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Preface

My object in writing this DIARY OF A TOUR THROUGH OUDE was to prepare, for submission to the Government of India, as fair and full a picture of the real state of the country, condition, and feeling of the people of all classes, and character of the Government under which they at present live, as the opportunities which the tour afforded me might enable me to draw.

The DIARY must, for the present, be considered as an official document, which may be perused, but cannot be published, wholly or in part, without the sanction of Government previously obtained.*

W. H. SLEEMAN. Lucknow, 1852.

* This permission was accorded by the Honourable Court of Directors in December last.

[Transcriber's note: Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official by W. H. Sleeman 2nd Ed. 1915, p.xxxvi notes that the date of the permission was not December 1851, but December 1852.]

CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

Biographical Sketch of Major-General Sir W. H. Sleeman, K.C.B.

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Introduction

Private correspondence preceding the Journey through the Kingdom of Oude

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Chapter I

Departure from Lucknow--Gholam Hazrut--Attack on the late Prime Minister, Ameen-od-Dowla--A similar attack on the sons of a former Prime Minister, Agar Meer--Gunga Sing and Kulunder Buksh--Gorbuksh Sing, of Bhitolee--Gonda Bahraetch district--Rughbur Sing--Prethee Put, of Paska--King of Oude and King of the Fairies--Surafraz mahal

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Chapter II

Bahraetch--Shrine of Syud Salar--King of the Fairies and the Fiddlers--Management of Bahraetch district for forty-three years-- Murder of Amur Sing, by Hakeem Mehndee--Nefarious transfer of khalsa lands to Tallookdars, by local officers--Rajah Dursun Sing-- His aggression on the Nepaul Territory--Consequences--Intelligence Department--How formed, managed, and abused--Rughbur Sing's management of Gonda and Bahraetch for 1846-47--Its fiscal effects--A gang-robber caught and hung by Brahmin villagers--Murder of Syampooree Gosaen--Ramdut Pandee--Fairies and Fiddlers--Ramdut Pandee, the Banker--the Rajahs of Toolseepoor and Bulrampoor--Murder of Mr. Ravenscroft, of the Bengal Civil Service, at Bhinga, in 1823.

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Chapter III

Legendary tale of breach of Faith--Kulhuns tribe of Rajpoots--Murder of the Banker, Ramdut Pandee, by the Nazim of Bahraetch--Recrossing the Ghagra river--Sultanpoor district, State of Commandants of troops become sureties for the payment of land revenue--Estate of Muneearpoor and the Lady Sogura--Murder of Hurpaul Sing, Gurgbunsee, of Kupragow--Family of Rajahs Bukhtawar and Dursun Sing--Their bynama Lands--Law of Primogeniture--Its object and effect--Rajah Ghalib Jung--Good effects of protection to Tenantry--Disputes about Boundaries--Our army a safety-valve for Oude--Rapid decay of Landed Aristocracy in our Territories--Local ties in groves, wells, &c.

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Chapter IV

Recross the Goomtee river--Sultanpoor Cantonments--Number of persons begging redress of wrongs, and difficulty of obtaining it in Oude-- Apathy of the Sovereign--Incompetence and unfitness of his Officers-- Sultanpoor, healthy and well suited for Troops--Chandour, twelve miles distant, no less so--lands of their weaker neighbours absorbed by the family of Rajah Dursun Sing, by fraud, violence, and collusion; but greatly improved--Difficulty attending attempt to restore old Proprietors--Same absorptions have been going on in all parts of Oude--and the same difficulty to be everywhere encountered-- Soils in the district, mutteear, doomutteea, bhoor, oosur-- Risk at which lands are tilled under Landlords opposed to their Government--Climate of Oude more invigorating than that of Malwa-- Captain Magness's Regiment--Repair of artillery guns--Supply of grain to its bullocks--Civil establishment of the Nazim--Wolves--Dread of killing them among Hindoos--Children preserved by them in their dens, and nurtured.

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Chapter V

Salone district--Rajah Lal Hunmunt Sing of Dharoopoor--Soil of Oude-- Relative fertility of the mutteear and doomutteea--Either may become oosur, or barren, from neglect, and is reclaimed, when it does so, with difficulty--Shah Puna Ata, a holy man in charge of an eleemosynary endowment at Salone--Effects of his curses--Invasion of British Boundary--Military Force with the Nazim--State and character of this Force--Rae Bareilly in the Byswara district--Bandha, or Misletoe--Rana Benee Madhoo, of Shunkerpoor--Law of Primogeniture-- Title of Rana contested between Benee Madhoo and Rogonath Sing-- Bridge and avenue at Rae Bareilly--Eligible place for cantonment and civil establishments--State of the Artillery--Sobha Sing's regiment-- Foraging System--Peasantry follow the fortunes of their refractory Landlords--No provision for the king's soldiers, disabled in action, or for the families of those who are killed--Our sipahees, a privileged class, very troublesome in the Byswara and Banoda districts--Goorbukshgunge--Man destroyed by an Elephant--Danger to which keepers of such animals are exposed--Bys Rajpoots composed of two great families, Sybunsies and Nyhassas--Their continual contests for landed possessions--Futteh Bahader--Rogonath Sing--Mahibollah the robber and estate of Balla--Notion that Tillockchundee Bys Rajpoots never suffer from the bite of a snake--Infanticide--Paucity of comfortable dwelling-houses--The cause--Agricultural capitalists-- Ornaments and apparel of the females of the Bys clan--Late Nazim Hamid Allee--His father-in-law Fuzl Allee--First loan from Oude to our Government--Native gentlemen with independent incomes cannot reside in the country--Crowd the city, and tend to alienate the Court from the people.

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Chapter VI

Nawabgunge, midway between Cawnpoor and Lucknow--Oosur soils how produced--Visit from the prime minister--Rambuksh, of Dhodeeakhera-- Hunmunt Sing, of Dharoopoor--Agricultural capitalists--Sipahees and native offices of our army--Their furlough, and petitions-- Requirements of Oude to secure good government. The King's reserved treasury--Charity distributed through the Mojtahid, or chief justice--Infanticide--Loan of elephants, horses, and draft bullocks by Oude to Lord Lake in 1804--Clothing for the troops--The Akbery regiment--Its clothing, &c.,--Trespasses of a great man's camp in Oude--Russoolabad and Sufeepoor districts--Buksh Allee, the dome-- Budreenath, the contractor for Sufeepoor--Meeangunge--Division of the Oude Territory in 1801, in equal shares between Oude and the British Governments--Almas Allee Khan--His good government--The passes of Oude--Thieves by hereditary profession, and village watchmen-- Rapacity of the King's troops--Total absence of all sympathy between the governing and governed--Measures necessary to render the Oude troops efficient and less mischievous to the people--Sheikh Hushmut Allee, of Sundeela.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH of MAJOR-GENERAL SIR W. H. SLEEMAN. K.C.B.

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This distinguished officer, whose career in India extended over a period of forty years, and whose services were highly appreciated by three Governors-General--Viscount Hardinge, the Earl of Ellenborough, and the Marquess of Dalhousie--evinced by their appointing him to the most difficult and delicate duties--was the son of Philip and Mary Sleeman, and was born at Stratton, Cornwall, 8th August, 1788. In early years he evinced a predilection for the military profession; and at the age of twenty-one (October, 1809), through the good offices of the late Lord De Dunstanville, he was appointed an Infantry Cadet in the Bengal army. Thither he proceeded as soon as possible, and was promoted successively to the rank of Ensign, 23rd September, 1810; Lieutenant, 16th December, 1814; Brevet-Captain, 24th April, 1824; Captain, 23rd September, 1826; Major, 1st February, 1837; Lieutenant-Colonel, 26th May, 1843; Colonel, 24th November, 1853; and obtained the rank of Major-General 28th November, 1854.

Early in his career he served in the Nepaulese war. The value of his talents soon became known, and in 1816, when it was considered necessary to investigate a claim to property as prize-money arising out of that war, Lieutenant Sleeman was selected to inquire into it. The report was accordingly made by him in February 1817, which was designated by the Government as "able, impartial, and satisfactory."

In 1820 he was appointed junior Assistant to the Agent of the Governor-General at Saugur, and remained in the Civil Department in the Saugur and Nerbudda territories, with the exception of absence on sick certificate, for nearly a quarter of a century. Here he manifested that, if he had been efficient in an inferior position, he was also an able administrator in a superior post. He distinguished himself so much by his activity in the suppression of the horrible practice of Thuggism, then so prevalent, that, in 1835, he was employed exclusively in the Thuggee Department; his appointment in the Saugur and Nerbudda districts being kept open, and his promotion going on. The very valuable Papers upon Thuggism submitted to the Governor-General were chiefly drawn up by Sir William Sleeman, and the department specially commissioned for this important purpose was not only organised but worked by him. In consequence of ill-health, however, at the end of 1836, he was compelled to resign this appointment; but on his return to duty in February 1839, he was nominated to the combined offices of Commissioner for the Suppression of Thuggee and Dacoity.

In 1842 he was employed on a special mission in Bundelcund, to inquire into the causes of the recent disturbances there, and he remained in that district, with additional duties, as Resident at Gwalior, from 1844 until 1849, when he was removed to the highly important office of Resident at the Court of Lucknow. Colonel Sleeman held his office at Gwalior in very critical times, which resulted in hostilities and the battle of Maharajpore. But for a noble and unselfish act he would have received this promotion at an earlier period. The circumstance was this: Colonel Low, the Resident at that time, hearing that his father was dangerously ill, tendered his resignation to Lord Auckland, who immediately offered the appointment to Colonel Sleeman. No sooner had this occurred, however, than Colonel Low wrote to his Lordship that, since he had resigned, the house of Gaunter and Co., of Calcutta, in which his brother was a partner, had failed, and, in consequence, every farthing he had saved had been swept away. Under this painful contingency be begged to place himself in his Lordship's hands. This letter was sent by Lord Auckland to Colonel Sleeman, who immediately wrote to Colonel Low, begging that he would retain his situation at Lucknow. This generous conduct of Colonel Sleeman was duly appreciated; and Lord Auckland, on leaving India, recommended him to the particular notice of his successor. Lord Ellenborough, who immediately appointed Colonel Sleeman to Jhansi with an additional 1000_l_. a-year to his income.

Colonel Sleeman held the appointment of Resident at Lucknow from the year 1849 until 1856. During this period his letters and diary show his unwearied efforts to arrive at the best information on all points with regard to Oude. These will enable the reader to form a just, opinion on the highly-important subject of the annexation of this kingdom to British India. The statements of Colonel Sleeman bear inward evidence of his great administrative talents, his high and honourable character, and of his unceasing endeavours to promote the best interests of the King of Oude, so that his kingdom might have been preserved to him. Colonel Sleeman's views were directly opposed to annexation, as his letters clearly show.

His long and arduous career was now, however, fast drawing to a close. So early as the summer of 1854 it became evident that the health of General Sleeman was breaking up, and in the August of that year he was attacked by alarming illness. "Forty-six years of incessant labour," observes a writer at this date, "have had their influence even on his powerful frame: he has received one of those terrible warnings believed to indicate the approach of paralysis. With General Sleeman will depart the last hope of any improvement in the condition of the unhappy country of Oude. Though belonging to the elder class of Indian officials, he has never been Hindooized. He fully appreciated the evils of a native throne: he has sternly, and even haughtily, pointed out to the King the miseries caused by his incapacity, and has frequently extorted from his fears the mercy which it was vain to hope from his humanity."

Later in the year. General Sleeman went to the hills, in the hope of recruiting his wasted health by change of air and scene; but the expectation proved vain, and he was compelled to take passage for England. But it was now too late: notwithstanding the best medical aid, he gradually sank, and, after a long illness, died on his passage from Calcutta, on the 10th February, 1856, at the age of sixty-seven.

His Indian career was, indeed, long and honourable his labours most meritorious. He was one of those superior men which the Indian service is constantly producing, who have rendered the name of Englishman respected throughout the vast empire of British India, and whose memory will endure so long as British power shall remain in the East.

It is well known that Lord Dalhousie, on his relinquishing the Indian Government, recommended General Sleeman and two other distinguished officers in civil employment for some mark of the royal favour, and he was accordingly nominated K.C.B., 4th February, 1856; of which honour his Lordship apprised him in a highly gratifying letter.

But, however high the reputation of an officer placed in such circumstances--and none stood higher than Sir William Sleeman, not only in the estimation of the Governor-General and the Honourable Company, but also in the opinion of the inhabitants of India, where he had served with great ability for forty years, and won the respect and love particularly of the natives, who always regarded him as their friend, and by whom his equity was profoundly appreciated--it was to be anticipated, as a matter of course, that his words and actions would be distorted and misrepresented by a Court so atrociously infamous. This, no doubt, he was prepared to expect, The King, or rather the creatures who surrounded him, would at all cost endeavour to prevent any investigation into their gross malpractices, and seek to slander the man they were unable to remove.

The annexation of Oude to the British dominions followed, but not as a consequence of Sir W. Sleeman's report. No greater injustice can be done than to assert that he advised such a course. His letters prove exactly the reverse. He distinctly states, in his correspondence with the Governor-General, Lord Dalhousie, that the annexation of Oude would cost the British power more than the value of ten such kingdoms, and would inevitably lead to a mutiny of the Sepoys. He constantly maintains the advisability of frontier kingdoms under native sovereigns, that the people themselves might observe the contrast, to the advantage of the Honourable Company, of the wise and equitable administration of its rule compared with the oppressive and cruel despotism of their own princes. Sir William Sleeman had profoundly studied the Indian character in its different races, and was deservedly much beloved by them for his earnest desire to promote their welfare, and for the effectual manner in which, on all occasions in his power, and these were frequent, he redressed the evils complained of, and extended the Ægis of British power over the afflicted and oppressed.

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Introduction

THE following Narrative of a "Pilgrimage" through the kingdom of Oude was written by the late Major-General Sir William Sleeman in 1851 (while a Resident at the Court of Lucknow), at the request of the Governor-General the Marquess of Dalhousie, in order to acquaint the Honourable Company with the actual condition of that kingdom, and with the view of pointing out the best measures to be suggested to the King for the improvement and amelioration of the country and people.

So early as October, 1847, the King of Oude had been informed by the Governor-General, that if his system of rule were not materially amended (for it was disgraceful and dangerous to any neighbouring power to permit its continuance in its present condition) before two years had expired, the British Government would find it necessary to take steps for such purpose in his name. Accordingly on the 16th September, 1848, the Governor-General addressed the following letter to Sir William Sleeman, commissioning him to make a personal visit to all parts of the kingdom:--

"Government House, Sept. 16, 1848.

"My Dear COLONEL SLEEMAN,--It was a matter of regret to me that I had not anticipated your desire to succeed Colonel Sutherland in Rajpootana before I made arrangements which prevented my offering that appointment to you. I now regret it no longer, since the course of events has put it in my power to propose an arrangement which will, I apprehend, be more agreeable to you, and which will make your services more actively beneficial to the State.

"Colonel Richmond has intimated his intention of immediately resigning the Residency at Lucknow. The communication made by the Governor-General to the King of Oude, in October, 1847, gave His Majesty to understand that if the condition of Government was not very materially amended before two years had expired, the management for his behoof would be taken into the hands of the British Government.

"There seems little reason to expect or to hope that in October, 1849, any amendment whatever will have been effected. The reconstruction of the internal administration of a great, rich, and oppressed country, is a noble as well as an arduous task for the officer to whom the duty is intrusted, and the Government have recourse to one of the best of its servants for that purpose.

"The high reputation you have earned, your experience of civil administration, your knowledge of the people, and the qualifications you possess as a public man, have led me to submit your name to the Council of India as an officer to whom I could commit this important charge with entire confidence that its duties would be well performed. I do myself, therefore, the honour of proposing to you to accept the office of Resident at Lucknow, with especial reference to the great changes which, in all probability, will take place. Retaining your superintendency of Thuggee affairs, it will be manifestly necessary that you should be relieved from the duty of the trials of Thugs usually condemned at Lucknow.

"In the hope that you will not withhold from the Government your services in the capacity I have named, and in the further hope of finding an opportunity of personally making your acquaintance,

"I have the honour to be, "Dear Colonel Sleeman, "Very faithfully yours, "DALHOUSIE."

"To Colonel Sleeman, &c., &c."

Immediately on receipt of this despatch, Sir William proceeded to make the necessary inquiry. Doubtless the King (instigated by his Ministers and favourites, who dreaded the exposure of all their infamous proceedings) would have prevented this investigation, which, he was aware, would furnish evidence of gross mal-administration, cruelty, and oppression almost unparalleled; but Sir William Sleeman was too well acquainted with the character of the people of the East to be moved either by cajolery or menaces from the important duty which had devolved upon him.

Sir William Sleeman's position as Resident enabled him to ascertain thoroughly the real state of Oude; and the great respect with which he was universally received manifests the high opinion entertained of him personally by all ranks. The details he has given of the prevailing anarchy and lawlessness throughout the kingdom, would scarcely be believed were they not vouched for by an officer of established reputation and integrity. Firmness united to amenity of manner were indeed the characteristics of Sir William in his important and delicate office at such a Court--a Court where the King, deputing the conduct of business to Ministers influenced by the basest motives, and who constantly sacrificed justice to bribery and low intrigues, gave himself up to the effeminate indulgence of his harem, and the society of eunuchs and fiddlers. His Majesty appears to have been governed by favourites of the hour selected through utter caprice, and to have permitted, if he did not order, such atrocious cruelties and oppression as rendered the kingdom of Oude a disgrace to the British rule in India, and called for strong interference, on the score of humanity alone, as well as with the hope of compelling amendment.

The letter addressed by Lord Dalhousie to Sir William Sleeman expresses the desire of the Governor-General that he should endeavour to inform himself of the actual state of Oude, and render his Narrative a guide to the Honourable Company in its Report to the Court of Directors. The details furnish but too faithful a picture of the miserable condition of the people, equally oppressed by the exactions of the King's army and collectors, and by the gangs of robbers and lawless chieftains who infest the whole territory, rendering tenure so doubtful that no good dwellings could be erected, and land only partially cultivated; whilst the numberless cruelties and atrocious murders surpass belief. Shut up in his harem, the voice of justice seldom reached the ear of the monarch, and when it did, was scarcely heeded. The Resident, it will be seen, was beset during his journey with petitions for redress so numerous, that, anxious as he was to do everything in his power to mitigate the horrors he witnessed, he frequently gives vent to the pain he experienced at finding relief impracticable.

The Narrative contains an unvarnished but unexaggerated picture of the actual state of Oude, with many remedial suggestions; but direct annexation formed no part of the policy which Sir William Sleeman recommended. To this measure he was strenuously opposed, as is distinctly proved by his letters appended to the Journal. At the same time, he repeatedly affirms the total unfitness of the King to govern. These opinions are still further corroborated by the following letter from his private correspondence, 1854-5, written when Resident at Lucknow, and published in the Times in November last:--

"The system of annexation, pursued by a party in this country, and favoured by Lord Dalhousie and his Council, has, in my opinion, and in that of a large number of the ablest men in India, a downward tendency--a tendency to crush all the higher and middle classes connected with the land. These classes it should be our object to create and foster, that we might in the end inspire them with a feeling of interest in the stability of our rule. We shall find a few years hence the tables turned against us. In fact, the aggressive and absorbing policy, which has done so much mischief of late in India, is beginning to create feelings of alarm in the native mind; and it is when the popular mind becomes agitated by such alarms that fanatics will always be found ready to step into Paradise over the bodies of the most prominent of those from whom injury is apprehended. I shall have nothing new to do at Lucknow. Lord Dalhousie and I have different views, I fear. If he wishes anything done that I do not think right and honest, I resign, and leave it to be done by others. I desire a strict adherence to solemn engagements, whether made with white faces or black. We have no right to annex or confiscate Oude; but we have a right, under the treaty of 1837, to take the management of it, but not to appropriate its revenues to ourselves. We can do this with honour to our Government and benefit to the people. To confiscate would be dishonest and dishonourable. To annex would be to give the people a government almost as bad as their own, if we put our screw upon them. My position here has been and is disagreeable and unsatisfactory: we have a fool of a king, a knave of a minister, and both are under the influence of one of the cleverest, most intriguing, and most unscrupulous villains in India."

Major Bird, in his pamphlet "Dacoitee in Excelsis," while endeavouring to establish a case for the King of Oude, has assumed that Sir William Sleeman was an instrument in the hands of Lord Dalhousie, to carry out his purpose of annexing Oude to British India. The letters, now first printed, entirely refute this hasty and erroneous statement. Major Bird has, in fact, withdrawn it himself in a lecture delivered by him at Southampton on Tuesday, the 16th of February, 1858.

It will be seen that Sir W. Sleeman's "Diary" commences on December 1, 1849. To preserve chronological order, the letters written before that date are prefixed; those which refer to a later period are added at the end of the narrative.

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PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE PRECEDING THE JOURNEY THROUGH THE KINGDOM OF OUDE.

Camp, 20th February, 1848.

My Dear Sir,

I thank you for your letter of the 10th instant, and am of opinion that you may be able to make good use of Bhurut Sing under judicious management, and strict surveillance; but you do not mention who and what he is--whether he is a prisoner under sentence, or a free agent, or of what caste and profession. Some men make these offers in order to have opportunities of escape, while engaged in the pretended search after associates in crime; others to extort money from those whom they may denounce, or have the authority and means to arrest. He should be made to state distinctly the evidence he has against persons, and the way he got it; and all should be recorded against the names of the persons in a Register. Major Riddell is well acquainted with our mode of proceedings in all such cases, and I recommend you to put yourself in communication, as soon as possible, with him, and Mr. Dampier, the Superintendent of Police, who fortunately takes the greatest possible interest in all such matters. I have no supervision whatever over the officers of the department employed in Bengal; all rests entirely with Mr. Dampier. You might write to him at once, and tell him that you are preparing such a Register as I suggest; and if he is satisfied with the evidence, he will authorise the arrest of all or part, and well reward Bhurut Sing for his services.

Believe me, My Dear Sir, With best wishes for your success, Yours sincerely, (Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

To Capt. J. Innes, Barrackpoor.

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Camp, 20th February, 1848. My Dear Colonel Sutherland,

There are at Jubulpore a good many of the Bagree decoits, who have been sentenced as approvers, by the Courts of Punchaet, in Rajpootana, to imprisonment for very short periods. Unless they are ordered to be retained when these periods expire, on a requisition of security for their future good behaviour, they will make off, and assuredly return to their hereditary trade. The ordinary pay of the grades open to them in our police and other establishments, will not satisfy them when they find that we have no hold upon them, and they become more and more troublesome as the time for their enlargement approaches.

I send you copies of the letters from Government of the 27th June, 1839, from which you will see that it was intended that all professional decoits who gave us their services on a promise of conditional pardon, should have a sentence of imprisonment for life recorded against them, the execution of which was to be suspended during their good behaviour, and eventually altogether remitted in cases where they might be deemed to have merited, by a course of true and faithful services, such an indulgence. In all other parts, as well as in our own provinces as in native states, such sentences, have been recorded against these men, and they have cheerfully submitted to them, under the assurance that they and their children would be provided with the means of earning an honest livelihood; but in Rajpootana it has been otherwise.

By Act 24, of 1843, all such professional gang-robbers are declared liable to a sentence, on conviction, of imprisonment for life; and everywhere else a sentence of imprisonment for life has been passed upon all persons convicted of being gang-robbers by profession. This is indispensably necessary for the entire suppression of the system which Government has in view. Do you not think that in your Courts the final sentence might be left to the European functionaries, and the verdict only left to the Punchaets? The greater part of those already convicted in these Courts will have to be released soon, and all who are so will certainly return to their trade; and the system will continue in spite of all our efforts to put it down. I have just been at Jubulpore, and the bearing of the Bagree decoits, sent from Ajmeer by Buch, is quite different from that of those who have had a sentence of imprisonment for life passed against them in other quarters, and is very injurious to them, for they get so bad a name that no one will venture to give them service of any kind. Do, I pray you, think of a remedy for the future. The only one that strikes me is that above suggested, of leaving the final sentence to the European officers.

I need not say that I was delighted at your getting the great Douger Sing by the means you had yourself proposed for the pursuit--sending an officer with authority to disregard boundaries.

Yours sincerely, (Signed) W. S. SLEEMAN

To Col. Sutherland.

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Jhansee, 4th March, 1848.

My Lord,

I had the gratification to receive your Lordship's letter of the 7th of January last, at Nursingpore, in the valley of the Nerbudda, where I commenced my Civil career more than a quarter of a century before, and where, of all places, I should have wished to receive so gracious a testimonial from such high authority. I should have earlier expressed by grateful acknowledgments, and prepared the narrative so frequently called for, but I was then engaged in preparing a Report on Gang-robbery in India, and wished first to make a little more progress, that I might be able to speak more confidently of its ultimate completion and submission to Government. In a less perfect form this Report was, at the earnest recommendation of the then Lieut.-Governor N.W.P., the Honourable T. Robertson, and with the sanction of the Governor-General Lord Auckland, sent to the Government press so long back as 1842, but his Lordship appeared to me to think that the printing had better be deferred till more progress had been made in the work of putting down the odious system of crime which the Report exposed, and I withdrew it from the press with little hope of ever again having any leisure to devote to it, or finding any other person able and willing to undertake its completion.

During the last rains, however, I began again to arrange the confused mass of papers which I found lying in a box; but in October I was interrupted by a severe attack of fever, and unable to do anything but the current duties of my office till I commenced my tour through the Saugor territories, in November. I have since nearly completed the work, and hope to be able to submit it to Government before the end of this month in a form worthy of its acceptation.

I am afraid that the narrative of my humble services will be found much longer than it ought to be, but I have written it hastily that it might go by this mail, and it is the first attempt I have ever thought of making at such a narrative, for I have gone on quietly "through evil and through good report," doing, to the best of my ability, the duties which it has pleased the Government of India, from time to time, to confide to me, in the manner which appeared to me most conformable to its wishes and its honour, satisfied and grateful for the trust and confidence which enabled me to do so much good for the people, and to secure so much of their attachment and gratitude to their rulers.

Permit me to subscribe myself, with great respect, Your Lordship's faithful and obedient humble servant,

(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

To Lieut.-General the Right Hon. Henry Viscount Hardinge, &c. &c. &c.

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Jhansee, 4th March, 1848. Dear Sir,

Lord Hardinge, in a letter dated the 7th of January last, requested me to make out a narrative of my humble services in India, and to send it under cover to you, as he expected to embark on the 15th, before he could receive it in Calcutta. I take the liberty to send my reply with the narrative, open, and to request that you will do me the favour to have them sealed and forwarded to his Lordship.

Believe me, dear Sir, Yours very faithfully, (Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

To J. Cosmo Melvill, Secretary to the East India Company, India House, London.

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Jhansee, 28th March, 1848.

My Dear Elliot,

The Court of Directors complain that decoit prisoners are not tried as soon as they are caught, but they know little of the difficulties that the officers under me find in getting them tried, for political officers have, in truth, had little encouragement to undertake such duties, and it is only a few choice spirits that have entered upon the duty con amore. General Nott prided, himself upon doing nothing whatever while he was at Lucknow; General Pollock did all he could, but it was not much; and Colonel Richmond does nothing. There the Buduk decoits, Thugs, and poisoners, remain without sentences, and will do so till Richmond goes, unless you give him a fillip. If you tell him to apply for an assistant to aid him in the conduct of the trials, and tell him to nominate his own, he may go to work, and I earnestly pray you to do something, or the Oude Turae will become what it had for ages been before we cleaned it out. Davidson was prevented from doing anything by technical difficulties, so that out of four Residents we have not got four days' work.

You will soon get my Report, and it will be worth having, and the last I shall make on crime in India.

If Hercules had not had better instruments he could not so easily have cleared out his stable; but he had no "Honourable Court" to find fault with his mode of doing the thing, I conclude. The fact is, however, that our prisoners are pretty well tried before they get into quod. Mr. Bird will be delighted at the manner in which he is introduced in my first chapter, and many another good officer well pleased.

Yours sincerely, (Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

To H. M. Elliot, Esq., Secretary to the Government of India, Calcutta.

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Jhansee, 29th March, 1848.

My Dear Maddock,

I hope you will not disapprove of the resolution to which I have come of resigning the charge of the Saugor territories, now that tranquillity has been restored,--the best possible feelings among the people prevail, and the object you had in view in recommending Lord Ellenborough to confide that charge to me has been effected,--or of the manner in which I have tendered my resignation. Were I longer to retain the charge, I should be subjected to humiliations which the exigencies of the public service do not require that I should at this time of life submit to, and I shall have enough of labour and anxiety in the charge that will still remain to me. If an opening for Sir R. Shakespear could be found, his salary might be saved by my residence being transferred to Gwalior. If either Hamilton or I were to be removed to some other post, it would be well to reduce Gwalior and Indore to political agencies, under the supervision of an agent, as in Rajpootana, with Bundelcund added to his charge. The latter of these two measures has, you know, been under consideration, and was, I think, proposed by Sutherland when you were at Gwalior with Lord Auckland. Had the Lieutenant-Governor known more of the Saugor territories when he wrote the paper on which Government is now acting, he would not, I think, have described the state of things as he has done, or urged the introduction of the system which must end in minutely subdividing all leases, and in having all questions regarding land tenures removed into the civil Courts, as in the provinces. It is the old thing, "nothing like leather." I shall not weary you by anything more on this subject. I hope a good man will be selected for the charge. The selection of Mr. M. Smith as successor to Mr. Brown was a good one. My letter will go off to-day, and be, I trust, well received. I am grieved that Clerk has been obliged to quit his post; he has been throughout his career an ornament to your service, but his friends seem all along to have apprehended that he could not long stand the climate of Bombay. I am anxious to learn how long you are to remain in Council.

Yours very sincerely, (Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

To the Hon. Sir T. H. Maddock, &c. &c. &c.

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Jhansee, 2nd April, 1848.

My Dear Elliot,

Till I this morning got the public letter, which will go off to-day, I never heard one word about Shakespear's intention or wish to go to the hills, and only thirteen days remain. The orders of Government as to his locum tenens cannot reach me by the 15th, when he is to leave, and I shall have to put in some one to take charge, as there is a treasury under his management.

If Government wish to take Major Stevens from the Byza Bae, and give him some other employment, he might be sent to act for Captain Ross; but I know nothing of his fitness for such an office.

I believe you know Captain Ross, and I need say nothing more than what I have said in my public letter. If he be sent to Gwalior, I hope a good officer may be sent to act for him in Thalone, for the duties are very heavy and responsible. Blake will do very well, and so would his second in command, Captain Erskine, of the 73rd, who is an excellent civil officer. I must pray you to let me have the orders of Government on the subject as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely, (Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

P.S.--I should consider Major Stevens an able man for a civil charge, but have never seen him.

(Signed) W. H. S.

To H. M. Elliot, Esq., &c. &c.

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Jhansee, 6th May, 1848.

My Dear Maddock,

Your kind letter of the 21st ultimo had prepared me for the public one of the 28th, which I got yesterday from Elliot, and I wrote off at once, to say simply that I should be glad to suspend or to withdraw the application contained in my letter of the 29th of March, as might appear best to Government; and that I should not have made it at all, had I apprehended that a compliance with it would have been attended with any inconvenience.

With the knowledge I have acquired of the duties of the several officers, and the entire command of my time here at a quiet place, and long-established methodical habits, I can get through the work very well, though it becomes trying sometimes. Arrears I never allow to accumulate, and regular hours, and exercise, and sparing diet, with water beverage, keep me always in condition for office work. I often wish that you could have half the command of your hours, mode of living, and movements, that I have. However, they will soon be much more free than mine. I am very glad that you have the one year more for a wind up; and hope that good fortune will attend you to the last. You say nothing, however, about your foot. The papers and letters from home have just come in. I hear that Lord John is very unwell, and will not be able to stand the work many months more, and that Sir R. Peel is obliged to be cupped once a-week, and could not possibly take office. Who is to take helm in the troubled ocean, no one knows. I am glad that Metternich has been kicked out, for he and Louis Philippe are the men that have put in peril the peace and institutions of all Europe. I only wish that the middle class was as strong in France as it is in England; it is no doubt infinitely stronger than it was; while the lower order is better than that of England, I believe, for such occasions. They have good men now in the provisional Government--so they had in 1788; and, like them, the present men will probably be swept away by the mob. They are not, however, likely to be embarrassed by other nations, since the days of Pitt and George III. are passed away, and so are the feudal times when the barons could get up civil wars for their own selfish purposes. There are no characters sufficiently prominent to get up a civil war, but the enormous size of the army is enough to create feelings of disquiet. It is, however, officered from the middle classes, who have property at stake, and must be more or less interested in the preservation of order.

The Government has no money to send to Algiers, and must reduce its strength there, so that Egypt is in no danger at present; were it so, we should be called upon to defend it from India, and could well do so. It is evident that the whole French nation was alienated from Louis Philippe, and prepared to cast off him and all his family, though, as you say, I do not believe that there was anywhere any design to oust him and put down monarchy. Had he thrown off Guizot a little sooner, and left some able military leaders free to act, the émeute would have been put down; but those who could have acted did not feel free to do so: they did not feel sure of the king, while they were sure of the odium of the people. I am not at all sorry for the change. I am persuaded that it will work good for Europe; but still its peace and best institutions are in peril at present. We are in no danger here, because people do not understand such things; and because England is in a prouder position than ever, and will, I trust, retain it.

Lord Grey seems an able man at home, but he is, I believe, hot- headed, and Lord Stanley is ten times worse; he would soon have up the barricades in London. Lord Clarendon seems a safe guide, but Peel is the man for the time, if he has the stamina. Lord Palmerston has conducted the duties of his office with admirable tact of late; and much of the good feeling that prevails in Europe towards England at present seems to arise from it. Amelie begs to be most kindly remembered; she is here with her little boy--two girls at Munsoorie, and two girls and a boy at home.

Yours very sincerely, (Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

To the Hon. Sir T. H. Maddock, &c. &c. &c.

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Jhansee, 14th May, 1848.

My Dear Weston,

I have been directed by Government to name an officer whom I may consider competent to superintend the suppression of Thuggee in the Punjaub, where a new class has been discovered, and some progress has been made in finding and arresting them. I have, in reply, mentioned that I should have Captain Williams, of the 29th, and Captain Chambers, of the 21st; but their services might not be considered available, since the prescribed number of captains are already absent from their regiments, and, in consequence, I have you. I know not whether you will like the duties; if not, pray tell me as soon as possible.

The salary is 700 rupees a-month, with office-rent 40, and establishments 152. The duties are interesting and important; and so good a foundation has been laid by Larkins and the other local authorities, and all are so anxious to have the evil put down, that you will have the most cordial support and co-operation of all, and the fairest prospect of success. But you will have to apply yourself steadily to work, and if you have not passed, you should do so as soon as possible. I do not see P. opposite your name, and Government may possibly object on this ground. Let all this be entre nous for the present.

If you undertake the duties, you will have to go to Lodheeana, seeing Major Graham at Agra, on the way, to get a little insight into the work.

Yours sincerely, (Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

P.S.--You will be in the most interesting scene in India, and need be under no apprehension about the permanency of the appointment.

To Lieut. Weston, &c. &c.

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Jhansee, 18th May, 1848. My Dear Maddock,

Things are not going on so well as could be wished in the Punjaub; and it appears to me that we have been there committing an error of the same kind that we committed in Afghanistan--that is, taking upon ourselves the most odious part of the executive administration. In such a situation this should have been avoided, if possible. There is a kind of chivalry in this--if there is anything odious to be done, or repugnant to the feelings of the people, a young Englishman thinks he must do it himself, lest he should be thought disposed to shift off a painful burthen upon others; and he thinks it unbecoming of us to pay any regard to popular feeling. Of course, also, the officers of the Sikh State are glad to get rid of such burthens while they see English gentlemen ready to carry them. Now, it strikes me that we might, with a little tact, have altered all this, and retained the good feelings of the people, by throwing the executive upon the officers of the Sikh State, and remaining ourselves in the dignified position of Appellate Courts for the redress of grievances inflicted by these officers in neglect of duty or abuse of authority. Our duty would have been to guide, control, and check, and the head of all might have been like the sovereigns of England--known only by his acts of grace.

By keeping in this dignified position we should not only have retained the good feelings of the people, but we should have been teaching the Sikh officers their administrative duties till the time comes for making over the country; and the chief and Court would have found the task, made over to them under such a system, more easy to sustain. In Afghanistan we did the reverse of all this, and became intolerably odious to the mass of the people; for they saw that everything that was harsh was done by us, and the officers of the King were disposed to confirm and increase this impression because they were not employed. The people of the Punjaub are not such fanatics, and they are more divided in creed and caste, while they see no ranges of snowy mountains, barren rocks, and difficult passes between us and our reinforcements and resources; but it seems clear that there is a good deal of excitement and bad feeling growing up amongst them that may be very mischievous. All the newspapers, English and native, make the administration appear to be altogether English--it is Captain This, Mr. That, who do, or are expected to do, everything; and all over the country the native chiefs will think, that the leaving the country to the management of the Sirdars was a mere mockery and delusion.

We should keep our hands as much as possible out of the harsh and dirty part of the executive work, that the European officers may be looked up to with respect as the effectual check upon the native administrators; always prepared to check any disposition on their part to neglect their duty or abuse their power, and thereby bring their Government into disrepute. Of course, the outrage at Mooltan must be avenged, and our authority there established; but, when this is done, Currie should be advised to avoid the rock upon which our friend Macnaghten was wrecked. We are too impatient to jump down the throats of those who venture to look us in the face, and to force upon them our modes of doing the work of the country, and to superintend the doing it ourselves in all its details, or having it done by creatures of our own, commonly ten times more odious to the people than we are ourselves.

It is unfortunate that this outrage, and the excitement to which it has given rise, should have come so quickly upon Lord Hardinge's assurances at the London feast, and amidst the turmoil of popular movements at home. It has its use in showing us the necessity of being always prepared.

Baba Bulwunt Row tells me that he has got a letter from you in the form of Khureela, and claims one from me on that ground. Shall I comply? We have avoided this hitherto, as the Pundits put him up to claim everything that the Bae's family had, not even omitting the Thalone principality; and hints have been dropped of a mission to England, if the money could be got. I wish to subdue these pretensions for his own sake, that he may not be entirely ruined by temptations to expensive displays. He has now got the entire management of his own affairs, and is a sensible, well-disposed lad. He was never recognised as the Bae's successor by Government or the Agent, nor was he written to on the Bae's death. Cunput Row Bhaca was the person addressed in the letter of condolence. His son has run through all he has or can borrow, and is in a bad way. Moresor Row has the reputation of being very rich, though he pleads poverty always. The whole of the Saugor territories, save Mundla, have benefited by two very fine seasons, with great demand for land produce, and the people are happy. I have asked for reductions in Mundla, to save the little of tillage and population that has been left. The whole revenue is a mere trifle in such a jungle as you know it to be, and when once the people go off, there is no getting them back. Deer destroy the crops upon the few fields left, tigers come to eat the deer, and malaria follows, to sweep off the remaining few families.

I must not prose any longer at present. Amelia often talks of you, and begs to be kindly remembered.

Ever yours sincerely, (Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

To the Hon. Sir T. H. Maddock, &c. &c. &c.

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Jhansee, 28th May, 1848. My Dear Maddock,

I yesterday sent off by Dawk Bangy an elaborate Report on Dacoits by hereditary profession, and on the measures adopted by the Government of India for their suppression, and hope it will reach Calcutta before the rains set in heavily. Government may be justly proud of the good which it shows to have been effected for the people of India in the course of a brief period; and I am glad that you have for this period been a member of it. There is much in the Report to interest the general reader, but much of what is inserted would, of course, have been left out by any one who had to consult the wishes of such readers only.

At this time last year I had not the slightest hope of ever being able to lay such a Report before Government; for I never expected to find leisure in my present office, and could not carry the requisite records with me, if driven away by sickness, to where I might find it. The papers lay mouldering in an old box, to which I had consigned them in 1840, when I withdrew them from the press, under the impression that Lord Auckland thought that the exposition of the terrible evil ought not to appear till more progress had been made in its suppression; as G. Thompson and other itinerant orators would be glad to get hold of them to abuse the Government. The Report is infinitely more interesting and complete than it could have been then, and may bid defiance to all such orators.

If printed, it will take from 400 to 450 pages, such as those of the late Report on the Indian Penal Code, and be a neat and useful volume for reference. I began it in the rains last year, but was stopped short by a fever, and unable to continue it till I set out on my tour. Three-fourths of it was written in the intervals between the morning's march and breakfast-time during my tour through the Saugor territories.

The tables of dacoitees ascertained to have been committed by the dacoits described, and of the conditionally pardoned offenders, will follow, and be found useful for reference, but should not, perhaps, be in the same volume with the text of the Report; of that, however, I leave Government to judge. I thank God that I have been able to place before it so complete and authentic a record of what has been done to carry out its views.

Ever most sincerely yours, (Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

To the Hon. Sir T. H. Maddock, &c. &c. &c.

Jhansee, 15th August, 1848.

My Lord,

As it is possible that the letter which I addressed to your Lordship on the 6th of March last, and sent open to Mr. Melvill, the Secretary at the India House, may have miscarried; I write to mention that I sent it, lest it might be supposed that I was insensible of the kindness which induced your Lordship to write to me before leaving India. The work which made me delay so long to reply to that letter is now being printed in Calcutta, under the authority of Government; and, as it contains much that is curious and entertaining, and honourable to our rule in India, I trust at no distant day to have the honour of presenting a copy to your Lordship.

Amidst events of such absorbing interest as are now taking place every day in Europe, India cannot continue long to engage much of your thoughts; for, with the exception of the little outbreak at Mooltan, tranquillity prevails, and is likely to do so for some time. There has been delay in putting down the Mooltan rebels, but the next mail will, I hope, take home news of the work having been effectually done. This delay seems to have arisen from a notion that troops ought not to be employed in the hot winds and rains; but when occasion requires they can be employed at all times, and the people of India require to be assured that they can be so. It has not, I think, been found that troops actually employed in the hot winds and rains lose more men than in cantonments, at least native troops.

It was, I think, your Lordship's intention that, in the Lahore state, we should guide, direct, and supervise the administration, but not take all the executive upon ourselves, to the exclusion of all the old native aristocracy, as we had done in Afghanistan. This policy has not, I am afraid, been adhered to sufficiently; and we have, probably, less of the sympathy and cordial good-will of the higher and middle classes than we should otherwise have had. But I am too far from the scene to be a fair judge in such matters.

The policy of interposing Hindoo native states between us and the beggarly fanatical countries to the north-west no wise man can, I think, doubt; for, however averse our Government may be to encroach and creep on, it would be drawn on by the intermeddling dispositions and vainglory of local authorities; and every step would be ruinous, and lead to another still more ruinous. With the Hindoo principalities on our border we shall do very well, and trust that we shall long be able to maintain them in the state required for their own interests and ours.

I wish England would put forth its energies to raise the colony of New Zealand, the queen of the Pacific Ocean; for the relations between that island and India must some day become very intimate, and the sooner it begins the better. I am very glad to find by the last mail that the French have put their affairs into better hands--those of practical men, instead of visionaries.

Believe me, with great respect, Your Lordship's obedient, humble servant, (Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

To Lieut.-General the Right Hon. Henry Viscount Hardinge, G.C.B., &c. &c. &c.

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Jhansee, 22nd August 1848.

My Dear Sir Erskine,

I thank you for kindly sending me a copy of your Address to the Native Youth at Bombay and their Parents, and should have done so earlier, but it has been in circulation among many of my friends who feel interested in the subject. Whatever may be thought of the question as to where we should begin, all concur in acknowledging the truth of your conclusions as to the value and use of the knowledge we wish to impart, and in admiring the language and sentiment of your Address.

There are some passages of great beauty, which I wish all persons could read and remember; and I do not recollect ever having seen one that has pleased me more, for its truths and elegance, than that beginning, "But if a manufacturing population." That which begins with--"The views, young men, as to the true object and ends to be attained," is no less truthful and excellent.

It is unfortunate that the education which we have to supplant in India is so blended with the religion of the people, as far as Hindoos are concerned, that we cannot make progress without exciting alarm. Had a nation, endowed with all the knowledge we have, come into Europe in the days of Galileo and Copernicus, and attempted to impart it to the mass of the people, or to the higher classes only, the same alarm would have been raised, or nearly the same. We must be content with small, or slow progress; but there are certain branches of knowledge, highly useful to the people, that are finding their way among them from our metropolitan establishments, and working good.

I might better have said, that had we come into Greece when Homer was the Bible of the people, with all our astronomy, chemistry, and physical science generally, and our literature, blended as it is with our religion, we should have found our Greek fellow-subjects as untractable as the Hindoos or Parsees. The fact is, that every Hindoo, educated through our language in our literature and science, must be more or less wretched in domestic life, for he cannot feel or think with his family, or bring them to feel or think with him. The knowledge which he has acquired satisfies him that the faith to which they adhere, and which guides them in all their duties, ceremonies, acts, and habits, is monstrous and absurd; but he can never hope to impart to them this knowledge, or to alienate them from that faith; nor does he himself feel any confidence in any other creed: he feels that he is an isolated being, who can exchange thoughts and feelings unreservedly with no one. I have seen many estimable Hindoos in this state, with minds highly gifted and cultivated, and with abilities for anything. For such men we cannot create communities, nor can they create them for themselves: they can enjoy their books and conversation with men who understand and enjoy them like themselves; but how few are the men of this class with whom they can ever hope to associate on easy terms! It is not so with Mahommedans. All the literature and science in the world has no more effect on their faith than on ours; and their families apprehend no alienation in any member who may choose to indulge in them; and they indulge in them little, merely because they do not find that they conduce to secure them employment and bread.

I think it would be useful if we could get rid of the terms education, civilization, &c., and substitute that of knowledge. It would obviate much controversy, for the greater part of our disputes arise from the vagueness of the terms we use. All would agree that certain branches of knowledge are useful to certain classes, and that certain modes are the best for imparting them. The subject is deeply interesting and important; but I must not indulge further.

Believe me, My Dear Sir Erskine, With great respect, Yours very faithfully, (Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

To Sir Erskine Perry, Chief Justice, Bombay.

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Jhansee, 24th September, 1848.

My Lord,

I feel grateful for the offer contained in your Lordship's letter of the 16th instant, and no less so for the gracious manner in which it has been conveyed, and beg to say that I shall be glad to avail myself of it, and be prepared to proceed to take charge as soon as I am directed to do so, as I have no arrears in any of my offices to detain me, and can make them over to any one at the shortest notice, with the assurance that he will find nothing in them to perplex or embarrass him.

I shall do my best to carry out your Lordship's views in the new charge; and though I am not so strong as I could wish, I may, with prudence, hope to have health for a few years to sustain me in duties of so much interest.

I hope your Lordship will pardon my taking advantage of the present occasion to say a few words on the state of affairs in the north- west, which are now of such absorbing interest. I have been for some time impressed with the belief that the system of administration in the Punjaub has created doubts as to the ultimate intention of our Government with regard to the restoration of the country to the native ruler when he comes of age. The native aristocracy of the country seem to have satisfied themselves that our object has been to retain the country, and that this could be prevented only by timely resistance. The sending European officers to relieve the chief of Mooltan, and to take possession of the country and fort, seems to have removed the last lingering doubt upon this point; and Molraj seems to have been satisfied that in destroying them he should be acting according to the wishes of all his class, and all that portion of the population who might aspire to employment under a native rule. This was precisely the impression created by precisely the same means in Afghanistan; and I believe that the notion now generally prevalent is, that our professed intentions of delivering over the country to its native ruler were not honest, and that we should have appropriated the country to ourselves could we have done so.

There are two classes of native Governments in India. In one the military establishments are all national, and depend entirely upon the existence of native rule. They are officered by the aristocracy of the country, chiefly landed, who know that they are not fitted for either civil or military office under our system, and must be reduced to beggary or insignificance should our rule be substituted for that of their native chief. In the other, all the establishments are foreign, like our own. The Seiks were not altogether of the first class, like those of Rajpootana and Bundelcund, but they were so for the most part; and when they saw all offices of trust by degrees being filled by Captain This and Mr. That, they gave up all hopes of ever having their share in the administration.

Satisfied that this was our error in Afghanistan, in carrying out the views of Lord Ellenborough in the Gwalior State, I did everything in my power to avoid it, and have entirely succeeded, I believe; but it has not been done without great difficulty. I considered Lord Hardinge's measures good, as they interposed Hindoo States between us and a beggarly and fanatical country, which it must be ruinous to our finances to retain, and into which we could not avoid making encroachments, however anxious the Government might be to avoid it, if our borders joined. But I supposed that we should be content with guiding, controlling, and supervising the native administration, and not take all the executive upon ourselves to the almost entire exclusion of the native aristocracy. I had another reason for believing that Lord Hardinge's measures were wise and prudent. While we have a large portion of the country under native rulers, their administration will contrast with ours greatly to our advantage in the estimation of the people; and we may be sure that, though some may be against us, many will be for us. If we succeed in sweeping them all away, or absorbing them, we shall be at the mercy of our native army, and they will see it; and accidents may possibly occur to unite them, or a great portion of them, in some desperate act. The thing is possible, though improbable; and the best provision against it seems to me to be the maintenance of native rulers, whose confidence and affection can be engaged, and administrations improved under judicious management.

The industrial classes in the Punjaub would, no doubt, prefer our rule to that of the Seiks; but that portion who depend upon public employment under Government for their subsistence is large in the Punjaub, and they would nearly all prefer a native rule. They have evidently persuaded themselves that our intention is to substitute our own rule; and it is now, I fear, too late to remove the impression. If your Lordship is driven to annexation, you must be in great force; and a disposition must be shown on the part of the local authorities to give the educated aristocracy of the country a liberal share in the administration.

One of the greatest dangers to be apprehended in India is, I believe, the disposition on the part of the dominant class to appoint to all offices members of their own class, to the exclusion of the educated natives. This has been nobly resisted hitherto; but where every subaltern thinks himself in a condition to take a wife, and the land opens no prospect to his children but in the public service, the competition will become too great.

I trust that your Lordship will pardon my having written so much, and believe me, with great respect, your Lordship's obedient humble servant,

(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

P.S.--The Commander-in-Chief has asked me, through the Quartermaster- General, whether any corps can be spared from Bundelcund. I shall say that we can spare two regiments--one from Nagode, whose place can be supplied by a wing of the regiment at Nowgow, and one from Jhansee, whose place can be supplied from the Gwalior Contingent, if your Lordship sees no objection, as a temporary arrangement.

(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

To the Right Hon. the Earl of Dalhousie, &c. &c. &c.

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Lucknow, 30th January, 1849.

My Dear Elliot,

A salute of twenty-one guns had been fired here by the King for the sadly dear victory over Shere Sing, and another has been fired to-day for the fall of Mooltan. The King continues very ill, but no danger seems to be apprehended. The disease is accompanied by very untoward secondary symptoms, which are likely ultimately to destroy him, and render his life miserable while it lasts. How much of these symptoms he derives from his birth, and how much from his own excesses, is uncertain.

The impression regarding the minister, mentioned in my last note, was from a talk with him while he was, it seems, under the influence of fever. In later conversations he has been more lucid; but he is a third-rate man, and quite unequal to the burthen that the favour of the King has placed upon him. That favour will, however, be but of short duration, for the King is said to have expressed great distrust in his capacity to do any of the things he promised, more especially to collect the immense arrears of revenue now due.

I am preparing tables of the revenue and expenditure, and of the machinery in all branches, and hope soon to submit a clearer view of the state of things than Government is in the habit of getting on such occasions; but I have to wade through vast volumes of correspondence to ascertain what has been said and done in the questions that will come under consideration, to conduct current duties, and to become acquainted with the people in my new field, European and native.

I want to ask you whether I could, with any prospect of success just now, propose a plan which I have much at heart in the Thuggee and Dacoity Department. The Lieutenant-Governor, I feel assured, will advocate it. Major Graham is about to obtain his regimental majority, with a certain prospect of soon obtaining the command of his regiment, which will give him twelve hundred a-month. I am anxious to retain him; for his services have been, and would continue to be, of vast importance to the North-West Provinces. I should like to propose that he be made superintendent of Thuggee and Dacoity in those provinces upon a salary of, say eleven hundred rupees a-month. I would at the same time propose that the Shahjehanpoor office, lately under Major Ludlow, be done up, and the duties confided to the assistant-magistrate, with a small establishment, he to receive an extra salary, say, one hundred rupees a-month. The same with regard to the Azimghur office, now under Captain Ward, who could be sent to Rajpootana. Elliot is not suited well to the work, according to those who have seen most of him and of it; and you might be able to put him to some other for which he is fitted. Should you think it desirable to retain him in Rajpootana, Captain Ward may for the present remain where he is; and the saving from the Shahjehanpoor office will more than cover the increase for Major Graham. Pray let me know as soon as you can whether such a proposal would be likely to be well received. Graham's services have been and will be most valuable to all the local authorities at and under Agra.

I suppose the fate of the Punjaub is sealed, for though the Governor- General might wish to spare it, the home authorities and the home people will hardly brook the prospect or the chance of another struggle of the same kind, particularly if the Afghans have really joined the Seiks under Chutter Sing. The tendency to annexation, already strong at home, will become still stronger when the news of our late losses arrive. They indicate a stronger assurance of national sympathy on the part of the chiefs and troops opposed to us than was generally calculated upon. The fall of Mooltan will have relieved the Governor-General's mind from much of the anxiety caused by the inartistic management of the Commander-in-Chief.

Yours sincerely, (Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

To H. M. Elliot, Esq., &c. &c.

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Lucknow, 7th March, 1849.

My Dear Elliott,

I may mention what has been the state of feeling at Lucknow regarding the state of affairs in the Punjaub, though it has become of less interest to the Governor-General now that so decided a victory has crowned his efforts. During the whole contest the Government five per cent. notes have been every day sold in my office at par, and I question whether this can be said of the offices in Calcutta. One day during the races, on the King's firing a salute for victory, the European gentlemen talked about it at the stand with many of the first of the native aristocracy. They said that the Seiks could not fight as they were fighting unless there had been some general feeling of distrust as to our ultimate intentions with regard to the Punjaub which united them together; and that this feeling must be as strong with the Durbar and those who did not fight as with those who did. I was not present, as I did not attend the races; but I found the same opinion prevailing among all with whom I conversed. But all seemed to be perfectly satisfied as to the utter hopelessness of the struggle, as evinced by the great barometer of the Government paper.

I suppose Dost Mahomed's force in Peshawur will have proceeded in all haste to the Khyber on hearing of the defeat of their friends, and that General Gilbert's fine division will find none of them to contend with; and that Gholab Sing will be glad of an occasion to display his zeal by keeping Shore Sing and his father out of the hills.

The river Indus will, I suppose, hardly be considered so safe a boundary as the hills; for if any danger is to be apprehended from the west, it would not be safe to leave the enemy so fine a field to organize their forces upon after emerging from the difficult passes. Well organized upon that field, a force could cross the river anywhere in the cold and hot seasons; and the revenue of that field would aid in keeping up a force that might in the day of need be used against us. It was a great error committed by Lord Hastings in allowing the Nepaulese the fertile portion of the Jurac, which then yielded only two lacs of rupees, but now yields thirteen, and will, ere long, yield twenty. Without this their military force would have been altogether insignificant; but it is not so now.

Yours sincerely, (Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

To H. M. Elliot, Esq., &c. &c.

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Lucknow, 20th March, 1849.

My Dear Elliot,

The King continues much the same as when I last wrote. Under skilful treatment he might soon get well; but the prescriptions of his best native physicians are little attended to, and he has not yet consented to consult an European doctor. He could not have a better doctor than Leekie, and the natives have great confidence in him; but his Majesty has not expressed any wish to see or consult him. If he did so, the chances are one hundred to one against his taking his medicine.

I do not like to write a public letter on the subject, but am anxious to know the Governor-General's wishes as to whether any new engagements should be entered into in case of the King's decease, and with whom.

The instructions contained in your letter of the 16th August, 1847, referred to in my last, will be carried out; but the Governor-General may wish to have the new arrangements recorded in a former treaty, the heads of the royal family consenting thereto, as at Gwalior, when the regency was appointed. I have no copy of the treaty made at Lahore, where the regency was appointed.

I should think it desirable to give the members of the regency each distinct duties, so that he may feel responsible for them, and take a pride in doing them well. One should be at the head of the Revenue Department, and another at the head of the Judicial and Police, each having a deputy; and the Resident, as president, should have a deputy. These would be sufficient for a regency, and could form a court, or council, to deliberate and decide about measures of legislation and administration.

The mother of the King would be the best person to consult upon the nomination of the members in the first instance; but neither she nor any other female of the royal family should have any share in the administration.

All important measures adopted by the Council should be submitted for the consideration of the Governor-General; and no member of the Council should be removed without his Lordship's consent. No important measure adopted by the Council, and sanctioned by the Governor-General, should at any future time be liable to be abolished or altered without the sanction of our Government previously obtained through the Resident.

On the heir-apparent attaining his majority, every member of the regency who has discharged his duties faithfully should have for life a pension equal to half the salary enjoyed by him while in office, and be guaranteed in the enjoyment of this half by the British Government.

The measures thus adopted during the minority would form a code for future guidance, and tend at least to give the thing which Oude most wants--stability to good sales, and to the machinery by which they are to be enforced.

The King's brother--a very excellent man, who was Commander-in-Chief during his father's life-time, but is now nothing--might also be consulted with the mother of the King in the nomination of the regency, and made a party with her to the new treaty.

These are all the points which appear to me at present to call for instructions.

The harvests promise to be abundant, but the collections come in slowly, and the establishments are all greatly in arrear. I don't like to write publicly on these subjects, because it is almost impossible here to prevent what is so written from getting to the Court; but the Governor-General's instructions were sent to me in that form without the same risk.

(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

To H. M. Elliot, Esq., &c. &c.

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Lucknow, 23rd March, 1849.

My Dear Elliot,

It will perhaps be well to add to the regency, in case of the King's death, a controller of the household, making three members of equal grade, and to have no deputy for the Resident, or President of the Regency. It may also be well to add the mother of the heir apparent to the persons to be consulted in the selection of the members of the regency, though she is a person of no mark or influence in either public or private affairs at present.

The mother of the present King, his brother, the mother of the heir- apparent, and the young heir-apparent himself will be enough to have a voice in the selection.

I conclude that it will be the Governor-General's wish that the heir- apparent should be placed on the throne immediately after the death of his father, for the slightest hesitation or delay in this matter would be mischievous in such a place as Lucknow. As soon as this is done, I can proceed to consult about the nomination of the regency. The members will, of course, be chosen from among the highest and most able members of the aristocracy present at the capital, and they can be installed in office the day they are chosen. I do not apprehend any confusion or disturbance; but measures must be adopted immediately to pay up arrears due to the establishments, and dismiss all that are useless.

The, King is not worse--on the contrary, he is said to be better; but the hot season may be too much for him. His present state, with a minister weak in body and not very strong in mind, is very unsatisfactory. Fortunately the harvest is unusually fine.

Yours sincerely, (Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

To H. M. Elliot, Esq., &c. &c.

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Lucknow, 8th May, 1849. My Lord,

Dr. Bell, has relieved Dr. Leekie from his charge, and I am glad that so able and experienced a medical officer has been appointed to it by your Lordship, for he will have the means of doing much good here if he can secure the confidence and esteem of his native patients. The way has been well paved for him by Dr. Leekie, who, in professional ability, large experience, and perfect frankness of character, is one of the first men I have met; and I regret exceedingly that the King has never manifested any wish to consult him or any other European physician.

Being anxious that both Dr. Leekie and Dr. Bell should have an opportunity of seeing the King, and forming some opinion as to his state of health, I proposed that his Majesty should receive them at the same time with Captain Bird on his taking leave previous to his departure for Simla. As it is usual for the residency surgeon to wait on his Majesty when he first enters on his charge and when he quits it, I knew that such a proposal would not give rise to any feelings of doubt or uneasiness, and he at once expressed his wish to see them. Yesterday, about noon, all three went to the palace, and sat for some time in conversation with the King. They found him much better in bodily health than they expected, and in the course of conversation, found no signs of any confusion of ideas, and are of opinion that in the hands of a skilful European physician he would soon be quite well. His Majesty is hypochondriac, and frequently under the influence of the absurd delusions common to such persons; but he is quite sane during long intervals, and on all subjects not connected with such delusions.

When in health, the King never paid much attention to business, and his illness is, therefore, less felt than it would have been in the conduct of affairs; but it is nevertheless felt, and that in a very vital part--the collection of the revenue. The expenses of Government are about one hundred (100) lacs a-year; and the collections this year have not amounted to more than sixty (60), owing to this illness, and to a deficiency in the autumn harvests. All establishments are greatly in arrears in consequence; and the King has been obliged to make some heavy drafts upon the reserved fund left him by his father. I only wish none had been made for a less legitimate purpose. The parasites, by whom he has surrounded himself exclusively, have, it is said, been drawing upon it still more largely during the King's illness, under the apprehension of a speedy dissolution. The minister is a weak man, who stands somewhat in awe of these musicians and eunuchs, who have no fear of anybody but the Resident, whom it is, of course, their interest to keep as much as possible in the dark. As soon as his Majesty gets stronger, I shall see him more frequently than I have yet done, and be better able to judge of what prospect of amendment there may be while he reigns. If he ever conversed with his male relations, or any of the gentlemen at the capital worthy of his confidence, I should have more hope than I now have.

With great respect I remain Your Lordship's obedient humble servant, (Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

To the Right Hon. The Earl of Dalhousie, K.T., Governor-General of India.

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Lucknow, 11th June, 1849. My Dear Elliot,

It will be desirable to have at least the wing of a regiment sent as soon as possible to Jhansee. Bukhut Sing, who was allowed to escape after having been surrendered to Ellis at Kyrma, has been since allowed to get too much a-head. He is aided by the Khereecha people openly; and secretly, I fear, by some of the Powar Thakoors of Gigree under the rose. There are four small fortified places between thirty and forty miles west of Jhansee, and not far from the Sinde, held by Powar Thakoors, who are a shade higher in caste than the Bondeylas; and, in consequence, all the principal chiefs take their daughters in marriage. They are needy, and as proud as Lucifer, and will always eke out their means by robbery if they can. The Jhansee chief cannot keep them in order without our aid. While I was there, they did not venture to rob after the surrender of the Jylpoor man in September, 1844; and the Hareecha and Hyrwa people ventured only to send a few highwaymen into the Gwalior state west of the Sinde river.

The Powar places I mean are Jignee, Odgow, and Belchree. There was a fourth near them just as bad, called Nowneer; but the Thakoors of that place are all well disposed towards the Jbansee chief, and are obedient. All are in the Jhansee state. If the marauders are pressed with energy and sagacity, they will be soon put down; and you may rely upon the native chiefs not supporting them, though, from their marriage connection, they may afford them an asylum secretly when fugitives.

Who the Gwalior men are that are plundering I know not; but they are men of no note, and, if pressed skilfully and rigorously in time, will soon be put down. The chiefs may all be relied upon, I believe. They are mere gangs of robbers; and you know how easily a fanatic or successful robber may collect a body for plunder in any part of India, where the danger of pursuit is small. Had they been dealt with properly at first, they would never have got a-head so far: time has been lost, and they will now give trouble, particularly at such a season. The evil will be confined to the tract west of Jhansee occupied by these Powars. The chiefs are to the east, north, and south of Jhansee; and the marauders would be allowed to enter their estates. The Governor-General need not feel uneasy about them. The Nurwar chief was always needy, and disposed to keep and shelter robbers. His few villages were resumed on his death last year, and his widows pensioned; but some of his relations are, I conclude, among the marauders. There is a wild tract west of the Sinde in the Gwalior territory, to which the marauders will fly when hard pressed in the Jhansee state.

Yours sincerely, (Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

To H. M. Elliot, Esq., &c. &c.

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Lucknow, 18th June, 1849.

My Dear Elliot,

I was writing the last sentence of a long Report on Oude affairs when your note came in. There are some parts that will amuse, some that will interest, and the whole gives, I believe, a fair exposition of the evils, with a suggestion for the best remedy that I can think of. It is the formation of a Board, consisting of a President and two members nominated by the King, subject to the confirmation of the Governor-General, and not to be dismissed without his Lordship's previous sanction. This Board to make the settlement of the revenue proposed when Lord Hardinge was here, and to have the carrying it out.

This Board will be a substitute for the Regency, but not so good. The King is well in body; and, unless he will abdicate, we cannot get the minority for the Regency. I think, upon the whole, the Governor- General will think the Report worth reading, and the remedy worth considering. It will bring little additional trouble on Government, but a good deal on the Resident, who will require to have had much administrative experience.

Things are coming fast to the crisis, in which I must be called upon to advise and act, a thing which the fiddlers and eunuchs dread. I can't trust the Report in the office, and the hand may not be so legible as I could wish.

The Court is very averse to the appointment of a successor to Wilcox; and it is with reluctance they have kept on the native officers who go on with the work. I told them either to keep them on or to pension them. I don't think a successor should be urged upon them in the present state of beggary to which they are reduced. Nobody sees any use in it, while there are a vast number of useful things neglected for want of funds; as to the instruments, the Court care nothing about them, knowing nothing of their value; and would, no doubt, be glad to give them to any establishment requiring them.

The minister, singers, and eunuchs are all now sworn to be united; but this cannot last many days. The "pressure from without," in the clamour for pay, will soon upset the minister; but they will find it difficult to get another to undertake the burthen of forty or fifty lacs of balance, and a score of fiddlers and eunuchs as privy councillors. Something must be done to unthrone these wretches, or things will be worse and worse. The best remedy that occurs to me is to interpose an authority which they dare not question, and the King cannot stultify; and if the King objects, to tell him that he must abdicate in favour of his son. This, of all courses, will be the best, and give no trouble; things would go on like "marriage bells," without any trouble whatever to the Governor-General and your secretariat.

I am glad that the Punjaub Board goes on well. It is a scene of great importance and interest. The only way to get the confidence and affection of men is to show that we confide in them; and I don't think we need fear Seik soldiers while we treat them, and govern the country well.

We were very anxious about Mrs. Elliot for many days, for the accounts from Simla were bad; but she is now, I am told, quite restored. I have suffered much less than I expected: I recovered much sooner. The doctors tell me that I should have had no right to expect an earlier recovery had I been twenty years younger.

Yours sincerely, (Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

To H. M. Elliot, Esq., &c. &c.

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Lucknow, 24th July, 1849. My Lord,

I have to-day written to Lord Fitzroy Somerset to request that he will do me the favour to have the name of my only son placed, if possible, upon his Grace the Commander-in-Chiefs list of candidates for commissions in Her Majesty's Dragoons. He was sixteen years of age on the 6th of January last, and is now prosecuting his studies under the care of Mr. C. J. Yeatman, Westow Hill, Norwood, Surrey, five miles from London.

He is an amiable and gentlemanly lad, and will, I trust, be able to qualify himself to pass the examination required; and my agents in London will be prepared to lodge the money for his commission when available. He is my eldest child, and will have to take care of four sisters when I am taken from them, as I must be ere long; and I am anxious to place him in the position from which he can do so with most advantage. I could wish to have had him placed in the Bengal Civil Service. But I have no personal friend in the direction, and no good that I may have had an opportunity of doing for the people and government of India can be urged as a claim to any employment for my child.

Having carried out your Lordship's policy successfully over a large and interesting portion of India, and to the advantage, I believe, of many millions of people, you will not, I think, be offended at my soliciting your Lordship's protection for my only son. He will stand in need of it, since I know no other that I can solicit for him; and though my name might be of some use to him in India, it can be of none in England. With a view to his taking care of his sisters, I could wish him to be in a regiment not likely to come to India. General Thackwell tells me that the regiments most likely to come to India soon are the 6th Dragoons, 9th Hussars, and 12th Lancers. Perhaps your Lordship might be willing to speak to Lord F. Somerset, or even to his Grace the Duke himself, in favour of my son, who will be proud at any time when commanded to attend your Lordship. I have the misfortune to have been with some of the most inefficient sovereigns that ever sat upon a throne, with deficient harvests last year, and a threat of still more deficient ones this year; and with a Government so occupied with the new acquisitions of the Punjaub as to be averse to interfere much with the management of any other portion of the country.

I remain, your lordship's most obedient, humble servant,

W. H. SLEEMAN.

To the Right Hon. Gen. Viscount Hardinge, G.C.B., &c. &c. &c.

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Lucknow, 24th July, 1849.

My Lord,

May I, request that your Lordship will do me the favour to have the name of my only son, Henry Arthur Sleeman, placed upon his Grace the Commander-in-Chiefs list of candidates for a commission in one of her Majesty's Dragoon regiments?

He was sixteen years of age on the 6th of January last; and he is now prosecuting his studies under the care of Mr. C. J. Yeatman, at Westow Hill, in Surrey, five miles from London, who will be instructed to have him prepared for the examination he will have to undergo. My agents, Messrs. Denny, Clark, and Co., Austin Friars, London, will be prepared to lodge the money, and to forward to me any letters with which they may be honoured by your Lordship. My rank is that of Lieut.-Colonel in the Honourable East India Company's service, and present situation, that of Resident at the Court of his Majesty the King of Oude.

I have the honour to be, Your Lordship's obedient, humble servant, W. H. SLEEMAN.

To Lieut.-General Lord Fitzroy Somerset, G.C.B., Military Secretary to his Grace the Commander-in-Chief, Horse Guards, London.

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Lucknow, August 1849.

My Lord,

1. I will answer your Lordship's queries in the order in which they are made.

2. The King, as I shall show in my next official report, is utterly unfit to have anything to do with the administration, since he has never taken, or shown any disposition to take any heed of what is done or suffered in the country. My letters have made no impression whatever upon him. He spends all his time with the singers and the females they provide to amuse him, and is for seven and eight hours together living in the house of the chief singer, Rajee-od Dowla--a fellow who was only lately beating a drum to a party of dancing- girls, on some four rupees a-month. These singers are all Domes, the lowest of the low castes of India, and they and the eunuchs are now the virtual sovereigns of the country, and must be so as long as the King retains any power. The minister depends entirely upon them, and between them and a few others about Court everything that the King has to dispose of is sold.

3. To secure any reform in the administration, it will be necessary to require the King to delegate all the powers of sovereignty to the Board. This he can do, retaining the name of Sovereign and control of his household; or abdicating in favour of his son the heir apparent, to whom the Board would be a regency till he comes of age. If the alternative be given him, and he choose the former, it should be on the condition, that if his favourites continue to embarrass the Government, he will be required to submit to the latter. Oude is now, in fact, without a Government: the minister sees the King for a few minutes once a week or fortnight, and generally at the house of the singer above named. The King sees nobody else save the singers and eunuchs, and does not even pretend to know anything or care anything about public affairs. His sons have been put under their care, and will be brought up in the same manner. He has become utterly despised and detested by his people for his apathy amidst so much suffering, and will not have the sympathy of any one, save such as have been growing rich by abusing his power.

4. The members of such a Board as I propose, invested with full powers, and secured in office under our guarantee during good conduct, would go fearlessly to work; they would divide the labour; one would have the settlement of the land-revenue, with the charge of the police; the second would have the judicial Courts; and if the Board be a regency during the minority, the control of the household; the third would have the army. Each would have the nomination of the officers of his department, subject to the confirmation of the whole Board, and the dismissal would depend upon the sanction of the whole or two-thirds, as might be found expedient. If the sanction of all three be required. Court influence may secure one vote, and impunity to great offenders. Neither of the three would be liable to be deprived of his office, except with the consent, or on the requisition of the Governor-General; and this privilege they would value too highly to risk it by neglect or misconduct. The King's brother--a most worthy and respectable, though not able man--might be a member, if agreeable to the King.

5. The abuses they would have to remedy are all perfectly well understood, and the measures required to remedy them are all simple and obvious: a settlement would be made with the landholders, based upon past avowed collections; they would be delighted to bind themselves to pay such an assessment, as they would escape from the more than one-third more, which they have now to pay, in one form or another, to contractors and Court favourites; the large landholders, who are for the most part now in open resistance to the Government, would rejoice at the prospect of securing their estates to their posterity, without the necessity of continually fighting for them.

6. The army would soon become efficient: at present every man purchases his place in it from the minister and the singers and eunuchs, and he loses it as soon as he becomes disabled from wounds or sickness. The only exceptions are the four regiments under Captain Burlow, Captain Bunbury, Captain Magness, and Soba Sing, lately Captain Buckley's; in these, all that are disabled from wounds or sickness are kept on the strength of the corps, and each corps has with it a large invalid establishment of this kind unrecognized by the Government. They could not get their men to fight, without it. These regiments are put up at auction every season, and often several times during one season; the contractor who bids highest gets the services of the best for the season or the occasion; the purchase- money is divided between the minister and the Court favourites, singers, &c. These are really efficient corps, and the others might soon be made the same. The men are as fine-looking and brave as those of our, regular infantry, for Oude teems with such men, who have from their boyhood been fighting against contractors under the heads of their clan or families.

7. The rest are for the most part commanded by boys, or Court favourites, who seldom see them, keep about two-thirds of what are borne on the rolls and paid for, and take about one-third of the pay of what remain for themselves. The singer, Rajee-od Dowla, the prime favourite above named, has two regiments thus treated, and of course altogether inefficient, ragged, hungry, and discontented. It will be easy to remedy all this, get excellent men, and inspire them with excellent spirit by instituting a modified pension establishment for men disabled in the discharge of their duties, and providing for their regular pay and efficient command.

8. This would prevent the necessity of employing British troops, except on rare and great occasions; the settlement of the land- revenue, and knowledge that they would be employed if required, would keep the great landholders in obedience. It would be well to have back the corps of infantry and two guns that were taken away from Pertanghurh, in Oude, in 1835. This is all the addition that would be required to secure an efficient Government; and the scale to which our troops in Oude had been reduced up to that time (1835) was generally considered the lowest compatible with our engagements. A regiment of cavalry had been borrowed from Pertanghurh for the Nepaul and Mahratta wars in 1814 and 1817; it was finally withdrawn in 1823.

9. The judicial Courts would be well conducted while the presiding officers felt secure in their tenure of office, which they would do when their dismissal depended upon proof of guilt or incompetency sufficient to satisfy a Board guaranteed by our Government.

10. The police would soon become efficient under the supervision and control of respectable revenue-officers, having the same feeling of security in their tenure of office. All the revenue-officers would, of course, be servants of Government instead of contractors. There would be grades answering to our commissioners of divisions, say four; 2nd, to our collectors of revenue, say twenty-eight; 3rd, deputy-collectors, say twenty-eight; all under the Board, and guided by the member intrusted with that branch of the administration: all would be responsible for the police over their respective jurisdictions.

11. Oude ought to be, and would soon be, under such a system, a garden; the soil is the finest in India, so are the men; and there is no want of an educated class for civil office: on the contrary, they abound almost as much as the class of soldiers. From the numerous rivers which flow through the country the water is everywhere near the surface, and the peasantry would manure and irrigate every field, if they could do so in peace and security, with a fair prospect of being permitted to reap the fruits. The terrible corruption of the Court is the great impediment to all this good: the savings would more than pay all the increased outlay required for rendering establishments efficient in all branches, while the treasury would receive at least one-third more than the expenditure; that is, 1,50,00,000 Rs., or one crore and a half.

12. From the time the treaty of 1801 was made, up to within the last few years, the term "internal enemies" was interpreted to mean the great landholders who might be in resistance to the Government, and this interpretation was always acted upon; the only difficulty was in ascertaining whether the resistance was or was not, under the circumstances, justifiable. While employed in Oude with my regiment, and on the staff in 1818 and 1819, I saw much of the correspondence between the Resident and Commandant; many letters from the Resident, Colonel Baillie, mentioning how bitterly Saadulullee, with whom that treaty was made, had complained, that after the sacrifice of half his kingdom for the aid of British troops in keeping down these powerful and refractory landholders, he could not obtain their assistance without being subject to such humiliating remonstrances as he got from officers commanding stations whenever he asked for it. Aid was often given, and forts innumerable were reduced from time to time, but the privilege of building them up again was purchased from the same or another contractor next season.

13. At this time I have calls for at least two battalions and a train of artillery, from about six quarters, to enforce orders on these landholders. Captain Hearsey has had men of his Frontier Police killed and wounded by them on the western border, and declares that nothing can be done to secure offenders, refugees from our districts, with a less force. Captain Orr has had several men wounded, and prisoners taken from him, by the same class on the eastern border, and declares to the same effect. Sixteen sepoys of our army, 59th N. I., on their way home on furlough were attacked and two of them killed, three weeks ago, by a third Zumeendar, at Peernugger, his own estate, within ten miles of the Setapore Cantonments, where we have a regiment. Captain Barlow's regiment and artillery, and another, with all Captain Hearsey's Frontier Police, are in pursuit of him. Four others have committed similar outrages on our officers and sepoys and their families, and the Government declares its utter inability to enforce obedience or grant any redress, without a larger force than they have to send. Great numbers of the same class are plundering and burning villages, and robbing and murdering on the highway, and laughing at the impotency of the sovereign. It was certainly for aid in coercing these "internal enemies" that the Sovereign of Oude ceded his territories to us, and for no other, and that aid may be afforded at little cost, and to the great benefit of all under the system I have submitted for your Lordship's consideration. It will be very rarely required, and when called for, a mere demonstration will, in three cases out of four, be sufficient to effect the object.

14, After a time, or when the heir-apparent comes of age, the duties of the guaranteed members of the Board may safely be united to a supervision over the settlement made with the principal landholders, whose obedience our Government may consider itself bound to aid in enforcing; all the rest may be left to a competent sovereign; and there will be nothing in the system opposed to native usages, feelings, and institutions, to prevent its being adhered to. I should mention, that many of these landholders have each armed and disciplined bodies of two thousand foot and five hundred horse; and, what is worse, the command of as many as they like of "Passies," armed with bows and arrows. These Passies are reckless thieves and robbers of the lowest class, whose only professions are thieving and acting as Chowkedars, or village police. They are at the service of every refractory Zumeendar, for what they can get in booty in his depredations. The disorders in Oude have greatly increased this class, and they are now roughly estimated at a hundred thousand families; these are the men from whom travellers on the road suffer most.

15. A second Assistant would be required for a time to enable the Resident to shift off the daily detail of the treasury, which has become the largest in India,--I believe, beyond those at the three Presidencies.

A good English copyist, capable of mapping, will be required in the Resident's office at 150, and two Persian writers 100; total 250. These are the only additions which appear to me to be required.

16. I annex a list of the regiments now in the King's service, Telungas, or regulars, and Nujeebs, or irregulars; and with my next official report I will submit a list of all the establishments, civil and military.

17. The King's habits will not alter; he was allowed by his father to associate, as at present, with these singers from his boyhood, and he cannot endure the society of other persons. His determination to live exclusively in their society, and to hear and see nothing of what his officers do or his people suffer, he no longer makes any attempt to conceal. It would be idle to hope for anything from him but a resignation of power into more competent hands; whatever he retains he will assuredly give to his singers and eunuchs, or allow them to take. No man can take charge of any office without anticipating the income by large gratuities to them, and the average gratuity which a contractor for a year, of a district yielding three lacs of rupees a- year, is made to pay, before he leaves the capital to enter upon his charge, is estimated to be fifty thousand rupees: this he exacts from the landholders as the first payment, for which they receive no credit in the public account. All other offices are paid for in the same way.

18. The King would change his minister to-morrow if the singers were to propose it; and they would propose it if they could get better terms or perquisites under any other. No minister could hold office a week without their acquiescence. Under such circumstances a change of ministers would be of little advantage to the country.

19. The King will yield to the measure proposed only under the assurance, that if he did not, the Governor-General would be reduced to the necessity of having recourse to that which Lord Hardinge threatened in the 10th, 11th, and 12th paragraphs of his letter of October, 1847, and the Court of Directors, on the representation of Lord William Bentinck, sanctioned in 1831. The Court was at that time so strongly impressed with the conviction that the threat would be carried into execution, that they prevailed upon the President to undertake a mission to the Home Government, with a view to enlarge the President's powers of interference, in order to save them from the alternative. This led to Mr. Maddock's removal from the Presidency; all subsequent correspondence has tended to keep up the apprehension that the threatened measure would be had recourse to, and to stimulate sovereigns and ministers to exertion till the present reign. The present King has, from the time he ascended the throne, manifested a determination to take no share whatever in the conduct of affairs; to spend the whole of his time among singers and eunuchs, and the women whom they provide for his amusement; and carefully to exclude from access, all who suffer from the maladministration of his servants, or who could and would tell him what was done by the one and suffered by the other.

20. But it is not his minister and favourites alone who take advantage of this state of things to enrich themselves; corruption runs through all the public offices, and Maharaja Balkishen, the Dewan, or Chancellor of the Exchequer, is notoriously among the most corrupt of all, taking a large portion of the heavy balances due by contractors to get the rest remitted or misrepresented. There is no Court in the capital, criminal, civil, or fiscal, in which the cases are not tampered with by Court favourites, and divided according to their wishes, unless the President has occasion to interfere in behalf of guaranteed pensioners, or officers and sepoys of our army. On his appearance they commonly skulk away, like jackals from a dead carcase when the tiger appears; but the cases in which he can interfere are comparatively very few, and it is with the greatest delay and difficulty that he can get such cases decided at all. A more lamentable state of affairs it is difficult to conceive.

With great respect, I remain, Your Lordship's obedient humble servant, (Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

To the Most Noble the Marquis of Dalhousie, K.T., &c. &c. &c.

P.S.--I find that the King's brother is altogether incompetent for anything like business or responsibility. The minister has not one single quality that a minister ought to have; and the King cannot be considered to be in a sound state of mind.

(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

Annexures.

1. Extracts, pars. 9 to 14 of Lord Hardinge's Memorial. 2. Statement of British troops in Oude in Jan. 1835 and 1849. 3. Table of the King of Oude's troops of all kinds.

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Lucknow, 6th September, 1849.

My Lord,

I take the liberty to enclose, for your Lordship's perusal, a more full and correct Table of the troops and police in Oude than that which I submitted with my last letter, as also a Table of all the other branches of expenditure--save those of buildings, charities, presents, &c., which are ever varying.

It may be estimated that two-thirds of the numbers in the corps of Telungas and Nujeebs paid for are kept up; and that one-half of what are kept up are efficient, all having to purchase their places, and those most unfit being disposed to pay highest.

Further: one-half of what are kept up are supposed to be always absent; and when they are so, they receive one-half of their pay, and the other half is divided between the commandant and the paymaster. These two are supposed to take, on one pretence or other, one third of the pay of those who are actually present. The corps of Telungas commanded by Captains Barlow, Bunbury, and Magness are exceptions; but the pay department is not under their control, and they are obliged to acquiesce in abuses that impair the efficiency their corps.

After reducing one-third-of these corps, and rendering the remaining two-thirds efficient, the force would be sufficient for all purposes, and we may well dispense with the corps of regular infantry which in my last letter I proposed to restore to Oude. It will, however, be desirable to have a good and experienced infantry officer as inspector, to see that the measures adopted for reform are effectually carried out. An artillery officer as inspector will also be desirable, as it will be necessary to have that branch of the force in the best possible order, when Oude has to depend chiefly on its own resources. A few European officers, too, for commandants of corps and seconds in command will be desirable--such as have been employed with native corps as sergeant-majors or quartermaster- sergeants, and have obtained distinctions for good conduct.

I should propose six primary stations as seats for the principal Revenue and Judicial Courts, and the headquarters of the best corps with cavalry and artillery; thirty second and third rate stations for the subordinate Courts and detachments of troops and police. All to be chosen, with reference to position in districts under jurisdiction, and to salubrity of climate. At all these Stations suitable buildings would be provided; and as all would be commenced upon simultaneously, all would soon be ready.

Your Lordship will observe the small item put down for the judicial establishments all over Oude. Such as are really kept up are worthless, and are altogether without the confidence of the people. The savings in the other branches of the expenditure will more than cover all the outlay required for good ones.

The King continues to show the same aversion to hear anything about public affairs, or to converse with any but the singers, eunuchs, and females. At the great festival of the Eed, on the first appearance of the present moon, he went out in procession, but deputed his heir- apparent to receive the compliments in Durbar. He does not suffer bodily pain, but is said to have long fits of moping and melancholy, and he is manifestly hypochondriac. He squanders the state jewels among the singers and eunuchs, who send them out of the country as fast as they can. The members of his family who have its interests most at heart, are becoming anxious for some change; and by the time the two years expire, it will not, perhaps, be difficult to induce him to put his affairs into other hands. He would change his minister on the slightest hint from me; but it would be of no use: the successor, pretending to carry on the Government under the King's orders, would be little better than the present minister is, and things would continue to be just as bad as they now are: they certainly could not be worse.

The Board, composed of the first members of the Lucknow aristocracy, would be, I think, both popular and efficient; and with the aid of a few of the ablest of the native judicial and revenue officers of our own districts, invited to Oude by the prospect of higher pay and security in the tenure of office, would soon have at work a machinery capable of securing to all their rights, and enforcing from all their duties in every part of this, at present, distracted country. We should soon have good roads throughout the kingdom; and both they and the rivers would soon be as secure as in our own provinces. I think, too, that I might venture to promise that all would be effected without violence or disturbance; all would see that everything was done for the benefit of an oppressed people, and in good faith towards the reigning family.

With great respect, I remain your Lordship's obedient, humble servant.

(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

To the Most Noble the Marquis of Dalhousie, K.T., &c. &c. &c.

P.S.--I may mention that the King is now engaged in turning into verse a long prose history called Hydree. About ten days ago all the poets in Lucknow were assembled at the palace to hear his Majesty read his poem. They sat with him, listening to his poem and reading their own from nine at night till three in the morning. One of the poets, the eldest son of a late minister, Mohamid-od Dowla, Aga Meer, told me that the versification was exceedingly good for a King. These are, I think, the only men, save the minister, the eunuchs, and the singers who have had the honour of conversing with his Majesty since I came here in January last. W. H. S.

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Lucknow, 23rd September, 1849.

My Dear Elliot,

I conclude that no further Tables will be required from me on Oude statistics for the present. Should they be so, pray let me know, and they shall be sent. I thought at first that it would be thought bad taste in me to refer to the domestic troubles of the King, but it is necessary to show the state to which his Majesty is reduced in his palace. The facts mentioned are known and talked of all over Lucknow and Oude generally, and tend more than greater things to bring his conduct and character into contempt.

The time was certainly never so favourable to propose an arrangement that shall secure a lasting and substantial reform, and render Oude what it ought to be--a garden. The King is in constant dread of poison, and would do anything to get relieved from that dread, and all further importunity on the state of the country. His chief wife would poison him to bring on the throne her son, and restore to her her paramour, who is now at Cawnpoor, waiting for such a change. Her uncle, the minister, would, the King thinks, be glad to see him poisoned, in the hope of having to conduct affairs during the minority. He is afraid to admonish his other wife for her infidelities with the chief favourite and singer, lest she should poison him to go off with her paramour to Rampoor, whither he has sent the immense wealth that the King has lavished upon him.

The whole family are most anxious that the King should resign the reins into abler hands, and would, I feel assured, hail the arrangement I have proposed as a blessing to them and the country. All seems ripe for the change, and I hope the Governor-General will consent to its being proposed soon. Any change in the ministry would now be an obstacle to the arrangement, and such a change might happen any morning. At the head of the Board, or Regency, I should put Mohsin-od Dowla, grandson of Ghazee-od Deen, the first King, and son- in-law of Moohummed Alee Shah, the third King. His only son has been lately united in marriage to the King's daughter. He is looked up to as the first man in Oude for character, and the most able member of the royal family. He is forty-five years of age. I should probably put two of the King's uncles in as the other members, Azeemoshan and Mirza Khorum Buksh, whose names you will find in the short appended list of those who have received no stipends since the present King ascended the throne. These princes cannot visit, the Resident except when they accompany the King himself, so that I have never seen the two last that I recollect, and only once conversed with the first. But their characters stand very high. They are never admitted to the King, nor have they seen him for more than a year, I believe.

The King will probably object to members of his family forming the Board, but I dare say I shall be able to persuade him of the advantage of it. Such a Board, so constituted, would be a pledge to all India of the honesty of our intentions, and secure to us the cordial good-will of all who are interested in the welfare of the family and the good government of the country.

I should persuade the members to draw from the élite of their own creed in our service to aid in forming and carrying out the new system in their several departments. We can give them excellent men in the revenue and judicial branches, who will be glad to come when assured that they will not be removed so long as they do their duty ably and honestly, and will get pensions if their services are dispensed with after a time. This is all I shall say at present.

Yours sincerely, (Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

To Sir H. M. Elliot, K.C.B., &c. &c.

___________________________________

Lucknow.

My Lord,

My Official Report went off on the 25th instant, and will have been submitted, for your Lordship's consideration. It contains, I believe, a faithful description of the abuses that exist and require remedy, and of the obstacles which will be opposed to their removal. But it does not tell all that might be told of the King himself, who has become an object of odium and contempt to all but those few despicable persons with whom he associates exclusively. He eats, drinks, sleeps, and converses with the singers and eunuchs and females alone, and the only female who has any influence over him is the sister of the chief singer, Rusee-od Dowlah, whom he calls his own sister. No member of the royal family or aristocracy of Oude is ever admitted to speak to or see his Majesty, and these contemptible singers are admitted to more equality and familiarity than his own brothers or sons ever were; they go out, too, with greater pomp than they or any of the royal family can; and are ordered to be received with more honours as they pass through the different palaces. The profligacy that exists within the palace passes all belief, and these things excite more disgust among the aristocracy of the capital than all the misrule and malversation that arise from the King's apathy and incapacity.

Should your Lordship resolve upon interposing effectually to remedy these disorders, I think it will be necessary to have at Lucknow, for at least the first few months, a corps of irregular cavalry. We have no cavalry in Oude, and none of the King's can be depended upon. The first thing necessary will be the disbanding of the African, or Hubshee corps, of three hundred men. They are commanded by one of the eunuchs, and a fellow fit for any dark purpose. They were formed into a corps, I believe, because no man's life was safe in Lucknow while they were loose upon society.

I think the King will consent without much difficulty or reluctance to delegate his powers to a Regency, but I am somewhat afraid that he will object to its being composed of members of his own family. The Sovereign has always been opposed to employing any of his own relatives in office. I shall, I dare say, be able to get over this difficulty, and it will be desirable to employ the best members of the family in order to show the people of Oude, and of India generally, that the object of our Government is an honest and benevolent one.

A corps of irregular cavalry might be sent to Lucknow from Goruckpoor, and its place there supplied for a season by a wing from the corps at Legolee. There is little occasion for the services of cavalry at either of these places at present. Without any cavalry of our own here, and with this corps of African assassins at Lucknow at the beck of the singers, eunuchs, and their creature, the minister, neither the Resident nor any of the Regency would be safe. The treasury and crown jewels would be open to any one who would make away with them. If, therefore, your Lordship should determine upon offering the king the alternative proposed, no time should be lost in ordering the irregular corps from Goruckpoor to Lucknow, to be held at the Resident's disposal. Its presence will be required only for a few months.

I have mentioned, in my private letter to Sir H. M. Elliot, three persons of high character for the Regency. Two of them are brothers of the King's father. The third, and best, may be considered as in all respects the first man in Oude. Mohsin-od Dowlah is the grandson of the King, Ghasee-od Deen; his wife, and the mother of his only son, is the sister of the King's father, and his only son has been lately united in marriage to the present King's daughter. He and his wife have large hereditary incomes, under the guarantee of our Government, and his character for good sense, prudence, and integrity stands higher, I believe, than that of any other man in Oude.

All three belong to the number of the royal family who never visit the Resident except in company with the King, and I have, in consequence, never spoken to Mohsin-od Dowlah but once, and never seen either of the other two whom I have named, Azeemoshan and Khorum Bukeh, the King's uncles. The characters of all three are very high, and in general esteem.

Things are coming to a very critical state. There is no money to pay any one in the treasury, and the greater part of what comes in is taken for private purposes, by those who are in power. All see that there must soon be a great change, and are anxious "to make hay while the sun shines." The troops are everywhere in a state bordering on mutiny, but more particularly in and about the capital, because they cannot indemnify themselves by the plunder of the people as those in the distant districts do.

Fortunately the rains have this season been very favourable for tillage, and the crops may be good if we can preserve them by, some timely arrangement.

With great respect I remain, Your Lordship's obedient, humble servant,

(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

To the Most Noble the Marquis of Dalhousie.

P.S.--I find that the irregular corps of cavalry has been moved from Goruckpoor to Sultanpoor Benares, and that Lagolee and Goruckpoor have now only one corps between them.

The Sultanpoor Benares corps might well spare a wing for Lucknow, and so might the corps at Bareilly spare one.

(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

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Lucknow, 11th October, 1849.

My Dear Elliot,

Here is a little item of palace news, communicated by one of the poets who has to assist his Majesty in selecting his verses, and who knows a good deal about what is going on among the favourites. Perhaps you may recollect him, Ameen-od Doulah, the eldest son of the late Aga Meer.

There is not a greater knave than Walee Alee in India, I believe. That his Majesty will consent to what the Governor-General may authorise us to propose I have no doubt, for he and his family are by this time satisfied that we shall propose nothing but what is good for them and the people of Oude.

But the King is no longer in a sound state of mind, and will say and do whatever the most plausible of the bad speakers may recommend. When I see him, I must have his signature before respectable witnesses to all his answers to distinct propositions, and act upon them at once, as far as I may be authorised by the Governor-General, or nothing will be done. It would not do for me to commune with him about affairs till I get instructions from you, as he would be sure to tell the singers, eunuchs, and minister all that has been said the moment I left him.

He has never been a cruel or badly-disposed man, but his mind, naturally weak, has entirely given way, and is now as helpless as that of an infant. Every hour's delay will add to our difficulties, and I wait most anxiously for orders. I am prepared with the new arrangements, and feel sure that the system will work well, and have the Governor-General's approval. I can explain it in a few words, and show the details in a small Table all ready for transmission when called for.

We shall have the royal family, the court, and people with us, with the exception of the minister and the favourites, who are in league with him, and those who share in the fruits of their corruption. Fifteen lacs are spoken of as the means ready to get either me out of the way or put a stop to all attempts of improvement for the present. I have in my public letter mentioned seven lacs as the average annual perquisites of the minister--they are at present at least twelve.

Yours sincerely, (Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

To Sir H. M. Elliot, K.C.B., &c. &c.

[Transcriber's Note: Map of the Kingdom of Oude - Drawn under the superintendence of the Late Major General Sir Wm. Sleeman. Approximate area covered 79° to 84° E by 25° to 28.5° N.; scale approximately 38 miles to the inch. Map shows the route taken by the author on his journey, as noted in his diary.]

DIARY of A JOURNEY THROUGH OUDE

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Chapter I

Departure from Lucknow--Gholam Hazrut--Attack on the late Prime Minister, Ameen-od-Dowla--A similar attack on the sons of a former Prime Minister, Agar Meer--Gunga Sing and Kulunder Buksh--Gorbuksh Sing, of Bhitolee--Gonda Bahraetch district--Rughbur Sing--Prethee Put, of Paska--King of Oude and King of the Fairies--Surafraz mahal.

December 1, 1849.--I left Lucknow to proceed on a tour through Oude, to see the state of the country and the condition of the people. My wish to do so I communicated to Government, on the 29th of March last, and its sanction was conveyed to me, in a letter from the Secretary, dated the 7th of April. On the 16th of November I reported to Government my intention to proceed, under this sanction, on the 1st of December, and on the 19th I sent the same intimation to the King. On the 28th, as soon as the ceremonies of the Mohurrum terminated, His Majesty expressed a wish to see me on the following day; and on the 29th I went at 9 A.M., accompanied by Captain Bird, the first Assistant, and Lieutenant Weston, the Superintendant of the Frontier Police, and took leave of the King, with mutual expression of good-will. The minister, Alee Nakee Khan, was present. On the 30th I made over charge of the Treasury to Captain Bird, who has the charge of the department of the Sipahees' Petitions and the Fyzabad Guaranteed Pensions; and, taking with me all the office establishments not required in these three departments, proceeded, under the usual salute, to Chenahut, eight miles.*

[* My escort consisted, of two companies of sipahees, from the 10th Regiment Native Infantry, and my party of Captain Hardwick, lieutenant Weston, and Lieutenant and Mrs. Willows and my wife and children, with occasional visitors from Lucknow and elsewhere.]

The Minister, Dewan and Deputy Minister, Ghoolam Ruza, came out the first stage with me, and our friend Moonuwur-od Dowla, drove out to see us in the evening.

December 2, 1849.--We proceeded to Nawabgunge, the minister riding out with me, for some miles, to take leave, as I sat in my tonjohn. At sunrise I ventured, for the first time since I broke my left thigh-bone on the 4th April, to mount an elephant, the better to see the country. The land, on both sides of the road, well cultivated, and studded with groves of mango and other trees, and very fertile.

The two purgunnas of Nawabgunge and Sidhore are under the charge of Aga Ahmud, the Amil, who has under him two naibs or deputies, Ghoolam Abbas and Mahummud Ameer. All three are obliged to connive at the iniquities of a Landholder, Ghoolam Huzrut, who resides on his small estate of Jhareeapoora, which he is augmenting, in a manner too common in Oude, by seizing on the estates of his weaker neighbours. He wanted to increase the number of his followers, and on the 10th of November 1849, he sent some men to aid the prisoners in the great jail at Lucknow to break out. Five of them were killed in the attempt, seven were wounded, and twenty-five were retaken, but forty- five escaped, and among them Fuzl Allee, one of the four assassins, who, in April 1847, cut down the late minister, Ameen-od Dowla, in the midst of his followers, in one of the principal streets of Lucknow, through which the road, leading from the city to Cawnpore, now passes. One of the four, Tuffuzzul Hoseyn, was killed in attempting to escape on the 8th August 1849, and one, Alee Mahomed, was killed in this last attempt. The third, Fuzl Allee, with some of the most atrocious and desperate of his companions, is now with this Ghoolam Huzrut, disturbing the peace of the country. The leader in this attempt was Ghoolam Hyder Khan, who is still in jail at Lucknow.

On my remarking to the King's wakeel that these ruffians had all high-sounding names, he said, "They are really all men of high lineage; and men of that class, who become ruffians, are always sure to be of the worst description." "As horses of the best blood, when they do become vicious, are the most incorrigible, I suppose?" "Nothing can be more true, sir," rejoined the wakeel. An account of the attack made by the above-named ruffians on the minister, may be here given as both interesting and instructive, or at least as illustrative of the state of society and government in Oude.

At five in the morning of the 8th of April 1847, the minister, Ameen- od Dowlah, left his house in a buggy to visit the King. Of his armed attendants he had only three or four with him. He had not gone far when four armed assassins placed themselves in front of his buggy and ordered him to stop. One of them, Tuffuzzul Hoseyn, seized the horse; by the bridle, and told the minister, that he must give him the arrears of pay due before he could go on. The other three, Fuzl Allee, Allee Mahomed, and Hyder Khan, came up and stood on the right side of the buggy. One of the minister's servants, named Hollas, tried to prevent their coming near, but was fired upon by Allee Mahomed. He missed him, but Fuzl Allee discharged his blunderbuss at him, and he fell; but in falling, he wounded Hyder Khan slightly with his sword. Hyder Khan then threw away his fire-arms and sprang into the buggy with his naked dagger in his right hand and the minister in his left. The minister seized him round the waist, forced him back out of the buggy on the left, and fell upon him. Tuffuzzul Hoseyn then quitted his hold of the horse and rushed to his comrade's assistance, but the minister still holding Hyder Khan in his right hand, seized Tuffuzzul Hoseyn with his left. Syud Aman Allee, another personal servant of the minister, was cut down by Fuzl Allee, in attempting to aid his master, and a third personal servant, Shah Meer, was severely wounded by Allee Mahomed, and stood at a distance of twenty paces, calling for help. Fuzl Allee now made two cuts with his sword on the right shoulder and arm of the minister, below the elbow, and he quitted his hold on the two assassins and fell. The four assassins now grasped their victim, and told him that they would do him no farther harm if no rescue were attempted. As they saw the rest of the minister's armed attendants and a crowd approach, Fuzl Allee and Hyder Khan, with their blunderbusses loaded and cocked, stood one at each end of an open space of about sixty yards, and threatened to shoot the first man who should venture to approach nearer. The crowd and attendants of the minister were kept back, and no one ventured to enter this space, in the centre of which the minister lay, grasped by Tuffuzzul Hoseyn and Allee Mahomed, who held their naked daggers at his breast. The minister called out to his attendants and the crowd to keep back. He was then allowed to rise and walk to a small raised terrace on the side of the street, where he lay down on his back, being unable any longer to sit or stand from the loss of blood. Tuffuzzul Hoseyn and Allee Mahomed knelt over him, holding the points of their daggers at his breast, and swearing that they would plunge them to his heart if he attempted to move, or any one presumed to enter the open space to rescue him. Hollas and Syud Aman Allee lay bleeding at the spot where they fell. Hollas died that day, and Syud Aman Allee a few days after, of lock-jaw.

As soon as the attack on the minister was made, information of it was sent off to the Resident, Colonel Richmond, who wrote to request the Brigadier Commanding the Troops in Oude, to send him, as soon as possible, a regiment of infantry with two guns, from the Cantonments, which are three miles and a-half distant from the Residency, on the opposite side from the scene of the attack, to prevent any tumult that the loose characters of the city might attempt to raise on the occasion, and repaired himself to the spot attended by the Assistant, Captain Bird, and a small guard of sipahees. They reached the open spot, in the centre of which the minister lay, about a quarter of an hour after he fell. He found the street, in which the attack took place, crowded with people up to the place where the two sentries, Fuzl Allee and Hyder Khan, stood at each end of the open space, in the centre of which the minister lay, with the daggers of the two other assassins pressing upon his breast. On reaching one end of the open space, the Resident directed Captain Bird to advance to the spot where the minister lay. The assassin who guarded that end at first threatened to shoot him, but no sooner recognized him than he let him pass on unattended. He asked the two men, who knelt over the minister, what they meant by this assault. They told him, that good men were no longer employed in the King's service, and that they were, in consequence, without the means of subsistence; and had been compelled to resort to this mode of obtaining them; that they required fifty thousand rupees from the minister, with a written assurance from the British Resident, that they should be escorted in safety across the Ganges into the British territory with this sum.

The Resident peremptorily refused to enter into any written agreement with them, and told them, through the Assistant, that if they presumed to put the minister to death, or to offer him any further violence, they should be all four immediately shot down and cut to pieces; but, if they did him no further harm, their lives should, be spared; and, to prevent their being killed as soon as they quitted their hold, that he would take them all with him to the Residency, and neither imprison them himself, nor have them made over as prisoners to the Oude Government; but that he declined being a party to any arrangement that the minister might wish to make of paying money for his life.

They continued resolutely to threaten instant death to the minister should any one but the Resident or his Assistant presume to enter the open space in which he lay. Many thousands of reckless and desperate characters filled the street, ready to commence a tumult, for the plunder of the city, the moment that the minister or the assassins should be killed, while the relations and dependents of the minister, with loud cries, offered lacs of rupees to the assassins if they spared his life, so as to encourage them to hold out. They at last collected and brought to the spot, on three or four elephants, the fifty thousand rupees demanded by the assassins, and offered them to his assailants apparently with his concurrence; and the four ruffians, having assented to the terms offered by the Resident, permitted Doctor Login, the Residency Surgeon, to approach the prostrate minister and dress his wounds. One of the assassins, however, continued to kneel by his side with his naked dagger resting on his breast till he saw the other three seated upon the elephants, on which the money was placed, with the understanding, that the guard of sipahees, which the Resident had brought with him, should escort them to the Residency, and that Captain Bird, the Assistant, should accompany them. The fourth man then quitted his hold on the minister, who had become very faint, and climbed upon Captain Bird's elephant and took seat behind him. Captain Bird, however, made him get off, and mount another elephant with his companions. The crowd shouted shah bash, shah bash!--well done, well done! and they attempted to scatter some of the money from the elephants among them, but were prevented by Captain Bird, who dreaded the consequences in such a tumult. They were all four taken to the Residency under the guard of sipahees, and accommodated in one of the lower rooms of the office; and a guard was placed over the money with orders to keep back the crowd of spectators, which was very great. Three of the four ruffians had been wounded by the minister's attendants before they could secure his person, and their wounds were now dressed by Doctor Login.

It was now ten o'clock, and at twelve the Resident had an interview with the King, who had become much alarmed, not only for the safety of the minister, but for that of the city, threatened by the thousands of bad characters, anxious for an occasion of pillage; and he expressed an anxious wish that the assassins should be made over to him for trial. But the Resident pleaded the solemn promise which he had made, and his Majesty admitted the necessity of the promise under the circumstances, and that of keeping it; but said that he would have the whole affair carefully investigated. As soon as the Resident left him, he sent a company of sipahees with fetters to the Residency to receive charge of the prisoners, but the Resident would not give them up. The King then wrote a letter to the Resident with his own hand, requesting that the prisoners might be surrendered to him. The Resident, in his reply to His Majesty's, letter, told him, that he could not so far violate the promise he had given, but that he would send them to answer any other charges that might be brought against them, in any open and impartial Court that might be appointed to try them; and if they should be found guilty of other crimes, His Majesty might order any sentence passed upon them, short of death, to be carried into execution.

Charges of many successful attempts of the same kind, and many atrocious murders perpetrated by the ruffians, in distant districts of Oude, were preferred against them; and they were prevailed upon to give up their arms, and to submit to a fair and open trial, on the other charges preferred against them, on condition that they should neither be put to death nor in any way maimed, or put in fetters, or subjected to ill-treatment before trial and conviction. The Resident offered them the alternative of doing this or leaving the Residency, after he had read to them the King's letter, and told them, that his promise extended only to saving their lives and escorting them to the Residency; and, that he would not be answerable for their lives beyond the court-yard of the Residency, if they refused the conditions now offered. They knew that their lives would not be safe for a moment after they got beyond the court-yard, and submitted. Their arms and the fifty thousand rupees were sent to the King. At four in the afternoon, the four prisoners were made over to the King's wakeel, on a solemn promise given under the express sanction of his Majesty, of safe conduct through the streets, of freedom from fetters, or any kind of ill-treatment before conviction, and of fair and open trial.

But they had not gone two paces from the Residency court-yard, when they were set upon by the very people sent by the King to take care of them on the way; the King's wakeel having got into his palkee and gone on before them towards the palace. They were beaten with whips, sticks, and the hilts of swords, till one of the four fell down insensible, and the other three were reduced to a pitiable condition. The Resident took measures to protect them from further violence, recalled the wakeel; and, after admonishing him for his dishonourable conduct, had the prisoners taken unfettered to a convenient house near the prison. The wounded minister wrote to the King, earnestly praying that the prisoners might not suffer any kind of ill-treatment before conviction, after a fair and impartial trial. The Resident reported to Government all that had occurred, and stated, that he should see that the promises made to the prisoners were fulfilled, that, should they be convicted before the Court appointed to conduct the trial, of other crimes perpetrated before this assault on the minister, they would be subject to such punishment as the Mahommedan law prescribed for such crimes. Three of them, Tuffuzzul Hoseyn, Hyder Khan, and Fuzl Allee, were convicted, on their own confessions, and the testimony of their own relations, of many cold blooded murders, and successful attempts to extort money from respectable and wealthy persons in different parts of Oude, similar to this on the minister, and all four were sentenced to imprisonment for life. The Government of India had insisted on their not being executed or mutilated. Fuzl Allee, as above stated, broke jail, and is still at large at his old trade, and Hyder Khan is still in prison at Lucknow.

These ruffians appear to have been encouraged, in this assault upon the minister, for the purpose of extorting money, by a similar but more successful attempt made in the year 1824, by a party headed by a person named Syud Mahomed Eesa Meean, alias Eesa Meean.

This person came to Lucknow with a letter of recommendation from Captain Gough. He delivered it in person to the Resident, but was never after seen or heard of by him till this affair occurred. He became a kind of saint, or apostle, at Lucknow; and Fakeer Mahomed Khan Rusaldar, who commanded a corps of Cavalry, and had much influence over the minister, Aga Meer, became one of his disciples, and prevailed upon the minister to entertain him as a mosahib, or aide-de-camp. He soon became a favourite with Aga Meer, and formed a liaison with a dancing-girl, named Beeba Jan. His conduct towards her soon became too violent and overbearing, and she sought shelter with the Khasmahal, or chief consort, of the minister, who promised her protection, and detained her in her apartments. Eesa Meean appealed to the minister, and demanded her surrender. The minister told him that she was mistress of her own actions, as she had never gone through the ceremonies of permanent marriage, or nikkah, nor even those of a temporary one, motah; and most be considered as altogether free to choose her own lovers or mode of life.

He then appealed to Moulavee Karamut Allee, the tutor of Aga Meer's children, but was told, that he could not interfere, as the female was a mere acquaintance of his, and bound to him by no legal ties whatever; and must, therefore, be considered as free to reside where and with whom she chose. Eesa Meean then took his resolution, and prevailed upon some fifteen of the loose and desperate characters who always swarm at Lucknow, to aid him in carrying it out. On the 2nd of June 1824, Karamut Allee, the tutor, was bathing, and Aga Meer's two eldest sons, Aga Allee, aged eleven, and Nizam-od Dowlah, aged six years were reading their lessons in the school-room, under the deputy-tutor, Moulavee Ameen Allee. It was early in the morning, but the minister had gone out to wait upon the King. Eesa Meean entered the school-room, and approached the children with the usual courtesy and compliments, followed by six armed men, and one table attendant, or khidmutgar.

The two boys were sitting beside each other, the eldest, Aga Allee, on the left, and the youngest, Nizam-od Dowla, on the right. Eesa Meean sat down on the left side of the eldest, and congratulated both on the rapid progress they were making in their studies. Three of his followers, while he was doing this, placed themselves on the left of the eldest, and the other three on the right of the youngest. On a concerted signal all drew forth and cocked their pistols, and placed themselves at the only three doors that opened from the school-room, two at each, while at a signal made by the khidmutgar, eight more men came in armed in the same manner. Two of them with naked daggers in their right hands seized the two boys with their left, and threatened them with instant death if they attempted to more or call for help. The other six threatened to kill any one who should attempt to force his way into the apartment. The khidmutgar, in the mean time, seized and brought into the room two large gharahs or pitchers of drinking water, that stood outside, as the weather was very hot, and the party would require it They were afraid that poison might be put into the water if left outside after they had commenced the assault. Eesa Meean then declared, that he had been driven to this violent act by the detention of his girl by the Khasmahal, and must have her instantly surrendered, or they would put the boys to death. Hearing the noise from his bathing-room, their tutor, Karamut Allee, rushed into the room with nothing on his person but his waist-band, and began to admonish the ruffians. Seeing him unarmed, and respecting his peaceful character, they let him pass in and vociferate, but paid no regard to what he said.

The alarm had spread through the house and town, and many of the chief officers of the Court were permitted to enter the room unarmed. Roshun-od Dowlah, Sobhan Allee Khan, Fakeer Mahomed Khan, Nuzee Allee Khan, (the Khasmahul's son-in-law,) and others of equal rank, all in loud terms admonished the assailants, and demanded the surrender of the children, but all were alike unheeded. The chief merchant of Lucknow, Sa Gobind Lal, came in; and thinking that all affairs could and ought to be settled in a business-like way, told the chief officers to fix the sum to be given, and he would at once pledge himself to the payment. All agreed to this, and Sobhan Allee Khan, the Chief Secretary of the minister, set to work and drew up a long and eloquent paper of conditions. On his beginning to read it, one of the ruffians, who had one eye, rushed in, snatched it from his hand, tore it to pieces, and threw the fragments into his chief's, Eesa Meean's, face, saying, "that this fellow would write them all out of their lives, as he was writing the people of Oude every day out of their properties; that if they must die, it should not be by pen and paper, but by swords and daggers in a fair fight; that all their lives had been staked, and all should die or live together." He was overpowered by the others, and other papers were drawn up by the ready writer and consummate knave Sobhan Allee, but the one-eyed man contrived to get hold of all, one after the other, and tear them up.

The minister was with the King when he first heard of the affair, and he went off forthwith to the Resident, Mr. Ricketts, to say, that his Majesty had in vain endeavoured to rescue the boys through his principal civil officers, and had sent all his available troops, but in vain; and now earnestly entreated the British Resident to interpose and save their lives. The Resident consented to do so, on condition that any arrangement he might find it necessary to make should be binding on his Majesty and the minister. Aga Meer returned to the King with this message, and his Majesty agreed to this condition. The Resident then sent his head moonshie, Gholam Hossein, to promise Eesa Meean, that the woman should be restored to him, and any grievance he might have to complain of should be redressed, and his party all saved, if he gave up the children. But he and his followers now demanded a large sum of money, and declared, that they would murder the boys unless it was given and secured to them, with a pledge for personal security to the whole party.

The minister, on hearing this, came to the Resident, and implored him to adopt some measures to save the lives of the children. The Resident had been for three weeks confined to his couch from illness, but he sent his Assistant, Captain Lockett, with full powers to make any arrangement, and pledge himself to any engagements, which might appear to him to be necessary, to save the lives of the boys. He went, and being unarmed, was permitted to enter the room. He asked for Eesa Meean, whom he had never before seen, when one of the party that knelt over the boys rose, and saluting him, said, "I am Eesa Meean." Captain Lockett told him that he wanted to speak to him in private, when Eesa Meean pointed to a door leading into a side room, into which they retired. Eesa Meean offered Captain Lockett a chair, and at his request sat down by his side. He then entered into a long story of grievances, which Captain Lockett considered to be frivolous, and said, "that the minister had injured his prospects in many ways, and at last disgraced him in the eyes of all people at Lucknow, by conniving at the elopement of the dancing-girl that he was a soldier and regardless of life under such disgrace, and prepared to abide by the result of his present attempt to secure redress, whatever it might be; that his terms were the payment down of five lacs of rupees, the restoration of his dancing-girl, and the security of his own person and property, with permission to go where he pleased, unmolested." Captain Lockett reminded him quietly of what he had just said: "that he was a soldier, and anxious only for the recovery of his lost honour; that now, to demand, money, was to show to the world that wounded honour was urged as a mere pretext, and the seizure of the boys a means adopted for the sole purpose of extorting money; that he could not condescend to hold further converse with him if he persisted in such preposterous demands; that he might murder the children as they seemed to be in his power, but if he did so, he and his party would be all instantly put to death, as the house was surrounded by thousands of the King's soldiers, ready to fall upon them at the slightest signal." He then recommended him to release the boys forthwith before the excitement without became more strong, and accompany him to the Residency, where his real Wrongs would be inquired into and redressed.

Eesa Meean then rose and said: "Money is not my object. I despise it. I regard nothing but the preservation of my honour, and agree to what you propose; but I have several companions here who require to be consulted: let me speak to them." He then went into the large room. His companions all made objections of one kind or another, and what they all agreed to one moment was rejected the next. They vociferated loudly, and disputed violently with each other, and with all around them, and at times appeared desperate and determined to sacrifice the boys, and sell their own lives as dearly as possible. Eesa Meean himself seemed to be the most violent and boisterous of all, and had his hand frequently on the hilt of his sword when he disputed with the King's officers, whom he abused in the grossest possible terms. They did more harm than good by their want of temper and patience, but above all by their utter want of character, since no one could place the slightest reliance on the word of any one of them in such a trying moment. They seemed to have no control over their feelings, and to think that they could do all that was required by harsh language and loud bawling.

Captain Lockett at last persuaded them to leave the whole affair in his hands; and had they done so at first, he would have settled the matter, he thought, in half the time. They had been discussing matters in this angry manner for four hours and a half, without making the slightest impression on the ruffians; but when all became silent, Captain Lockett prevailed on them to release the boys on the conditions agreed to between him and Eesa Meean, and recorded on paper. In this paper it was declared--"That Syud Mahomed Eesa Khan, together with the woman, Beeba Jan, shall be allowed to go where he liked, with security to his life and honour, and with all the property and effects he might have, whether he got it from the King of Oude or from his minister; and that no one, either in the Honourable Company's or in the King of Oude's dominions, shall offer him any molestation; that no obstruction shall be thrown in his way by the officers of the British Government in the countries of any of the Rajahs at whose courts there may be a British Resident; and further, that no molestation shall be offered to him in the British territories in consequence of the disturbance which took place at Bareilly in 1816.

"(Signed) A. LOCKETT, Assistant Resident."

After this paper had been signed by Captain Lockett, the two boys were set at liberty, and sent off in palanqeens to their mother under a guard. The minister had, in the morning, promised to give the assailants twenty thousand rupees, and they arrived before the discussions closed, and were placed on the floor of the school-room. The girl, Beeba Jan, was now brought into the room, and made over to Eesa Meean. When first brought before him, she thought she was to be sacrificed to save the lives of the boys, and was in a state of great agitation. She implored Captain Lockett to save her life; but, to the great surprise of all present, Eesa Meean took up one of the bags of money, containing one thousand rupees, and, with a smile, put it into her arms, and told her that she was now at liberty to return to her home or go where she pleased. The joy expressed by the girl and by all who witnessed this scene was very great; for they had all considered him to be a mere ruffian, incapable of anything like a generous action.

It had been arranged that Eesa Meean, with all his party, should go with Captain Lockett to the Residency; but when the time came, and the excitement had passed away in the apartment, he began to be alarmed, and told Captain Lockett that he felt sure he should be murdered on the road. He wanted to go with Captain Lockett on the same elephant, but to this Captain Lockett would not consent, as it would compromise his dignity, to sit on the same elephant with so atrocious a character. There was no palanqeen available for him, and he would not allow Captain Lockett to enter his, declaring that if he did so, he, Eesa Meean, would be instantly cut down by the King's people. Captain Lockett was, therefore, obliged to walk with him from the minister's house at Dowlut Poora to the Residency, a distance of a mile, in the heat of the day, and the hottest month in the year, followed by the King's troops, and an immense multitude from the city. About four o'clock Captain Lockett reached the Residency, and made over Eesa Meean and his sixteen followers to the Resident, who ratified the written engagement, and sent the party to the cantonments, three miles distant from the city, to Brigadier-General Price, who commanded the troops in Oude, to be taken care of for a few days till arrangements could be made for their safe conduct to Cawnpore, within the British territory. Their arms were taken from them, to be sent to the magistrate at Cawnpore, for delivery to them when they might be released. On the morning of the 3rd the King came to the Resident to thank him for what he had done, and express the sense he entertained of the judicious conduct of his Assistant during the whole of this trying scene; and to request that he might be permitted to go to the palace to receive some mark of distinction which his Majesty wished to confer upon him. Captain Lockett went with the minister, and was received with marked distinction; and thirteen trays of shawls and other articles were presented to him. Captain Lockett selected one pair, which he accepted, and placed, as usual, in the Resident's Toshuk-khana.

When he signed the paper he remarked the omission of all mention of Eesa Meean's associates in that document, but did not consider it to be his duty to point out the oversight, lest it might increase the excitement, and prolong the angry discussions. In his report of the circumstances to the Resident, however, he mentioned it to him, and told him that the omission clearly arose from an oversight, and unless his associates received the same indulgence as the principal, Eesa Meean himself, their exclusion from the benefits of the engagement might be attributed to decoit or artifice on his part. The Resident concurred in this opinion, and in his report of the following day to Government, he recommended that they should all be considered as included in the engagement.

Government, in its reply of the 25th of June 1824, consents to this construction of the written engagement, but notices a no less important oversight on the part of the Resident and his Assistant, in the free pardon given to Eesa Meean, for the share he had taken in the Bareilly insurrection, which had caused the loss of so many lives in April 1816. Government infers, that they could, neither of them have been aware, that this ruffian was the original instigator and most active leader in that formidable insurrection; that it was chiefly, if not entirely, owing to his endeavours to inflame the popular phrenzy, and to collect partizans from the neighbouring towns, that the efforts of the local authorities, to quell or avert the rising storm, failed wholly of success; that he stood charged as a principal in the murder of Mr. Leycester's son, and that, on these grounds, he was expressly excluded from the general amnesty, declared after the successful suppression of the rebellion, and a reward of two thousand rupees offered for his arrest; that this written pledge had involved Government in the dilemma of either cancelling a public act of the British Resident, or pardoning and setting at large, within its territory, a proclaimed outlaw, and notorious rebel and most dangerous incendiary; and that it felt bound in duty to guard the public peace from the hazard of further interruption, through the violence or intrigue of so desperate and atrocious an offender; and to annul that part of the engagement which absolves Eesa Meean from his guilt in the Bareilly insurrection, since the Resident and his Assistant went beyond their powers in pledging their Government to such a condition. Government directed, that he and his associates should be safely escorted over the border into the British territory, and that he should not be brought to trial before a Judicial Court, with a view to his being capitally punished for his crimes at Bareilly, but be confined, as a state prisoner, in the fortress of Allahabad. The Government, in strong but dignified terms, expresses its surprise and displeasure at his having been placed in so confidential a position, and permitted to bask in the sunshine of ministerial favour, when active search was being made for him all over India; for the King and his minister must have been both aware of the part he had taken in the Bareilly insurrection, since the King himself alludes to it in a letter submitted by the Resident to Government on the 8th of June 1824.

The Resident and his Assistant, in letters dated 15th of July, declare that they were altogether unacquainted with the part which Eesa Meean had taken in the Bareilly rebellion in 1816, the Resident being at that time at the Cape of Good Hope, and his Assistant in England. Eesa Meean was confined, as directed, in the fort of Allahabad; but soon afterwards released on the occasion of the Governor-General's visit to that place. He returned again to Lucknow in the year 1828, soon after Aga Meer had been removed from his office of minister. As soon as it was discovered that he was in the city, he was seized and sent across the Ganges; and is said to have been killed in Malwa or Goozerat, in a similar attempt upon some native chief or his minister.

The two boys are still living, the eldest, Aga Allee, or Ameen-od Dowla, at Lucknow, and Nizam-od Dowla, the youngest, at Cawnpore; both drawing large hereditary pensions, under the guarantee of the British Government. This is not the Ameen-od Dowla who was attacked in the streets, as above described, in the year 1847.

About two years ago this Ghoolam Huzrut took by violence possession of the small estate of Golha, now in the Sibhore purgunnah; and turned out the proprietor, Bhowannee Sing, a Rathore Rajpoot, whose ancestors had held it for several centuries. The poor man was re- established in it by the succeeding contractor, Girdhara Sing; but on his losing his contract, Ghoolam Huzret, on the 23rd of September last, again attacked Bhowanne Sing at midnight, at the head of a gang of ruffians; and after killing five of his relatives and servants, and burning down his houses, turned him and his family out, and secured possession of the village, which he still holds. The King's officers were too weak to protect the poor man, and have hitherto acquiesced in the usurpation of the village. Ghoolam Huzrut has removed all the autumn crops to his own village; and cut down and taken away sixty mango-trees planted by Bhowannee Sing's ancestors. Miherban Sing, the son of the sufferer, is a sipahee in the 63rd Regiment Native Infantry, and he presented a petition through the Resident in behalf of his father. Other petitions have been since presented, and the Court has been strongly urged to afford redress. Ghoolam Huzrut has two forts, to which he retires when pursued, one at Para, and one at Sarai, and a good many powerful landholders always ready to support him against the government, on condition of being supported by him when necessary.

On crossing the river Ghagra, I directed Captain Bunbury, (who commands a regiment in the King of Oude's service with six guns, and was to have accompanied me, and left the main body of his regiment with his guns under his second in command, Captain Hearsey, at Nawabgunge,) to surprise and capture Ghoolam Huzrut, if possible, by a sudden march. He had left his fort of Para, on my passing within a few miles of it, knowing that the minister had been with me, and thinking that he might have requested my aid for the purpose. Captain Bunbury joined his main body unperceived, made a forced march during the night, and reached the fort of Para at daybreak in the morning, without giving alarm to any one on the road. In this surprise he was aided by Khoda Buksh, of Dadra, a very respectable and excellent landholder, who had suffered from Ghoolam Huzrut's depredations.

He had returned to his fort with all his family on my passing, and it contained but few soldiers, with a vast number of women and children. He saw that it would be of no use to resist, and surrendered his fort and person to Captain Bunbury, who sent him a prisoner to Lucknow, under charge of two Companies, commanded by Captain Hearsey. He is under trial, but he has so many influential friends about the Court, with whom he has shared his plunder, that his ultimate punishment is doubtful. Captain Bunbury was praised for his skill and gallantry, and was honoured with a title by the king.

December 3, 1849.--Kinalee, ten miles over a plain, highly cultivated and well studded with groves, but we could see neither town, village, nor hamlet on the road. A poor Brahmin, Gunga Sing, came along the road with me, to seek redress for injuries sustained. His grandfather was in the service of our Government, and killed under Lord Lake, at the first siege of Bhurtpore in 1804. With the little he left, the family had set up as agricultural capitalists in the village of Poorwa Pundit, on the estate of Kulunder Buksh, of Bhitwal. Here they prospered. The estate was, as a matter of favour to Kulunder Buksh, transferred from the jurisdiction of the contractor to that of the Hozoor Tehseel.* Kulunder Buksh either could not, or would not, pay the Government demand; and he employed two of his relatives, Godree and Hoseyn Buksh, to plunder in the estate and the neighbourhood, to reduce Government to his own terms. These two persons, with two hundred armed men, attacked the village in the night; and, after plundering the house of this Brahmin, Gunga Sing, they seized his wife, who was then pregnant, and made her point out a hidden treasure of one hundred and seven gold mohurs, and two hundred and seventy-seven rupees. She had been wounded in several places before she did this, and when she could point out no more, one of the two brothers cut her down with his sword, and killed her. In all the Brahmin lost two thousand seven hundred and fifty-five rupees' worth of property; and, on the ground of his grandfather having been killed in the Honourable Company's service, has been ever since urging the Resident to interpose with the Oude government in his behalf.

[* The term "Hozoor Tehseel" signifies the collections of the revenue made by the governor himself whether of a district or a kingdom. The estates of all landholders who pay their land-revenues direct to the governor, or to the deputy employed under him to receive such revenues and manage such estates, are said to be in the "Hozoor Tehseel." The local authorities of the districts on which such estates are situated have nothing whatever to do with them.]

The estate of Bhitwal has been retransferred to the jurisdiction of the Amil of Byswara, who has restored it to Kulunder Buksh; and his two relatives, Godree and Hoseyn Buksh, are thriving on the booty acquired, and are in high favour with the local authorities. I have requested that measures may be adopted to punish them for the robbery and the cruel murder of the poor woman; but have little hope that they will be so. No government in India is now more weak for purposes of good than that of Oude.

This village of Kinalee is now in the estate of Ramnuggur Dhumeereea, held by Gorbuksh, a large landholder, who has a strong fort, Bhitolee, at the point of the Delta, formed by the Chouka and Ghagra rivers, which here unite. He has taken refuge with some four thousand armed followers in this fort, under the apprehension of being made to pay the full amount of the Government demand, and called to account for the rescue of some atrocious offenders from Captain Hearsey, of the Frontier Police, by whom they had been secured. Gorbuksh used to pay two hundred thousand rupees a-year for many years for this estate, without murmur or difficulty; but for the last three years he has not paid the rate, to which he has got it reduced, of one hundred and fifty thousand. Out of his rents and the revenues due to Government he keeps up a large body of armed followers, to intimidate the Government, and seize upon the estates of his weaker neighbours, many of which he has lately appropriated by fraud, violence, and collusion. An attempt was this year made to put the estate under the management of Government officers; but he was too strong for the Government, which was obliged to temporise, and at last to yield. He is said to exact from the landholders the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand rupees a-year. He holds also the estate of Bhitolee, at the apex of the delta of the Ghagra and Chouka rivers, in which the fort of Bhitolee is situated. The Government demand on this estate is fifty thousand (50,000) rupees a-year. His son, Surubjeet Sing, is engaged in plunder, and, it is said, with his father's connivance and encouragement, though he pretends to be acting in disobedience of his orders. The object is, to augment their estate, and intimidate the Government and its officers by gangs of ruffians, whom they can maintain only by plunder and malversation. The greater part of the lands, comprised in this estate of Ramnuggur Dhumeereea, of which Rajah Gorbuksh is now the local governor, are hereditary possessions which have been held by his family for many generations. A part has been recently seized from weaker neighbours, and added to them. The rest are merely under him as the governor or public officer, intrusted with the collection of the revenue and the management of the police.

December 4, 1849.--Gunesh Gunge, alias Byram-ghat, on the right bank of the river Ghagra, distance about twelve miles. The country well cultivated, and studded with good groves of mango and other trees. We passed through and close to several villages, whose houses are nothing but mud walls, without a thatched or tiled roof to one in twenty. The people say there is no security in them from the King's troops and the passies, a large class of men in Oude, who are village watchmen but inveterate thieves and robbers, when not employed as such. All refractory landholders hire a body of passies to fight for them, as they pay themselves out of the plunder, and cost little to their employers. They are all armed with bows and arrows, and are very formidable at night. They and their refractory employers keep the country in a perpetual state of disorder; and, though they do not prevent the cultivation of the land, they prevent the village and hamlets from being occupied by anybody who has anything to lose, and no strong local ties to restrain him.

The town of Ramnuggur, in which Gorbuksh resides occasionally, is on the road some five miles from the river. It has a good many houses, but all are of the same wretched description; mud walls, with invisible coverings or no coverings at all; no signs of domestic peace or happiness; but nothing can exceed the richness and variety of the crops in and around Ramnuggur. It is a fine garden, and would soon be beautiful, were life and property better secured, and some signs of domestic comfort created. The ruined state of the houses in this town and in the villages along the road, is, in part, owing to the system which requires all the King's troops to forage for themselves on the march, and the contractors, and other collectors of revenue, to be continually on the move, and to take all their troops with them. The troops required in the provinces should be cantoned in five or six places most convenient, with regard, to the districts to be controlled, and most healthy for the people; and provided with what they require, as ours are, and sent out to assist the revenue collectors and magistrates only when their services are indispensably necessary. Some Chundele Rajpoot landholders came to me yesterday to say, that Ghoolam Huzrut, with his bands of armed ruffians, seemed determined to seize upon all the estates of his weaker Hindoo neighbours, and they would soon lose theirs, unless the British Government interposed to protect them. Gorbuksh has not ventured to come, as he was ordered, to pay his respects to the Resident; but has shut himself up in his fort at Bhitolee, about six miles up the river from our camp. The Chouka is a small river which there flows into the Ghagra. He is said to have four or five thousand men with him; and several guns mounted in his fort. The ferry over the Ghagra is close to our tents, and called Byram-ghat.

December 5, 1849.--Crossed the river Ghagra, in boats, and encamped at Nawabgunge, on the left bank, where we were met by one of the collectors of the Gonda Bahraetch district. He complained of the difficulties experienced in realizing the just demands of the exchequer, from the number and power of the tallookdars of the district, who had forts and bands of armed followers, too strong for the King's officers. There were, he said, in the small purgunnah of Gouras--

1.--Pretheeput Sing, of Paska, who has a strong fort called Dhunolee, on the right bank of the Ghagra, opposite to Paska and Bumhoree, two strongholds, which he has on the left bank of that river, and he is always ready to resist the Government.

2.--Murtonjee Buksh, of Shahpoor, who is always ready to do the same; and a great ruffian.

3.--Shere Bahader Sing, of Kuneear.*

4.--Maheput Sing, of Dhunawa.*

5.--Surnam Sing, of Arta.*

6.--Maheput Sing, of Paruspoor.*

[* All four are at present on good terms with the Government and its local authorities.]

They have each a fort, or stronghold, mounting five or six guns, and trained bands of armed and brave men of five or six hundred, which they augment, as occasion requires, by Gohars, or auxiliary bands from their friends.

Hurdut Sing, of Bondee, alias Bumnootee, held an estate for which he paid one hundred and eighty-two thousand (1,82,000) rupees a year to Government; but he was driven, out of it in 1846-47, by Rughbur Sing, the contractor, who, by rapacity and outrage, drove off the greater part of the cultivators, and so desolated the estate that it could not now be made to yield thirty thousand (30,000) rupees a- year. The Raja has ever since resided with a few followers in an island in the Ghagra. He has never openly resisted or defied the Government, but is said to be sullen, and a bad paymaster. He still holds the estate in its desolate condition.

The people of Nawabgunge drink the water of wells, close to the bank of the river, and often the water of the river itself, and say that they never suffer from it; but that a good many people in several villages, along the same bank, have the goitre to a very distressing degree.

December 6, 1849.--Halted at Byram-ghat, in order to enable all our people and things to come up. One of our elephants nearly lost his life yesterday in the quick-sands of the river. Capt. Weston rode out yesterday close to Bhitolee, the little fort of Rajah Gorbuksh Sing, who came out in a litter and told him, that he would come to me to- day at noon, and clear himself of the charges brought against him of rescuing and harbouring robbers, and refusing to pay the Government demand. He had been suffering severely from fever for fifteen days.

Karamut Allee complains that his father, Busharut Allee, had been driven out from the purgunnahs of Nawabgunge and Sidhore, by Ghoolum Huzrut and his associates, who had several times attacked and plundered the town of Nawabgunge, our second stage, and a great many other villages around, from which they had driven off all the cultivators and stock, in order to appropriate them to themselves, and augment their landed estates; that they had cut down all the groves of mango-trees planted by the rightful proprietors and their ancestors, in order to remove all local ties; and murdered or maimed all cultivators who presumed to till any of the lands without their permission, that Busharut Allee had held the contract for the land revenue of the purgunnah for twenty years, and paid punctually one hundred and thirty-five thousand (1,35,000) rupees a-year to the treasury, till about four years ago, when Ghoolam Huzrut commenced this system of spoliation and seizure, since which time the purgunnah had been declining, and could not now yield seventy thousand (70,000) rupees to the treasury; that his family had held many villages in hereditary right for many generations, within the purgunnah, but that all had, been or were being seized by this lawless freebooter and his associates.

Seeta Ram, a Brahmin zumeendar of Kowaree, in purgunnah Satrick, complains, that he has been driven out of his hereditary estate by Ghoolam Imam, the zumeendar of Jaggour, and his associate, Ghoolam Huzrut; that his house had been levelled with the ground, and all the trees, planted by his family, have been cut down and burned; that he has been plundered of all he had by them, and is utterly ruined. Many other landholders complain in the same manner of having been robbed by this gang, and deprived of their estates; and still more come in to pray for protection, as the same fate threatens all the smaller proprietors, under a government so weak, and so indifferent to the sufferings of its subjects.

The Nazim of Khyrabad, who is now here engaged in the siege of Bhitolee, has nominally three thousand four hundred fighting men with him; but he cannot muster seventeen hundred. He has with him only the seconds in command of corps, who are men of no authority or influence, the commandants being at Court, and the mere creatures of the singers and eunuchs, and other favourites about the palace. They always reside at and about Court, and keep up only half the number of men and officers, for whom they draw pay. All his applications to the minister to have more soldiers sent out to complete the corps, or permission to raise men in their places, remain unanswered and disregarded. The Nazim of Bharaetch has nominally four thousand fighting men; but he cannot muster two thousand, and the greater part of them are good for nothing. The great landholders despise them, but respect the Komutee corps, under Captains Barlow, Bunbury, and Magness, which is complete, and composed of strong and brave men. The despicable state to which the Court favourites have reduced the King's troops, with the exception of these three corps, is lamentable. They are under no discipline, and are formidable only to the peasantry and smaller landholders and proprietors, whose houses they everywhere deprive of their coverings, as they deprive their cattle of their fodder.

December 7, 1849.--Hissampoor, 12 miles north-east, over a plain of fine soil, more scantily tilled than any we saw on the other side of the Ghagra, but well studded with groves and fine single trees, and with excellent crops on the lands actually under tillage. One cause assigned for so much fine land lying waste is, that the Rajpoot tallookdars, above named, of the Chehdewara, have been long engaged in plundering the Syud proprietors of the soil, and seizing upon their lands, in the same manner as the Mahomedan ruffians, on the other side of the river, have been engaged in plundering the small Rajpoot proprietors, and seizing upon their lands. Four of them are now quiet; but two, Prethee Put and Mirtonjee, are always in rebellion. Lately, while the Chuckladar was absent, employed against Jote Sing, of Churda, in the Turae, these two men took a large train of followers, with some guns, attacked the two villages of Aelee and Pursolee, in the estate of Deeksa, in Gonda, killed six persons, plundered all the houses of the inhabitants, and destroyed all their crops, merely because the landholders of these two villages would not settle a boundary dispute in the way 'they proposed'. The lands of the Hissampoor purgunnah were held in property by the members of a family of Syuds, and had been so for many generations; but neighbouring Rajpoot tallookdars have plundered them of all they had, and seized upon their lands by violence, fraud, or collusion, with public officers. Some they have seized and imprisoned, with torture of one kind or another, till they signed deeds of sale, Bynamahs; others they have murdered with all their families, to get secure possession of their lands; others they have despoiled by offering the local authorities a higher rate of revenue for their lands than they could possibly pay.

The Nazim has eighteen guns, and ten auxiliary ones sent out on emergency--not one-quarter are in a state for service; and for these he has not half the draft-bullocks required, and they are too weak for use; and of ammunition or stores he has hardly any at all.

Rajah Gorbuksh Sing came yesterday, at sunset, to pay his respects, and promised to pay to the Oude Government all that is justly demandable from him. Written engagements to this effect were drawn up, and signed by both the "high contracting parties." Having come in on a pledge of personal security, he was, of course, permitted to return from my camp to his own stronghold in safety. In that place he has collected all the loose characters and unemployed soldiers he could gather together, and all that his friends and associates could lend him, to resist the Amil; and to maintain such a host, he will have to pay much more than was required punctually to fulfil his engagements to the State. He calculates, however, that, by yielding to the Government, he would entail upon himself a perpetual burthen at an enhanced rate, while, by the temporary expenditure of a few thousands in this way, he may still further reduce the rate he has hitherto paid.

The contract for Gonda and Bahraetch was held by Rughbur Sing, one of the sons of Dursun Sing, for the years 1846 and 1847 A.D., and the district of Sultanpoor was held by his brother, Maun Sing, for 1845- 46 and 1847 A.D. Rughbur Sing in 1846-47 is supposed to have seized and sold or destroyed no less than 25,000 plough-bullocks in Bhumnootee, the estate of Rajah Hurdut Sing, alone. The estate of Hurhurpoor had, up to that time, long paid Government sixty thousand (60,000) rupees a-year, but last year it would not yield five thousand (5,000) rupees, from the ravages of this man, Rughbur Sing. The estate of Rehwa, held by Jeswunt Sing, tallookdar, had paid regularly fifty-five thousand (55,000) rupees a-year; but it was so desolated by Rughbur Sing, that it cannot now yield eleven thousand (11,000) rupees. This estate adjoins Bhumnootee, Rajah Hurdut Sing's, which, as above stated, regularly paid one hundred and eighty-two thousand (182,000) rupees; it cannot now pay thirty thousand (30,000) rupees. Such are the effects of the oppression of this bad man for so brief a period.

Some tallookdars live within the borders of our district of Goruckpoor, while their lands lie in Oude. By this means they evade the payment of their land revenues, and with impunity commit atrocious acts of murder and plunder in Oude. These men maim or murder all who presume to cultivate on the lands which they have deserted, without their permission, or to pay rents to any but themselves; and the King of Oude's officers dare not follow them, and are altogether helpless. Only two months ago, Mohibollah, a zumeendar of Kuttera, was invited by Hoseyn Buksh Khan, one of these tallookdars, to his house, in the Goruckpoor district, to negotiate for the ransom of one of his cultivators, a weaver by caste, whom he had seized and taken away. As he was returning in the evening, he was waylaid by Hoseyn Buksh Khan, as soon as he had recrossed the Oude borders, and murdered with one of his attendants, who had been sent with him by the Oude Amil. Such atrocities are committed by these refractory tallookdars every day, while they are protected within our bordering districts. Their lands must lie waste or be tilled by men who pay all the rent to them, while they pay nothing to the Oude Government. The Oude Government has no hope of prosecuting these men to conviction in our Judicial Courts for specific crimes, which they are known every day to commit, and glory in committing. In no part of India is there such glaring abuse of the privileges of sanctuary as in some of our districts bordering on Oude; while the Oude Frontier Police, maintained by the King, at the cost of about one hundred thousand (100,000) rupees a-year, and placed under our control, prevents any similar abuse on the part of the Oude people and local authorities. Some remedy for this intolerable evil should be devised. At present the magistrates of all our conterminous districts require, or expect, that their charges against any offender in Oude, who has committed a crime in their districts, shall be held to be sufficient for their arrest; but some of them, on the other band, require that nothing less than some unattainable judicial proof, on the part of the officers of the Oude Government, shall be held to be sufficient to justify the arrest of any Oude offender who takes refuge in our districts. They hold, that the sole object of the Oude authorities is to get revenue defaulters into their power, and that the charges against them for heinous crimes are invented solely for that purpose. No doubt this is often the object, and that other charges are sometimes invented, for the sole purpose of securing the arrest and surrender of revenue defaulters; but the Oude revenue defaulters who take refuge in our districts are for the most part, the tallookdars, or great landholders, who, either before or after they do so, invariably fight with the Oude authorities, and murder and plunder indiscriminately, in order to reduce them to their own terms.

The Honourable the Court of Directors justly require that requisition for the surrender of offenders by and from British officers and Native States, shall be limited to persons charged with having committed heinous crimes within their respective territories; and that the obligation to surrender such offenders shall be strictly reciprocal, unless, in any special case, there be very strong reason for a departure from the rule.* But some magistrates of districts disregard altogether applications made to them by the sovereign of Oude, through the British Resident, for the arrest of subjects of Oude who have committed the most atrocious robberies and murders in the Oude territory in open day, and in the sight of hundreds; and allow refugees from Oude to collect and keep up gangs of robbers within their own districts, and rob and murder within the Oude territory. Happily such Magistrates are rare. Government, in a letter dated the 25th February, 1848, state--"that it is the duty of the magistrates of our districts bordering on Oude to adopt vigorous measures for preventing the assembling or entertaining of followers by any party, for the purpose of committing acts of violence on the Oude side of the frontier."

[* See their letter to the Government of India, 27th May 1835.]

December 8, 1849.--Pukharpoor, a distance of fourteen miles, over a fine plain of good soil, scantily tilled. For some miles the road lay through Rajah Hurdut Sing's estate of Bumnootee, which was, with the rest of the district of Bahraetch and Gonda, plundered by Rughbur Sing, during the two years that he held the contract. We passed through no village or hamlet, but saw some at a distance from the road, with their dwellings of naked mud walls, the abodes of fear and wretchedness; but the plain is well studded with groves and fine single trees, and the crops are good where there are any on the ground. Under good management, the country would be exceedingly beautiful, and was so until within the last four years.

In the evening I had a long talk with the people of the village, who had assembled round our tents. Many of them had the goitre; but they told me, that in this and all the villages within twenty miles the disease had, of late years, diminished; that hardly one-quarter of the number that used to suffer from it had now the disease; that the quality of the water must have improved, though they knew not why, as they still drank from the same wells. These wells must penetrate into some bed of mineral or other substance, which produces this disease of the glands, and may in time exhaust it. But it is probable, that the number who suffer from this disease has diminished merely with the rest of the population, and that the proportion which the goitered bear to the ungoitered may be still the same. They told me that they had been plundered of all their stock and moveable property by the terrible scourge, Rughber Sing, during his reign of two years, and could not hope to recover from their present state of poverty for many more; that their lands were scantily tilled, and the crops had so failed for many years, since this miscreant's rule, that the district which used to supply Lucknow with grain was obliged to draw grain from it, and even from Cawnpore. This is true, and grain has in consequence been increasing in price ever since we left Lucknow. It is now here almost double the price that it is at Lucknow, while it is usually twice as cheap here.

December 9, 1849.--Bahraetch, ten miles north-east. We encamped on a fine sward, on the left bank of the Surjoo river, a beautiful clear stream. The cultivation very scanty, but the soil good, with water everywhere, within a few feet of the surface. Groves and single trees less numerous; and of villages and hamlets we saw none. Under good government, the whole country might, in a few years, be made a beautiful garden. The river Surjoo is like a winding stream in a park; and its banks might, everywhere, be cultivated to the water's edge. No ravines, jungle, or steep embankments. It is lamentable to see so fine a country in so wretched a state.

The Turae forest begins a few miles to the north of Bahraetch, and some of the great baronial landholders have their residence and strongholds within it. The Rajah of Toolseepoor is one of them. He is a kind-hearted old man, and a good landlord and subject; but he has lately been driven out by his young and reprobate son, at the instigation and encouragement of a Court favourite. The Rajah had discharged an agent, employed by him at Court for advocating the cause of his son while in rebellion against his father. The agent then made common cause with the son, and secured the interest of two powerful men at Court, Balkrishen Dewan and Gholam Ruza, the deputy minister, who has charge of the estates in the Hozoor Tehsel. The jurisdiction over the estate had been transferred from the local authorities to the Hozoor Tehsel; and, by orders from Court, the father's friends, the Bulrampoor and other Rajahs of the clan, were prevented from continuing the aid they had afforded to support the father's authority. The father unwilling to have the estate devastated by a contest with the band of ruffians whom his son had collected, retired, and allowed him to take possession. The son seized upon all the property the father had left, and now employs it in maintaining this band and rewarding the services of Court favourites. The Nazim of the district is not permitted to interfere, to restore rights or preserve order in the estate, nor would he, perhaps, do either, if so permitted, for he has been brought up in a bad school, and is not a good man. The pretext at Court is, that the father is deranged; but, though not wise, he is learned, and no man can be more sober than he is, or better disposed towards his sovereign and tenants. That he is capable of managing his estate, is shown by the excellent condition in which he left it.

Prethee Put, of Paska, is not worse than many of the tallookdars of Oude, who now disturb the peace of the country; and I give a brief sketch of his history, as a specimen of the sufferings inflicted on the people by the wild licence which such landholders enjoy under the weak, profligate, and apathetic government of Oude.

Keerut Sing, the tallookdar of Paska, on the left bank of the Ghagra, between Fyzabad and Byram-ghaut, was one of the Chehdwara landholders, and had five sons, the eldest Dirgpaul Sing, and the second Prethee Put, the hero of this brief history. Before his death, Keerut Sing made over the management of his estate to his eldest son and heir; but gave to his second son a portion of land out of it, for his own subsistence and that of his family. The father and eldest son continued to reside together in the fort of Dhunolee, situated on the right bank of the Ghagra, opposite Paska. Prethee Put took up his residence in his portion of the estate at Bumhoree, collected a gang of the greatest ruffians in the country, and commenced his trade, and that of so many of his class, as an indiscriminate plunderer. Keerut Sing and his eldest son, Dirgpaul, continued to pay the Government demand punctually, to obey the local authorities, and manage the estate with prudence.

Prethee Put, in 1836, attacked and took a despatch of treasure, consisting of twenty-six thousand rupees, on its way to Lucknow, from the Nazim of Bahraetch. In 1840 he attacked and took another of eighty-five thousand rupees, on its way to Lucknow from the same place. With these sums, and the booty which he acquired from the plunder of villages and travellers, he augmented his gang, built a fort at Bumhoree, and extended his depredations. In January 1842, his father, who had been long ill, died. The local authorities demanded five thousand rupees from the eldest son, Dirgpaul Sing, on his accession. He promised to pay, and sent his eldest son, Dan Bahader Sing, a lad of eighteen, as a hostage for the payment to the Nazim. Soon after, Prethee Pat attacked the fort of Dhunolee, in which his elder brother resided with his family, killed fifty-six persons, and made Dirgpaul, his wife, and three other sons prisoners. Dirgpaul's sister tried to conceal her brother under some clothes; but, under a solemn oath from Prethee Put, that no personal violence should be offered to him, he was permitted to take him. His wife and three sons were sent off to be confined under the charge of Byjonauth Bhilwar, zumeendar of Kholee, in the estate of Sarafraz Ahmud, one of his associates in crime, on the left bank of the Goomtee river.

Three days after, finding that no kind of torture or intimidation could make his elder brother sign a formal resignation of his right to the estate in his favour, he took him into the middle of the river Ghagra, cut off his head with his own hands, and threw the body into the stream. Deeming this violation of his pledge a dishonourable act his friend, Byjonauth, from whom he had demanded the widow and her three sons, released them all, to seek protection elsewhere, as he was not strong enough to resist Prethee Put himself. They found shelter with some friends of the family in another district, and Wajid Allee Khan, the Nazim of Bahraetch, in the beginning of November 1843, went with the best force he could muster, drove Prethee Pat out of Dhunolee and Paska, and put Dan Bahader Sing, the eldest son of Dirgpaul, and rightful heir, into possession. In the latter end of the same month, however, he was attacked by his uncle, Prethee Put, and driven out with the loss of ten men. He again applied for aid to the Nazim; but, thinking it more profitable to support the stronger party, he took a bribe of ten thousand rupees from Prethee Put, and recognized him as the rightful heir of his murdered brother. Dan Bahader collected a small party of fifteen men, and took possession of a small stronghold in the jungle of the Shapoor estate, belonging to Murtonjee, another of the Chehdwara tallookdars, where he was again attacked by his uncle in March 1844, and driven out with the loss of four out of his fifteen men. Soon after Prethee Put attacked and took another despatch of treasure, on its way to Lucknow from Bahraetch, consisting of eighteen thousand rupees. Soon after, in June, the Nazim, Ehsan Allee, sent a force with Dan Bahader, and re-established him in possession of the estate of Paska; but Ehsan Allee was soon after superseded in the contract by Rughbur Sing, who adopted the cause of the strongest, and restored Prethee Put, who continued to hold the estate for 1845.

In April 1847, Mahommed Hossein, one of the Tusseeldars under Rughbur Sing, seized and confined Prethee Put, once more put Dan Bahader in possession of the estate, and sent his uncle to Rughbur Sing. In November 1847, Incha Sing superseded his nephew, Rughbur Sing; and, thinking Prethee Put's the more profitable cause to adopt, he turned out Dan Bahader, and restored Prethee Put to the possession of the Paska estate, which he has held ever since. He has continued to pursue his system of indiscriminate plunder and defiance of the Government authorities, and has seized upon the estates of several of his weaker neighbours.

In 1848, he attacked and plundered the village of Sahooreea, belonging to Sarafraz Allee, Chowdheree of Radowlee, and this year he has done the same to the village of Semree, belonging to Rajah Bukhtawar Sing. He carried off fifty-two persons from this village of Semree, and confined them for two months, flogging and burning them with red-hot ramrods, till they paid the ransom of five thousand rupees required. He has this year plundered another village, belonging to the same person, called Nowtee, and its dependent hamlet of Hurhurpoora. He has also this year attacked, plundered, and burnt to the ground the villages of Tirkolee, in the Radowlee purgunnah, and Aelee Pursolee, in Bahraetch. The attack on Tirkolee took place in September last, and five of the inhabitants were killed; and in the attack on Aelee Pursolee, six of the zumeendars were killed in defending themselves. In this attack he was joined by the gang under Murtonjee. He also plundered and confined a merchant of Gowaris till he paid a ransom of seven hundred rupees; and about twenty-five days ago he attacked and plundered two persons from Esanugur, on their way to Ojodheea, on pilgrimage, and kept them confined and tortured till they paid a ransom of five hundred rupees.

Prethee Put has, as before stated, in collusion with local authorities, and by violence, seized upon a great portion of the lands of Hissampoor, and ruined and turned out the Syud proprietors, by whose families they had been held for many generations. He is bound to pay twenty thousand rupees a year; but has not, for many years, paid more than seven thousand.

Mahommed Hossein, the present Nazim of the Gonda Bahraetch districts, describes the capture of Prethee Put by himself, as follows:-"In 1846, the purgunnahs of Gowaris and Hissampoor were reduced to a state of great disorder by the depredations of Prethee Put, and the roads leading through them were shut up. He had seized Syud Allee Asgar, the tallookdar of Aleenughur, in the Hissampoor purgunnah, taken possession of his estate, and driven out, or utterly ruined, all the landholders and cultivators. He tried, by all kinds of torture, to make Allee Asgar sign, in his favour, a deed of sale; but his family found means to complain to the Durbar, and Rughbur Sing, the Nazim, was ordered to seize him and rescue his prisoner. I was sent to manage the two purgunnahs, seize the offender, and rescue Allee Asgar. When I approached the fort of Bumhoree, where he kept his prisoner confined, Prethee Put put him in strong irons, left him in that fort, and, with his followers, passed over the Ghagra, in boats, to his stronger fort of Dhunolee, on the right bank. I took possession of Bumhoree without much resistance, rescued the prisoner, and restored him to the possession of his estate, and put all the rest of the lands held by Prethee Put under the management of Government officers. Two months after, seeing my force much reduced by these arrangements, he came at the head of a band of seventeen hundred men to attack me in the village of Dhooree Gunge. The place was not defended by any wall, but we made the best of it, drove him back, and killed or wounded about fifty of his men, with the loss on our side, in killed or wounded, of about twenty-three.

"I kept Prethee Put confined for two months, when Rughbur Sing sent for him, on pretence that he wished to send him to Lucknow. He kept him till the end of the year, when he was superseded in the contract by his uncle, Incha Sing, who released Prethee Put at the intercession of Maun Sing, the brother of Rughbur Sing, who expected to make a good deal out of him." Prethee Put, of Paska, was attacked on the morning of the 26th of March, 1850, in his fort of Dhunolee, by a force under the command of Captains Weston, Thompson, Magness, and Orr; and, on their approach, he vacated the fort, separated himself from his gang, and took shelter in the house of a Brahmin. He was then traced by a party from Captain Magness's corps; and, as he refused to surrender, he was cut down and killed. His clan, the Kulhunsies, refused to take the body for interment. The head had been cut off to be sent to Lucknow as a trophy, but Captain Weston opposed this, and it was replaced on the body, which was sewn up in a winding-sheet and taken into the river Ghagra by some sipahees, as the best kind of interment for a Hindoo chief of his rank. The persons employed in the ceremony were Hindoos, who knew nothing of Prethee Put's history; but it was afterwards found that the place where the body was committed to the stream was that on which he had killed his eldest brother, and thrown his body into the river from his boat. This was a remarkable coincidence, and tended to impress upon the minds of the people around a notion that his death was effected by divine interposition. All, except his followers, were rejoiced at the death of so atrocious a character. Dan Bahader, the eldest son of the brother he had murdered, being poor and unable to pay the usual fees and gratuities to the minister and court favourites, was not, however, permitted to take possession of his patrimonial estate, and he died in December, 1850, in poverty and despair. Dhunolee and Bhumoree have been levelled with the ground.

December 9, 1849.--In the news-writer's report of the 3rd December, 1849, it is stated--"that Ashfakos Sultan, Omrow Begum, one of the King's wives, reported to his Majesty, that a man named Sadik Allee had come to Lucknow while the King was suffering from palpitations of the heart, and, in the disguise of a Durveish, hired a house in Muftee Gunge, and taken up his residence in it. He there gave himself out as one of the Kings of the Fairies (Amil-i-Jinnut); and the fakeer, to whom his Majesty's confidential servants, the singers, had taken him to be cured of his disease, was no other than this Sadik Allee. The King, on hearing this, sent for Sadik Allee, who was seized and brought before him on the 2nd December. He confessed the imposture, but pleaded that he had practised it merely to obtain some money, and that the singers were associated with him in all that he did. The King soothed his apprehensions, and conferred upon him a dress of honour, consisting of a doshala and roomul, and then made him over to the custody of Ashfak-os Sultan. At night the King sent for the minister, and, summoning Sadik Allee, bid him dress himself exactly as he was dressed on the night he visited him, and prepare a room in the palace exactly in the same manner as he had prepared his own to receive his Majesty on that night. He chose a small room in the palace, and under the ceiling he suspended a second ceiling, so that no one could perceive how it was fixed on, and placed himself between the two. When all was ready the King went to the apartment with the minister, accompanied by Ruzee-od Dowlah, the head singer. When the door of the apartment was closed, they first heard a frightful voice, without being able to perceive whence it came. Neither the minister nor the King could perceive the slightest opening or fissure in the ceiling. They then came out and closed the door, but immediately heard from within the peaceful salutation of 'salaam aleekom,' and the man appeared within as King of the Fairies, and presented his Majesty with some jewels and other offerings. All was here enacted precisely as it had been acted on the occasion of the King's visit to Muftee Gunge. Turning an angry look upon Ruzee-od Dowlah, the King said, 'All the evil that I have so often heard of you, men of Rampoor, I have now with my own eyes seen realized;' and, turning to the minister, he said, 'How often have these men spoken evil of you before me!' Ruzee-od Dowlah then said, 'If your Majesty thinks me guilty, I pray you to punish me as may seem to you proper; but I entreat you not to make me over to the minister.' The King, without deigning any reply, summoned Hajee Shureef, and told him to place mounted sentries of his own corps of cavalry over the door of Saadut Allee Khan's mausoleum, in which these singers resided, and infantry sentries in the apartments with them, with strict orders that no one should be permitted to go out without, being first strictly searched. The sister of Ruzee-od Dowla could nowhere be found, and was supposed to have made her escape."

The King had several interviews of this kind with his Majesty, the King of the Fairies, who described the symptoms from which he suffered, and prescribed the remedies, which consisted chiefly of rich offerings to the Fairies, who were to relieve him. He frequently received letters from the Fairy King to the same effect, written in an imperious style, suited to the occasion. The farce was carried on for several months, and the King at different times is supposed to have given the Fairy King some two lacs of rupees, which he shared liberally with the singers.

I had heard of the affair of the Durveish from the minister, through his wakeel, and from Captain Bird, the first Assistant, in a letter. I requested that he would ask for an audience, and congratulate his Majesty on the discovery of the imposture, and offer any assistance that he might require in the banishment of the impostors. He was received by the King in the afternoon of the 6th. He expressed his regret that the King should have been put to so much trouble by the bad conduct of those who had received from him all that a king could give-wealth, titles, and intimate companionship; hinted at the advantage taken of this by Ruzee-od Dowlah, in his criminal intercourse with one of his Sultanas, Surafraz Muhal; and earnestly prayed him to put an end to the misery and disgrace which these men had brought and were still bringing on himself, his house, and his country. The King promised to have Ruzee-od Dowlah, his sister, and Kotub-od Dowlah, banished across the Ganges; but stated, that he could do nothing against Sadik Allee, however richly he deserved punishment, since he had pledged his royal word to him, on his disclosing all he knew about the imposition. The King asked captain Bird, whether he thought that he had felt no sorrow at parting with Surafraz Muhal, with whom he had lived so intimately for nine years; that he had, he said, cast her off as a duty, and did Captain Bird think that he would spare the men who had so grossly deceived him, caused so much confusion in his kingdom, and ill-feeling towards him, on the part of the British Government and its representative? His Majesty added, "I cherished low-bred men, and they have given me the low-bred man's reward, had I made friends of men of birth and character it would have been otherwise;" and concluded by saying, that he could not touch the money he had given to these fellows, because people would say that he had got rid of them merely to recover what he had bestowed upon them.*

[* When he afterwards confined and banished them in June and July 1850, he took back from them all that they had retained; but they had sent to their families and friends, property to the value of many lacs of rupees.]

The King, in the latter end of November, divorced Surafraz Muhal, and sent her across the Ganges, to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca. She had long been cohabiting with the chief singer, Gholam Ruza, and was known to be a very profligate woman. She is said to have given his Majesty to understand that she would not consent to remain in the palace with him without the privilege of choosing her own lovers, a privilege which she had freely enjoyed before she came into it, and could not possibly forego.

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