The Prince of Oude, Or, the Claim of the Nawaub Ekbal-Ood-Dowlah Bahador to the Throne of Oude / by Captain W. White
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"...p t4.) Vi.(J J ~t.<.. ;).?>1 ~ OR, THE CLAIM OF THE NAWAUB E K B A I~ - 0 0 ) - DOW L A H BAHAD()R, TO THE THRONE OF OUDE. By CAPTAIN W.CWHITE) LATE OF THE H.E.LC. SEkvICE;" . AUTHOR OF THOUGHTS ON INDIA; POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE EXTRAOR DINARY EVENTS WHICH LED TO THE BUR)fESE WAR; AN APPEAL TO THE BRITISH NATION ON THE AFFAIRS OF THE EAST; THE EVILS OF QUARANTINE LAWS; <te., <te., <te. LONDON: WILLIAM STRANGE, 21, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1888. c.C-. BOOK STAU..., t,SbamaCb.DeSt.) Calcutta. DEC 9 i1'RIN1'ED BY Ro- MACDONALD, 30, GR£AT SUTfON STREET, CLERKENWELL6 TO THE BRITISH NATION . • FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN, IN cases of great political emergency, or on matters of great national importance, an appeal to the good sense, the honour, the justice and equity of the people of this nation, has proved to be the best, the safest, the surest-indeed, the only palladium. So it will be found in such an atrocious case as that which the following pages unfold. With this convic tion, I have thought it to be my duty humbly to dedicate the following pages to you. With a good cause, a just claim, an equitable demand, a strong and everlasting debt of gratitude and obligation due from the British Nation, which neither time nor cir cumstances can ever even partially obliterate, I leave to your noble and generous hearts-your powerful and determined courage - the vindication of the national honour, and the establishing in his rights the legal descendant of the Nawaub SAADUT ALIE A !! iv KHAN BAHADOR, in the person of EKBAL-OOD-Dow LAH BAHADOR, his grandson, the lawful KING OF OUDE, who has come a stranger amongst you to claim your protection from rapacity and injustice, as well as to seek your support to his just demands. I have the honour to remain, FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN, Your's, most respectfully, W. WHITE~ London, June, 1838. THE PRINCE OJ" OUDE, EKBAL OOD-DOWLAH BAHADOR. THE presence in England of the Prince of Oude, to demand the throne which has been most unjustly and iniquitously withheld from him, is a most " unto " ward event" at the present critical time, and will place her Majesty's advisers in any thing but an enviable position. It will impose upon the nation at large the un pleasant and irksome task of vindicating to the world at large, its honour for good faith, gross and flagrant violat~on of sacred treaties, its tarnished and disgraced character, the wiping from off the page of history the foul blot and the atrocious acts which have lately taken place with regard to the State of Oude; and to prove to the whole world, that the British nation, as a nation, has never concurred in the many complicated and endless acts of villainy which have been practised towards the Native Princes in the East, under the authority or sanction of various Boards of Control. How is this to be done? Two things are requisite. The one without the other would only be like plastering up a crack in a wall, to conceal the rubbish of which it is 6 made, and the danger to be apprehended by its falling, as well as to save the rascally contractor from the penalty he had thereby incurred. These two things, then, are, First, To remove Sir John Hobhouse's new-made King, HUM-TI DUM-TI, from off the wall; for it is only in placards and upon paper that he is king. But he is a king of kings according to Sir John Hobhouse's notions of what sort of a man makes the best king. But we have now reached that crisis in oriental legislation and diplomacy, that may well make the nation tremble for the frightful consequences which must ensue, unless we instantly retrace our steps, and, by the spontaneous burst of indignation of the twenty-seven millions of her Majesty's faithful subjects in Great Britain, perform one act of simple justice as a counterpoise for the many thou sands of base and perfidious deeds of injustice, extortion, spoliation, robbery, and plunder, which have at different times, and under the sanction of different Boards of Control, taken place; and against which the very Directors of the East India Company have entered the strongest of protests. It is just five years since one of the most talented and best informed Directors of the East India Company, Mr. H. St. George Tucker, truly remarked, "I already " anticipate a struggle for the most cherished possessions " of our Indian subjects, for the most valuable property " which we have left them, with little expectation that they " will long retain it in their power." These observations are particularly referable to the provinces of Oude, the Prince of which the President of the Board of Control since his arrival, has not only himself dared venture grossly to insult, but compelled the Chair man and Deputy Chairman to do the same thing; and, what is worse, that they should be the first to set the dis graceful and obnoxious example. When his Excellency Prince Ekbal-ood-Dowlah, as a natural consequence, called at the East India House, and sent his card in to the Chair 7 man, he, by the instructions of Sir John Hobhouse, posi tively not only refused to see him, but, by one of the common porters, sent him out word to go to Sir John Hob house at the Board of Control. Such was the treatment at the India House to the King-for such he is in every sense of the word, and so he will be; for if not proclaimed by the British, he will be at no very distant day by the Russians, the Emperor of whom has declared that within ten years " his brave Russians will summon all India to " avow their independence." When the Prince repaired to the Board of Control, innocently enough, and never suspecting for a moment that he had been sent there also to be insulted, having sent in his card to Sir John Hob house, Sir John Hobhouse sent out word that he could not see him,-whatever his business was, he must write. Now this, it must be admitted, is too bad, thus to treat a Sovereign,• whom we have robbed of his throne, and his ancestors of some hundred millions sterling. The .Prince, however, polished and high-minded as undoubtedly he is, will not in the least be disturbed by the ins olen t and disgraceful conduct of the ex-member for Westminster, ·whom. he could conveniently put into his breeches pocket; Of if he raised his foot against his seat of honour, and which deserves to be touched, would very unceremoniously .send the little gentleman from one side of the Thames to tho other. But so it happened, that he was insulted; and it rests to be seen how the British nation will mark their abhor rence, their .eontempt,and thorough disgust, for such conduct on the part of the President of the Board of Con trol. By thus insulting the Prince of Oude, it must be .eonsidered that it is not only a most unmerited and atro dous mark of contempt towards himself, but an insult, and a fearful warning, to all other Native Princes in the East; the evil effects of which we shall some day-perhaps before long~feel to our sorrow. 8 Sir John Hobhouse could not have been ignorant who the Nawaub Ekbal-ood-Dowlah is, and what is the object of his visit to England. The public must now be informed. He comes not only to claim the throne of Qude, but 2,794,338 rupees, being arrears of the interest of trust funds in the hands of the East India Company, amounting to £~5,OOO a year, settled upon his father the N awaub Shums-ood-Dowlah, in the year 1814, by the Nawaub Gazee-ood-Deen Hyder; the principal of which forms part of the far-famed voluntary loan of the first million and a quarter which Lord Hastings extorted from Gazee-ood de en Hyder, as the price of placing a lunatic, a murderer, a brute, a worse than beast, upon the throne,-the wretch who had killed five or six persons, by cutting their throats, and ripping open their bodies; who used to tear every vestige of his garments from off his body, and in a state of perfect nudity would dash into the street, or, like an ape, ascend the trees in the garden of the palace; and in which state he was seen by Major Baiilie, the British Resident~ by whose kind offices he was placed upon the throne in the dead of the night, the moment his father had been poisoned by that arch villain Rarnzaun AIie Khan, the rascal who, the instant he had accomplished the horrid deed, flew to the British Resident, " carefully," as Lord Hastings says, "concealing the events from e!fJery body " else," and thus " enabling Major Baillie to make those " timely arrangf11wnts which se'Cured the undisturbed suc H cession of Gazee-ood-deen Hyder." It is confidently asserted, that the setting aside of the lawful heir to the throne of Oude, upon the death of the late K.ing, Nusser Od-Deen Hyder, who was also aa usurper, an adopted son of Gazee-ood-Deen Hyder, placed upon the throne to the exclusion of the right heir, for certain weighty reasons, and which we shall hereafter explain; and placing upon it N usser-ood-Dowlah, is an act entirely of Sir John Hobhouse's own; that he wrote direct 9 himself to Colonel Low, without the knowledge of the Court of Directors, without the knowledge of Lord Auck land, the Governor-General; and that by these private in structions Colonel Low acted, when the late King died by poison, in blowing the (Prince as he is called) Mirzas Kaiwan Jah off the throne, after he had been for four teen years recognized by Nusser-ood-Deen Hyder as his son, and also recognized by the British authorities as the presumptive heir, but for the last two years of his life repudiated by the usurper, and avowed to be merely an adopted child.