in Oude is much less than it was when
the treaty of the 11th of September, 1837, was made, and assuredly
less than it should be with a due regard to our engagements and the
Oude requirements. Our Government instead of taking upon itself the
additional burthen of sixteen lacs of rupees a-year to render the
Oude Government more efficient, has relieved itself of a good deal of
that which it bore before the new treaty was entered into, and this
is certainly not what the Court of Directors contemplated, or the
Oude Government expected.

Our exigencies became great with the Affghan war, and have continued
to be so from those wars which grew out of it with Gwalior, Scinde,
and the Punjab; but they have all now passed away, and those of our
humble ally should be no longer forgotten or disregarded. Though we
seldom give him the use of troops in support of the authority of his
local officers, still the prestige of having them at hand, in support
of a just cause, is unquestionably of great advantage to him and to
his people, and this advantage we cannot withhold from him with a due
regard to the obligations of solemn treaties.

But in considering the rights which the sovereign of Oude has
acquired by solemn treaties to our support, we must not forget those
which the five millions of people subject to his rule have acquired
by the same treaties to the protection of our Government, and it is a
grave question, that must soon be solved, whether we can any longer
support the present sovereign and system of government in Oude,
without subjecting ourselves to the reproach of shamefully neglecting
the duties we owe to these millions.

The present King ascended the throne on the death of his father, on
the 13th of February, 1847. In a letter dated the 24th of July of
that year, the Resident is told "that it will be his Majesty's duty
to establish such an administration, to be carried out by his own
officers, as shall insure the prosperity of the people; that any
neglect of this essential principle will be an infringement of
treaty; and that the Governor-General must, in the performance of his
duty, require the King to fulfil his obligations to his subjects--
that his Majesty must understand that, as a sovereign, he has duties
to perform to, as well as claims to exact from, the people committed
to his care."

In the month of November in that year, the Governor-General. Lord
Hardinge, visited Lucknow; and in a conference held with the