in the British Museum, abound with evi- dence of judicious reformatory measures projected for Oude, hut neutralised or set aside by the home government. While Sadut Ah lived the treaty worked well, although the manner in which he availed himself of the stipulated services of British troops, repeatedly made the Calcutta government sensible of the responsibility they had as- sumed, and the difficulty of reconciling the fulfilment of their engagements to the ruler, with a due regard to the rights aud in- terests of his subjects. The nawab conducted his affairs with much discretion and economy; and, on his death in 1814, he left fourteen millions sterling in a treasury which vvas empty when he entered on the government. The partition of Oude Avas not, however, accomplished without bloodshed. The Hin- doo landowners in the ceded country — Avho Avere, for the most part, feudal chieftains of far older standing than any Mussulman in India — resisted the proposed change, and were with difficulty subdued.* The fact Avas significant ; and it Avould haATe been well had the subsequent annexators of Oude remembered, that the danger to be appre- hended lay Avith the feudal and semi-inde- pendent chiefs, rather than with their sen- sual and effete suzerain. Sadut Ali was succeeded byGhazi-oo-deen, Avho is described by one authority as “ indo- lent and debauched ;”+ and, by another, as bearing some resemblauce to our James I.J He lent the Company two millions of the treasure accumulated by his predecessor, to assist them in carrying on their wars Avith j * Indian Empire, vol. i., p. 386. -j- Sleeman’s Journey through Oude,y ol. ii.,p. 192. J Huber’s Journal. LORD AMHERST’S LETTERS TO THE KING OF OUDE— 1825-’6. 63 Burmah and Nepaul ; and they gave him, in return, a share of their conquests ; namely, the Turaee* — a fertile, richly- wooded, but unhealthy tract, which extends along the foot of the Himalayas ; and sanc- tioned his assumption of regal dignity. The acceptance of a loan, under the cir- cumstances, was unworthy of a great govern- ment ; and the confirmation of Ghazi-oo- deen’s sovereignty was of doubtful policy. Complaints of misgovernment were rife, and appear to have been supported by forcible evidence. Bishop Heber, who travelled through Oude in 1824-’5, gave a more favourable account than other witnesses of the condition of the country ; but his ob- servations were necessarily cursory. He reasoned with Ghazi-oo-deen on the duty of attending to the condition of the people; and “ the reply was, that he was power- less, having lent to the British government all the money which would have enabled him to ease his subjects of their burdens.” Had the money remained in the Oude trea- sury, it is highly improbable that it would have benefited the people, except, indeed, indirectly, through the reckless expenditure of an unscrupulous minister, and a most un- worthy set of favourites. Still, it is painful to learn that English governors should have exposed themselves to such a reproach, or should have acknowledged a loan from a dependent prince, in such a strain of ful- some and profane flattery as that in which Lord Amherst invokes the blessing of the Almighty on “ the Mine of Munificence;” and declares, that “ the benefits and fruits of our amity, which have existed from days of yore, are impressed upon the heart of every Englishman, both here and in Europe, as indelibly as if they had been engraven on adamant ; nor will lapse of time, or change of circumstance, efface from the British nation so irrefragable a proof, so irresistible an argument, of the fraternal sentiments of your majesty. ”f , Nevertheless, the internal management of the “ Mine of Munificence” was far from satisfactory, and the resident was officially reminded (July 22nd, 1825), that “by the treaty of 1801, the British government is clearly entitled, as well as morally obliged, to satisfy itself by whatever means it may * Indian Empire, vol. i., p. 413. f Letters of Lord Amherst to the King of Oude, October 14th. 1825; and June 23rd, 1826. Quoted in Dacoitee in Excels is ; or, the Spoliation of Oude: pp. 68 — 70. deem necessary ; that the aid of its troops is required in support of right and justice, and not to effectuate injustice and oppres- sion.” In conformity with these instruc- tions, the resident, and the officers com- manding troops employed in the king’s service, exercised a scrutiny which became extremely distasteful ; and the treaty was violated by the increase of the native force (which was available, unchallenged, for any purpose, and afforded emolument and pa- tronage to the native ministers and fa- vourites), until, within the last few years of the reign of Ghazi-oo-deen, it comprised about sixty thousand men. Nuseer-oo-deen, the son of Ghazi, suc- ceeded him on the musnud in 1827. This is the “Eastern king” whose private life has been gibbeted to deserved infamy, in a sort of biographical romancej written by a European adventurer, for some time mem- ber of the royal household (as librarian or portrait-painter.) Recollecting the scan- dalous scenes revealed by contemporary diaries and memoirs regarding our nomi- nally Christian kings — the Merry Monarch, and Nuseer’s contemporary, the Fourth George — we need not be too much sur- prised by the mad vagaries and drunken cruelties of the Moslem despot, who prided himself on his adoption of certain English habits andcustoms§ — such as wearing broad- cloth and a beaver hat under the burning sun of Oude; and usually terminated Ins daily drinking bouts with his boon com- panions, under the table, after the most ap- proved English fashion. The favourite, shortly before the death of Nuseer, was a barber from Calcutta, who had come out to India in the capacity of a cabin-boy, and from that became a river trader. Hair- dressing, however, continued to be a lucra- tive resource to him : the natural curls of the governor-general were widely imi- tated ; and when the barber went on his other affairs to Lucknow, he was employed in his old vocation by the resident. The king, delighted with the change produced in the appearance of this powerful English functionary, tried a similar experiment on j his own lank locks, and was so gratified by ; the result, that he appointed the lucky coiffeur to a permanent post in his house- J Private Life of an Eastern King ; by a member of the household of his late majesty, Nuseer-oo-deen, Kin" of Oude. London, 1855. § Nuseer substituted a chair of gold and ivory for the musnud, or cushion, of his ancestors. J I I 64 DEATH OF NUSEER-OO-DEEN, KING OF OUDE— 1837. hold, with the style of Sofraz Khan (the illustrious chief), and gave him a seat at his table. The barber had a fund of low humour : he amused the king by pander- ing to his vitiated taste ; and soon made himself indispensable. The existence of Nuseer-oo-deen was embittered by a well- grounded suspicion of treachery among his own family and household : the fear of poison was continually present with him; and he would touch no wine but that placed before him by his new favourite, who consequently added the office of wiue- merchant to his other lucrative monopolies. The European papers learned something of what was passing at the palace of Luck- now, despite the care which the European adventurers installed there, naturally took to keep things quiet. The Calcutta Review, and Agra Ukbar, published squibs and pasquinades upon the “low menial” who had ingratiated himself with the King of Oude ; but the object of their jeers set them at nought, and continued to ac- cumulate wealth, and to retain his influ- ence at court by ever-new inventions of buffoonery and indecency, until the Euro- pean members of the household threw up their appointments in uncontrollable dis- gust ; and such scenes of open debauchery disgraced the streets of Lucknow at mid- day, that the resident, Colonel Low, was compelled to interfere, and at length suc- ceeded in procuring the dismissal of the barber.* These and other statements of the anony- mous memoir-writer, are quite compatible, and, indeed, frequently correspond with the entries in the journal of Sir William Sleeman, of accounts furnished by natives of the character and habits of Nuseer-oo- deen. Both writers dwell much on the repeated declaration of the king that he should be poisoned; and Sir William states, that fur some time before his death, Nuseer wore con- | stantly round his neck a chain, to which was attached the key of a small covered well in the palace, whence he drew water. His death 1 was very sudden. It occurred shortly after a glass of sherbet had been administered I to him by one of the Avomen of his harem, ! in the night of the 7th of July, 1837. The question of succession was stormily contested. The king had had several wives, * The barber carried off £240,000. — Private Life of an Eastern King, p. 3-50. f Mrs. Park’s Wanderings, vol. i., p. 87. whose history forms a not very edifying ' episode in Sir William Sleeman’s journal. The most reputable one was a grand-daugh- ter of the King of Delhi — a very beautiful young woman, of exemplary character ; who, unable to endure the profligacy of the court, quitted it soon after her marriage, and re- tired into private life, on a small stipend granted by her profligate husband. Then there was Mokuddera Ouleea, originally a j Miss Walters, the illegitimate daughter of a 1 half-pay officer of one of the regiments of Bri- j tish dragoons, by a Mrs. Whearty, a woman of notoriously bad character, although the ; daughter of one English merchant, and the widow of another. She was married to the king in 1827, and was seen by Mrs. Park, in her visit to the zenana in 1828, sitting silently on the same couch with her successful rival, the beautiful Taj Mahal. f Mulika Zamanee (Queen of the Age) entered the palace of Lucknow while Nu- seer-oo-deen was only heir-apparent, in the capacity of wet-nurse to his infant son, Moonna Jan (by another wife called Afzul- Mahal) ; and so fascinated the father, that, to the astonishment of the whole court (in whose eyes the new-comer appeared very plain and very vulgar), he never rested until she became his acknowledged wife. Her former husband (a groom in the service of one of the king’s troopers, to whom she had previously been faithless) presumed to ap- j proach the palace, and was immediately i thrown into prison ; but was eventually re- ! leased, and died soon after the accession of Nuseer. Her two children, a boy and girl, were adopted by Nuseer; who, when he be- came king, declared the boy, Kywan Jah, to be his own son, and publicly treated him j as such. When Viscount Combermere visited Luck- now in 1827, in the course of his tour of inspection as commander-in-chief, Kywan Jah was sent, as heir-apparent, with a large retinue and a military escort, to meet his lordship and attend him from Cawnpoor. The king was, no doubt, desii’ous to pro- pitiate his guest. He came outside the city to Avelcome him, invited him to share the royal howdali on the state elephant, and escorted him to the palace in full proces- sion, flinging, meantime, handfuls of coin among the multitude who accompanied the cavalcade. The Orientals dearly love pageantry ; it would seem as if it reconciled them to des- CONTESTED SUCCESSION TO THRONE OF OUDE— 1837. 65 potism : and the present occasion must have been an interesting one ; for the externals of royalty sat gracefully on the handsome person of the sensual and extravagant Nuseer-oo-deen ; and the British general, besides being in the zenith of his fame as the conqueror of Bhurtpoor (which had successfully resisted the British troops under Lord Lake), had a manly bearing, and a rare gift of skilful horsemanship — befitting the soldier pronounced by the great Duke the best cavalry officer in the service — united to an easy, genial courtesy of man- ner, calculated to gain popularity every- where, but especially in India. Lord Combermere occupied the residency for a week, during which time, a succession of hunts, sports, and fetes took place, which formed an era in the annals of Lucknow. Nuseer-oo-deen was, in turn, sumptuously entertained by the commander-in-chief; to whom, on parting, he gave his own portrait, set in magnificent diamonds. The Com- pany appropriated the diamonds ; but the picture remains in the possession of Lord Combermere, and is an interesting relic of the fallen dynasty of Oude. Nuseer-oo-deen subsequently demanded from the resident the formal recognition of Kywau Jah, as his heir-apparent, by the Bri- tish government. The resident demurred, on the plea that the universal belief at Lucknow was, that Kywan Jah was three years of age when his mother was first introduced to his majesty. But this had no effect: Nuseer- oo-deen persisted in his demand ; and, to remove the anticipated obstacle, he repudi- ated Moonna Jan publicly and repeatedly.* The consequence of his duplicity was, that he was held to have left no legitimate son. According to Sir William Sleeman (who, j during his situation as resident, had abun- dant means of authentic information), the general impression at Lucknow and all over Oude was, that the British government would take upon itself the management of the country on the death of the king, who himself “ seemed rather pleased than other- wise” at the thought of being the last of his dynasty. He had repudiated his own son, and was unwilling that any other member of the family should fill his place. The ministers, and the other public officers and court favourites, who had made large fortunes, were favourable to the anticipated measure; as it was understood by some, that thereby they would be secured from * Sleeman’s Oude, vol. ii., p. 40. VOL. IT. K all scrutiny into their accounts, and en- abled to retain all their accumulations.f The reader — recollecting the custom in Mussulman kingdoms, of a complete change of officials at every accession, generally accompanied by the spoliation of the old ones — will understand this was likely to prove no inconsiderable advantage. Lord Auckland, the governor-general, had, how- ever, no desire for the absorption of Oude, but only that measures should be taken for its better government. He decided that the eldest uncle of the late king should ascend the musnud, and that a new treaty should be formed with him. On the death of Nuseer-oo-deen, a Bri- tish detachment was sent to escort the chosen successor from his private dwelling to the palace. He was an old man, had led a secluded life, and was weakened by recent illness. On arriving at his destination, he was left to repose for a few hours in a small secluded room, previous to the tedious formalities of enthronement. But the suc- cession was not destined to be carried with- out opposition. The Padshah Begum (the chief queen of Ghazi-oo-deen, and the adoptive mother of Nuseer, with whom she had been long at variance) asserted the claims of her grandson, the disowned child but rightful heir of the late ruler. She made her way to the palace in the middle of the night, on the plea of desiring to see the dead body of the king — forced the gates with her elephants, and carried in with her the youth Moonna Jan, whom she suc- ceeded in literally seating on the musnud ; while she herself took up her position in a covered palanquin at the foot of the throne. Amid the confusion, the sovereign selected by the Companyremained unnoticed, and ap- parently unknown. His sons, grandsons, and attendants were, however, discovered, and very roughly treated ; nor did the resident (Colonel Low) escape severe handling. On learning what had occurred, he proceeded to the palace with his assistants, and re- monstrated with the begum on the folly of her procedure ; but his arguments were stopped by the turbulence of her adherents, who seized him by the neckcloth, dragged him to the throne on which the boy sat, and commanded him to present a complimentary offering on pain of death. This he posi- tively refused; and the begum’s vakeel, Mirza Ali, seeing the dangerous excitement of her rabble followers, and dreading the f Sleeman’s Oude, vol. ii., p. 152. 66 PALACE OF LUCKNOW ENTERED BY FORCE— 1837. sure vengeance ot tlie Company if the lives ; of their servants were thus sacrificed, laid hold of the resident and his compa- nions, and shouted out, that by the com- mand of the begum they were to be con- ducted from her presence. The resident and his party, with difficulty and danger, made their way to the south garden, where Colonel Monteath had just brought in, and drawn up, five companies in line. The temper of the troops, generally, seemed doubtful. At this crisis Colonel Roberts, who commanded a brigade in the Oude ser- ' I vice, went in, and presented to Moonna Jan his offering of gold mohurs ; and then j ; absconded, being seen no more until the contest was decided. Captain Magness drew up his men and guns on the left of Colonel Monteatlfis, and was ordered to pre- pare for action. He told the resident that he did not feel quite sure of his men ; and a line of British sepoys was made to cover his j rear.* Meanwhile the begum began to think the game in her own hands. The palace and baraduree, or summer-house, were filled with a motley crowd ; nautch-girls danced and ; sang at one end of the long hall, in front of the throne; and the populace within and without enjoyed the tumult, and shouted acclamation : every man who had a sword | or spear, a musket or matchlock, flourished it in the air, amid a thousand torches. Everything portended a popular insurrec- tion. The begum saw this, and desired to gain time, in the hope that the British troops in the garden would be surrounded and overwhelmed by the armed masses which had begun to pour forth from the city. Had this catastrophe occurred, the British authorities would have borne the blame for the deficiency of the subsidized British troops, and for having indiscreetly omitted to watch the proceedings of the I Padshah Begum, whose character was well known. The fault, in the latter case, is attributed to the negligence of the native minister. : The resident was anxious to avoid a collision ; yet convinced of the necessity for prompt action : therefore, on receiving a message from the begum, desiring him to return to her presence, he refused, and bade her and the boy surrender themselves im- mediately; promising, in the event of com- pliance, and of the evacuation of the palace 1 and city by her followers, that the past * Sleeman’s Oude, vol. ii., p. 162. should be forgiven, and that the pension of 15,000 rupees a-mouth, accorded by the late king, should be secured to her for life. But in vain : the begum had no thought of surrendering herself; the tumult rapidly in- creased ; the rabble began to plunder the palace; several houses in the city had already been pillaged ; and the British officer in command urged the resident to action, lest his men should no longer have room to use their arms. The native commanders of the state troops manifestly leant towards the begum. One of them declared that “he was the servant of the throne; that the young king was actually seated on it; and that he would support him there whereupon he also presented his offering of gold mohurs. The armed crowds grew momentarily more menacing : a ringleader attempted to seize a British sepoy by the whiskers; and an affray was with difficulty prevented. The resident, taking out his watch, declared, that unless the begum consented to his offer within one quarter of an hour, the guns should open on the throne-room. She per- sisted in her purpose, encouraged by the increasing numbers of her followers. The stated time elapsed ; the threat of the resi- dent was fulfilled ; and, after a few rounds of grape, a party of the 35th regiment, under Major Marshall, stormed the halls. As soon as the guns opened, the begum was carried by her attendants into an ad- joining room ; and Moonna Jan concealed himself in a recess under the throne. They were, however, both captured, and carried off to the residency. None of the British troops were killed ; but one officer and two or three sepoys were wounded. Many of the insurgents perished ; from forty to fifty men being left killed and wounded, when their companions fled from the palace. The loss would probably have been much greater, had not the soldiers of the 35tli, on rushing through the narrow covered passage, and up the steep flight of steps by which they entered the tlirone-room, seen, on emerging from the dim light, a body of sepoys with fixed bayonets and muskets, drawn up (as they imagined) behind the throne. At these they fired ; a smash of glass followed, and proved their first volley to have been spent, on their own reflection, in an immense mirror. This happy mistake saved a needless waste of blood. No further resistance was attempted; order was gra- dually restored; and the sovereign selected ACCESSION OP MOHAMMED ALT SHAH. 67 by the Company was publicly crowned in the course of the morning. Strangely enough, the innocent and ill- used Delhi princess, after years of seclusion, was involved in the tumult, but escaped injury by the zeal and presence of mind of her female attendants. The begum, on her way from her own residence to the palace, had passed that of the princess, whom she summoned to accompany her. Perhaps awed by her imperious mother-in-law — per- haps desirous of looking once again on the face of the man whose conduct had doomed her to long years of widowhood, the princess obeyed, and appears to have been a silent witness of the whole affair. When the firing began, her two female bearers carried her in her litter to a small side- room. One attendant had her arm shattered by grapeshot; but the other tied some clothes together, and let her mistress and her wounded companion safely down, from a height of about twenty-four feet, into a courtyard, where some of the retiuue of the princess found and conveyed them all three safely home. The claim of Moonna Jan appears to have been a rightful one, despite the formal declaration of the late king, that he had ceased to cohabit with the boy’s mother for two years before his birth. The decision arrived at by the British government cannot, however, be regretted ; for Moonna Jan was said, even by the members of his own family who asserted his legitimacy, to be of ungovernable temper, and the worst possible dispositions.* Both he and the begumf were sent to the fort of Chunar, where they ended their days as state prisoners. The new king, Mohammed Ali Shah, succeeded to an empty treasury and a dis- organised government : he had the infir- mities of age to contend with ; neverthe- less, he displayed an amount of energy and shrewdness very rare in his family. A new treaty with Oude was alleged to be necessary, because no penalty had been attached, in that of 1801, to the infraction of the stipulation for reforms to be made in the government. Another article had * Sleeman’s Oude, vol. ii., p. 170. t The previous history of the begum appears to have been very remarkable. Ghazi-oo-deen had conceived a strong dislike to his son Nuseer, and considered him utterly unfit to mount the throne. The begum stanchly and successfully asserted his rights, as her husband’s lawful heir. When lie, in turn, conceived a violent aversion to his own child Moonna Jan, she took her grandson under her pro- been violated by the iucrease of the native army greatly beyond the stated limit. Of this latter infraction the British govern- ment were well disposed to take advantage, having, in fact, themselves violated the spirit, if not the letter, of the treaty, by keeping Oude very ill supplied with troops. Thus, at the time of the death of Nuseer-oo-deen (previous to the arrival of the five com- panies under Colonel Monteath), the whole of the British force in charge 'of Lucknow 1 and its million inhabitants, consisted of j two companies and a-half of sepoys under ; native officers. One of the companies was i stationed at the treasury of the resident; I another constituted his honorary guard ; i and the remaining half company were in j charge of the gaol. All the sepoys stood nobly to their posts during the long and trying scene ; but no attempt was made to concentrate them for the purpose of arrest- ing the tumultuous advance of the begum’s forces : collectively, they would have been too few for the purpose ; and it was, more- ! over, deemed unsafe to remove them from , their respective posts at such a time.J Something more than tacit consent had probably been given to the increase of the native force of Oude; which, in 1837, num- bered about 68,000 men. By the new treaty, Mohammed Ali was authorised to increase his military establishment indefi- nitely ; but bound to organise, as a part of it, an auxiliary British force, and to provide a yearly sum of sixteen lacs (£160,000) for the maintenance of the same. f Sleeman’s Oude, vol. ii., p. 168. 68 LORD AUCKLAND’S TREATY WITH OUDE— 1837. territory — either to a small or to a great extent — in which such misrule as that above alluded to may have occurred, for so long a period as it may deem necessary ; the sur- plus receipts in such case, after defraying all charges, to be paid into the king’s trea- sury, and a true and faithful account ren- dered to his majesty of the receipts and expenditure of the territory so assumed.” In the event of the above measure becoming necessary, a pledge was given for the main- tenance, as far as possible, of the native institutions and forms of administration Avithiu the assumed territories, so as to faci- litate the restoration of those territories to the sovereign of Oude when the proper period for such restoration should arrive.* The above treaty was executed at Luck- now on the lltli of September, 1837, and was ratified on the 18th of the same month by the governor-general. It is necessary that the manner in which the compliance of Mohammed Shah was ensured, should be clearly understood. The death of Nuseer occurred at midnight, and the resi- dent, as has been stated, instantly sent off one of his assistants to the house of Mo- hammed Shah, Avith orders to conduct him to the palace, after having secured his sig- nature to a paper promising consent “ to any new treaty that the governor-general might dictate.” This was obtained. Lord Auckland Avas rather shocked by such undisguised dictation; aud declared, “ he should have been better pleased if the resident had not, in this moment of exi- gency, accepted the unconditional engage- ment of submissiveness which the new king had signed. This document may be liable to misconstruction; and it Avas not war- ranted by anything contained in the in- structions issued to Colonel LoAv.”f If Lord Auckland was startled by the means taken to ensure the consent of the king to any terms Avhich might be required from him, the resident was not less painfully surprised by the draft treaty framed by the governor-general in council. Colonel Loav Avrote, that the concessions so unexpectedly demanded, Avere “ of a nature that Avould be very grating to any native sovereign of re- spectable character;” especially to the pre- sent king, “ Avho, to the best of my belief at least, knoAvs by experience hoAV to manage a country properly, and really Avishes to govern * Treaty between E. I. Company and King of Oude : printed in Pari. Papers relating to Oude (Commons), 20th July, 1857 ; pp. 31 — 33. with moderation and justice.” The resident especially deprecated the requisition for the payment of a very large annual sum for the maintenance of an army, which Avas not to be under the command of the king, or even at his oavu disposal — “ a heavy payment, in fact, Avhich he must clearly perceive is more for our own purposes and interests than for his, or for the direct advantage of his sub- jects.” Colonel Low requested a recon- sideration of the unfavourable opinion Avhich had been expressed regarding the prelimi- nary pledge he had exacted from Moham- med Ali, declaring, that so far from its being superfluous, it was indispensable ; otherAvise, the“desired objectsofthe Indian government could never have been gained without some forcible and most unpleasant exercise of our power.” In a significant postscript, he asked Avhetker, in the event of the present king’s death before the ratification of the treaty, he ought to take any, and, if so, what, agreement from the next heir? adding, that the residency surgeon lately in atten- dance on Mohammed Shah, Avas decidedly of opinion, that “any unusual excitement, or A’exation of mind, Avould be likely to bring on apoplexy.”! All this the resi- dent stated in a public letter; but he Avrote another in the secret department, in which he earnestly advised a revision of the treaty; urging, that the formation of the proposed auxiliary force would create great discontent in Oude, and inflict a bur- den Avhich Avould necessarily be felt by all classes ; and that it Avould be considered “ as distinctly breaking our national faith aud recorded stipulations in the former treaty.” § Lord Auckland persisted in his policy : the resident was told that he had “ misap- prehended” the spirit of the treaty, which the king Avas compelled to sign, literally at the hazard of his life; for, on being made acquainted Avith its terms, “ the idea of such new rights being ordered in his time, so hurt the old man’s feelings, that it had an imme- diate effect on his disease;” producing an attack of spasms, from which he did not entirely recover for tAventy-four hours. || The authorities in England, to their honour be it spoken, refused to sanction such a shameless breach of faith as this repudiation of the terms on which half Oude had been annexed in 1801. f Pari. Papers, p. 13. § Ibid., p. 17. || Letter of Resident, July 30, 1837 -Pari. Tapers. HOME AUTHORITIES DISALLOW THE TREATY. 69 creed the abrogation of the recent treaty, The directors left the governor-general and desired that the king should be exone- in council to choose the manner in which rated from the obligations to which his as- to convey to the King of Oude the welcome i sent had been so reluctantly given. No- tidings of the annulment of a compact thing could be more thoroughly straightfor- which, they truly observed, he regarded as ward than the view taken by the directors. inflicting not only a pecuniary penalty upon They declared, that it would have been better his subjects, but a disgrace upon his crown to have given the king a fair trial, without and personal dignity. They advised, how- any new treaty ; and condemned the pre- ever, that it should rather proceed as an act liminary engagement as having been “ ex- of grace from his lordship in council, “than torted from a prince from whom we had no as the consequence of the receipt of a public light to demand any condition on coming to and unconditional instruction from Eng- his lawful throne.” The proposed auxiliary land.” force was pronounced inadmissible, on the Lord Auckland thereupon declared, that ground that the payment “ would constitute the directors, like the resident, had much a demand upon the resources of Oude that misunderstood his measure ;f and his council we are not entitled to make; for we are agreed with him in the hope that, by a re- already bound, by the treaty of 1801, to laxation of the terms of the treaty, the au- defend at our own expense, that country thorities in England might be reconciled to a against internal and external enemies; and measure which could not be cancelled with- a large cession of territory was made to us out the most serious inconvenience, and even for that express purpose.” danger and when they found that the The sentiments expressed on this occa- Company were pledged to the British par- sion are directly opposed to those which liament for the annulment of the treaty, animated the annexation policy, subse- they persisted in urging the inexpediency of quently adopted. The directors conclude making any communication to the King of their despatch with the following explicit Oude on the subject. sent obtain in our service ; and, until such On the 11 th of July, 1839, they simply means could be provided in our own pro- reverted to their previous instructions, and vinces, the downfall of any of the native required their complete fulfilment^ Yet, states under our protection might, by depriv- on the 8th of the same month, the governor- ing numerous influential natives of their ac- general acquainted the King of Oude that, customed employment, be attended with after some months’ correspondence with the consequences most injurious to our interests. Court of Directors upon the subject of the Our policy should be to preserve, as long as treaty, he was empowered to relieve his may be practicable, the existing native majesty from the payment of the annual dynasties ; and should the fall of them, or sixteen lacs. His lordship expressed his of any one of them, from circumstances be- cordial sympathy with the liberal feelings youd our control, become inevitable, then which dictated this renunciation of a sum, to introduce such a system of government the raising of which he had “ sometimes as may interfere in the least possible way feared” might lead to “ heavier exactions on with the institutions of the people, and with the people of Oude than they were well able, the employment of natives of rank under in the present state of the country, to bear.” proper superintendence, in the administra- Then followed au exordium on the light- tion of the country.”* eniug of taxation, and the extension of * Despatch, 10th April, 1838, from Secret Com- “Umritsir, 13th December, 1838.” — Pari. Papers, mittee ; p. 38. Signed, by J. R. Carnac and J. L. pp. 43 — 52. Lushington. 1 Minutes by Messrs. Morison and Bird, 28t’n Jan- t Minute by Governor-general Auckland, dated uary, 1839 ; pp. 52 ; 57. § Pari. Papers, pp. 57 — GO. 70 ACCESSION OF WAJID ALT, KING OF OUDE— 1847. useful public works, which might be effected with the aforesaid sixteen lacs ; and a complacent reference to the fresh proof thus afforded, “ of the friendship with which your majesty is regarded by me and by the British nation/’ Not one word, not the most distant hint of the abrogation of the treaty ; nay, more — the newly-appointed re- sident, Colonel Caulfield, was specially de- sired “to abstain from encouraging discus- sion as to the treaty of 1837,” except as regarded the reasons above quoted from the letter of the governor-general, for releasing the king from the pecuniary obligation of maintaining an auxiliary force.* The above statements are taken from the returns laid before parliament on the mo- tion of Sir Fitzroy Kelly; but it is confi- dently alleged that the papers therein published are, as in the case of the Nizam, fragmentary and garbled ; especially that the important letter written by Lord Auckland to the King of Oude is not a correct trans- lation of the original, but a version adapted to meet the ideas of the British public. f No such aggravation is needed to en- hance the effect of the duplicity exhibited by the Indian government, in their sifted and carefully prepared records laid before parliament, of the mode in which the king was led to believe that the treaty which the Court of Directors had disavowed, because it was essentially unjust and had been obtained by unfair means, was really in force, the pressure being temporarily mitigated by the generous intervention and paternal solicitude of the governor-general. This is a painful specimen of Anglo- Indian diplomacy. Still more painful is it to find such a man as Lord Dalhousie characterising the deliberate concealment practised by his predecessor, as “ an inad- vertence.” The treaty was never disallowed in India — never even suppressed. The dis- cussion regarding its public disallowance * Deputy Secretary of Government to the Resi- dent, 8th July, 1839. — Pari. Papers, p. 61. f The letter published in the Pari. Papers, and the Persian and English versions sent to the king : all three differed on important points. In Dacoitee in Excelsis (written, according to the editor of Slee- man’s Oude, by Major Bird), a literal translation of the Persian letter actually sent to the King of Oude is given, which differs widely and essentially from that above quoted from the Pari. Papers. In the latter there is no sentence which could fairly be rendered thus: — “From the period you as- cended the throne, your majesty has, in compari- i son with times past, greatly improved the kingdom; | and 1 have, in consequence, been authorised by the seems to have fallen to the ground; the directors, engrossed by the cares and excite- ments of that monstrous compound of in- justice, folly, and disaster — the Afghan war — probably taking it for granted that their reiterated injunctions regarding Oude had been obeyed by Lord Auckland and his council. Mohammed Ali Shah died in 1842, in the full belief that the treaty which so galled and grieved him was in operative existence. His son and successor, Amjud Ali, had no reason for doubt on the subject : the British functionaries around him spoke and wrote of it as an accepted fact ; and, in 1845, it was included in a volume of treaties, pub- lished in India by the authority of govern- ment. No important change, for good or for evil, appears to have taken place during the five years’ sway of Amjud Ali, who died in February, 1847, and was succeeded by Wajid Ali, the last of his dynasty. The new king was not deficient in natural ability. He had considerable poetical and musical gifts; but these, precociously developed under the enervating influences of the zenana, had been fostered to the exclusion of the sterner qualities indispensable to the wielder of a despotic sceptre. Notwithstanding the acknowledged and often sharply-exercised supremacy of the British government, the dynasty of Oude still preserved, by virtue of Lord Welles- ley’s treaty of 1801 (that is to say, by the portions of it not cancelled by that of 1837), a degree of independence, aud of exemption from internal interference; which, rightly used by an upright, humane, and judicious sovereign, might yet have raised fertile, beau- tiful Oude to a state of prosperity which, by affording incontestable proofs of its effi- cient government, should leave no plea for its annexation. Public works, efficient courts of justice, reduced rates of assessment — these things can never be wholly misrepresented Court of Directors to inform you, that, if I think it advisable, for the present, I may relieve your ma- jesty from part of the clause of the treaty alluded to, by which clause expense is laid upon your majesty.” The writer of Dacoitee in Excelsis, says that the italicised words bear a different sense in the autograph English letter, in which they run thus : — I am directed to relieve you. The king pointed out the non-agreement of the two documents, and the governor-general forthwith issued an order, direct- ing that the old custom of sending the original Eng- lish letter as well as the Persian version, should be discontinued. — (p. 92.) See also Oude, its Princes and its Government Vindicated : by Moulvee Mus- seehood-deen Khan Bukadoor; p. 75. COLONEL SLEEMAN’S TOUR THROUGH OUDE— 1850. 71 or overlooked ; but such reforms were little likely to be effected while Wajid Ali sat at the helm. 