chapter 26 (volume 3)._

OTTIMATI, The.

See FLORENCE: A. D. 1498-1500.

OTTO.

See OTHO.

OTTOCAR, OTOKAR, King of Bohemia, A. D. 1253-1278.

OTTOMAN EMPIRE.

See TURKS (OTTOMANS): A. D. 1240-1326, and after.

OTTOMAN GOVERNMENT.

See SUBLIME PORTE.

OTUMBA, Battle of.

See MEXICO: A. D. 1520-1521.

OTZAKOF: Storming, capture, and massacre of inhabitants by the Russians (1788).

See TURKS: A. D. 1776-1792.

OUAR KHOUNI, The.

See AVARS.

----------OUDE: Start--------

OUDE, OR OUDH.

"Before the British settler had established himself on the peninsula of India, Oude was a province of the Mogul Empire. When that empire was distracted and weakened by the invasion of Nadir Shah [see INDIA: A. D. 1662-1748], the treachery of the servant was turned against the master, and little by little the Governor began to govern for himself. But holding only an official, though an hereditary title, he still acknowledged his vassalage; and long after the Great Mogul had shrivelled into a pensioner and pageant, the Newab–Wuzeer of Oude was nominally his minister. Of the earliest history of British connexion with the Court of the Wuzeer, it is not necessary to write in detail. There is nothing less creditable in the annals of the rise and progress of the British power in the East. The Newab had territory; the Newab had subjects; the Newab had neighbours; more than all, the Newab had money. {2406} But although he possessed in abundance the raw material of soldiers, he had not been able to organise an army sufficient for all the external and internal requirements of the State; and so he was fain to avail himself of the superior military skill and discipline of the white men, and to hire British battalions to do his work. … In truth it was a vicious system, one that can hardly be too severely condemned. By it we established a Double Government of the worst kind. The Political and Military government was in the hands of the Company; the internal administration of the Oude territories still rested with the Newab–Wuzeer. In other words, hedged in and protected by the British battalions, a bad race of Eastern Princes were suffered to do, or not to do, what they liked. … Every new year saw the unhappy country lapsing into worse disorder, with less disposition, as time advanced, on the part of the local Government to remedy the evils beneath which it was groaning. Advice, protestation, remonstrance were in vain. Lord Cornwallis advised, protested, remonstrated: Sir John Shore advised, protested, remonstrated. At last a statesman of a very different temper appeared upon the scene. Lord Wellesley was a despot in every pulse of his heart. But he was a despot of the right kind; for he was a man of consummate vigour and ability, and he seldom made a mistake. The condition of Oude soon attracted his attention; not because its government was bad and its people were wretched, but because that country might either be a bulwark of safety to our own dominions, or A sea of danger which might overflow and destroy us. … It was sound policy to render Oude powerful for good and powerless for evil. To the accomplishment of this it was necessary that large bodies of ill-disciplined and irregularly paid native troops in the service of the Newab-Wuzeer—lawless bands that had been a terror alike to him and to his people—should be forthwith disbanded, and that British troops should occupy their place. … The additional burden to be imposed upon Oude was little less than half a million of money, and the unfortunate Wuzeer, whose resources had been strained to the utmost to pay the previous subsidy, declared his inability to meet any further demands on his treasury. This was what Lord Wellesley expected—nay, more, it was what he wanted. If the Wuzeer could not pay in money, he could pay in money's worth. He had rich lands that might be ceded in perpetuity to the Company for the punctual payment of the subsidy. So the Governor-General prepared a treaty ceding the required provinces, and with a formidable array of British troops at his call, dragooned the Wuzeer into sullen submission to the will of the English Sultan. The new treaty was signed; and districts then yielding a million and a half of money, and now nearly double that amount of annual revenue, passed under the administration of the British Government. Now, this treaty—the last ever ratified between the two Governments—bound the Newab-Wuzeer to 'establish in his reserved dominions such a system of administration, to be carried on by his own officers, as should be conducive to the prosperity of his subjects, and he calculated to secure the lives and properties of the inhabitants,' and he undertook at the same time 'always to advise with and to act in conformity to the counsels of the officers of the East India Company.' But the English ruler knew well that there was small hope of these conditions being fulfilled. … Whilst the counsels of our British officers did nothing for the people, the bayonets of our British soldiers restrained them from doing anything for themselves. Thus matters grew from bad to worse, and from worse to worst. One Governor-General followed another; one Resident followed another; one Wuzeer followed another; but still the great tide of evil increased in volume, in darkness, and in depth. But, although the Newab-Wuzeers of Oude were, doubtless, bad rulers and bad men, it must be admitted that they were good allies. … They supplied our armies, in time of war, with grain; they supplied us with carriage–cattle; better still, they supplied us with cash. There was money in the Treasury of Lucknow, when there was none in the Treasury of Calcutta; and the time came when the Wuzeer's cash was needed by the British ruler. Engaged in an extensive and costly war, Lord Hastings wanted more millions for the prosecution of his great enterprises. They were forthcoming at the right time; and the British Government were not unwilling in exchange to bestow both titles and territories on the Wuzeer. The times were propitious. The successful close of the Nepaul war placed at our disposal an unhealthy and impracticable tract of country at the foot of the Hills. This 'terai' ceded to us by the Nepaulese was sold for a million of money to the Wuzeer, to whose domains it was contiguous, and he himself expanded and bloomed into a King under the fostering sun of British favour and affection."

_J. W. Kaye, History of the Sepoy War in India,