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in concert with whom proceedings were held, and evidence taken, for the purpose of ascertaining the claims of the parties. The result left no doubt of the right of the British government, and of the unjust and violent procedure of the Nepaulese.

the

A more striking proof of the spirit of rapacity and unjust aggression by which Nepaulese were actuated cannot be adduced than the fact, that, after having agreed to the investigation referred to above, and after the actual deputation of officers by each government, the Nepaulese suddenly seized an additional tract of country belonging to the Company, at a very short distance from the scene of their former aggressions.

This violent and unjust procedure would have warranted an immediate demand for restitution, or even the actual re-occupation of the lands by force; and it may now be a subject of regret to the British government that this course was not pursued. Far, however, from resenting or punishing this daring

outrage as it deserved, the British government resolved to persevere in the amicable course which it had pursued in other cases, and permitted Mr. Young, the gentleman deputed to meet the Nepaulese Commissioners, to extend his inquiries to the lands newly seized, as above stated, as well as to those which formed the original object of his deputation.

The pretext by which the Nepaulese attempted to justify their occupation of the lands. in Nunnore, which consisted of no less than twenty-two villages, was, that they were included in the Tuppah of Rotehut, forming a division of Purgunnah Sunnown; which Tuppah was restored to the Nepaulese in the year 1783, with the rest of the Terraiee of Muckwanpore, which had been conquered by the British arms under Major Kinloch. The utter groundlessness of this pretext was proved by the evidence taken by Mr. Young, which clearly established that the disputed lands were situated in the Tuppah of Nunnore, a portion of Purgunnah

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Simruwun, which had been reserved by the Company at the time of the restitution of Rotehut, and the remainder of Muckwanpore. But had it been otherwise, the tacit acquiescence by the Nepaulese in our possession of those lands for a period of thirty years would have amounted to a dereliction of their claim, however well founded it might originally have been.

The abrupt and violent manner in which the Nepaulese have invariably possessed themselves of those portions of the Honourable Company's territory to which they have at any time pretended a right, will not allow the supposition that they would have refrained during so long a period from doing themselves. justice in the present case, if they had felt conscious of the validity of the claim. It is evident, from the whole tenor of their proceedings, that they acted on that premeditated system of gradual encroachment, which, owing to the unexampled forbearance and moderation. of the British government, they had already

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found to be successful; and that the assertion of the twenty-two villages having been included in the Tuppah of Rotehut, was merely brought forward to give colour to the unwarrantable act which they had committed, when it became necessary to assign a reason for their conduct.

The Nepaulese have attempted to fix on the subjects of the Honourable Company the guilt of the murder of Subah Luchingir, and have stated, as matter of complaint against the British government, that the Rajah of Betteah and his followers have not been punished for that act; and they have endeavoured to found on this charge a justification of their own subsequent proceedings. It has been ascertained, however, by incontestable evidence, that Luchingir had, previously to the occurrence of the affray in which he died, possessed himself of some villages in Betteah, and was preparing to extend his encroachments. Whatever degree of culpability, therefore, may attach to the subjects of the Honourable Company

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for forcibly opposing his proceedings, their offence was towards their own government alone; and the Nepaulese could not, with any colour of justice, demand the punishment of those persons for an act produced solely by misconduct of their own officers, or charge the British government with a culpable omission of what would have been, under different circumstances, due to a state professedly on friendly terms with it; still less can they found. on this transaction any justification of their own conduct in other instances.

As the final resolution of the British government with respect to the usurped lands in Betteah, was in part influenced by the conduct of the Nepaulese, relative to the disputed territory of Bhotwal and Sheoraj in Goruckpore, it will be proper to advert to the circumstances of that transaction in this place.

It is notorious, and has also been proved by reference to authentic records, and by the unimpeached testimony of living witnesses, that the whole of Bhotwal, to the very foot of