creased from 17 in eight months,* and it might be doubted whether any part of it was due, for it appeared from the accounts before March 15. the house, that, in former years the expenditure of Oude was less than the payments; in three preceding years the expences had been 60, 90, and 80 lacks, while the payments were 67, 98, and 92. Thus pressed, the Nabob of fered a cession of territory to the amount of one crore 20 lacks, for the payment of the additional troops. The resident at Lucknow wished to conclude a treaty upon these terms, but even this was not thought sufficient by Lord Wellesley. The Nabob now wished, in despair, to resign his dominions to his son; and addressed, in the most respectful manner, a petition of right upon this subject to the Governor-General, and this also was rejected in a most harsh and cruel manner. Even yet his Lordship might not perhaps have been able to succeed in his project, had he not appointed his brother, Mr Henry Wellesley, to be Resident; which appointment was illegal, being made without the advice or consent of the council. There was something mysterious in the correspondence carried on between the two brothers; the letters were marked private, and there were inclosures which were never seen. At length the unhappy Nabob was compelled to yield a portion of territory, of the alleged annual income of one crore and 35 lacks of rupees, (1,620,0007.) in perpetual sovereignty, and to deprive himself of all efficient government over the remainder. Was there any wonder in seeing the Nabob in tears,

as the declaration of the East India Directors ex- March 15. pressed? Was there any surprise in finding that he had laid down the turban of a Mahomedan prince, and retired from the palace of his fathers to the hovel of a peasant, weighed down, as he was, by oppression and injustice? The detail of these charges was not made known to the council of Calcutta till sixty days after they took place---the treaty was not communicated to them till six months afterwards; ‡ and it was sent home to the Directors, without any ex- March 9. planation of the manner in which it had been obtained, or of the circumstances which preceded it. They, consequently, at that time approved a treaty so advantageous to themselves; but when they knew how it had been obtained, they stood forward manfully and honourably to express their reprobation and abhorrence of it. They printed a dispatch, in which, while they acknowledged their high consideration for the talents of Marquis Wellesley, they condemned the general tenor of his administration, as Feb. 22. contrary to the existing laws, an open defiance of the authority of the Directors, and an attempt, on his part, to convert the government of India into a simple despotism.

This dispatch had been signed by twenty-three Directors out of twentyfour, a majority almost unparalleled. SirJohn Anstruther, however, replied summarily to the decided condemnation which it conveys, by saying, that it ought to have no more weight with the house than the opinion of four

+ Mr Grant.

Mr Creevey.

and twenty printers. Lord Folkeston concluded his charges by moving twelve resolutions; the result of which was thus summed up in the concluding one:-That Marquis Wellesley, actuated by unjustifiable ambition and love of power, had formed schemes of aggrandizement and acquisition of territory, in direct opposition to the established policy of the East India Company;-that he pursued this object by means offensive, and with a spirit irritating to the Nabob, with a total disregard of the recorded opinions of this house, and the provisions of two several acts of parliament; and that he finally succeeded in wresting from this unfortunate prince, against his will, a large portion of his territory, and in depriving him of all effective government over the remainder; in direct violation of every principle of good faith, equity, and justice, and in open breach of the sacred obligation of a solemn treaty; and that he has thereby affixed a lasting stigma and reproach on the British name and character, and contributed to destroy all confidence in the moderation, justice, and good faith of the British government in India.

The partizans of Marquis Wellesley, in reply to these accusations, entered into a wide retrospect of our affairs in Hindostan, and dwelt upon the brilliant successes of the Marquis; topics, both irrelevant to the specific case in question. They asserted, that the general instructions of the Directors, to exchange subsidy for territory, authorized the line of policy which he had pursued; that the cession which he had obtained was essential to the security of Bengal, and to the tranquillity of Oude; and that all such cessions were, in the

highest degree, beneficial to the inhabitants of the ceded districts. Against this last assertion some weighty exceptions were alledged. The monopoly of salt, it was stated, had been extended from Bengal into Oude, but was found so destructive and ruinous, that it was obliged almost immediately to be abandoned. The use of spirituous liquors, so strictly forbidden by the Mahomedan law, had also been introduced and legalized there, was this for the benefit of the inhabitants? But the most striking and melancholy statement was made upon the authority of Mr Strachey, Judge at Madnapore. From him it appeared, that, up to the year 1806, the detestable police of these provinces, (as Marquis Wellesley's advocates truly styled it,) remained in the same state, not one step having been taken to improve it by the British government. In his province, he stated, continual disturbances arose in consequence of the substitution of our military for the forces of the country, in collecting the revenue; these became so alarming, that he found it necessary to dismiss the military, and restore the police to the Zemindar, by which the people were satisfied.* March 15. A similar account was given by Mr Riley, Judge at Etawa:

A general and perpetual disaffection, he said, existed during the whole time he resided in the province,

there was nothing but insurrection-the Zemindars and nobles were in a constant state of revolt; and when a French officer entered the province with a handful of troops, they actually joined him. It is impossible, said Sir Thomas Turton, to believe that the hearts of the people can be with you; torn by your

power from their natural sovereign, to whom, in eastern countries, attachment is part of their nature; subjected to the exactions, insults, and punishments of men whose justice they have heard of, but never experienced; whose religion they abhor, and whose laws are dissonant from their habits and customs; dragooned, as it were, into submission, by a scattered, and consequently a licentious military-what spark of affection can be excited in their breasts towards you? What feeling can animate them, but stifled, yet unsubdued revenge?---a deep-rooted resentment, which, under your present system, no time will allay, and which wants only a fit opportunity to overwhelm you in its effects.

The advocates of Marquis Wellesley were more successful in showing that both Marquis Cornwallis and Lord Teignmouth had interfered with the government of Oude, and considered it as dependent upon the Company; this, however, did not lessen the force of the accusation. No such interference as the present had ever entered into the plans of those Governors. The resolutions were negatived by a majority of 182 to 31; and Sir John Anstruther then moved that Marquis Wellesley, in carrying into execution the late arrangements in Oude, was actuated by an ardent zeal for the public service, and by the desire of providing more effectually for the prosperity, the defence, and the safety of the British territories in India. This motion was car ried; no person remarked that it was so worded as to be nugatory, for it referred wholly to the motives of the Marquis's conduct. No attempt indeed had been made to deny that he had violated both the letter and the spirit of the treaty, and extorted the

cession by threats and violence; it was only contended that what he had done was consistent with the system and convenient for the interest of the Company. The facts were admitted, justified, and approved.

However complicated the general subject of our East Indian affairs may be, the charges which were brought against Marquis Wellesley were sufficiently simple and intntellible. That respecting Oude had been thus disposed of. The Carnatic question, of which May 17. Sir Thomas Turton was the mover, was equally plain. In July, 1801, he stated, Colonel Macneil advanced to the palace of Chapauk with troops, under pretence of preventing commotion at the death of Omdut ul Omrah. At their entrance, the old monarch, who was then labouring under the disease which, in eight days afterwards, destroyed him, sprung from his bed, and entreated Major Grant not to expose him to the contempt of his subjects, by penetrating into the interior of his palace; and Major Grant applied for instructions to Colonel Macneil, who, from motives of humanity, did not enter. The troops, however, surrounded his palace till he died, to all appearance in perfect amity with the Company. On the day of his death, the Prince, his heir, was called from his apartment to answer to certain interrogations on a charge of treachery against his father. He was told that his father and grand-father had carried on a treacherous correspondence with Hyder Ali and Tippoo; and that, in consequence, he must be set aside from the succession, unless he would give up the civil and military administration of his possessions, and accept of an indefinite sum to keep up his dignity, and a bodyguard

furnished by the company. During one of the conferences which were held upon this demand, troopers with drawn swords paraded before the tent for the purpose of intimidating him. The Prince, still appealing to the faith and protection of the Company, refused his consent to such a proposal, and was told that his situation, for the future, would be that of a private person, considered hostile to the British interests. The rightful heir being thus set aside, the two next in succession were past over, and Azum ul Dowlah chosen; who, as usual in that country, had been kept in confinement, and when taken out on this occasion was greatly terrified, supposing they were about to put him to death. There was no difficulty in making him admit that the whole right was in the Company, his ancestors having forfeited it by their treacherous correspondence with the sultans of Mysore. This puppet was accordingly installed, on which occasion only a single noble attended. A treaty was executed, in which it was stated, that the hereditary right of Azum ul Dowlah, to the throne of his ancestors, had been acknowledged by the Company. When this was communicated to Lord Wellesley, he objected to the expression of right, and directed Lord Clive to get the words altered if he conveniently could, and to have it stated, that Azum ul Dowlah has been established in the possessions of his ancestors, by the liberality and moderation of the Company's government; which liberality extended to the provision of a guard of their own for him, and a promise of a sum to support his dignity. What was remarkable in this treaty was, that, in one part of it, it gave these possessions, and in

another took them away. But the most nefarious part of this transaction was the subsequent conduct towards the rightful prince, who, from the time of his deposition, was confined with his mother in the palace of Chapauk, that being his private property, in which palace Azum ul Dowlah himself resided. The unhappy Prince presented several ineffectual petitions to be removed. Finding these were in vain, he addressed a letter to two Englishmen, to whom it appears that his father had formerly recommended him, requesting them to lay his wrongs before the very best of Kings, and then to appeal to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, "who," he said, "had always evinced a very particular and friendly regard for the interests of his family,-to the President of the Board of Controul, and the Court of Directors; and here he expressed himself aware that they would have to combat with a legion of bad passions, and a host of hostile interests; lastly, to the House of Commons. I have endeavoured, says he, in this mournful statement, under the mortifying events which have happened, and the variety of sensations which have possessed me, to acquaint you of the unhappy situation in which I find myself exposed, and I am afraid that I have ill succeeded. I need not endeavour to impress you with the horrors of the situation to which I feel myself reduced; you have but to picture to yourselves the height of human grandeur, and the sad and miserable reverse of it; the highest and lowest condition of which humanity is capable. But even the meanest subject of the very worst government possesses a blessing which my fortune and fate forbid. He owns the gratifying sensation of knowing