'Precis Containing Information in regard to the First Connection of the Hon'ble East India Company with Turkish Arabia, as far as the Same Can Be Traced from the Records of the Bombay Government, together with the Names of the Several British Residents and Political Agents Who Have Been Stationed at Bagdad [Baghdad] and Bussorah [Basra] between A.D. 1646 and 1846, accompanied by Other Information' [‎53v] (108/226)

70 PRECIS OF INFORMATION REGARDING CONNECTION OF E. t. COMFY.
appointed Resident at Bussorah. The following- is an extract from this
despatch:—
" It now becomes our duty, however delicate the office, to reply to your Secretary's
letter of the 1st January respecting the preceding Resident, and his return from Grane
to Bussorah, but previously, we beg leave respectfully to recall to your recollection the
words of the last communication, we had, on the 25th February, the honor of making
to you on the state of the Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. , and to submit at the same time to your notice our
subsequent correspondence on the same subject with the Hon'ble the President in
Council of Bombay. Our letter to you of the 25th February says that on the political
state of your establishment here we must still decline addressing you, as the occupa
tions and circumstances of our own charge are multifarious and perplexing, and the
materials for forming a correct judgment as yet incomplete. We are animated with
an ambition and indulge likewise the hope that when we shall have the honor of com
municating on the subject our accounts may be such as to give you satisfaction and
gain ourselves approbation. Our language soon after to the Presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. ot Bombay is
still diffident, but more expressive of the state of the Hon'ble Company's credit and
interests in Bussorah. We cannot presume to speak with full confidence until, from a
longer residence, we may acquire more leisure than we have yet been able to com
mand, to explore the military documents and unconnected records of preceding
times, to examine the foundation of our establishment here and its rights, to unravel
the perplexity of recent transactions, and, until we may derive more experience and
opportunities to determine the present temper of the Government. Thus much we
can decisively pronounce that the influence and dignity of the Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. have suffered
a severe shock, and that jealousy and distance seem to form the Turkish aspect as near
as we have been able to contemplate it. By these extracts we wish to press upon your
observation that our style has hitherto been studied not to disturb by any alarm nor
to hull a perfect repose upon the immediate state of your affairs here, but only to give
satisfaction that we were vigilant and alert, and should come forward with our report
upon your interests and concerns in due time and season : this principle in our cor
respondence has originated from laudable, public, and liberal private motives in us ; we
did not wish to draw much upon your time and attention until we might be able to
present you at once with a perfect and satisfactory arrangement of your affairs,
thereby saving you the unnecessary trouble and perplexity of attending our transac
tions step by step and ourselves the odious task of exposing every wound and defect to
view before we applied their remedy.
" The tenor of your Secretary's letter of the 1st of January will no longer admit
our indulgence of the considerations we have hitherto obeyed. You have been induced
to retract your sentiments and positive orders, and if not apprized may with equal
generosity and as little investigation be persuaded to consent to a further revocation
of a more serious nature at such a time when qualified to undeceive you and to put you
on your guard against danger. Silence would on our part be treachery and delicacy
a crime ; we therefore without hesitation advance to the duty which the faith
in which we are pledged to you demands, by candidly declaring that three
months' sedulous study of your interests and concern in this quarter and attentive
xperience of local facts have not established in the smallest degree to our judgment
the merit of that restoration of the factory An East India Company trading post. upon which you have been graciously
pleased to bestow your approbation, but on the contrary proved to our impartial, cool,
and, we can add, competent estimation, that it has been a measure either ill judged or
hurried; that the advantages over the Pacha, which remained after the extremity of
moving to Grane have been either overlooked or forsaken ; that the foundation upon
which your factory An East India Company trading post. , as been again run up here is altogether to be suspected, and that
the whole political edifice of this re-establishment is neither solid in its materials nor
respectable in its appearance. In short it is a shattered house, still more disfigured
but not strengthened by buttress and props.
" Your intentions to confirm our predecessors* are not the less honorable to them
for having been impeded by our arrival, nor is the event, notwithstanding whatever
their merits may be, unfortunate to the Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. , for it never in reason, nor human
nature, could be expected that a cordial reconciliation could be established in the
bosoms of those who had been in such long open hostility and avowed personal animo
sity as have marked the late disputes, and the Pacha would from a glow ot triumph
* Messrs. Manesty and Harford Jones.