Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/754

 740 OUDE most powerful princes of India, but, having formed an alliance with Meer Cossim against the English, was defeated by the latter at Patna, May 3, 1764, and at Buxar, Oct. 23. In 1765 the British occupied Lucknow and forced Su- jah as a condition of peace to transfer the prov- inces of Corah and Allahabad to the emperor Shah Alum. The latter having in 1773 trans- ferred his claim upon these territories to the Mahrattas, he was considered to have forfeited them, and the nawaub was permitted to resume them on payment of 5,000,000 rupees to the English. With the assistance of English troops, whose services he purchased for 400,000, Su- jah next undertook a campaign against the Rohillas, and, having routed them in a decisive battle, April 23, 1774, annexed the greater part of Rohilcund to his dominions. His son and successor Azof ud-Do wlah, a weak and dissolute prince, ceded Benares, Joonpoor, and some con- tiguous districts to the British, in return for which the East India company agreed to defend him against all his enemies, and to keep a large body of troops in his territory, for whose ser- vices however he was to pay heavily. This mili- tary force was several times augmented, on the ground that the tranquillity of the country and the safety of the surrounding British posses- sions required it. Immense sums were also de- manded from the nawaub for the support of an English resident and other English officials, so that the province was drained of its resources and parcelled out among rapacious farmers of the revenue, many of whom in time set them- selves up as independent princes. The nawaub begged to have the troops withdrawn, but the British refused. At length, in September, 1781, he signed a treaty at Chunar with the governor general Warren Hastings, by which he obtained a release from some of his most burdensome engagements on condition of ap- plying the wealth of the two begums or prin- cesses, his mother and grandmother, to the liquidation of his debt to the East India com- pany, which then amounted to 1,400,000. He was to retain the lands taken from the begums, and their money, of which they were said to have immense sums concealed, was to be paid over to the English. The most violent and unjustifiable means were used to get pos- session of the treasure, and the spoliation of the begums of Oude afterward acquired a world- wide celebrity through the denunciations of Burke and Sheridan. From 1777 to 1786 the nawaub paid the company 800,000 per annum, besides the expenses of various English officers, one of whom, an agent of the governor gen- eral, received an annual salary of 22,800. In 1787 the subsidy was reduced to 500,000 per annum, but it was increased in 1797 to 550,- 000, and in 1798 to 760,000, besides which the nawaub ceded the fortress of Allahabad and gave 80,000 for its repair and 30,000 for the repair of Futtehghur. In 1801 the pecu- niary subsidy was commuted for a cession of various territories, equal to one half of the whole province and yielding an annual rev- enue of 1,352,000. A loan of 1,000,000 was obtained from the nawaub Ghazee ud-Deen Hyder in 1814, and another of the same amount in 1815. One of these loans was liquidated in 1816 by the transfer to Oude of the Terai or marshy tract, formerly belonging to Nepaul. In 1819 the nawaub with the consent of the East India company formally renounced the nominal allegiance which he had hitherto re- tained to the Great Mogul, and assumed the title of king. In 1825 he made a loan in per- petuity to the British of 1,000,000, at the un- varying interest of 5 per cent. He was succeed- ed in 1827 by his son Nusseer ud-Deen Hyder, who in 1829 made a loan of 624,000, the in- terest of which was to be appropriated to the support of certain members of the royal fam- ily; and in 1833 a loan of 30,000, the inter- est of which was to be given to the poor of Lucknow. Nusseer ud-Deen, who reigned from 1827 to 1837, made an effort at first to reform the administration, but soon gave himself up to sensual pleasures. His uncle Mohammed Ali Shah was the next monarch, who was suc- ceeded in 1842 by his son Umjud Ali Shah, under whom the state of the kingdom grew worse and worse ; but he succeeded in replen- ishing the treasury, and on his death in 1847 left about 1,500,000 to his son Wajid Ali, the last king of Oude. This prince was more profligate and imbecile than almost any of his predecessors. In a communication to the In- dian government dated March 15, 1855, by Gen. Outram, British resident at Lucknow, the condition of the country was described as truly deplorable. The people were heavily taxed, though but little of the revenue reach- ed the public treasury. There were no courts of law except at the capital, and the judges and other officers were venal. The police was corrupt and inefficient, and the army rapa- cious, licentious, undisciplined, and cowardly. Crime, oppression, and cruelty of every de- scription prevailed. The royal government was virtually at an end, when the East India company, in January, 1856, caused a treaty to be drawn up, which would have transferred to them the entire administration of the king- dom, while it made provision for the digni- ty and affluence of the king and his family. This treaty the king refused to sign, where- upon a proclamation was issued by the gover- nor general in council, Feb. 7, declaring the de- position of the king of Oude and the absolute annexation of the country to the possessions of the East India company. This measure was disapproved at the time by many English people and some East Indian officials. The deposition of the king was regarded as a vio- lation of treaty engagements, and as both un- just and impolitic. He was allowed to retain his titles and granted a liberal pension. He removed to Calcutta, and fixed his residence at Garden Reach on the outskirts of the city. In 1856 the queen mother, accompanied by the