THE WELLESLEY DESPATCHES.
IN unity of subject, the second volume of this vast collection of most readable slate papers is not equal to its predecessor. How- ever various might be the ramifications of the matters in the first volume, they all eventually terminated in one point—the war with TIPPOO and the capture of Seringapatam. The second is net only occupied with the division of the spoil amongst a pretty nu-- merous class of claimants, both European and native, and with the political settlements that necessarily sprung out of the over- throw of a great empire, but many other subjects are brought upon the lapis. The allies under English "protection," in re- moter parts, were of necessity left much to themselves during the preparations for a war with France and Tr PPOO; it was necessary with the first leisure to readjust the yoke about their necks. Papers were discovered in the Palace of Seringapatarn, which proved that the Nabobs of the Carnatic had been intriguing with 'firm° for the expulsion of the English from India, whilst they were nominally our allies : this ailitir had to be inquired into, and the guilty mulcted,—or rather his successor, for the chief intri- guer died before his guilt was brought home. A connexion with Persia, an expedition to the Red Sea in order to cooperate with Sir RALPH ABERCROMBIE, and the arrangement of the internal affairs of the Anglo-Indian provinces, also form a part of the subjects of the present volume, and, if they add to its variety, deprive it unquestionably of the singleness of interest possessed by the former : in that the reader embraced the whole subject at starting, in this he does not understand the scope of the different topics until lie has studied them. The volume, however, has an intrinsic interest, from its charac- teristic execution. As before, the chief writer is the Marquis ; and lie appears in a new light. His arrangement is still orderly, his expression distinct and forcible, and his sty le rotund. Sometimes, however, be is rhetorical to a high degree, writing like a man whose sole study was to balance sounding members of sentences against each other ; at others, where the subject is apart from official bu- siness, and appeals to the natural sentiments or Me common sense of mankind, he seems to think effect is produced by tumid exag- geration,—as in his declaration upon the untimely death of the Persian Ambassador, (shot at Bombay in a squabble between his servants and some Sepoys,) which looks like a collection of lachry- mose commonplaces put upon stilts. But when the matter is important, or calls for great decision of purpose, or censure has to be conveyed in plain terms, the Marquis rises.above himself, and may be proposed as a model for official writing. In the pre- sent volume, moreover, he comes out as a genteel but pretty con- siderable puffer of his brothers. It will be a nice point for the biographer of WELLINGTON to speculate upon the probable influ- ence which the patronage of the Governor-General had upon his career by the opportunities it afforded him. Of the present Lord COWLEY there is no doubt the Marquis was the " making." He seems to have pushed him upon all occasions, and (speaking from the documents) to have put him over the head of the Resident at Lucknow, in a most barefaced, unfair, and fraternal manner. Colonel SCOTT had conducted a very complex and troublesome matter to its close, when Mr. HENRY WELLESLEY was sent formally to complete it, and to be appointed Governor of the ceded provinces, and to figure as first fiddle in the despatches sent home. But by far the most striking point of the volume is the insight it furnishes into Indian diplomacy, and the general skill of the diplomatists. When CLIVE founded our dominion in Bengal, he la'd it down as a maxim, that we should never be too hasty in assuming the nominal government of a country, but rule under the name of the native sovereign, whom we must at the same time deprive of all power—at least of all power of hurting us. The first step in this line of policy was to shear him of some of his territory, which might either be absolutely ceded to us, or which we might govern and receive the revenue, paying at the same time to the former sovereign an annual sum called a jaghire, and similar, in fact, to a ground-rent. The second step was to flatter the weakness and fears of the potentate, by furnishing him with troops disciplined in the European manner, and officered by Europeans, the expense of which he was to pay. They were of course to be employed, if necessary, against the common enemy of the Company and its dear ally : as for any differences between such friends, they could never be thought of; but if any should happen to arise, it would require no seer to predict the side on which the Company's troops would act. The third point in accomplish- ing the Clivian plan, was to take the sovereign under our " pro- tection ;" by which we claimed the power of offering him advice and remonstrance, and when both failed we took upon ourselves the task of active interference. In due time, the nominal sovereign strew restive, or he intrigued with our enemies, and clandestine correspondence or open grumbling were alike grounds of war: or he sunk into indolence or rose into capricious tyranny, and in either case, a regard for the good government of his subjects, and for the security of the annual sums which he was bound to pay, prompted us to relieve him from the cares of a condition to which he was unequal : or, in the language of BURGOYNE, "improving a succession into a revolution, ' we stipulated, as the price of acknowledgment and protection, for fresh slices of territory, new quotas of troops, and greater powers of interference, till the most fortunate and favoured dynasty gradually dropped into a titular potentate, and a pensioner of the Company upon the revenues of his ancestors. AU this was necessary, perhaps inevitable, under the circumstances of the case ; but the country whose servants could plan such a policy, and systematically pursue it till they acquired one of the largest, richest, and oldest empires in the world, need scarcely be afraid even of Russia, with a fair field and no favour.
To the diplomatist, the Despatches of the Marquis of Wellesley will be a necessary work : to the mortals afflicted by the Russo- mania, their study may furnish a healing balm ; to the general reader, a few specimens will be sufficient, or should he feel inclined to push his reading further, they will show him the kind of read- ing he will often meet. For this purpose, we will take up the negotiations with the Vizier of Oude, one of the " protected " potentates. He had a considerable native force; it was said to be very mutinous and undisciplined ; and the Company were bound by treaties to defend his dominions " against all enemies." The sort of treaty the Vizier had signed, the interpretation to be put upon it, and the state to which he was reduced, will best be shown by an extract from a despatch by the Marquis, showing bow to maintain an ally at his own expense. " It might not be in the power of the British Government, on a sudden emer- gency, to reinforce the troops in your Excellency's country with sufficient expe- dition • my firm opinion, therefore, is, that the Company can in no other man- ner effectually fulfil their engagements to defend the dominions of your Ex- cellency against all enemies,' than by maintaining constantly in those dominions such a force as shall at all times be adequate to your effectual protection, inde- pendently of any reinforcement which the exigency might otherwise require, but which might not be disposable in proper season. " The Seventh Article of the Treaty with your Excellency, by Sir John Shore, provides for the occasional augmentation of the Company's troops in your Excellency's dominions, in terms which evidently render the Company's government competent to decide at all times on the requisite amount of such augmentation. The same article binds your Excellency to defray the expense
of any force which shall be deemed necessary by the Company by your defence. . . •
" To enable your Excellency to defray the expense of the additional British force, which is now become indispensably necessary to the security of your Ex- cellency's dominions, without any new charges upon the finances of your Ex- cellency, nothing further is requisite than that you should disband the mime- IOUs disorderly battalions at present in your service ; which, instead of con- tributing in any degree to the defence of your country, or to the support ;of
your government, have long proved injurious to the prosperity and strength of both.
" The advanced period of the season absolutely requires that the British troops in Oude should immediately be augmented to the amount which will be stated to your Excellency by Lieutenant-Colonel Scott ; and 1 earnestly recom- mend to your Excellency, the early adoption of those measures which will be pointed out to you by Colonel Scott, for the purpose of relieving your Excellency from the heavy expense at present incurred in maintaining that force, whose numbers arc dangerous only to your Excellency and your subjects." This affair of the troops, however, is a trifle compared with the abdication. The subject of increasing his foreign forces and dis- banding his own, had often been urged upon the Vizier ; but before this last despatch was delivered, he professed a disposition to abdicate. The reason assigned by him was "the dissensions, enmity, disobedience, and negligence of the people,"—which might be true ; or he might be incited by Asiatic fickleness; or it might be, as the Governor-General subsequently wrote him, that he "professed such a design with the sole view of defeating by delay the long-meditated measure of a reform of his military establishments.' The terms on which the Vizier proposed to quit the musnud (throne), were the removal of his own treasures, (which would be sufficient, he said, for his support,) and the succession of his eldest son. The intention was. first avowed to the Resident, Colonel Scons—an able man, an able despatch-writer, and per- fectly competent as an Indian diplomatist; who, after giving rather an interesting account of the interview, continues- " After receiving the piper, I observed to his Excellency, that your Lord- ship would naturally make this reflection, that if his Excellency—a man of mature judgment, sound understanding, and extensive experience—found it im- possible to conduct the affairs of the empire, what grounds were there to expect that a young mao, uninstructed in the ways of the world, and unpractised in business, could possess the necessary qualifications for so arduous a situation To which his Excellency replied, that he wool I have the benefit of that advice and assistance (i. e. the Colonel's) so often proffered to hint. " I was then going to prepare his Excellency to expect that your Lordship's wisdom would mast probably suggest sonie modifications of the treaty or com- prehensive arrangements for the future government of the country ; but before I could make any progress, he interrupted me by saying, that your Lordship's answer might be expected in the course of twenty days."
Whether his Lordship would naturally have made these reflec- tions, cannot appear; but they were too good to be lost. Accord- ingly, the Governor-General composes a long and elaborate state paper, in which his Lordship remarks upon the unexpected nature of the proposal, and declares that he deems it unnecessary. At the same time, he avows his knowledge of the causes which have "disturbed the tranquillity " of time Nabob's mind ; and which he roundly attributes to the distracted state to which his misgovern- ment has reduced the country. lie expands and shapes the hints of Colonel SCOTT as to the youth of the proposed successor; he declares that the removal of the treasures would be monstrously unjust, as it would subject his successor to the Company debts and charges, without the certain means of paying them ; and with a more than paternal anxiety he dilates upon the reciprocal feel- ings that might arise between father and son.
" It is for his Excellency's serious consideration, whether the tranquillity of his mind would be restored by the establishment of his eldest son in a situation which might produce a relaxation of filial duties, alflctions, and obligations, and might excite sentiments of distrust and jealousy, if not of animosity and aversion.
" The Governor-General is persuaded, that after his Excellency the Nawanb Saadut Ali had actually abdicated the government, his Excellency would neither feel nor express any desire to resume sovereign authority, or to contend with the exalted dignity and power transferred to the hands r)f the Nawaub Ghanzee u riven Hyder Khatm. But the history of the world has proved that few princes have possessed the fortitude to remain content in retirement after the abdication of sovereign power ; and the Nawatilt Gh:twee u riven Hyder Lamm, adverting to historical examples and to the uniform experience of former ages, would always apprehend the possibility of a change in the Nawatab Saadut Ali's resolution, and would perpetually anticipate the revival of the spirit of ambition, of the desire of empire, grandeur, and honour, the natural passions of great and noble minds. Such apprehensions and jealousies in the mind of his Excellency's successor might produce the most fatal attempts against his ExceL- leney's repose, and even against his personal safety."
In short, the abdication may take place whenever the Vizier pleases ; the terms proposed are inadmissible. The Company re- quired a cession of the government to themselves, undertaking to allow " the most liberal provision for his Excellency and his family."
The Nabob. as well he might be, was taken aback by this pro- posal, and kicked at it. The alternative offered was a cession of territory, equal to the annual sums he was bound to pay the Corns pony, as a security ; and the precedent to be followed was a late treaty with " the Souhandar of the Deccan, by which his highness ceded to the Company in full sovereignty, a country rated at the annual revenue of sixty-two lacs of rupees, in commutation for a subsidy of about forty lacs of rupees." The Nabob demurred to this also, but his demurrer was not allowed. After long negotia- tions, conducted in such a spirit that the sense of their monstrous apparent injustice is merged in wonder at the impudence and skill displayed, the Nabob Vizier consented to submit, when he found that orders were issued to take possession of his provinces by means of those disciplined troops for which he had been obliged to pay.
There are several other negotiations of a kindred nature, al- though of a very different form; and, for aught we know, the volume may exhaust the subject of Indian diplomacy, furnishing • a specimen of each kind. But we have not space to enter into other subjects ; and we must also omit some remarks on the ab- stract injustice and practical excuses for the mode in which our Indian empire was founded and formed.
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