84. THE TREATY OF BASSEIN

Between the East India Company and the Peshwa, December 31, 1802.

1. The peace, union and friendship, so long subsisting between the two states, shall be perpetual. The friends and enemies of either, shall be the friends and enemies of both.

2. If any power or state whatever, shall commit any act of unprovoked hostility or aggression against either of the contracting parties, or against their respective dependents or allies, and after due representation, shall refuse to enter into amicable explanation . . . then the contracting parties will proceed to concert and prosecute such further measures, as the case shall appear to demand. For the more distinct explanation and effect of this arrangement the GovernorGeneral in Council on behalf of the Honourable Company, hereby declares, that the British Government will never permit any power or state whatever to commit with impunity, any act of unprovoked hostility or aggression against the rights and territories of His Highness Rao Pundit Pardhan Bahadur.

3. With a view to fulfil this treaty . . . His Highness agrees to receive, and the Company to furnish, a permanent subsidiary force of not less than six thousand regular native infantry, with the usual proportion of field pieces, and European artillerymen attached, and with the proper equipment of warlike stores and ammunition, which force is to be accordingly stationed in perpetuity in his said Highness's territories.

4. For the regular payment of the whole expense of the said subsidiary force, his Highness . . . hereby assigns and cedes in perpetuity to the Company, all the territories detailed in the schedule annexed to this treaty.

9. The subsidiary force will at all times be ready to execute services of importance-such as the protection of the person of his Highness, his heirs and successors, the overawing and chastisement of rebels, or exciters of disturbance in his Highness's dominions, and due correction of his subjects or dependents, who may withhold payment of the sarkar's 1 just claims but it is not to be employed on trifling occasions, nor to be stationed in the country to collect the revenues, nor against

1 Government's.

;

any of the principal branches of the Mahratta Empire, nor in levying contributions from Mahratta dependents. ..

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11. Whereas it has been usual for his Highness enlist and retain in his service Europeans of different countries, his Highness hereby agrees that in the event of war breaking out between the English and any European nation, and of discovery being made that any European or Europeans in his service, belonging to such nation at war with the English, shall have meditated injury towards the English, or have entered into intrigues hostile to their interest, such European or Europeans, so offending, shall be discharged by his Highness, and not suffered to reside in his dominions.

14. Whereas a treaty of friendship and alliance has been concluded between the Company and Raja Anand Rao Gaekwar Bahadur, and whereas the said treaty was mediated and executed, without any intention that it should infringe any of the just rights or claims of his Highness Rao Pundit Purdhan Bahadur affecting the Sarkars of the said Raja, his said Highness. . . doth hereby formally acknowledge the existence of the said treaty between the Company and the Raja. . . and inasmuch as . . . various demands and papers of accounts are found to subsist between the Government of his Highness . . . and the Sarkar of the Raja, his Highness, placing full reliance on the impartiality, truth, and justice of the British Government, doth hereby agree, that the said government shall examine into, and finally adjust the said demands and papers of accounts; and his Highness further binds himself... to abide by such adjustment as the British Government shall accordingly determine.

...

17. As, by the present treaty, the union and friendship of the two states is so firmly connected, that they may be considered as one and the same, his Highness engages neither to commence nor to pursue in future, any negotiations with any other power whatever, without giving previous notice, and entering into mutual consultation, with the Company's Government; and the Company's Government, on their parts, hereby declare that they have no manner of concern with any of his Highness's children, relations, subjects, or servants, with respect to whom his Highness is absolute.

(Aitchison, Treaties and Sanads (4th Ed.), vi. 52.)

85. THE JUSTIFICATION OF THE MAHRATTA WAR

From a Speech by the Marquess Wellesley in reply to an Address from the British Inhabitants of Calcutta, February 1804.

The peace, which has been concluded,1 comprehends every object of the war, with every practicable security for the continuance of tranquillity. The object of the war was not to accomplish inordinate projects of extravagant conquest; not to subvert ancient and revered authorities; not to desolate flourishing provinces; not to plunder private property; nor to disturb the civil and religious institutions of contiguous states; nor to excite discord among powers connected by the relations of amity and peace. The object of the war was, to vindicate and to secure the just and legitimate rights, interests, and honour of the British government and of its allies against usurpation, violence, and rapine. The restoration of the legitimate authority of our ally the Peshwa at Poona, the establishment of our ally the Subadar of the Deccan 2 in his hereditary rights and dominions at Hyderabad, and the deliverance of the unfortunate and venerable emperor Shah Alam from the hands of the Mahrattas and French at Delhi, were the earliest effects of the success of our military operations. During the progress of our arms, every endeavour was employed to mitigate the horrors of war, even in the midst of hostilities, and to extend security and protection to the utmost limit compatible with the safety of our armies in the field.

In the termination of hostilities, my solicitude has been directed to the important purpose of effecting a general pacification of India on principles of reciprocal justice and moderation. The power, reputation and dignity of the British empire in India, will derive additional security and lustre from the establishment of peace and good order among

the native states. . . .

In the pursuance of these principles, the treaties of peace provide the means, not only of enlarging and consolidating the resources and power of our allies, but of guarding the less powerful neutral states from oppression; of placing the illustrious house of Timur in a condition of competent affluence, dignity, and honourable repose, and even of admitting our vanquished enemies to the benefits of a general defensive alliance, calculated to secure them in the independent exercise

1 With Sindhia and Bhonsla.

2 The Nizam.

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of their actual rights, and in the uncontrolled government of their present dominions; to exclude usurpation, and to limit the several powers of Hindustan and the Deccan to the undisturbed cultivation of their separate resources, within the boundaries of their respective possessions. I trust that the result of this system will prove equally advantageous to our interests and to our honour.

The foundations of our empire in Asia åre now laid in the tranquillity of surrounding nations, and in the happiness and welfare of the people of India. In addition to the augmentation of our territories and resources, the peace has manifested exemplary faith and equity towards our allies, moderation and lenity towards our enemies, and a sincere desire to promote the general prosperity of this quarter of the globe. The position in which we are now placed is suited to the character of the British nation, to the principles of our laws, to the spirit of our constitution, and to the liberal and comprehensive policy, which becomes the dignity of a great and powerful empire. .

(Wellesley Despatches, iii. 582.)

86. WELLESLEY'S ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS

To the Directors, July 9, 1800.

The great pressure of the numerous and important duties now performed immediately by the Governor-General in Council, has induced us to take a review of the constitution of the Government-General, considered as the supreme authority in India. In the discussion of these important questions we have not hesitated to consider the extensive and valuable possessions to the government of which the Company have succeeded, as a great Empire. To view those possessions in any other light, must, we are persuaded, always lead to the most erroneous conclusions as to the principles of policy by which they ought to be governed.

The early administration of the Company succeeded to the despotic power of the native princes. Those princes, as inother despotic governments, united in their own persons, the whole legislative, executive, and judicial powers of the State, and exercised them according to the dictates of their own discretion. No form of Government could be so ill-adapted to these countries when they became dependent possessions

of the British Empire, subject to be governed by persons occasionally deputed from the Mother Country.

Experience of the evils attendant on this form of Government conducted by a delegated British administration, led to the modelling of the Government of Bengal, on principles drawn from the British constitution. A distribution of the legislative, executive, and judicial powers of the state, analogous to that which forms the basis of the British Constitution,1 was made the foundation of the new constitution of the Government of Bengal. Considerations, however, arising out of the nature of our situation in this country demanded that these fundamental principles of the British Constitution should be introduced with a variety of modifications.

The lines between these three authorities were distinctly drawn, but it was obviously necessary that the GovernorGeneral in Council should exercise exclusively the entire legislative authority. But at the same time that we excluded our native subjects from all participation in the legislative authority, abundant security was afforded to them, that the exercise of that authority would always be directed to their happiness and benefit. The confirmation of their ancient laws in all matters connected with their religious prejudices, or their domestic relations, formed one of the first acts of the Governor-General in Council under the new constitution,

Provision was also made for ascertaining the sense which the people might entertain of the laws and regulations enacted for the government of the country, by the authority given to the judges of all the Courts of Judicature to propose such general or local laws, as from their intercourse with the natives in the administration of justice, might appear to them necessary to promote the public happiness and prosperity. As an effectual security against every abuse of the legislative power vested in the Governor-General in Council, it was made a fundamental principle of the new constitution, that he shall print and publish every legislative Act in a form which renders him responsible to his country for the unjust or unwise exercise of that power.

The executive authority was of necessity also exclusively vested in the Governor-General in Council.

As constituting the Courts of Sudder Diwani Adalat and the Nizamat or the chief civil or criminal Courts, the Governor

1 This was a theory of the British constitution rendered popular by Montesquieu's Esprit des lois, but not strictly corresponding with the facts.