gold rings, set with rubies and sapphires, and several boxes,,handsomely
japanned and painted, were laid before me, and m-y acceptance of them
desired. A conduct marked by such deliberate impoliteness would have
justified retaliation on my part, by a contemptuous rejection of her pre«-
gents; I however refrained from any farther indication of displeasure, than
withdrawing unceremoniously, without taking any notice.pf. the boxes or
rings, which were immediately.nonveyed to p iy ansidenee'hy: her servants.
Having reason to apprehend that the junior princes meant to observe a
similar fee.nfxonduct, I declinedvisiting them, but sent Mr. Wood to .go
through the ceremony of calling at their separate houses. As was .ex,
pccted, he saw not one of the princes, but was received by their W oqhs,
who, though they carefully refrained from absolute rudeness, yet evinced
in their conduct the utmost arrogance,- under -the cloak of supercilious
civility.
Such strange and unwarrantable insolence could not be measured, by
any “scale of true policy, and was hardly to -be reconciled to reason or
common sense; nor could any part of their conduct be laid to the account
of ignorance; for no people on earth better understand, or more pointedly
observe, the minute punctilios of official form. No- candid anddetermi--
nate reply could be extorted from them on any point in which their vanity
was concerned: what their court intended to concede, I understood, was
to be granted, not as an equivalent for reciprocal privileges on our part,
but as a boon, as an act' of gratuitous condescension to me, in the character
of a petitioner, bearing the tribute of homage from an inferior state.
Without the hardiness to avow these principles, which a sense of British
power, and the proximity of the country, probably suppressed, they nevertheless
acted upon them as an assumed fact, with a view to gratify
fhêif- ötro p'ïid'e^^lüdeSdtlfa^é^abl® sxjjiSnaftiohSiJ'Md reap all the advantages
detfvabl’o-horn at^dntuiouisi. \\ nh-UnUsh, India, to éér*
tainly Were far froth: firinga i ei so, fpWVidfediffhh1c'óniespQndenee could be
maintained itpöfi Jtlfer ^Wri^tl'rms's
In- pmshafieè^df I acMTêfiSèd the lêttéb‘‘(Appèndix,
^fot'JSSp-W^the chief and,t>d>grve f t'd l the
publicrt^''ïöié^ch.d'Öéclaflt'iêï| 0tig'hf foVhïWe, ^I'sent Mr. Wolwfó,deliver
it impel^atiitb'ffietminislLr^yiicaiiig hun afteivi inis' t<#Mv lit 'on the
two junior Woortgèës, arid kp'ppY/ü 'ilferrdfoYthally o f my having iyritteft a
letter of siuëH W tenotir. ‘
* -Nor (ho ‘F r d s o ' lV v t h i s rnc.!isim‘’dvitfibut malijrcK cbhsi(i£ii'r,gf the
effect it wasiikely^hi pHSlircc, is well .is*üftclie« cssit’v in fvlfn.li it iiilgi*^
Sated. „ ï f e 'Court had evidently hél i r uri baity’) ss&l •trEHl\l,lp'lfrsjft st rue-. iff
fhe%üsinesS£and was-uttdefermmM''ifi ^M t'(banner to at t'1;’ dr dji^irre1
Solution I ascribe the petty artifice of misinforming md!iti mtiH'cfs’ÓrrfiSët.'
Thè accounts from Eufoplj’beSSlnly- fiad^gifewt Weight ifijirfil jjbhriüg' the ir
conduct, and those Gouldhmly h e ’di'scïo^Sd by nmlnjnhngfhighi.i fan
gfiage than hefore,: to have,
strued into at least-a presump tiy^yevidenGe- of our. weakness, vvlulsi tli^j
sli|ji|stha^ was attempted to b e ^ ^ t% . the authority-delegated- to. mj%'
left no alternative but to endeavourv'tqytelÊ0'W<. i ï ‘b ^ k temperate remonstrance,
such as my letter wasfintended tóxqnyójf', further
coirnnunicationiji and withdraw v, ithuuts rei ètnrmy ^d Kis Lutei slcp
was not to be taken under an.^'pitoVccaprlm'sho; t ofjjpprsoiml mjuiy, thm
which I believe nothing was farthei fipnuüfcheir intention lo onju^ici.
their :ow© importance by the unworthy mode ofplosscnmg-that ot^ftlicis,
seemed to be the sole m o tit^ that acimaMf them, kfid which, -as ''fair