of Muckwanpore which was situated in the hills, but retained the lowlands on the Betteah frontier as a compensation for the cost of the military expedition which the Bengal Government had been compelled in self-defence to undertake. From that period the con

quered tract had formed a portion of the Betteah Zemindari and had paid revenue to the British government without any question of its right having been agitated by Nepaul.

"In 1811, however, emboldened by the obvious reluctance of the government of Bengal to engage in hostilities-a reluctance which, agreeably to the maxims of Goorkha policy, could only be accounted for by conscious weakness-the Nepaulese advanced a claim to the division of Nanori in Betteah; and the Goorkha Governor of the adjacent hill district crossed the border with an armed force, burnt and plundered numerous villages, levied contributions on several, and called upon others, to the number of twenty-two in the aggregate, to acknowledge allegiance to his government.

REOCCUPATION OF MUCKWANPORE.

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His incursion provoked resistance; the people of the country took up arms, and, as the Goorkha party was weak, defeated and expelled them. Their leader was killed in the affray. A stronger force was immediately dispatched from Nepaul, against which no adequate means of resistance were at hand; and the whole of the lands. originally separated from Muckwanpore were forcibly re-occupied by the Goorkhas, without their condescending to give previous intimation of their pretensions or their purposes.*

After

* Besides the districts more particularly specified in the text, various encroachments had occurred almost throughout the whole of the border, from the Tista to the Sutlej. In Tirhoot, between 1787 and 1812, more than two hundred villages had, at different times, been appropriated by the Nepaulese. In Bareilly they had occupied five out of eight divisions of the Pergunna of Khyrapur. They claimed an extensive tract in the Zilla of Moradabad; and in 1813 they attempted to occupy several villages in the territory of the protected Sikh chiefs, but were prevented by the interference of the British Political Agent.-Nepaul Papers, printed for the Court of Proprietors. Narrative of the War, by the Marquis of Hastings, 677.

long and protracted discussions, the right of the British government to the disputed lands on the frontier of Goruckpore was established by documentary evidence, to rebut which no satisfactory testimony was brought forward by the Commissioners from Nepaul. They nevertheless declined to recognise the claim of the British, or to direct the removal of the Goorkha officers from the usurped districts without authority from Khatmandoo, to which they required to refer. A suggestion was, however, made to Major Bradshaw, that the Rajah of Nepaul should cede the disputed lands in exchange for a tract six miles broad, along the skirts of the hills, to be given up by the British government. To this compromise Lord Minto refused his concurrence; he considered the proposal to be equivalent to an admission that the right of his government to Sheoraj and Bhotwal was substantiated, as was truly the case, and that the Court of Nepaul was not entitled to any compensation for the abandonment of unjust and violent usurpations. He regarded the proposition as also evasive and

LORD MINTO'S DEMANDS.

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temporising, and as unlikely, even if acquiesced in, to put a stop to the unfounded claims of the Goorkha government. He consequently

insisted on the unqualified restoration of the usurped territory; and as the commissioners pleaded want of powers, he addressed a letter to the Rajah, reminding him of his promise to abide by the result of the inquiry, and calling upon him to fulfil his promise by ordering his officers to retire from the disputed districts, expressing his earnest wish to remain upon terms of amity with the Nepaul state, but declaring his intention of occupying the lands in question by force if they were not peaceably resigned. Military preparations were set on foot for carrying the menace into effect when the season should permit, as little expectation was entertained that the Court of Khatmandoo would be induced by conciliatory representations to recede from its pretensions. Before a definitive answer was received from the Rajah, the Earl of Moira had succeeded to the government of India."

When the aggressions on the Sarun frontier were committed, strong remonstrances were addressed to the Court of Khatmandoo, and a demand was made that the lands which had been seized should be immediately restored. It was conceded, however, that the right to them should nevertheless be investigated by the magistrate of Sarun and the officers of Nepaul; and it was promised, that, if the Goorkha claim to any of the villages should be made good, they should be restored.

An investigation accordingly took place, the result of which was to disprove the Goorkha pretensions ;* but a final decision was not

* A different story is, however, told by the government of Nepaul. In their instructions to an accredited agent who was to have been dispatched to Calcutta, and which document fell into the hands of LieutenantColonel Bradshaw, they accuse Bir Kishore Sing (the Rajah of Betteah) of having originated the encroachments, taken possession of a large portion of land, and committed an atrocious murder in the Nepaul territories, (referring to the death of the Goorkha officer mentioned in the text). The Rajah proceeds: "You will state