101 
H I N D O 
petty zemindar through whofe diftrift it was con¬ 
veyed ; and travellers, armed for felf-prefervation, were 
obliged to journey in bodies through the country, to 
prevent the danger of being murdered. The troops in 
the 1'ervice of the vizier, whofe duty it was to enforce 
the collections, and preferve the police of the country, 
were become fo licentious and difaffefted, that the mar¬ 
quis of Wellefley was earneftly folicited to fend a detach¬ 
ment of Englifh troops to Lucknow, for the perlonal pro¬ 
tection of the prince again it his own guards in his cum capi¬ 
tal. This dillrafted fi'cuation of the fine and fertile pro¬ 
vince of Dude, prefen ted a molt favourable and encou¬ 
raging profpeft to Scindia and the French, to take im¬ 
mediate pofleffion of it, the firft moment that even afhadow 
of pretence could be let up for commencing hoftilities. 
The interefts of Great Britain, and of Oude, it will be 
ever painful to refledt, firft became blended by that mod 
fhameful aft of aggrefficn on the part of Sujah ul Dow- 
lah, father of Aloph ul Dowlab, the prefent vizier, in 
their having combined to leize the fair polfefiions of Hafiz 
Rhamut, in RohilcUnd, without the fmalleft pretence of 
right, or even of offence on the part of the beneficent Ha¬ 
fiz ; but who, on the contrary, when Sujah ul Dowdah had 
been driyen to the laft extremjty by the Englifh, in their 
war againft Meer Coffim, as circumftnntially related' 
above, adminiftered to all his wants, and afforded every 
comfort to the women of his houfehold, and fafety to' 
their attendants, till the perils and dangers which fur- 
rounded him fhottld be blown over. Then this confe¬ 
derated pov/er cut his throat, and divided the fpoil! Af¬ 
ter this wanton and wicked violation of all- that can be 
called facred or upright in fociety, the well-founded re¬ 
fer, tment of the neighbouring rajahs was excited againft 
Sujah ul Dowlah, and he was obliged to enter into a fub- 
fidiary treaty with the Englifh for the protection of his 
own territory, whereby Oude became the barrier to the 
Britifh fettlements "of Berar and Bengal. 
It would be tedious to recite the different treaties- that 
■were made by lord Clive, Mr. Mailings, lord Cornwallis, 
and fir John Shore, with Sujah ul Dowlah, and afterwards 
with his fon, Afbph ul Dowlah, the prefent vizier of 
Oude; Tuffice it to obferve, that they were all fubfidiary 
treaties, calculated to meet the exigencies and preffure of 
the times. Lord Cornwallis determined the fubfidy to be 
paid by the nabob at a ftipulated annual fum, on terms 
more advantageous than had before exifted. Sir John 
Shore (now lord Teignmouth) augmented the fubfidy 
from fifty-five lacks, fifty-thoufand rupees, to feventy-fix 
lacks of rupees, under an exprefs agreement that the com¬ 
pany fhonld maintain a body of not lefs than ten thou- 
fand-troops in Oude; and, if ever it fhould be neceffary 
to augment the troops above the number of thirteen thou- 
iand, the nabob was to be charged with the aftual coft of 
the excels above that number. This treaty was framed 
.by lord Teignmouth, with a wife forefight of the dangers 
likely to arile in Oude from the want of an efficient go¬ 
vernment, and the increafed means of lioftility which the 
French were every day preparing, _He felt the expedi¬ 
ency of providing againft a failure of the refources in 
.Oude, which, from the condition of the country, was but 
too probable, by obtaining from the nabob a ceffion, in 
perpetuity, to the Eaft-India company, of the fort of Alla¬ 
habad, with the groupd adjacent, fituated on the point of 
land where the rivers Jumna and Ganges unite their 
ftreams, and command the navigation .of both rivers. To 
thele grants were alfo added the c&lieftion of the reve¬ 
nues, derived from the numerous Hindoo pilgrims, who 
annually refort to Allahabad, to perform their ablutions 
at the conflux of the facred lireams. 
What had been fo long forefeen, now actually happened. 
The refources of the nabob’s country continued to de¬ 
cline, the p'eople acknowledged no law but that of vio¬ 
lence, whiph they lubmitted to, or inflicted, as their re¬ 
lative ftrength enabled them. Such an order of things 
could not laft; the Britifh government, as.much inter- 
Vol. X. No. 644. 
O S T A Nc 
efted in the welfare of Oude as the nabob himfelf, and 
folemnly pledged by their treaty to maintain its tranquil¬ 
lity, as well as to defend it from all enemies, could.not 
permit a country to lapfe into ruin, which would, in its 
fail, endanger all the Britifh interefts in India. It became 
therefore the duty of the governor-general to put the 
country in the beft poflible flats to refift aggreffion. With 
this view, a propofal was made to the nabob, Aioph ul 
Dowlah, by the Britifh government, to commute the an¬ 
nual fubfidy, which he was bound by treaty to pay to the 
company, 'for a territorial ccjjiov, adequate to the amount 
of that fubfidy; in which of courfe was to be included, 
the additional charges of defence that had unavoidably 
arifen iince the treaty of 1798, and which, at the time 
that treaty was concluded, had not efcaped the prudent 
forefight of lord Teignmouth, who wifely provided for 
fuch augmentation. This propofal, not lefs advantage¬ 
ous to the nabob than to the Englifh government, after 
a deal of difeuffion, was at length accepted ; and it led 
to the celebrated treaty of Lucknow, concluded about 
the clofe of the year 1S01, which ceded, in perpetuity, to 
the India company, lands eflimated to produce the fum. 
neceffary to defray the military charges of defence. The 
territory, thus transferred to the India company, was 
“rated at a valuation made by native officers of revenue in 
the fervice of the nabob ; and by this transfer, Afoph ui 
Dowlah was exonerated from the payment of any future 
fubfidy, and from /ail demands whatever on account of 
the defence of his. country; which, thenceforward, the 
Englifh government took upon itfelf, together with ail 
the expynces, as well contingent as permanent. 
The diftrifts allotted to the Engliih by this treaty, were 
thofe which lay moil diftant from the nabob’s capital; 
namely, the country of Rohilcund, and the Douab ; or 
traft comprehended between the rivers Jumna and Ganges ; 
thus conftituting the Britifh province a barrier between 
the nabob’s referved territories and the French and Mah- 
rattas. And thus Rohilcund, and the diUriels.fo fhame- 
fully plundered by the vizier’s father from the unfortu¬ 
nate Hafiz' Rhamut, continued no longer in his family, 
but bfcarrte the hereditary property of the'Englifh. 
But, if ever there was a crifis in India which warrant¬ 
ed fuch a meafure, on the ground of political neceffity, 
that crifis had arrived, and rendered the aflumption ot 
the Douab, by the Britifh government,, iridifpenfibly ne- 
ceffary; not merely for the profperity, but for the aftual 
falvation, of the country, and of the Britifh interefts as 
infeparably connected with that country. For fcarcely 
had the definitive treaty of the peace of Amiens been ra¬ 
tified in Europe, and Pondicherry reflored to the French, 
than the chief conful difpatched a fleet with troops to In¬ 
dia ; a number of young adventurers, of refpeftable pa¬ 
rentage, who had received a perfect military-education in 
the f'chools of France, accompanied this expedition, not 
only to act as volunteers in re-garrifbning Pondicherry, 
but with the defign of penetrating further into Hindooftan, 
and incorporating- themfelves among the principal native 
chiefs, for the purpofe of ftin ing them up'againft the Eng¬ 
lifh. Their progrefs, however, was timely afrefted by an. 
order of the marquis of Wellefley, who bprefted, ‘-'that 
every avenue into the interior of India fhould be ftrictly 
guarded, and not a Frenchman permitted to pafs the 
boundary of the fettlements which had been reftored to 
that nation.” 
The deep and artful fchemes which had thus been 
planned by Bonaparte, when chief conful of France, 
againft our territorial poffellions in India, now began to 
unfold themfelves, and fhowed that the views' of the French 
extended far beyond the limits of their own colony- The 
firft aft of,M. Binot, the new- governor, after his arrival at 
Pondicherry, was to detach M. Muller, a lieutenaut of the 
18th demi-brigade, to penetrate into the country of the ra¬ 
jah of Berar, in order to afeertain the facilities for attacking 
Bengal from that quarter. This officer, however, before he 
could complete his miffion, was made a prifonerof war; and 
D d about. 
