aggregate amount of the above articles, or in any degree approximating to it, may be contested by various forcible arguments.

If the resources of the country dimi nish, or the necessary expenditures for contingent or permanent purposes in crease, it could neither be reasonable nor admissible, that the vizier should set apart, for his own private use, an undue portion of the revenues, whilst the state was exposed to serious pecuniary embarrassments and distress. In such cases, so far from looking to an augmented accumulation of wealth, it would be incumbent on him to draw upon his private treasury to answer public demands, and also to retrench every superfluous expense. This is not a case of supposition, but the actual and acknowledged state of affairs at this present period.

Debts to a considerable amount, contracted during the government of his predecessor, remain unpaid; the means of satisfying these just demands can only be derived from the surplus of the re

venues.

To assume, as a position, the certainty of a surplus of revenues, after the expences of collections, and every other public disbursement should be provided for, and to appropriate that surplus as a maintenance for the vizier, would, in the first instance, be indefinite, must become. variable, and might prove fallacious. Besides, if the income of his excellency depended on the surplus of the revenues, he might, notwithstanding any stipulations to the contrary, with some plausibility, claim a controul over the expenditures, and would, doubtlessly, cavil at the introduction of every new establishment attended with expense, and, at all the acts of the British government for the improvement of the country, and relief of the inhabitants, which might operate as a temporary diminution of the revenues, though they would ultimately

ensure their increase.

His narrow views might not discover their tendency, and, at all events, no future improvement would, in his mind, be a compensation for the loss of imme diate advantage.

Influenced by the same reasoning, it appeared to my judgment, after the fullest deliberation, most advisable not to offer any participation in the surplus of the revenues, but to assign a fixed and scrtain sum of money for the mainte

nance of the vizier and his family, inde pendent of, and entirely unconnected with, the fluctuations in the resources of the country.

Wishing to extract from the vizier some disclosure of his own expectations, the amount of the sum is left blank; and it shall be my endeavour to fix it on a standard which shall not bear too heavy on the revenues, and be regarded as a sufficient, and even liberal, provision for the vizier and his own immediate family.

In fixing the amount, it must be recollected that his excellency has, amongst a numerous family of children, six sons grown to the age of manhood, on some of whom a monthly allowance of from six to ten thousand rupees is now settled; and the expectations of the others, it may be concluded, are directed to similar establishments.

The extensive wealth which the vizier has accumulated under the protection of the British government, and of which he is left in the entire possession, may fairly be opposed to a demand for an exorbitant stipend; it may, however, on the other hand, be regarded rather as the disposable property of the person who makes the first sacrifice, than as a permanent provision for future suc

cessors.

I

In discussing this important point, cannot dismiss from my contemplation the growing expenses of every Moham medan family, and the heavy burthens which each generation leaves to the succeeding; and although no fixed sum, within any reasonable bounds, can be adequate to maintain, in perpetual afflu ence, a progeny increasing beyond all European calculation, yet I feel that it is consistent with the dignity of the British nation, and the justice and libe rality of Lord Wellesley's government, that the stipend should be regulated upon a scale, which, with proper management, shall promise to preserve the descendants of the vizier in a suitable state of respec tability.

of

Under all considerations of this extremely delicate question, I presume that a sum less than thirty lacks of ru pees annually cannot be offered to the acceptance of the vizier with any his concurrence. And with the view of affording him satisfaction as to the dura tion of the sum which may be fixed, as also to give him the credit of attend. ing to the interests of his posterity,

I have

I have judged it expedient to guarantee, by the treaty, the continuance of what ever sum may be established, without abatement or diminution, to his legal heirs and successors.

Even in the enjoyment of such an income the vizier would find it necessary to make considerable retrenchments in the state establishments, by which many old servants and dependants of the family would be dismissed from their employments; should his excellency urge this argument in support of a more extensive stipend, I shall have no difficulty in assuring him, that it is not only consonant to Lord Wellesley's principles of justice, but forms a part of my instructions from his lordship, to take into consideration the situation of persons of that description, and establish a maintenance for such as, from character and services, may have equitable claims to a provision for life; and though, by this means, the pension list may be considerably swelled, yet it will be more for the advantage of the company to take upon themselves an expense which will gradually diminish, than to include it in a stipend which must continue in perpetuity.

Article 7th. The stipends to the princes and begums of the family of his majesty, Shah Allum, with the exception of six thousand rupees per month to the prince at Lucknow, are included in the subsidy now paid by the vizier. Were the maintenance of the reputed children of Asop ul Dowlah (for whom a provision is stipulated in the existing treaty) left to the vizier, the slender sum now assigned for their support would gradually diminish, and be ultimately done away. Although the annual sum of one lack and a half is ostensibly fixed for the support of the vizier's brothers, yet it is with infinite difficulty that they obtain their respective portions; and I am convinced that no measure in the present arrangement could be viewed with greater satisfaction, or afford more popularity to Lord Wellesley's government, than that of taking those distressed personages under his immediate protection.

Article 8th. It seemed reasonable, and is consistent with the spirit of the instructions, in order to tranquillize the minds of persons of distinction, that the jagheers, granted by a competent authority, should remain in the posse sion and enjoyment of the persons to whom they were originally consigned, during their respective lives. This stipulation will,

VOL. 9.

besides, be gratifying to the vizier, who has recently bestowed a jagheer on his mother.

Article oth.- Under the circumstance of the vizier having laid by large sums of money out of the revenues, the payment of the debts of the former prince might, in rigorous justice, be chargeable to him; but as by an article in the former proposed treaty he was released therefrom, I thought it not advisable to omit a concession so congenial to his passion of avarice.

Article 10th.-The measure of common prudence, and copied from the treaty above alluded to.

Article 11th.-The former part of this article is a matter of course, and the latter evinces an attention to the safety of the vizier's person, which may be pleasing to his excellency.

Article 19th.-The limitation of the number of armed men is necessary, as well on the source of prudence as to indicate that the stipend to be assigned to his excellency could not be on a scale which should admit of considerable expenditures on account of useless troops.

Article 13th.-His excellency can have no use for the cannon and arms, and they might fall into the hands of improper people.

Article 14th.-Some exemptions from the jurisdiction of the courts to be established was essential to the situation of the vizier, in the territories of which he will sell hold the title of sovereign.→ H's palace, however, being in the open city, and his followers and dependents residents in that city, the exemption could not be extended to them with any hope of introducing and maintaining an efficient police, it is, therefore, limited to his relations; and some inconvenience will probably arise even from this con

cession.

up.

Article 15th.- Remains to be filled

Article 16th. This part of the ar rang ment was of considerable difficulty. After maturely weighing the different modes which occurred, the one adopted seemed the most free from objection.

If the company had taken the revenues of the current year from any particular date, it would have been fair that arrears of every description should have been cleared off to that date; but experience of the disposition of the vizier led ne to apprehend, that if the discbage of such arrears were left to his excellency, B

not only motives of avarice, but a desire to embarrass and to throw the country into confusion might have interposed to prevent a fair adjustment; immediate tumults would have broken out amongst the troops, and universal dissatisfaction have prevailed amongst all descriptions of persons to whom any thing was de; and, ultimately, the company's funds might, of necessity, have been applied to appease disorder, and to fulfil justice.

since the payment of all arrears is justly chargeable to him, and since the surplus of revenue, if there be any, is to be applied to his use and benefit. Whether on closing the accounts to the end of the year there be a surplus or not may be questionable; but the probability of there being one, after all acts of justice shall be fulfilled, is greater by the company's assuming the immediate management, than if it were continued to the vizier, because the reductions, in the military expenses at least, would be sooner commenced, and accelerated with greater vigour.

(Signed) WM SCOTT, Resident at Lucknow.

If the company had taken, with the revenues, the obligation of discharging the arrears, the burden would have been intolerably heavy, and the last observation in the preceding paragraph peculiarly applicable.

If the day of transfer were prolonged to the end of the year, and the vizier left in the full enjoyment and receipt of the revenues until that period, as it would be in vain to expect the arrangement should be kept secret, every description of aumil, renter, and zemindar, would have endeavoured to evade the payment of his dues to a government that was shortly to be dissolved; a circumstance which would not have simply affected the revenues of this year, but in its consequences and effects might have been felt in making new settlements. The company's troops could alone have been employed to enforce payments, and the aumils would have exerted all their endeavours to engage them in the most oppressive and odious acts; the discharge of arrears would have been left in the state above described, with an accumulation upon them, since his excellency would have been inclined to receive every thing, and to disburse as little as possible.

The mode proposed secures the company from loss; nor can it be deemed as imposing an hardship upon the vizier,

K. P. governor-general

Fort William. My Lord,-Para 1. Having, as I did myself the honour of informing your lordship in my address of the 18th February, presented to the vizier on the 16th of that month, your lordship's letter, together with the draft of a proposed treaty, I abstained from any further communication with his excellency on the subject until the 24th, on which day I waited upon him at the garden, where he was then residing.

2. Although the interval between the delivering of the papers and this visit, was ample for his excellency to have fully deliberated on the propositions submitted to him, and to have come to a decision on the fundamental principle of the proposed treaty, yet the object which I had in view from the visit was not so much an expectation of obtaining a final answer as a desire to enter more largely into the subject than I could do before his excellency had perused your lordship's letter, and the draft of the proposed treaty, and the further desire, if I discovered his excellency not disposed to accede to the treaty under such modifications as he might suggest, and could be admitted, of pressing upon his consideration the extent of country to be ceded to the company in perpetual sovereignty, for the purpose of securing the regular payment of the subsidy to the full amount of the augmented force.

3. His excellency having informed me that he had read your lordship's letter with the deliberation which the importance of the subjects treated of demanded, and was preparing an answer, I thought it expedient, after expatiating on the

innu

innumerable benefits which would result to the country from the adoption of the first plan proposed by your lordship, and on the security which the treaty was calculated so afford for the honour and affluence of himself and family, to call to his excellency's recollection that part of your lordship's letter which so strongly enforces the absolute and unavoidable necessity of a cession of a portion of his excellency's territories to the company, adequate to defray the full expences with which his excellency would be charged on the completion of the proposed augmentation of force.

4. I stated to his excellency that the amount of the sum to be thus provided for was upwards of a crore and twenty lacks of rupees annually, and that the territory to be ceded must consequently be equal in its produce to that sum, cxclusive of expences of collections.

5. His excellency promised to have a further conference with me on the subject in two days, and accordingly honoured me with a visit on the 26th of February.

6. His excellency's conversation of that day, though it did not amount to a positive rejection of the first proposition, discovered an unreserved repugnance to the acceptance of it; the arguments which he used being such as the present possession of power, and the pride of family would naturally suggest, I shall not intrude a detail of them upon your lordship; but I cannot omit a declaration given by his excellency to an observation from me, that, if he made some sacrifice to his feelings, it would be abundantly compensated by the satisfaction which he would derive from being a witness of the increasing prosperity of the country, and of the happiness which his subjects would enjoy under the management of the British government; his reply to this was unqualified and unequivocal, that, under the circumstances in which he should be placed, the contemplation of these things would not afford the smallest gratification to his mind.

7. His excellency observed, that he had recently perused a letter of advice, written by lord Cornwallis to his predecessor, which, though it contained strong recommendations for the introduction of various reforms in the different branches of government, left the execution of the proposed measures to the hands of the vizier and his ministers, and that at that same time the subsidy to the company, which did not amount to half of the pre

sent subsidy, was with difficulty paid, whilst the greatest regulairty had marked his own payments. To this I replied, that as none of those salutary reforms recommended by lord Cornwallis had been adopted either by his predecessor or himself, a conclusion was fairly to be drawn that either the advice was unavailing, or the power of executing, wanting. That his excellency had frequently confessed his own inability to introduce order into his government, and was so sensible of the difficulties with which he was encompassed, that he had deliberately and formally authorized and desired me to communicate to your lordship his determination to withdraw him. self from them. That though his observation in regard to the punctuality of his payments was perfectly true, yet an acknowledgment wh ch he had recently made of the probability of a failure in his resources, joined to the known decay of his revenues, imposed the obligation upon your lordship of endeavouring thoroughly to correct the evils and defects which pervaded every part of his administration and dominions; or if unfortunately his excellency should not concur in the plan proposed by your lordship for so complete and comprehensive a reform, of prevent ing the interests of the company from being involved in the general ruin, by securing funds for the regular payments of the subsidy.

8. His excellency observed, that when the failure actually took place it would be sufficiently early to demand security; the reply was obvious, that, if your lordship waited that fatal period, it would not be within the reach of human wisdom or power to retrieve the affairs of an exhausted and depopulated country.

9. His excellency then remarked on the proposed establishment of courts of justice, and pretended to suppose that he himself would be amenable to them, and compelled to make his appearance before them. I referred to the treaty, which exempted his excellency and his relations from the jurisdiction of these courts, bus added, that it would be wholly impracti cable to preserve peace and good order in the city of Lucknow without a firm police.

10. After a long conversation, his excellency desired that I would some other day give him an explanation of the prin ciples of the second proposition; the explanation I told him would be afforded in a few words, and had entered upon it, B2 when