"That, in the discussion of this important subject, advice and remonstrance have been frequently tried, and have failed; that the Governor-General hopes that the King will exercise a sounder judgment than those who have preceded him, and that he will not be compelled to exchange friendly advice for imperative and absolute interference; that when the Governor-General, Lord William Bentinck, had a conference with the former King, Nuseer-od Deen Hyder, on this subject, on the 20th of January, 1831, he deemed it right frankly to inform him that if the warning which he then gave was disregarded by his Majesty, it was his intention to submit to the home authorities his advice that the British Government should assume the direct management of the Oude dominions; that the Honourable the Court of Directors coincided in his Lordship's views and, in order that no doubt may remain on the King's mind as to the sentiments of the home authorities on this point, he, Lord Hardinge, here inserts an extract from the despatch of that Court, for his information; that it is as follows:— 'We have, after the most serious consideration, come to the determination of granting to you the discretionary power which you have requested, from us for placing the Oude territories under the direct management of officers of the British Government; and you are hereby empowered, if no real and satisfactory improvement shall have taken place in the administration of that country, and if your Government shall still adhere to the opinion expressed in the minute of the Governor-General, to carry the proposed measure into effect, at such period and in such manner as shall appear to you most desirable;' that this resolution was communicated to the Resident and to the King, and advantage was taken of it to press upon his Majesty the necessity of an immediate reform of his administration; that the above extract will enable the King to form a clear judgment of the position in which the sovereigns of Oude are placed by treaty; that the Governor-General is required, when gross and systematic abuses prevail, to apply such a remedy as the exigency of the case may appear to require—that he has no option in the performance of that duty.
"That by wisely taking timely measures for the reformation of abuses, as one of the first acts of his reign, his Majesty will, with honour to his own character, rescue his people from their present miserable condition; but if he procrastinates he will incur the risk of forcing the British Government to interfere, by assuming the government of Oude; that the former course would redound to his Majesty's credit and dignity, while the latter would give the British Government concern in the case of a prince whom, as our ally, we sincerely desire to honour and uphold; that for these reasons, and on account of the King's inexperience, the Governor-General is not disposed to act immediately on the power vested in him by the Honourable Court's despatch above quoted, still less is he disposed to hold him responsible for the misrule of his predecessors, nor does he expect that so inveterate a system of misgovernment can suddenly be eradicated; that the resolution, and the preliminary measures 'to effect this purpose,' can and ought at once to be adopted by the King; that if his Majesty cordially enters into the plan suggested by the Governor-General for the improvement of his administration, he may have the satisfaction, within the period specified of two years, of checking and eradicating the worst abuses, and, at the same time, of maintaining his own sovereignty and the native institutions of his kingdom unimpaired; but if he does not, if he takes a vacillating course, and fail by refusing to act on the Governor-General's advice, he is aware of the other alternative and of the consequences. It must, then, be manifest to the whole world that, whatever may happen, the King has received a friendly and timely warning."
On the 24th of December in that year, 1847, Government, in reply to the Resident's letter of the 30th November, states that it does not consider the King's reply in any respect satisfactory; that the Resident is to remind his Majesty that under paragraph the 23rd of the memorandum read out to him by the Governor-General's direction, the Resident has been required to submit periodical reports of the state of his dominions, and that his Majesty must be fully aware of the responsibility he incurs if he neglects, during the interval allowed him, to introduce the requisite reforms in his administration.
More than two years have elapsed since this caution was given, and the King has done nothing to improve his administration, abstained from no personal indulgence, given no attention whatever to public affairs. He had before that time tried to imitate his father, attend a little to public affairs, and see occasionally the members of the royal family and aristocracy, at least of the city, and heads of departments; but the effort was painful, and soon ceased altogether to be made. He had from boyhood mixed in no other society than that in which he now mixes exclusively, and he will never submit to the restraints of any other. The King has utterly disregarded alike the Governor-General's advice and admonitions, the duties and responsibilities of his high office, and the sufferings of the many millions subject to his rule. His time and attention are devoted entirely to the pursuit of personal gratifications; he associates with none but such as those who contribute to such gratifications—women, singers, and eunuchs; and he never, I believe, reads or hears read any petition from his suffering subjects, any report from his local officers civil or military, or presidents of his fiscal and judicial courts, or functionaries of any hind. He seems to take no interest whatever in public affairs, and to care nothing whatever about them.
The King had natural capacity equal to that of any of those who have preceded him in the sovereignty of Oude since the death of Saadut Allee in 1814, but he is the only one who has systematically declined to devote any of that capacity, or any of his time, to the conduct of public affairs; to see and occasionally commune with the heads of departments, the members of the royal family, and native gentlemen of the capital; to read or have read to him the reports of his local functionaries, and petitions or redress of wrongs from his suffering subjects.*
[*This systematic disregard of his high duties and responsibilities still continues to be manifested by the King of Oude; and is observed, with feelings of indignation and abhorrence, by his well-disposed subjects of all classes and grades, who are thereby left to the mercy of men without any feeling of security in their tenure of office, any scruples of conscience, or feelings of humanity, or of honour. So inveterate is the system of misgovernment—so deeply are all those, now employed in the administration, interested in maintaining its worst abuses—and so fruitless is it to expect the King to remove them, or employ better men, or to be ever able to inspire any men, whom he may appoint, with a disposition to serve him more honestly, and to respect the rights of others, or consider the reputation and permanent interests of their own master, that the impression has become strong and general, that our Government can no longer support the present Government of Oude, without seriously neglecting its duty towards the people.—1851, W. H. S.]
In the reports of the Resident on the state of affairs in Oude, and the replies of Government, much importance has been always attached to the change from the contract, or ijara system, to that of the amanee, or trust management system; and since the time of Lord Hardinge's visit many more districts have been put under the latter system; but this has not tended, in the smallest degree, to the benefit of the people of these districts. The same abuses prevail under the one system as under the other. The troops employed in the districts under the one are the same as those employed in the districts under the other, and they prey just as much upon the people. There is the same system of rack-rent in the one as in the other, and the same uncertainty in the rate of the Government demand. The manager under the amanut system demands the same secret gratuities and nuzuranas for himself and his patrons at Court from the landholders, as the contractor; and if they refuse to pay them they are besieged, attacked, and cut up, and their estates desolated in the same manner. The amanut manager knows that his tenure of office depends as much upon the amount which he pays to his sovereign, and to his patrons at Court, as that of the contractor, and he exacts and extorts as much as he can in the same manner. Unless he pays his patrons the same he knows that he shall soon be removed, or driven to resign by the want of means to enforce the payment of the revenues justly due.
The objections which are urged against the employment of British troops in support of the authority of revenue contractors, are equally applicable to their employment in support of that of amanee managers. Their employment is just as liable to abuse under the one as under the other. It is not a whit easier to ascertain whether a demand for balance of revenue from, or a charge of contumacy against, a landholder is just or unjust in the one than in the other. In neither is the demand set forth in public documents understood by either party to be the real demand. Both parties are equally interested in preventing a portion of the real demand from appearing in the public accounts; and the quarrel is almost always about the rate of this concealed portion—the collector trying to augment, and the landlord trying to reduce it.
In a letter to the Resident, dated the 29th of March, 1823, Government observes: "As some palliation of the mischief of our forces being constantly employed in what might be too often termed the cause of injustice and extortion, the Government in 1811 distinctly declared our right of previously investigating, and of arbitrating the demands which its troops might be called upon to support as also its resolution to exercise that right on all future occasions. The execution of the important duty in question seems to be almost invariably delegated by the Resident to the officers commanding at the different stations, who, after receiving general powers to attend to the requisitions of the amils, become the sole judges of the individual cases, in which aid is to be afforded or withheld; and the discretion again unavoidably descends from them, in many instances, to the officers commanding parties detached from the main body. It is obvious that an inquiry of this description can afford but a partial check to, and a feeble security against, injustice and oppression where specific engagements rarely exist, and where the point at issue is frequently the demand for augmenting rates of revenue, founded on alleged assets sufficient to meet that increase.
"Neither is the aid thus afforded at all effectual for the purposes of the Government of Oude, whether present or future, as is clear from the annual repetition of the same scenes of resistance and compulsion. As fast as disorders are suppressed in one quarter they spring up in another. Forts that are this year dismantled are restored again the next; the compulsion exercised upon particular individuals in one season has no effect in producing more regularity on their parts, or on that of others in the ensuing season, until the same process has been again gone through; whilst the contempt and odium attaching to a system of collecting the revenues, by the habitual intervention of the troops of another State, infallibly tend to aggravate the evil, by destroying all remains of confidence in his Majesty, or respect for his authority."