted to obtain the voluntary surrender of the districts, but the Nabob still persisted in asserting that it would inflict an indelible stain on his reputation throughout India to deprive one of its royal houses of such a dominion. The Resident at length brought the discussion to an issue by ordering the intendants of the districts which had been selected to hold themselves in readiness to transfer their collections and their allegiance to the Company.

Annexation of

The Vizier deemed it vain any longer to contend the Oude terri- with negotiators who could bring such arguments to bear on him, and on the 10th November, after

tories. 1801.

120

CESSION OF TERRITORY.

[CHAP. two years of weary discussion, simply, as he said, "to gratify the wishes of Lord Wellesley, and in submission to the earnest solicitations of his brother," signed the treaty which transferred to the Company for ever districts yielding a hundred and thirty-five lacs of rupees a-year, leaving him a territory, guaranteed against all invaders, valued at a little over a crore of rupees.

Remarks on this

1801.

The security which this transfer of military transaction, power in Oude gave to the possessions both of the Nabob and the Company will admit of no question. A British force, fully adequate to the defence of the frontier was substituted for the miserable legions of the Nabob, always an object of more dread to their masters than to their enemies. An important addition was made to the resources of the Company, and a large population was rescued from the oppression of native officers, whose only remuneration consisted of the sums they could extort from the people. But of all the transactions of Lord Wellesley's administration, this acquisition of territory from the Nabob by the process of coercion has been considered most open to censure, as an arbitrary, if not unjust proceeding. For any justification of it we must look to the peculiar position of the country and the political obligations which it created. The throne of the Nabob was upheld only by British bayonets, and if at any period during the previous fifteen years they had been withdrawn, the dynasty of Oude would have ceased to exist. The safety of Oude was menaced not only by Zemaun Shah, and the hordes of Central Asia ready to follow his stirrup, but also by Sindia, who had planted a formidable force of 30 or 40,000 disciplined troops, commanded by European officers on its frontier, and only waited for an opportunity to spring on its inviting districts. It was necessary, therefore, to maintain a powerful force, permanently, against the probabilities of a Mahratta invasion. For the Company to continue responsible for the defence of the whole kingdom of Oude, with only a third of its revenues, the realization of which was subject to all the corruption and abuses of the system of