The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

I. That the province of Oude and its dependencies were, before their connection with and
subordination to the Company, in a flourishing condition with regard to culture, commerce,
and population, and their rulers and principal nobility maintained themselves in a state of
affluence and splendor; but very shortly after the period aforesaid, the prosperity both of the
country and its chiefs began sensibly and rapidly to decline, insomuch that the revenue of
the said province, which, on the lowest estimation, had been found, in the commencement
of the British influence, at upwards of three millions sterling annually, (and that ample
revenue raised without detriment to the country,) did not in the year 1779 exceed the sum of
1,500,000l., and in the subsequent years did fall much short of that sum, although the rents
were generally advanced, and the country grievously oppressed in order to raise it.

II. That in the aforesaid year, 1779, the demands of the East India Company on the Nabob
of Oude are stated by Mr. Purling, their Resident at the court of Oude, to amount to the sum
of 1,360,000l. sterling and upwards, leaving (upon the supposition that the whole revenue
should amount to the sum of 1,500,000l. sterling, to which it did not amount) no more than
140,000l. sterling for the support of the dignity of the household and family of the Nabob,
and for the maintenance of his government, as well as for the payment of the public debts
due within the province.

III. That by the treaty of Fyzabad a regular brigade of the Company's troops, to be stationed
in the dominions of the Nabob of Oude, was kept up at the expense of the said Nabob; in
addition to which a temporary brigade of the same troops was added to his establishment,
together with several detached corps in the Company's service, and a great part of his own
native Troops were put under the command of British officers.

IV. That the expense of the Company's temporary brigade increased in the same year (the

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