§ Sir T. E. Colebrookerose to ask the question of which he had given notice on Friday. By the last mail from India they had been informed of some coercive measures likely to be taken against the Ameers of Scinde. He was desirous of knowing what justification could be adduced for this interference, and whether the treaty concluded with the Ameers in 1839 was not still in force?
§ Sir R. Peelsaid, that the treaty con- 419 cluded by Lord Auckland, in 1839, with the Ameers of Scinde, contained one important stipulation, by which the Ameers of Scinde pledged themselves to act in subordination to the British Government in India, and not to enter into any treaty with any other powers without the concurrence of the British Government. The Ameers, however, were charged with infractions of this treaty, and with levying tolls on the Indus. In consequence of the infractions of the treaty to which he had alluded, conditions had been submitted to the Ameers as the basis of a new treaty. At the time the last mail came away, sufficient time had not elapsed to allow the Government to receive an official account of the result of these negotiations, but the accounts they had received led them to believe that the Ameers of Scinde had expressed their willingness to accept the terms which had been submitted to them as the basis of a future treaty.