A

JOURNEY

THROUGH THE

KINGDOM OF OUDE,

IN 1849—1850;

BY DIRECTION OF THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF DALHOUSIE,
GOVERNOR-GENERAL.

WITH PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE ANNEXATION
OF OUDE TO BRITISH INDIA, &c.

BY MAJOR-GENERAL SIR W. H. SLEEMAN, K.C.B.

Resident at the Court of Lucknow

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

RICHARD BENTLEY,

Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty.

1858.

[Transcriber’s note: The author’s spelling of the names of
places and people vary considerably, even within a single
paragraph. The spelling of place names in the text varies from that
shown on the map. The author’s spelling is reproduced as in the
printed text.]

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.*

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 1000l. 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.

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,

“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.

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.

To Capt. J. Innes,
Barrackpoor.

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.

To Col. Sutherland.

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,

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

To H. M. Elliot, Esq.,
     &c.   &c.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

To Sir Erskine Perry,
Chief Justice, Bombay.

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,

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.

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

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.

To H. M. Elliot, Esq.,
    &c.   &c.

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.

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

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.

To H. M. Elliot, Esq.,
     &c.   &c.

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.

To H. M. Elliot, Esq.,
     &c.   &c.

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.

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

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.

To H. M. Elliot, Esq.,
     &c.   &c.

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.

To H. M. Elliot, Esq.,
   &c.   &c.

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,

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

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.

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

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.

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.

 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 TOUR THROUGH OUDE

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.

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.

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.

Bahraetch is celebrated for the shrine of Syud Salar, a
martyr, who is supposed to have been killed here in the
beginning of the eleventh century, when fighting against the
Hindoos, under the auspices of Mahmood Shah, of Ghuznee, his
mother’s brother. Strange to say, Hindoos as well as Mahommedans
make offerings to this shrine, and implore the favours of this
military ruffian, whose only recorded merit consists of having
destroyed a great many Hindoos in a wanton and unprovoked invasion
of their territory. They say, that he did what he did against
Hindoos in the conscientious discharge of his duties, and could not
have done it without God’s permission—that God must then have
been angry with them for their transgressions, and used this man,
and all the other Mahommedan invaders of their country, as
instruments of his vengeance, and means to bring about his
purposes: that is, the thinking portion of the Hindoos say this.
The mass think that the old man must still have a good deal of
interest in heaven, which he may be induced to exercise in their
favour, by suitable offerings and personal applications to his
shrine.

The minister reports to the Resident on the 9th, that the King
had relented, and wished to retain the singer, Ruzee-od Dowlah, and
his sister, and Kotub Allee, at Lucknow, with orders never to
approach the presence. Captain Bird, in a letter, confirms this
report.

December 11, 1849.—Left Bahraetch and came
south-east to Imaleea, on the road to Gonda, over a plain in the
Pyagpoor estate, almost entirely waste. Few groves or single trees
to be seen; scarcely a field tilled or house occupied; all the work
of the same atrocious governor, Rughbur Sing. No oppressor ever
wrote a more legible hand.

The brief history of the management of this district for the
last forty-three years, is as follows. The district consisted in
1807, of

The contract was held by Balkidass Kanoongoe, for five years,
from 1807 to 1811, when he died, and was succeeded in the contract
by his son, Amur Sing, who held it till 1816. In the end of that
year, or early in 1817, Amur Sing was seized, put into confinement,
and murdered by Hakeem Mehndee, who held the contract for 1817 and
1818. In the year 1816, Hakeem Mehndee, who held the contract for
the Mahomdee district, at four lacs of rupees a-year, and that for
Khyrabad at five, heard of the great wealth of Amur Sing, and the
fine state to which he and his father had brought the district by
good management; and offered the Oude government one lac of rupees
a-year more than he paid for the contract for the ensuing year.
Hakeem Mehndee resided chiefly at the capital of Lucknow, on the
pretence of indisposition, while his brother, Hadee Allee Khan,
managed the two districts for him. He had acquired a great
reputation by his judicious management of these two districts, and
become a favourite with the King, by the still more skilful
management of a few male and female favourites about his Majesty’s
person. The minister, Aga Meer, was jealous of his growing fame and
favour, and persuaded the King to accept the offer, in the hope
that he would go himself to his new charge, in order to make the
most of it. As soon as he heard of his appointment to the charge of
Bahraetch, Hakeem Mehndee set out with the best body of troops he
could collect, and sent on orders for Amur Sing to come out and
meet him. He declined to do so until he got the pledge of Hadee
Allee Khan, the Hakeem’s brother, for his personal security. This
mortified the Hakeem, and tended to confirm him in the resolution
to make away with Amur Sing, and appropriate his wealth. Both
Hakeem Mehndee and his brother are said to have sworn on their
Koran that no violence whatever should be offered to or restraint
put upon him; and, relying on these oaths and pledges, Amur Sing
met them on their approach to Bahraetch.

After discussing affairs and adjusting accounts for some months
at Bahraetch, the Hakeem, by his courteous manners and praises of
his excellent management, put Amur Sing off his guard. When sitting
with him one evening in his tents, around which he had placed a
select body of guards, he left him on the pretext of a sudden call,
and Amur Sing was seized, bound, and confined. Meer Hyder and Baboo
Beg, Mogul troopers, were placed in command of the guards over him,
with orders to get him assassinated as soon as possible. Sentries
were, at the same time, placed over his family and wealth. At
midnight he was soon after strangled by these two men and their
attendants. Baboo Beg was a very stout, powerful man; and he
attempted to strangle him with his own hands, while his companions
held him down; but Amur Sing managed to scream out for help, and,
in attempting to close his mouth with his left hand, one of his
fingers got between Amur Sing’s teeth, and he bit off the first
joint, and kept it in his mouth. His companions finished the work;
and Baboo Beg went off to get his fingers dressed without telling
any one what had happened. In the morning Hakeem Mehndee gave out,
that Amur Sing had poisoned himself, made the body over to his
family, and sent off a report of his death to the minister,
expressing his regret at Amur Sing’s having put an end to his
existence by poisoning, to avoid giving an account of his
stewardship. The property which Hakeem Mehndee seized and
appropriated, is said to have amounted, in all, to between fifteen
and twenty lacs of rupees!

Amur Sing’s family, in performing the funeral ceremonies, had to
open his mouth, to put in the usual small bit of gold, Ganges
water, and leaf of the toolsee-tree; and, to their horror, they
there found the first joint of a man’s finger. This confirmed all
their suspicions, that he had been murdered during the night, and
they sent off the joint of the finger to the minister, demanding
vengeance on the murderer. Aga Meer was delighted at this proof of
his rival’s guilt, and would have had him seized and tried for the
murder forthwith, but Hakeem Mehndee gave two lacs of rupees, out
of the wealth he had acquired from the murder, to Rae Doulut Rae,
Meer Neeaz Hoseyn, Munshee Musaod, Sobhan Allee Khan, and others,
in the minister’s confidence; and they persuaded him, that he had
better wait for a season, till he could charge him with the more
serious offence of defalcations in the revenue, when he might crush
him with the weight of manifold transgressions.

They communicated what they had done to Hakeem Mehnde, who, by
degrees, sent off all his disposable wealth to Shabjehanpoor and
Futtehghur, in British territory. In April 1818, the
Governor-General the Marquess of Hastings passed through the
Khyrabad and Bahraetch districts, attended by Hakeem Mehndee, on a
sporting excursion, after the Mahratta war; and the satisfaction
which he expressed to the King with the Hakeem’s conduct during
that excursion, added greatly to the minister’s hatred and alarm.
He persuaded his Majesty to demand from Hakeem Mehndee an increase
of five lacs of rupees upon nine lacs a-year, which he already paid
for Mahomdee and Khyrabad; and resolved to have him tried for the
murder of Amur Sing, as soon as he could get him into his power.
Hakeem Mehndee knew all this from the friends he had made at Court,
refused to keep the contract at the increased rate, and, on
pretence of settling his accounts, went first to Seetapoor from
Bahraetch, and thence over the border to Shahjehanpoor, with all
his family, and such of the property as he had not till then been
able to send off. The family never recovered any of the property he
had taken from Amur Sing, nor was any one of the murderers ever
punished, or called to account for the crime.

On the departure of Hakeem Mehndee, Hadee Allee Khan (not the
brother of Hakeem Mehndee, but a member of the old official
aristocracy of Oude) got the contract of the district of Bahraetch
with that of Gonda, which had been held in Jageer by and for the
widow of Shoja-od Dowlah, the mother of Asuf-od Dowlah, commonly
known by the name of the Buhoo Begum, of Fyzabad, where she
resided. Hadee Allee Khan held the contract of these two districts
for nine years, up to 1827. He was succeeded by Walaeut Allee Khan,
who held the contract for only half of the year 1828, when he was
superseded by Mehndoo Khan, who held it for two years and a half,
to the end of 1830, when Hadee Allee Khan again got the contract,
and he held it till he died in 1833. He was succeeded by his
nephew, Imdad Allee Khan, who held the contract till 1835.

Rajah Dursun Sing superseded him in 1836, and was the next year
superseded by the widow of Hadee Allee, named “Wajee-on-Nissa
Begum,” who held the contract for one year and a half to 1838. For
the remainder of 1838, the contract was held by Fida Allee Khan and
Ram Row Pandee jointly; and for 1839, by Sunker Sahae Partuk. For
1840, it was held by Sooraj-od Dowlah, and for 1841 and up to
September 1843, Rajah Dursun Sing held it again. For 1844 and 1845,
Ehsan Allee and Wajid Allee held it. For 1846 and 1847, Rughbur
Sing, one of the three sons of Rajah Dursun Sing, held it. For
1848, it was held by Incha Sing, brother of Dursun Sing; and for
1849, it has been held by Mahummud Hasun. The Gonda district
consisted of the purgunnahs of Gonda and Nawabgunge, and a number
of tallooks, or baronial estates.

Under the paternal government of Balukram and his son, Amur
Sing, hereditary canoongoes of the district, life and property were
secure, the assessment moderate, and the country and people
prosperous. It was a rule, strictly adhered to, under the reign of
Saadut Allee Khan, from 1797 to 1814, never under any circumstances
to permit the transfer of khalsa or allodial lands (that is,
lands held immediately under the Crown) to tallookdars or baronial
proprietors, who paid a quit-rent to Government, and managed their
estates with their own fiscal officers, and military and police
establishments. Those who resided in or saw the district at that
time, describe it as a magnificent garden; and some few signs of
that flourishing state are still to be seen amidst its present
general desolation.

The adjoining district of Gonda became no less flourishing under
the fostering care of the Buhoo Begum, of Fyzabad, who held it in
Jageer till her death, which took place 18th December, 1815.
Relying upon the pledge of the British Government, under the treaty
of 1801, to protect him against all foreign and domestic enemies,
and to put down for him all attempts at insurrection and rebellion
by means of its own troops, without any call for further pecuniary
aid, Saadut Allee disbanded more than half his army, and reduced
the cost, while he improved the efficiency of the other half, to
bring his expenditure within his income, now so much diminished by
the cession of the best half of his dominions to the British
Government. He assessed, or altogether resumed, all the rent-free
lands in his reserved half of the territory; and made all the
officers of his two lavish and thoughtless predecessors,* disgorge
a portion of the wealth which they had accumulated by the abuse of
their confidence; and, at the same time, laboured assiduously to
keep within bounds the powers and possessions of his landed
aristocracy.

[* Asuf-od Dowlah and Wuzeer Allee.]

Hakeem Mehndee exacted from the landholders of Bahraetch two
annas in the rupee, or one-eighth, more than the rate they had
hitherto paid; and his successor, Hadee Allee, exacted an increase
of two annas in the rupee, upon the Hakeem’s rate. It was difficult
to make the landholders and cultivators pay this rate, and a good
deal of their stock was sold off for arrears; and much land fell
out of cultivation in consequence. To facilitate the collection of
this exorbitant rate, and at the same time to reduce the cost of
collection, he disregarded systematically the salutary rule of
Saadut Allee Khan, who had died in 1814, and been succeeded by his
do-nothing and see-nothing son, Ghazee-od Deen Hyder; and
transferred the khalsa estates of all defaulters to the
neighbouring tallookdars, who pledged themselves to liquidate the
balances due, and pay the Government demand punctually in future.
This arrangement enabled him to reduce his fiscal, military, and
police establishments a good deal for the time, and his tenure of
office was too insecure to admit of his bestowing much thought on
the future.

As soon as these tallookdars got possession of khalsa villages,
they plundered them of all they could find of stock and other
property; and, with all possible diligence, reduced to beggary all
the holders and cultivators who had any claim to a right of
property in the lands, in order to prevent their ever being again
in a condition to urge such claims in the only way in which they
can be successfully urged in Oude—cut down all the trees
planted by them or their ancestors, and destroyed all the good
houses they had built, that they might have no local ties to link
their affections to the soil. As the local officers of the Oude
government became weak, by the gradual withdrawal of British
troops, from aiding in the collection of revenue and the
suppression of rebellion and disorder, and by the deterioration in
the character of the Oude troops raised to supply their places, the
tallookdars became stronger and stronger. They withheld more and
more of the revenue due to Government, and expended the money in
building forts and strongholds, casting or purchasing cannon, and
maintaining large armed bands of followers. All that they withheld
from the public treasury was laid out in providing the means for
resisting the officers of Government; and, in time, it became a
point of honour to pay nothing to the sovereign without first
fighting with his officers.

Hadee Allee Khan’s successors continued the system of
transferring khalsa lands to tallookdars, as the cheapest and most
effectual mode of collecting the revenue for their brief period of
authority. The tallookdars, whose estates were augmented by such
transfers, in the Gonda Bahraetch district, are Ekona, Pyagpoor,
Churda, Nanpoora, Gungwal, Bhinga, Bondee, Ruhooa, and the six
divisions of the Gooras, or Chehdwara estate. The hereditary
possessions of the tallookdars, and, indeed, all the lands in the
permanent possession of which they feel secure, are commonly very
well cultivated; but those which they acquire by fraud, violence,
or collusion, are not so, till, by long suffering and “hope
deferred,” the old proprietors have been effectually crushed or
driven out of the country. The old proprietors of the lands so
transferred to the tallookdars of the Gonda Baraetch districts from
time to time had, under a series of weak governors, been so crushed
or driven out before 1842, and their lands had, for the most part,
been brought under good tillage.

The King of Oude, in a letter, dated the 31st of August 1823,
tells the Resident, “that the villages and estates of the large
refractory tallookdars are as flourishing and populous as they can
possibly be; and there are many estates among them which yield more
than two and three times the amount at which they have been
assessed; and even if troops should be stationed there, to prevent
the cultivation of the land till the balances are liquidated, the
tallookdars immediately come forward to give battle; and, in spite
of everything, cultivate the lands of their estates, so that their
profits from the land are even greater than those of the
Government.” This picture is a very fair one, and as applicable to
the state of Oude now as in 1823.

But if a weak man, by favour, fraud, or collusion, gets
possession of a small estate, as he often does, the consequences
are more serious than where the strong man gets it. The ousted
proprietors fight “to the death” to recover possession; and the new
man forms a gang of the most atrocious ruffians he can collect, to
defend his possession. He cannot afford to pay them, and permits
them to subsist on plunder. In the contest the estate itself and
many around it become waste, and the fellow who has usurped it,
often—nolens-volens—becomes a systematic leader of
banditti; and converts the deserted villages into strongholds and
dens of robbers. I shall have occasion to describe many instances
of this kind as I proceed in my Diary.

Dursung Sing was strong both in troops and Court favour, and he
systematically plundered and kept down the great landholders
throughout the districts under his charge, but protected the
cultivators, and even the smaller land proprietors, whose estates
could not be conveniently added to his own. When the Court found
the barons in any district grow refractory, under weak governors,
they gave the contract of it to Dursun Sing, as the only officer
who could plunder and reduce them to order. During the short time
that he held the districts of Gonda and Bahraetch in 1836, he did
little mischief. He merely ascertained the character and substance
of the great landholders, exacted from the weaker all that they
could pay, and “bided his time.” When he resumed the charge in
1842, the greater landholders had become strong and substantial;
and he was commanded by the Durbar to coerce and make them pay all
the arrears of revenue due, or pretended to be due, by them.

Nothing loth, he proceeded to seize and plunder them all, one
after the other, and put their estates under the management of his
own officers. The young Rajah of Bulrampoor had gone into the
Goruckpoor district, to visit his friend, the Rajah of Basee,
Mahpaul Sing, when Dursun Sing marched suddenly to his capital at
the head of a large force. The garrison of the small stronghold was
taken by surprise; and, in the absence of their chief, soon induced
to surrender, on a promise of leave to depart with all their
property. They passed over into a small island in the river, which
flows close by; and as soon as Dursun Sing saw them collected
together in that small space, he opened his guns and musketry upon
them, and killed between one and two hundred. The rest fled, and he
took possession of all their property, amounting to about two
hundred thousand rupees. The Rajah was reduced to great distress;
but his personal friend, Matabur Sing, the minister of Nepaul,
aided him with loans of money; and gave him a garden to reside in,
about five hundred yards from the village of Maharaj Gunge, in the
Nepaul territory, fifty-four miles from Bulrampoor, where Dursun
Sing remained encamped with his large force.

The Rajah had filled this garden with small huts for the
accommodation of his family and followers during the season of the
rains, and surrounded it with a deep ditch, knowing the
unscrupulous and enterprising character of his enemy. In September
1843, Dursun Sing, having had the position and all the road leading
to it well reconnoitred, marched one evening, at the head of a
compact body of his own followers, and reached the Rajah’s position
at daybreak the next morning. The garden was taken by a rush; but
the Rajah made his escape with the loss of thirty men killed and
wounded. Dursun Sing’s party took all the property the Rajah and
his followers left behind them in their flight, and plundered the
small village of Maharaj Gunge; but in their retreat they were
sorely pressed by a sturdy landholder of the neighbourhood, who had
become attached to his young sporting companion, the Rajah, and
whose feeling of patriotism had been grievously outraged by this
impudent invasion of his sovereign’s territory; and they had five
sipahees and one trooper killed. The Bulrampoor Rajah had been
plundered in the same treacherous manner in 1839, by the Nazim,
Sunkersahae and Ghalib Jung, his deputy or collector. He had
invited them to a feast, and they brought an armed force and
surrounded and plundered his house and capital. He escaped with his
mother into British territory; and tells me, that he was a lad at
the time, and had great difficulty in making his mother fly with
him, and leave all her wardrobe behind her.

The Court of Nepaul complained of this aggression on their
territory, and demanded reparation. The Governor-General Lord
Ellenborough called upon the Oude government, in dignified terms,
to make prompt and ample atonement to that of Nepaul. “Promptness,”
said his Lordship, “in repairing an injury, however unintentionally
committed is as conducive to the honour of a sovereign, as
promptness in demanding reparation where an injury has been
sustained.” The Nepaul Court required, that Dursun Sing should be
seized and sent to Nepaul, to make an apology in person to the
sovereign of that state; should be deprived of all his offices,
with an assurance, on the part of Oude, that he should never be
again employed in any office under that government; and, that the
amount of injury sustained by the subjects of Nepaul should be
settled by arbitrators sent to the place on the part of both
States, and paid by the Oude government. The Governor-General did
not insist upon Oude’s complying with the first of these
requirements; but Dursun Sing was dismissed from all employments,
arbitrators were sent to the place, and the Oude government paid
the nine hundred and fourteen rupees, which they decided to be due
to the subjects of Nepaul.

Dursun Sing at first fled in alarm into the British territory,
as the Nepaul government assembled a large force on the border, and
appeared to threaten Oude with invasion; while the Governor-General
held in readiness a large British force to oppose them; and he knew
not what the Oude government, in its alarm, might do to the servant
who had wantonly involved it in so serious a scrape. His brother,
Bukhtawar Sing, the old courtier, knew that they had enemies, or
interested persons at Court, who would take advantage of the
occasion to exasperate the King, and persuade him to plunder them
of all they had, and confiscate their estates, unless Dursun Sing
appeared and pacified the King by his submission, and aided him in
a judicious distribution of the ready money at their command; and
he prevailed upon him to hasten to Court, and throw himself at his
Majesty’s feet.

He came, acknowledged that he had been precipitate in his
over-zeal for his Majesty’s service; but pleaded, in excuse, that
the young Rajah of Bulrampore had been guilty of great contumacy,
and owed a large balance to the Exchequer, which he had been
peremptorily commanded to recover; and declared himself ready to
suffer any punishment, and make any reparation or atonement that
his master, the King, might deem proper. The British and Nepaul
governments had expressed themselves satisfied; but other parties
had become deeply interested in the dispute. The King, with many
good qualities, was a very parsimonious man, who prided himself
upon adding something every month to his reserved treasury; and he
thought, that advantage should be taken of the occasion, to get a
large sum out of so wealthy a family. Three of his wives, Hoseynee
Khanum, Mosahil Khanum, and Sakeena Khanum, had at the time great
influence over his Majesty, and they wished to take advantage of
the occasion, not only to screw out of the family a large sum for
the King and themselves, but to confiscate the estates, and
distribute them among their male relations. The minister,
Menowur-od Dowlah, the nephew and heir of Hakeem Mehndee, who has
been and will be often mentioned in this Diary, thought that, after
paying a large sum to gratify his Majesty’s ruling passion, and
enable him to make handsome presents to the three favourites,
Dursun Sing ought to be released and restored to office, for he was
the only man then in Oude capable of controlling the refractory and
turbulent territorial barons; and if he were crushed altogether for
subduing one of them, the rest would all become unmanageable, and
pay no revenue whatever to the Exchequer. He, therefore,
recommended the King to take from the two brothers the sum of
twenty-five lacs of rupees, leave them the estates, and restore
Dursun Sing to all his charges, as soon as it could be done without
any risk of giving umbrage to the British Government.

The King thought the minister’s advice judicious, and consented;
but the ladies called him a fool, and told him, that the brothers
had more than that sum in stores of seed-grain alone, and ought to
be made to pay at least fifty lacs, while the brothers pleaded
poverty, and declared that they could only pay nineteen. The
minister urged the King, to take even this sum, give two lacs to
the three females, and send seventeen to the reserved treasury; and
called upon the Chancellor of the Exchequer to give in his accounts
of the actual balance due by the two brothers, on their several
contracts, for the last twenty-five years. He, being on good terms
with the minister, and anxious to meet his wishes, found a balance
of only one lac and thirty-two thousand due by Dursun Sing, and one
of only fifteen lacs due by his brother, Bukhtawar Sing, in whose
name the contracts had always been taken up to 1842. The King,
sorely pressed by the females, resolved to banish Dursun Sing, and
confiscate all his large estates; but the British Resident
interposed, and urged, that Dursun Sing should be leniently dealt
with, since he had made all the reparation and atonement required.
The King told him, that Dursun Sing was a notorious and terrible
tyrant, and had fearfully oppressed his poor subjects, and robbed
them by fraud, violence, and collusion, of lands yielding a
rent-roll of many lacs of rupees a-year; and, that unless he were
punished severely for all these numerous atrocities, his other
servants would follow his example, and his poor subjects be
everywhere ruined!

The Resident admitted the truth of all these charges; but urged,
in reply, that the Oude government had, in spite of all these
atrocities, without any admonition, continued to employ him with
unlimited power in the charge of many of its finest districts, for
twenty-five or thirty years; and, that it would now be hard to
banish him, and confiscate all his fine estates, when his Majesty
had so lately offered, not only to leave them all untouched, but to
restore him to all his charges, on the payment of a fine of
twenty-five lacs. The King was perplexed in his desire to please
the Resident, meet the wishes of his three ladies, and add a good
round sum to his reserved treasury; and at last closed all
discussions by making Dursun Sing pay the one lac and thirty-two
thousand rupees, found to be due by him, and sending him into
banishment; holding Bukhtawar Sing responsible for the fifteen lacs
due by him, and seizing upon his estates, and putting them under
the management of Hoseyn Allee, the father of Hoseynee Khanum, the
most influential of the three favourites, till the whole should be
paid. She satisfied herself that she should be able to make the
banishment of the man and the confiscation of the estate perpetual;
and, before he set out, she secured the transfer of the strong fort
of Shahgunge, with all its artillery and military stores, from
Dursun Sing’s to the King’s troops. Dursun Sing went into
banishment on the 17th of March 1844; but before he set out he
addressed a remonstrance to the British Resident,
stating—”that he had paid all that had been found to be due
by him to the Exchequer, and made every atonement required for the
offence charged against him; but had, nevertheless, been ordered
into banishment—had all his charges taken from him, and his
lands, houses, gardens, &c., worth fifty lacs, taken from him,
and made over to strangers and Court favourites.”

Hoseyn Allee had promised to pay to the Exchequer one lac of
rupees a-year for these estates more than Dursun Sing had paid. He
had paid annually for the Mehdona estates two lacs and eight
thousand two hundred and seventy-six; and for the Asrewa estates,
in the same district of Sultanpoor, one lac thirty-one thousand and
eighty-nine-total, three lacs and thirty-nine thousand three
hundred and sixty-five; and they probably yielded to him an annual
rent of nearly double that sum, or at least five lacs of rupees.
Hoseyn Allee, however, found it impossible to fulfil his pledges.
The landholders and cultivators would not be persuaded that the
sovereign of Oude could long dispense with the services of such a
man as Dursun Sing, or bring him back without restoring to him his
landed possessions; or that he would, when he returned, give them
credit for any payments which they might presume to make to any
other master during his absence. They, therefore, refused to pay
any rent for the past season, and threatened to abandon their lands
before the tillage for the next season should commence, if any
attempt were made to coerce them. All the great revenue contractors
and other governors of districts declared their inability to coerce
the territorial barons into paying anything, since they had lost
the advantage of the prestige of his great name; and the minister
found that he must either resign his office or prevail upon his
sovereign to recall him. The King, finding that he must either draw
upon his reserved treasury or leave all his establishments unpaid
under such a falling off in the revenue, yielded to his minister’s
earnest recommendation, and in May 1844, consented to recall Dursun
Sing from our district of Goruckpoor, in which he had resided
during his banishment.

On the 10th of that month he was taken by the minister to pay
his respects to his Majesty, who, on the 30th, conferred upon him
additional honours and titles, and appointed him Inspector-general
of all his dominions, with orders “to make a settlement of the land
revenue at an increased rate; to cut down all the jungles, and
bring all the waste lands into tillage; to seize all refractory
barons, destroy all their forts, and seize and send into store all
the cannon mounted upon them; to put down all disturbances, protect
all high roads, punish all refractory and evil-minded persons; to
enforce the payment of all just demands of his sovereign upon
landholders of all degrees and denominations; to invite back all
who had been driven off by oppression, and re-establish them on
their estates, or punish them if they refused to return; to
ascertain the value of all estates transferred from the
jurisdiction of the local authorities to the ‘Hozoor Tehsel,’
without due inquiry; and report, for the consideration of his
Majesty and his minister, any nankar or rent-free lands,
assigned, of late years, by Amils and other governors of districts;
to enforce the payment of all recoverable balances, due on account
of past years; to muster the troops, and report, through the
commander-in-chief, all officers and soldiers borne on the
muster-rolls, and paid from the treasury, but in reality dead,
absent without leave, or unfit for further service;” in short, to
reform all abuses, and make the government of the country what the
King and his minister thought it ought to be. Dursun Sing assured
them that he would do his best to effect all the objects they had
in view; and, after recovering possession of his estates, and
conciliating, by suitable gratuities, all the reigning favourites
at Court, he went to work heartily at his Herculean task after his
wonted way. But he, soon after, became ill, and retired to his
residence at Fyzabad, where he died on the 20th of August, 1844,
leaving his elder brother, Bukhtawar Sing—my
Quartermaster-general—at Court; and his three sons, Ramadeen,
Rughbur Sing, and Mann Sing, to fight among themselves for his
landed possessions and immense accumulated wealth.

The minister was a man of good intentions; and, having inherited
an immense fortune from his uncle, Hakeem Mehndee, he cared little
about money; but he was an indolent man, and indulged much in
opiates, and his object was to reform the administration at the
least possible cost of time and trouble to himself. He had, he
thought, found the man who could efficiently supervise and control
the administration in all its branches; and he invested him with
plenary powers to do so. Of the duty, on his part and that of his
master; efficiently to supervise and control the exercise of these
plenary powers on the part of the man of their choice, in order to
prevent their being abused to the injury of the state and the
people; or of the necessity of taking from Court favourites the
nomination of officers to the charge of all districts and all
fiscal and judicial Courts, and to the command of all corps and
establishments, in order to render them efficient and honest, and
prevent justice from being perverted, and the revenues of the state
from being absorbed on their way to the treasury, they took no
heed. Court favourites retained their powers, and the King and his
minister relied entirely, as heretofore, upon the reports of the
news-writers, who attend officially upon all officers in charge of
districts, fiscal and judicial Courts, corps and establishments of
all kinds, for the facts of all cases on which they might have to
pass orders; and remained as ignorant as their predecessors of the
real state of the administration and the real sufferings of the
people, if not of the real losses to the Exchequer.

The news department is under a Superintendent-general, who has
sometimes contracted for it, as for the revenues of a district, but
more commonly holds it in amanee, as a manager. When he
contracts for it he pays a certain sum to the public treasury, over
and above what he pays to the influential officers and Court
favourites in gratuities. When he holds it in amanee, he
pays only gratuities, and the public treasury gets nothing. His
payments amount to about the same in either case. He nominates
his-subordinates, and appoints them to their several offices,
taking from each a present gratuity and a pledge for such monthly
payments as he thinks the post will enable him to make. They
receive from four to fifteen rupees a-month each, and have each to
pay to their President, for distribution among his patrons or
patronesses at Court from one hundred to five hundred rupees
a-month in ordinary times. Those to whom they are accredited have
to pay them, under ordinary circumstances, certain sums monthly, to
prevent their inventing or exaggerating cases of abuse of power or
neglect of duty on their part; but when they happen to be really
guilty of great acts of atrocity, or great neglect of duty, they
are required to pay extraordinary sums, not only to the
news-writers, who are especially accredited to them, but to all
others who happen to be in the neighbourhood at the time. There are
six hundred and sixty news-writers of this kind employed by the
King, and paid monthly three thousand one hundred and ninety-four
rupees, or, on an average, between four and five rupees a-month
each; and the sums paid by them to their President for distribution
among influential officers and Court favourites averages above one
hundred and fifty thousand rupees a-year. Many, whose avowed salary
is from four to ten rupees a-month, receive each, from the persons
to whom they are accredited, more than five hundred, three-fourths
of which they must send for distribution among Court favourites, or
they could not retain their places a week, nor could their
President retain his. Such are the reporters of the circumstances
in all the cases on which the sovereign and his ministers have to
pass orders every day in Oude. Some of those who derive part of
their incomes from this source are “persons behind the throne, who
are greater than the throne itself.” The mother of the
heir-apparent gets twelve thousand rupees a-year from it.

But their exactions are not confined to government officers of
all grades and denominations; they are extended to contractors of
all kinds and denominations, to him who contracts for the supply of
the public cattle with grain, as well as to him who contracts for
the revenue and undivided government of whole provinces; and,
indeed, to every person who has anything to do under, or anything
to apprehend from, government and its officers and favourites; and,
in such a country, who has not? The European magistrate of one of
our neighbouring districts one day, before the Oude Frontier Police
was raised, entered the Oude territory at the head of his police in
pursuit of some robbers, who had found an asylum in one of the
King’s villages. In the attempt to secure them some lives were
lost; and, apprehensive of the consequences, he sent for the
official news-writer, and gratified him in the usual way. No
report of the circumstances was made to the Oude Durbar; and
neither the King, the Resident, nor the British Government ever
heard anything about it. Of the practical working of the system,
many illustrations will be found in this Diary.

The Akbar, or Intelligence Department, had been farmed out for
some years, at the rate of between one and two lacs of rupees
a-year, when, at the recommendation of the Resident, the King
expressed his willingness to abolish the farm, and intrust the
superintendence to men of character and ability, to be paid
by Government. This resolution was communicated to Government by
the Resident on the 24th of April, 1839; and on the 6th of May the
Resident was instructed to communicate to his Majesty the
satisfaction which the Governor-General derived on hearing that he
had consented to abolish this farm, which had produced so large
a revenue to the state. This was considered by the Resident to
be a great boon obtained for the people of Oude, as the farmers of
the department consented to pay a large revenue, only on condition
that they should be considered as the only legitimate reporters of
events—the only recognised masters in the Oude Chancery;
and, as the Resident observed, “they choked up all the channels the
people had of access to their sovereign;” but they have choked them
up just as much since the abolition of the farm, and have had to
pay just as much as before.

A brief sketch of the proceedings of Rughbur Sing, the son of
Dursun Sing, in his government of these districts of Gonda and
Baraetch, for the years 1846 and 1847, may here be given as further
illustration of the Oude government and its administration, in this
part of the country at least. It had not suffered very much under
his uncle’s brief reign in 1842 and 1843, and the governors who
followed him, up to 1846, were too weak to coerce the Tallookdars,
or do much injury to their estates. Rughbur Sing had a large body
of the King’s troops to aid him in enforcing from them the payment
of the current revenue and balances, real or pretended, for past
years; and a large body of armed retainers of his own to assist him
in his contest with his brothers for the possessions of the Mehdona
and Asrewa estates, which had been going on ever since the death of
their father.

I have stated that Rughbur Sing held in contract the districts
of Gonda and Bahraetch for the years 1846 and 1847, and shown to
what a state of wretchedness he managed to reduce them in that
brief period. In 1849, some months after I took charge of my
office, I deputed a European gentleman of high character, Captain
Orr, of the Oude Frontier Police, to pass through these districts,
and inquire into and report upon the charges of oppression brought
against him by the people, as his agents were diligently employed
at Lucknow in distributing money among the most influential persons
about the Court, and a disposition to restore him to power had
become manifest. He had purchased large estates in our districts of
Benares and Goruckpoor, where he now resided for greater security,
while he had five thousand armed men, employed under other agents,
in fighting with his brother, Maun Sing, for the possession of the
bynamah estates, above described, in the Sultanpoor
district. In this contest a great many lives were lost, and the
peace of the country was long and much disturbed, but, after
driving all his brother’s forces and agents out of the district.
Maun Sing retained quiet possession of the estates. This contest
would, however, have been again renewed, and the same desolating
disorders would have again prevailed, could Rughbur Sing’s agents
at the capital, by a judicious distribution of the money at their
disposal, have induced the Court to restore him to the government
of these or any other districts in Oude.

On the 23rd of July 1849, Captain Orr sent in his report, giving
a brief outline of such of the atrocities committed by Rughbur Sing
and his agents in these districts as he was able, during his tour,
to establish upon unquestionable evidence; but they made but a
small portion of the whole, as the people in general still
apprehended that he would be restored to power by Court favour, and
wreak his vengeance upon all who presumed to give evidence against
him; while many of the most respectable families in the districts
were ashamed to place on record the suffering and dishonour
inflicted on their female members; and still more had been reduced
by them to utter destitution, and driven in despair into other
districts. To use his own words—”The once flourishing
districts of Gonda and Bahraetch, so noted for fertility and
beauty, are now, for the greater part, uncultivated; villages
completely deserted in the midst of lands devoid of all tillage
everywhere meet the eye; and from Fyzabad to Bahraetch I passed
through these districts, a distance of eighty miles, over plains
which had been fertile and well cultivated, till Rughbur Sing got
charge, but now lay entirely waste, a scene for two years of great
misery ending in desolation.”

Rajah Hurdut Sahae, the proprietor of the Bondee estate, was the
head of one of the oldest Rajpoot families in Oude. Having placed
the most notorious knaves in the country as revenue collectors over
all the subdivisions of his two districts, Rajah Rughbur Sing, in
1846, demanded from Hurdut Sahae an increase of five thousand
rupees upon the assessment of the preceding year. The Rajah pleaded
the badness of preceding seasons, and consequent poverty of his
tenants and cultivators; but at last he consented to pay the
increase, and on solemn pledges of personal security he collected
all his tenants, to take upon themselves the responsibility of
making good this demand. To this they all agreed; but they had no
sooner done so, than Rughbur Sing’s agent, Prag Pursaud, demanded a
gratuity of seven thousand rupees for himself, over and above the
increase of five thousand upon the demand of the preceding year.
The Rajah would not agree to pay the seven thousand, but went off
to request some capitalists to furnish securities for the punctual
payment of the rent.

The agent sent off secretly to Rughbur Sing to say, that unless
he came at the head of his forces he saw no chance of getting the
revenues from the Rajah or his tenants, who were all assembled and
might be secured if he could contrive to surprise them. Rughbur
Sing came with a large force at night, surrounded his agent’s camp,
where the tenants and the Rajah’s officers were all assembled, and
seized them. He then sent out parties of soldiers of from one
hundred to two hundred each, to plunder all the towns and villages
on the estate, and seize all the respectable residents they could
find. They plundered the town of Bondee, and pulled down all the
houses of the Rajah, and those of his relatives and dependents;
and, after plundering all the other towns and villages in the
neighbourhood, they brought in one thousand captives of both sexes
and all ages, who were subjected to all manner of torture till they
paid the ransom demanded, or gave written pledges to pay. Five
thousand head of cattle were, at the same time, brought in and
distributed as booty.

The Rajah made his escape, but his agents were put to the same
tortures as his tenants. Rughbur Sing, among other things,
commanded them to sign a declaration, to the effect that his
predecessor and enemy, Wajid Allee Khan, had received from them the
sum of thirty thousand rupees more than he had credited to his
government, but this they all refused to do. Rughbur Sing remained
at Bondee for six weeks, superintending personally all these
atrocities; and then went off, leaving, as his agent, Kurum Hoseyn.
He continued the tortures upon the tenants and officers of the
Rajah, and the captives collected in his camp. He rubbed the beards
of the men with moist gunpowder; and, as soon as it became dry in
the sun, he set fire to it. Other tortures, too cruel and indecent
to be named, were inflicted upon four servants of the Rajah, Kunjun
Sing, Bustee Ram, Admadnt Pandee, and Bhugwant Rae, and upon
others, who were likely to be able to borrow or beg anything for
their ransom.

Finding that the tenants did not return, and that the estate was
likely to be altogether deserted, unless the Rajah returned, Kurum
Hoseyn was instructed by Rughbur Sing to invite him back on any
terms. The poor Rajah, having nothing in the jungles to which he
had fled to subsist upon, ventured back on the solemn pledge of
personal security given by Pudum Sing, a respectable capitalist,
whom the collector had induced, by solemn oaths on the holy Koran,
to become a mediator; and, as a token of reconciliation and future
friendship, the Rajah and collector changed turbans. They remained
together for five months on the best possible terms, and the
Rajah’s tenants returned to their homes and fields. All having been
thus lulled into security, Rughbur Sing suddenly sent another
agent, Maharaj Sing, to supersede Kurum Hoseyn, and seize the Rajah
and his confidential manager, Benee Ram Sookul. They, however, went
off to Balalpoor, forty miles distant from Bondee, and kept aloof
from the new collector, till he prevailed upon all the officers,
commanding corps and detachments under him, to enter into solemn
written pledges of personal security. The Rajah had been long
suffering from ague and fever, and had become very feeble in mind
and body. He remained at Balalpoor; but, under the assurance of
these pledges from military officers of rank and influence, Benee
Ram and other confidential officers of the Rajah came to his camp,
and entered upon the adjustment of their accounts.

When he found them sufficiently off their guard, Maharaj Sing,
while sitting one evening with Benee Ram, who was a stout, powerful
man, asked him to show him the handsome dagger which he always wore
in his waistband. He did so, and as soon as he got it in his hand,
the collector gave the concerted signal to Roshun Allee, one of the
officers present, and his armed attendants, to seize him. As he
rose to leave the tent he was cut down from behind by Mattadeen,
khasburdar; and the rest fell upon him and cut him to pieces in
presence of the greater part of the officers who had given the
solemn pledges for his personal security. Not one of them
interposed to save him. Doulut Rae, another confidential servant of
the Rajah, however, effected his escape, and ran to the Rajah, who
prepared to defend himself at Balalpoor, where Maharaj Sing tried,
in vain, to persuade his troops’ to attack him. For two months the
towns and villages were deserted, but the crops were on the ground,
and guarded by the Passee bowmen, who are usually hired for the
purpose.

Beharee Lal, the principal agent of Rughbur Sing in these
districts, now wrote a letter of condolence to the Rajah, on the
death of his faithful servant, Benee Ram—told him that he had
dismissed from all employ the villain Maharaj Sing, and appointed
to his place Kurum Hoseyn, who would make all reparation and
redress all wrongs. This letter he sent by a very plausible man,
Omed Rae, the collector of the Rahooa estate. Kurum Hoseyn resumed
charge of his office, and went unattended to the Rajah, with whom
he remained some days feasting, and swearing on the Koran, that all
had been without his connivance or knowledge, and that he had come
back with a full determination to see justice done to his friend,
the Rajah, and his landholders and cultivators in everything.
Having thus soothed the poor old Rajahs apprehensions, he prevailed
on him to go back with him to Bondee, where he behaved for some
time with so much seeming frankness and cordiality, and swore so
solemnly on the Koran to respect the persons of all men who should
come to him on business, that the Rajah’s tenants and agents lost
all their fears, and again came freely to his camp. The Rajah now
invited all his tenants as before, to enter into engagements to pay
their rents to officers appointed by the collector as jumogdars;
and the people had hopes of being permitted to gather their
harvests in peace. Kurum Hoseyn now suggested to Beharee Lal, to
come suddenly with the largest force he could collect, and seize
the many respectable men who had assembled-at his invitation.

He made a forced march daring the night, appeared suddenly at
Bondee with a large force, and seized all who were there assembled,
save the Rajah and his family, who escaped to the jungles.
Detachments of from one hundred to two hundred were sent out as
before, to plunder the country, and seize all from whom anything
could be extorted. All the towns and villages on the estate were
plundered of everything that could be found, and fifteen hundred
men, and about five hundred women and children, were brought in
prisoners, with no less than eighty thousand animals of all kinds.
There were twenty-five thousand head of cattle; and horses, mares,
sheep, goats, ponies, &c., made up the rest. All with the men,
women, and children were driven off, pell-mell, a distance of
twenty miles to Busuntpoor, in the Hurhurpoor district, where
Beharee Lal’s headquarter had been fixed. For three days heavy rain
continued to fall. Pregnant women were beaten on by the troops with
bludgeons and the butt-ends of muskets and matchlocks. Many of them
gave premature birth to children and died on the road; and many
children were trodden to death by the animals on the road, which
was crowded for more than ten miles.

Rughbur Sing and his agents, Beharee Lal, Kurum Hoseyn, Maharaj
Sing, Prag Sing, and others, selected several thousand of the
finest cattle, and sent them to their homes; and the rest were left
to the officers and soldiers of the force to be disposed of; and,
for all this enormous number of animals, worth at least one hundred
thousand rupees, the small sum of one hundred and thirty rupees was
credited in the Nazim’s accounts to the Rajah’s estate. At
Busuntpoor the force was divided into two parties, for the purpose
of torturing the surviving prisoners till they consented to sign
bonds, for the payment of such sums as might be demanded from them.
Beharee Lal presided over the first party, in which they were
tortured from day-break till noon. They were tied up and flogged,
had red-hot ramrods thrust into their flesh, their tongues were
pulled out with hot pincers and pierced through; and, when all
would not do, they were taken to Kurum Hoseyn, who presided at the
other party, to be tortured again till the evening. He sat with a
savage delight, to witness this brutal scene and invent new kinds
of torture. No less than seventy men, besides women and children,
perished at Busuntpoor from torture and starvation; and their
bodies were left to rot in the mud, and their friends were afraid
to approach them. Bustee’s body was stolen at night by his son, and
Guyadut’s was sold to his family by the soldiers.

Among the persons of respectability who died under the tortures,
several are named below.* Buldee Sing, the husband of the Rajah’s
sister, took poison and died; and Ramdeen, a Brahmin of great
respectability, stabbed himself to death, to avoid further torture
and dishonour. For two months did these atrocities continue at
Busuntpoor; and during that time the prisoners got no food from the
servants of Government. All that they got was sent to them by their
friends, or by the charitable peasantry of the country around; and
when sweetmeats were sent to them as food, which the most
scrupulous could eat from any hand, the soldiers often snatched
them from them and ate them themselves, or took them to their
officers. The women and children were all stripped of their
clothes, and many died from cold and want of sustenance. It was
during the months of September and October that these atrocities
were perpetrated. The heavy rain had inundated the country, and the
poor prisoners were obliged to lie naked and unsheltered on the
damp ground.

[* 1. Byjonauth, the Rajah’s accountant.

2. Gijraj Sing, Rajpoot.

3. Sheopersaud.

4. Rampersaud.

5. Jhow Lal.

6. Guyadut.

7. Duyram.

8. Budaree Chobee.

9. Mungul Sing, Rajpoot.

10. Seodeen Sing, ditto.

11. Akber Sing.

12. Bustee, a farmer. ]

Apreel Sing, a respectable Jagheerdar of Bondee, was tortured
till he consented to sell his two daughters, and pay the money; and
a great many respectable females, who were taken from Bondee to
Busuntpoor, have never been heard of since. Whether they perished
or were sold their friends have never been able to discover. The
sipahees and other persons, employed to torture, got money from
their victims or their friends, who ventured to approach, or from
the pitying peasantry around; and all laughed and joked at the
screams of the sufferers. Several times, during the two months,
Rughbur Sing paid off heavy arrears, due to his personal servants,
by drafts on his agents for prisoners, to be placed at the disposal
of the payee, ten and twenty at a time. It is worthy of remark,
that an old Subadar of one of our regiments of Native Infantry, who
was then at home in furlough, happened to pass Busuntpoor with his
family, on his way to Guya, on a pilgrimage. He and his family had
saved what was to them a large sum, to be spent in offerings, for
the safe passage of his deceased relatives through purgatory. On
witnessing the sufferings of the poor prisoners at Busuntpoor, he
and his family offered all they had for a certain number of women
and children, who were made over to them. He took them to their
homes, and returned to his own, saying, that he hoped God would
forgive them for the sake of the relief which they had afforded to
sufferers.

In the latter end of October, Beharee Lal took off all the force
that could be spared, to attack the Rajah of Bhinga, and plunder
his estate in the same manner; and Kurum Hoseyn took another to
plunder Koelee, Murdunpoor, Budrolee, and some other villages of
the Bondee estate, which had suffered least in the last attack. He
collected two thousand plough-bullocks, and sold them for little to
Nuzur Allee and Sufder Allee, who commanded detachments under him.
He soon after made an attack upon Sookha and other villages, in the
vicinity of Busuntpoor, and collected between twenty and thirty
thousand head of cattle; but, on his way back, he was attacked by a
party of twenty brave men (under a landholder named Nabee Buksh,
whom he wished to seize), and driven back to his camp at
Busuntpoor, with the loss of all his booty. He attempted no more
enterprises after this check. The tortures ceased, and ten days
after he ran off, on hearing that Rughbur Sing had been deprived of
his charge by orders from Lucknow. At this time one hundred and
fifty prisoners remained at Busuntpoor, and they were released by
Incha Sing, the successor and uncle of Rughbur Sing.

The Akhbar Naveeses, so far from admonishing the perpetrators of
these atrocities, were some of them among the most active promoters
of them. Jorakhun, the news-writer at Bondee, got one anna for
every prisoner brought in; and from two to three rupees for every
prisoner released. He got every day subsistence for ten men from
Kurum Hoseyn. All the news-writers in the neighbourhood got a share
of the booty in bullocks, cows, and other animals. Two chuprassies
are said to have come from Government, and remained at Busuntpoor
for nearly the whole two months, while these tortures were being
inflicted, without making any report of them. When the order for
dismissing Rughbur Sing came from the Durbar, Maharaj Sing went
off, saying, that he would soon smother all complaints, in the
usual way, at Lucknow.

In September 1847, Rughbur Sing’s agents, with a considerable
force, encamped at Parbatee-tolah, in the Gonda district, and made
a sudden attack upon the fine town of Khurgoopoor. After plundering
the town, the troops seized forty of the most respectable merchants
and shopkeepers of the place, and made them over to Rughbur Sing’s
agents, at the rate agreed upon, of so much a head, as the
perquisites of the soldiers; and these agents confined and tortured
them till they each paid the ransom demanded, and rated according
to their supposed means. The troops did the same by Bisumberpoor,
Bellehree Pundit, Pyaree, Peepree, and many other towns and
villages in the same district of Gonda. A trooper and his son, who
tried to save the honour of their family, by defending the entrance
to their house, were cut down and killed at Khurgapoor; and in
Bisumberpoor one of the soldiers, with his sword, cut off the arm
of a respectable old woman, in order the more easily to get her
gold bracelets. The poor woman died a few hours afterwards. The
only relative of the poor old woman who could have assisted her was
seized, with forty other respectable persons, and taken off to the
camp at Parbatee-tola, where they were all tortured till they paid
the ransom demanded, and a gratuity, in addition, to the soldiers
who had seized them. One of the persons died under the tortures
inflicted upon him.

In the Gungwal district similar atrocities were committed by
Rughbur Sing’s agents and their soldiers. These agents were Gouree
Shunkur and Seorutun Sing. The district formed the estate of Rajah
Sreeput Sing, who resided with his family in the fort of Gungwal.
The former Nazim, Suraj-od Dowlah, had attacked this fort on some
frivolous pretence; and, having taken it by surprise, sacked the
place and plundered the Rajah and his family of all they had. The
Rajah died soon after of mortification, at the dishonour he and his
family had suffered, and was succeeded by his son, Seetul Persaud
Sing, the present Rajah, who was now plundered again, and driven an
exile into the Nepaul hills. The estate was now taken possession of
by the agents, Goureeshunker and Seorutun Sing. Seorutun Sing
seized a Brahmin who was travelling with his wife and brother, and,
on the pretence that he must be a relation of the fugitive Rajah,
had him murdered, and his head struck off on the spot. The wife
took the head of her murdered husband in her arms, wrapped it up in
cloth, and, attended by his brother, walked with it a distance of
fifty miles to Ajoodheea, where Rughbur Sing was then engaged in
religious ceremonies. The poor woman placed the head before him,
and demanded justice on her husband’s murderers. He coolly ordered
the head to be thrown into the river, and the woman and her
brother-in-law to be driven from his presence. Many other
respectable persons were seized and tortured on similar pretext of
being related to, or having served or assisted, the fugitive Rajah.
Moistened gunpowder was smeared thickly over the beards of the men,
and when dry set fire to; and any friend or relatives who presumed
to show signs of pity was seized and tortured, till he or she paid
a ransom. All the people in the country around, who had moveable
property of any kind, were plundered by these two atrocious agents,
and tortured till they paid all that they could beg and borrow.
Many respectable families were dishonoured in the persons of wives,
sisters, or daughters, and almost all the towns and villages around
became deserted.

In Rajah Nirput Sing’s estate of Pyagpoor, the same atrocities
were committed. Rajah Rughbur Sing seized upon this estate as soon
as he entered upon his charge in 1846, and put it under the
management of his own agents; and, after extorting from the tenants
more than was justly due, according to engagement, he attacked the
Rajah’s house by surprise, and plundered it of property to the
value of fifteen thousand rupees. The Rajah, however, contrived to
make his escape with his family. He had nothing with him to subsist
upon, and in 1847 he was invited back on solemn pledges of personal
security; and, from great distress, was induced again to undertake
the management of his own estate, at an exorbitant rate of
assessment.

In spite of this engagement, Goureeshunker, when the tenants had
become lulled into security by the hope of remaining under their
own chief, suddenly, with his troops, seized upon all he could
catch, plundered their houses, and tortured them till they paid all
that they could prevail upon their relatives and friends to lend
them. Eighteen hundred of their plough-bullocks were seized and
sold by him, together with many of their wives and daughters. While
under torture, Seetaram, a respectable Brahmin, of Kandookoeea, put
an end to his existence, to avoid further sufferings and dishonour.
Sucheet, another respectable Brahmin, of Pagaree, did the same by
opening a vein in his thigh. A cloth steeped in oil was bound round
the hands of those who appeared able, but unwilling, to pay
ransoms, and set fire to, so as to burn like a torch. In these
tortures, Lala Beharee Lal, Rughbur Sing’s deputy, was the chief
agent. “I found,” says Captain Orr, “the estate of Pyagpoor in a
desolate condition; village after village presenting nothing but
bare walls—the finest arable lands lying waste, and no sign
of cultivation was anywhere to be seen. Even the present Nazim,
Mahommed Hussan, after conciliating and inviting in the Rajah on
further solemn assurances of personal security, seized him and all
his family, and kept them confined in prison for several months,
till they paid him an exorbitant ransom. The poorer classes told
me, that it was impossible for them to plough their fields, since
all their plough-bullocks had been seized and sold by the Nazim’s
agents. Great numbers in this and the adjoining estates have
subsisted entirely upon wild fruits, and some species of aquatic
plants, since they were ruined by these atrocities.”

This picture is not at all overdrawn. In passing through the
estate, and communing with the few wretched people who remain, I
find all that Captain Orr stated in his report to be strictly
correct.

In the Hurhurpoor district similar atrocities were committed by
Rughbur Sing and his agents. He confided the management to his
agent, Goureeshunker. In 1846 he made his settlement of the land
revenue, at an exorbitant rate, with the tallookdar, Chinghy Sing;
and, in the following year, he extorted from him an increase to
this rate of twenty-five thousand rupees. He was, in consequence,
obliged to fly; but he was soon invited back on the usual solemn
assurances for his personal security, and induced to take on
himself the management of the estate. But he was no sooner settled
in his house than he was again attacked at night and plundered. One
of his attendants was killed, and another wounded; and all the
respectable tenants and servants who had ventured to assemble
around him on his return were seized and tortured till they paid
ransoms. No less than two thousand and five hundred bullocks from
this estate were seized and sold, or starved to death. A great many
women were seized and tortured till they paid ransoms like the men;
and many of them have never since been seen or heard of. Some
perished in confinement of hunger and cold, having been stripped of
their clothes, and exposed at night to the open air on the damp
ground, while others threw themselves into wells and destroyed
themselves after their release, rather than return to their
families after the exposure and dishonour they had suffered.

In the Bahraetch district, the same atrocities were practised by
Rughbur Sing and his agents. Here also Goureeshunker was the chief
agent employed, but the few people who remained were so terrified,
that Captain Orr could get but little detailed information of
particular cases. The present Nazim had been one of Rughbur Sing’s
agents in all these atrocities, and the people apprehended that he
was in office merely as his “locum tenens;” and that Rughbur Sing
would soon purchase his restoration to power, as he boasted that he
should. The estate of the Rajah of Bumunee Paer was plundered in
the same manner; and Rughbur Sing’s agents seized, drove off, and
sold two thousand bullocks, and cut down and sold or destroyed five
hundred and five mhowa-trees, which had, for generations, formed
the strongest local ties of the cultivators, and their best
dependence in seasons of drought.

In the Churda estate, in the Tarae forest, the same sufferings
were inflicted on the people by the same agents, Goureeshunker and
Beharee Lal. They seized Mudar Buksh, the manager, and made him
over to Moonshee Kurum Hoseyn, who had him beaten to death. The
estate of the Rajah of Bhinga was treated in the same way. Beharee
Lal attacked the town with a large force, plundered all the houses
in it, and all the people of their clothes and ornaments. They
seized all the plough-bullocks and other cattle, and had them
driven off and sold. The women were all seized and driven off in
crowds to the camp of Rughbur Sing at Parbatee-tolah. Many of them
who were far gone in pregnancy perished on the road, from fatigue
and harsh treatment The estate of the Rajah of Ruhooa was treated
in the same manner; and the Rajah, to avoid torture and disgrace,
fled with his family to the jungles. In July 1846, being in great
distress, he was induced to come back on the most solemn assurances
from Rughbur Sing of personal security for himself, family, and
attendants. He left the Rajah his nankar lands for his
subsistence, pledging himself to exact no rents or revenues from
them; but put the estate under the management of his own agents,
Lala Omed Rae and others. He at the same time pledged himself not
to exact from any of the poor Rajah’s tenants higher rates than
those stipulated for in the engagements then made. But he
immediately after saddled the Rajah with the payment of five
hundred armed men, on the pretence that they were necessary to
protect him, and aid him in the management of these nankar
lands. In May 1847, when the harvests had been gathered, and he had
exacted from the tenants and cultivators the rates stipulated,
Goureeshunker was put into the management. He seized all the
tenants and cultivators by a sudden and simultaneous attack upon
their several villages, and extorted from them a payment of fifty
thousand rupees more. Not satisfied with this, Goureeshunker seized
the Rajah’s chief manager, Mungul Pershad, tied him up to a tree,
and had him beaten to death. Many of the Rajah’s tenants and
servants were beaten to death in the same manner; and no less than
forty villages were attacked and plundered. A good many
respectable females were seized and compelled to make up the
ransoms of their husbands and fathers who were under torture. Many
of the females who had been seized perished from the cruel
treatment and from want of food. Two thousand head of cattle,
chiefly plough-bullocks, were seized and sold from this estate.

I have passed through all the districts here named, save two,
Churda and Bhinga, and I can say, that everything I saw and heard
tended to confirm the truth of what has here been told. Rughbur
Sing and the agents employed by him were, by all I saw, considered
more as terrible demons who delighted in blood and murder than as
men endowed with any feelings of sympathy for their
fellow-creatures; and the government, which employed such men in
the management of districts with uncontrolled power, seemed to be
utterly detested and abhorred.

It will naturally be asked, whether the circumstances described
were ever reported to the Oude Government or to the British
Resident; and whether they did anything to punish the guilty and
afford redress and relief to the sufferers. The following are the
reports which were made to the Oude Durbar by the news-writers,
employed in the several districts, and communicated to the Resident
and his Assistant, by the Residency news-writer, in his daily
reports, which are read out to them every morning.

July 10, 1847.—Report from Bondee states, that
Rajaram, Rughbur Sing’s collector of Mirzapoor and other villages
in that estate, had attacked and plundered Mirzapoor, and carried
off sixty head of cattle.

August 12, 1847.—Report from Bondee states, that the
estates of Bondee and Tiperha, which yielded one hundred and fifty
thousand rupees a-year, had become so desolated by the oppression
of Beharee Lal and Kurum Hoseyn, the agents of Rughbur Sing, that
they could not possibly yield anything for the ensuing year; that
Kurum Hoseyn had seized all the cattle and other property of the
peasantry, sold them and appropriated the money to his own use, and
had so beaten the landholders and cultivators, that many of them
had died. Order by the Durbar, that these two agents be deterred
from such acts of oppression, fined five thousand rupees, and made
to release the remaining prisoners, and restore the property taken.
Nothing whatever was done!

August 14, 1847.—Report from Bondee states, that
although the landholders and cultivators of this estate had paid
all that was due, according to engagements, Beharee Lal and Kurum
Hoseyn were having them flogged and tortured every day to extort
more; selling off all their stock and other property, and selecting
all the good bullocks and cows and sending them to their own
houses. Order by the Durbar, that the minister punish the
oppressors, and cause their property to be given back to the
oppressed. The minister ordered his deputy, Ramchurn, to see this
done. He did nothing whatever!

September 6, 1847.—Report from Gonda states, that
all the lands from Bondee and Pyagpoor had been left waste from the
oppression of Rughbur Sing. Order by the Durbar, that the minister
hasten to get the lands tilled, as the season was passing away.
Nothing whatever was done!

September 24, 1847.—Report from the same place
states, that Rughbur Sing had seized no less than eighteen thousand
bullocks, from the villages of the Bondee estate, collected them at
Neemapoor, and ordered his agents to get them all sold off as fast
as possible; and that the cultivators could till none of the lands
in consequence. Order by the Durbar, that the minister put a stop
to all this oppression. Nothing whatever was done!

September 24, 1847.—Report from the same place
states, that Kurum Hoseyn had seized Ahlad Sing, the malgoozar of
Hurkapoor in Bondee, and had red-hot ramrods thrust into his flesh,
on account of a balance due, and then had him put upon an ass and
paraded through the streets. Order by the Durbar, that the minister
see to this. Nothing whatever was done!

August 2, 1847.—Report from Gonda states, that the
troops under Beharee Lal were robbing all the females of the
country of their ornaments; and that Beharee Lal neither did nor
said anything to prevent them. Order by the Durbar, that Rughbur
Sing be directed to restrain his soldiers and restore the
ornaments. Nothing whatever was done!

September 6, 1847—Report from the same place
states, that Luchman Naraen, malgoozar of Bhurduree in Gonda, had
paid all the rents due, according to his engagements; that Beharee
Lal had, nevertheless, sent a force of three hundred men, who
attacked his house, plundered it of all that it contained, and took
off five thousand seven hundred and thirty-one maunds of stored
grain. Order by the Durbar, that the minister punish and restrain
the oppressors, and cause all the property to be restored. Nothing
whatever was done in the matter!

October 2, 1847.—Report from Gonda states, that
Jafir Allee and Hemraj Sing, Rughbur Sing’s agents, had, with a
body of sixteen hundred troops, attacked the town of Khurgapoor in
Gonda, plundered it, and attacked and plundered five villages in
the vicinity, and seized Sudasook and thirty other merchants and
shopkeepers of Khurgapoor, Chungul Sing, the farmer of that place,
Kaleechurn, a writer, and Benee, the agent of the Gonda Rajah, and
no less than one hundred landholders and cultivators. Order by the
Durbar: Let the minister seize all the offenders, and release and
satisfy all the sufferers. Nothing whatever was done in the
matter.

October 5, 1847.—Report from Gonda states, that
Rughbur Sing’s troops had seized and brought off from Gonda to
Nawabgunge, two hundred men and women, and shut up the road where
they were confined, that no one might pass near them—that three or
four of the women were pregnant, and near their confinement, and
suffered much from harsh treatment and want of food. Order by the
Durbar: Let the minister grant redress, and send a suzawal to see
that the sufferers are released. A suzawal was sent, it appears,
but he remained a quiet spectator of the atrocities, having
received something for doing so.

September 1, 1847.—Report from Hissampoor states,
that Byjonauth Sing, agent of Rughbur Sing, in Hissampoor, had
seized all the plough-bullocks and cows he could find, sent the
best to his own home, and made the rest over to Wazeer Allee,
Canongoe, to be sold. Order by the Durbar, that Rughbur Sing be
directed to restore all that has been taken, and collect the
revenue with more moderation. Nothing whatever was done.

September 11, 1847.—Report from Bahraetch states,
that the estate of Aleenugger in Hissampoor, which yielded eighteen
thousand rupees a-year, had become so deserted from the oppressions
of Rughbur Sing, that it could no longer yield anything. Order by
the Durbar, that Rughbar Sing be directed to restore the tillage,
or hold himself responsible for the King’s revenue!

July 28, 1847.—Report from Gonda states, that
Goureeshunker, the collector of Gungwal and Pyagpoor, had, by order
of Beharee Lal, attacked the village of Ruhooa, and seized and
carried off sixty-four cultivators, and confined them in his camp.
No order whatever was passed by the Durbar.

September 7, 1847.—From Nawabgunge in Gonda
reports, that Beharee Lal’s soldiers were then engaged in sacking
that town, and carrying off the property. Order by the Durbar. Let
the minister see that the property be restored and wrongs
redressed. Nothing whatever was done.

September 18, 1847.—Report from Bahraetch states,
that Cheyn Sing, the tallookdar of Bahmanee Paer, had fled into the
British territory, but returned to his fort; that Beharee Lal heard
of his return and sent two thousand men to seize him; that the
tallookdar had only sixty men, but held out for three hours, killed
ten of the King’s soldiers, and then evacuated the fort and fled;
that Beharee Lal’s soldiers had collected two thousand bullocks
from the estate, and brought them all off to his camp. Order by the
Durbar, that the minister give stringent orders in this case.
Nothing whatever was done.

October 2, 1847.—Report from Seerora states, that
Mahommed Hussan (the present Nazim), one of Rughbur Sing’s
collectors, with one thousand horse and foot and one gun, had come
to the hamlet of Sondun Lal, and the village of Seerora, attacked
and plundered these places, and seized and taken off one hundred
men and women, and two hundred bullocks, killed two hundred
Rajpoots in a fight, and then gone back to his camp at
Bahoreegunge. Order by the Durbar, that the minister seize and send
the oppressors to Lucknow, and restore the property to its proper
owners. The minister did nothing of the kind; and soon after made
this oppressor the governor of these districts.

September 20, 1847.—Report from Radowlee states,
that armed men belonging to Kurum Hoseyn, escorting one thousand
selected bullocks, sent by Rughbar Sing, had come to Radowlee, on
their way to his fort of Shahgunge. Order by the Durbar: Let the
minister see to this affair. Nothing was done.

On the 28th September 1847 an order was addressed by the Durbar
to Rughbur Sing, that his agent, Kurum Hoseyn, appeared to have
attacked the house of Seodeen, though he had paid all that was due
by him to the State, according to his engagements, and plundered it
of property to the value of eighteen thousand rupees, and seized
and confined all his relations—that he must cause all the
property to be restored, and obtain acquittances from the
sufferers. Rughbur Sing took no notice whatever of this order.

On the 2nd of October 1847, the Resident, Colonel Richmond,
wrote to the King, acquainting him, that he had heard, that Rughbur
Sing had seized and sold all the ploughs and bullocks in the
Bahraetch district, and, seized and sold also five hundred men,
women, and children of the landholders and cultivators; that he
regrets all this and prays that his Majesty will cause inquiries to
be made; and, should the charges prove true, cause the articles
taken, or their value, to be restored, and the men, women, and
children to be released. On the 25th of October 1847, the Resident
again addressed the King, stating, that he had heard, that, on the
2nd of October, Jafir Allee and Maharaj Sing, agents of Rughbur
Sing, with eleven hundred soldiers, had attacked and plundered the
town of Khurgapoor and five villages in its neighbourhood, and
seized and taken off Ramdeen Sudasook, and thirty merchants,
shopkeepers and other respectable persons, also Junglee, the farmer
of that town, Kaleechurn Mutsudee, Dabey Pershad, the Rajah’s
manager, and one hundred landholders and cultivators; and praying
that orders be given for inquiry and redress. Nothing whatever was
done; but on the 30th of October, the King replied to these
letters, and to one written to him by the Resident on the 31st of
August 1847, transmitting a list of unanswered letters. His Majesty
stated, that he had sent orders to Rughbur Sing and to his brother
Maun Sing, in all the cases referred to by the Resident; but that
they were contumacious servants, as he had before described them to
the Resident to be; and had taken no notice whatever of his
orders!

August 20, 1846.—Report from Bahraetch states, that
Goureeshunkur, the agent of Rughbur Sing, in Bahraetch, had taken
four persons from among the many whom he had in confinement on
account of balances, had them suspended to trees, and cruelly
flogged, and then had their hands wrapped up in thick cloth,
steeped in oil, and set fire to till they burned like torches; and
that he sat listening to their screams and cries for mercy with
indifference. Order by the King: Let the minister, Ameen-od Dowlah,
be furnished with a copy of this report, and let him send out three
troopers, as suzawuls, to bring in Goureeshunkur and the four men
whose hands had been burnt, and let him employ Mekhlis Hoseyn, to
inquire into the affair, and report the result. Nothing was
done.

On the 29th of August, the Resident, Mr. Davidson, addressed a
letter to the King stating, that he had before represented the
cruelties which Rughbur Sing was inflicting upon the people of his
district, but had heard of no redress having been afforded in any
case; that he had received another report on the same subject, and
now forwards it to show what atrocities his agent, Goureeshunkur,
was committing in Bahraetch; that in no other country could the
servants of the sovereign commit such cruel outrages upon his
subjects; that he had been wrapping up the bodies of the King’s
subjects in oilcloths, and setting, fire to them as to torches;
that he could not do all this without the knowledge and sanction of
his master, Rughbur Sing; and the Resident prays, that he may be
punished, and that his punishment may be intimated to him, the
Resident. Nothing was ever done, nor was any answer given to this
letter, till it was, on the 30th of August 1847, acknowledged with
the many others contained in the list sent to the King, in his
letter of the 31st August 1847, by the then Resident, Colonel
Richmond.

No report appears to have reached either the Durbar or the
Resident, of the atrocious proceedings of Rughbur Sing’s agents at
Busuntpoor, where so many persons perished from torture,
starvation, and exposure; nor was any notice taken of them till I
took charge of my office in January 1849. Incha Sing had offered
for the contract of the two districts four lacs less than Rughbur
Sing had pledged himself to pay, and obtained it, and quietly
superseded his nephew, with whom he was on cordial good terms.
Rughbur Sing went into the British territory, to evade all demands
for balances, and reside for
an interval, with the full assurance that he would be able to
purchase a restoration to favour and power in Oude, unless the
Resident should think it worth while to oppose him, which my
predecessor did not.* I had his agents arrested, and charges sent
in against them, with all the proofs accumulated, by Captain Orr;
but they all soon purchased their way out, and no one was punished.
At my suggestion the King proclaimed Rughbur Sing as an outlaw, and
offered three thousand rupees for his arrest, if he did not appear
within three months. He never appeared, but continued to carry on
his negociations for restoration to power at Lucknow, through the
very agents whom he had employed in the scenes above described,
Beharee Lal, Goureeshunker, Kurum Hoseyn, Maharaj Sing, &c.

[* Incha Sing absconded before the end of the season, and has
never returned to Oude. Mahommed Hussan got the contract on a
reduction of two hundred and thirty-one thousand rupees, below the
rates which Incha Sing bound himself to pay. But in 1850, he
consented to an increase of three hundred and ninety-nine thousand,
with, I believe, the deliberate intention to raise the funds for
the payment by the murder of Ramdut Pandee, and the confiscation of
his estate.]

Amjud Allee Shah, who was something of a man of business, died
13th February 1847, and was succeeded by his eldest son, the
present King, who knows nothing of, and cares nothing whatever
about, business. His minister, Ameen-od Dowlah, who had some
character of his own, was removed some three or four months after,
and succeeded by the present minister, Allee Nakee Khan, who has
none.

The following table of the actual payments into the treasury,
from these two districts of Gonda-Bahraetch, for four years from
1845, will serve to show the fiscal effects of such atrocities as
were permitted to be perpetrated in them for a brief period of two
years:—

But what table can show the sufferings of the people, and the
feelings of hatred and abhorrence of the Government and its
officers, to which they gave rise! Not one of the agents, employed
in the atrocities above described, was ever punished. The people
see that all the members of the Government are accessaries, either
before or after the fact, in all these dreadful cruelties and
outrages, and, that the more of them a public officer commits, the
more secure is he of protection and favour at Court. Their hatred
and abhorrence of the individual, in consequence, extend to and
embrace the whole of the Government, and would extend also to the
British Government, by whom that of Oude is supported, did they not
see how earnestly the British Resident strives to alleviate their
sufferings, and make the Oude sovereign and minister do their duty
towards them; and how much all British officers sympathise with
their sufferings as they pass through the country.*

[* Beharee Lal is now (June 1851) employed in a confidential
situation, in the office of the deputy minister. Goureeshunker is a
Tusseeldar, or native collector, in the same district of Bahraetch,
under the new contractor, Mann Sing. Moonshee Kurum Hoseyn holds a
similar office in some other district. Maharaj Sing, and the rest,
all hold, I believe, situations of equal emolument and
respectability.]

Almost all the khalsa lands of the Hissampoor purgunnah belonged
to the different branches of a very ancient and respectable family
of Syuds. Their lands have, as already stated, been almost all
transferred to powerful tallookdars, and absorbed by them in their
estates, by the usual process. It is said, and I believe truly,
that Hadee Allee Khan tried to induce the head of the Syud family
to take his daughter in marriage for his eldest son, as he was also
a Syud, (lineal descendant of the prophet.) The old Syud was too
proud to consent to this; and he and all his relations and
connection were ruined in consequence. The son, to whom Hadee Allee
wished to unite his daughter, still lives on his lands, but in
poverty and fear. The people say that family pride is more
inveterate among the aristocracy of the country than that of the
city; and had the old man lived at Lucknow, he would probably have
given his son, and saved his family and estate.

Captain Hardwick, while out shooting on the 10th, saw a dead man
hanging by the heels in a mango-tree, close to the road. He was one
of a gang of notorious robbers who had attacked a neighbouring
village belonging to some Brahmins. They killed two, and caught a
third member of the gang, and hung him up by the heels to die. He
was the brother-in-law of the leader of the gang, Nunda Pandee.
There he still hangs, and the greater part of my camp took a look
at him in passing.

December 12, 1849.—Gungwal, thirteen miles. The
road lay through the estate of Pyagpoor to within a mile of
Gungwal. Little cultivation was to be seen the whole way, and what
we could see was bad. Little variety of crops, and the tillage
slovenly, and without manure or irrigation. The tallookdar was
ruined by Rughbur Sing, and is not on terms with the present Nazim,
and he did not appear. The estate of Gungwal is not better
cultivated than that of Pyagpoor; nor better peopled—both may
be considered as mere wastes, and their assessments as merely
nominal. The tallookdar did not appear. Both were ruined by the
rapacious Nazim and his atrocious agents, Goureeshunker, Beharee
Lal, Kurum Hoseyn, and others.

The Rajah of Toolseepoor, Dirgraj Sing, has an only son,
Sahibjee, now 17 years of age. The Rajah’s old servants, thinking
they could make more out of the boy than out of the prudent father,
first incited him to go off, with all the property he could
collect, to Goruckpoor, where he spent it in ten months of revelry.
The father invited him back two mouths ago, on condition that he
should come alone. When he got within six miles of Toolseepoor,
however, the father found, that three thousand armed followers had
there been assembled by his agents, to aid him in seizing upon him
and the estate. Fearing that his estate might be desolated, and he
himself confined, and perhaps put to death, the Rajah ran off to
his friend, the Rajah of Bulrampore, for protection.

December 13, 1849.—Purenda, eleven miles. The first
half of the way, through the lands of Gungwal, showed few signs of
tillage or population; the latter half through, those of Purenda
and other villages of Gonda, held by Ramdut Pandee, showed more of
both. Some nice villages on each side, at a small distance, and
some fine groves of mango-trees. On the road this morning, Omrow
Pooree, a non-commissioned officer of the Gwalior Contingent, whose
family resided in a neighbouring village, came up to me as I passed
along, and prayed me to have the murderer of his father seized and
punished. He described the circumstances of the case, and on
reaching camp, I requested Captain Weston to take the depositions
of the witnesses, and adopt measures for the arrest of the
offenders. Syampooree was the name of the father of the
complainant. He resided in a small hamlet, near the road, called
after himself, as the founder, “Syampooree ka Poorwa,” or
Syampooree’s Hamlet. He had four sons, all fine, stout men. The
eldest, Omrow Pooree, a corporal in the Gwalior Contingent, Bhurut
Pooree, a private in Captain Barlow’s regiment, Ramchurun and
Ramadeen, the two youngest, still at home, assisting their father
in the management of their little estate, which the family had held
for many generations. One day in the beginning of December 1848, a
short, thick-set man passed through the hamlet, accosted Syampooree
and his two sons, as they sat at the door, and asked for some
tobacco, and entered into conversation with them. He pretended that
his cart had been seized by the Nazim’s soldiers; and, after
chatting with them for a short time, departed.

The second morning after this, before daylight, Ramadeen, the
youngest son, was warming himself at a fire on a small terrace in
front of the door, when he saw a party of armed men approaching. He
called out, and asked who they were and what they wanted. They told
him that they were Government servants, had traced a thief to the
village, and come to seize him. Four of the party, who carried
torches, now approached the fire and lighted them. Syampooree and
his other son, Ramchurun, hearing the noise, came out, and placed
themselves by the side of Ramadeen. By the light of the torches
they now recognised the short, thick-set man with whom they had
been talking two days before, at the head of a gang of fifteen men,
carrying fire-arms with matches lighted, and five more armed with
swords and shields. The short, thick-set man was Nunda Pandee, the
most notorious robber in the district. He ordered his gang to
search the house: on the father and sons remonstrating, he drew his
sword and cut down Ramchurun. The father and Ramadeen having left
their swords in the house, rushed back to secure them; but Nunda
Pandee, calling out to one of his followers, Bhowaneedeen, to
despatch the son, overtook the father, and at one cut severed his
right arm from his body. He inflicted several other cuts upon him
before the old man could secure his sword with his left arm. Having
got it, he placed the scabbard under his foot, drew forth the
blade, and cut Nunda Pandee across his sword-arm which placed him
hors-de-combat; and rushing out among the assailants, he cut
down two more, when he was shot dead by a third and noted robber,
Goberae. Bhowaneedeen and others of the gang had cut down Ramadeen,
and inflicted several wounds upon him as he lay on the ground. The
gang then plundered the house, and made off with property to the
value of one thousand and fifty rupees, leaving the father and both
sons on the ground. The brave old father died soon after daybreak;
but before he expired he named his assailants.

The two youngest sons were too severely wounded to admit of
their pursuing the murderers of their father, but their brother,
Bhurut Pooree, obtaining leave of absence, returned home, and
traced the leader of the gang, Nunda Pandee, to the house of one of
his relatives in the village of Kurroura, in Pyagpoor, where he had
had his wound sewn up and dressed, and lay concealed. The family
then tried, in vain, to get redress from all the local authorities,
none of whom considered it to be their duty to look after murderers
and robbers of this kind. Captain Weston succeeded in arresting
this atrocious gang-leader, Nunda Pandee, who described to him
minutely many of the numerous enterprises of this kind in which he
had been engaged, and seemed to glory in his profession. He
mentioned that the man whom he had seen suspended in the tree was
his brother-in-law; that he had had two other members of his gang
killed by the villagers on that occasion, but had succeeded in
carrying off their bodies; that Goberae, Bhowaneedeen, and the rest
of his followers were still at large and prosecuting their trade.
Nunda Pandee was by the Resident made over for trial and punishment
to the Durbar; and Goberae and Bhowaneedeen have since been
arrested and made over also. They both acknowledged that they
murdered the Gosaen in the manner above described, May 1851. The
Mahommedan law-officer before whom the case was tried declared,
that he could not, according to law, admit as valid the evidence of
the wife and two sons of the murdered Gosaen, because they were
relatives and prosecutors; and, as the robbers denied before him
that they were the murderers, he could not, or pretended he could
not, legally sentence them to punishment The King was, in
consequence, obliged to take them from his Court, and get them
sentenced to perpetual imprisonment by another Court, not
trammelled by the same law of evidence. This difficulty arises from
blood having its price in money in the country where
the law was made, or the Deeut; any person who had a right
to share in this Deeut, or price of blood, was therefore
held to be an invalid or incompetent witness to the fact.

On the road from Bahraetch to Gungwal we saw very few groves or
fine single trees on either side. The water is close to the
surface, and the soil good, but for the most part flooded during
the rains, and fit only for rice-cultivation. To fit it for the
culture of other autumn crops would require a great outlay in
drainage; and this no one will incur without better security for
the returns than the present government can afford. Ramdut Pandee
is the greatest agricultural capitalist in these parts.

On the 8th of December it had become known all over the city of
Lucknow, that the King had promised Captain Bird that he would
banish Gholam Ruza and his sister, and Kotub Allee, across the
Ganges; and it was entered in the news-writer’s report, though
Captain Bird had spoken of it to no one. He was asked by the
minister whether he would excuse the King for not keeping his word
so far, and said he could not. He demanded an audience of the King,
who tried to avoid a meeting by pleading indisposition; but the
first Assistant, being very urgent, he was admitted. He found the
King in a small inner room lying on a cot covered with a ruzae or
quilt.

There were closed doors on the side of the room where the cot
stood, and Captain Bird perceived that persons were behind
listening to the conversation. On the minister advancing to meet
him at the door. Captain Bird declined taking his proffered hand,
and in a loud voice declared—”that he believed that he was mixed
up with the fiddlers, and was afraid of their being removed, or he
would have carried his Majesty’s order for their dismissal into
effect.” He then advanced to the King, shook him by the hand,
apologized for intruding upon him after his excuse of illness, and
stated—”that his own character was at stake, and he had been
obliged to take this step to save it, and requested that the
minister might be told to retire during the conversation, as he had
already shown his partiality for the characters whom his Majesty
had stigmatized as low, intriguing, and untrustworthy—as ruiners of
his good name and his kingdom, and the cause of ill-feeling between
the British Government and himself. The King expressed a wish that
the minister might remain, that he might have an opportunity to
listen to what Captain Bird had to state, as it appeared to be
against him. Captain Bird replied, that he had no complaint to make
against the minister; that his object in coming was, to claim the
fulfilment of the promise which his Majesty had so solemnly made to
him, to dismiss Gholam Ruza and his sister, and Kotub Allee, and
send them across the Ganges; that he was induced to demand this
audience by the minister’s visit of the preceding evening, to ask
him to excuse his Majesty’s fulfilling the promise which he had
made; and by the written report given to him that morning by the
news-writer, stating, that his Majesty had changed his mind, and
pardoned the parties.”

The King declared that he had never given Captain Bird any such
promise. Captain Bird then repeated to his Majesty the conversation
which had taken place on that occasion. The King seemed to be
staggered; but the minister came to his aid, and said—”that
his Majesty had ascertained from Sadik Allee himself, that Gholam
Ruza was not an accomplice in that affair.” Captain Bird
replied—”that the King had told him, that the deception had
been so fully proved, that they were speechless; and that his
Majesty had spit in their faces.” The King said “not in Gholam
Ruza’s. His sister and Kotub Allee are alone guilty.” Captain Bird
urged, that all were alike guilty, and he besought the King to
fulfil his promise, saying,—”that his, Captain Bird’s, name
was at stake; that if the parties were not removed, the whole city
would say, that the King had bribed him, and
bought off his promise.” The King replied, “This is all nonsense;
do you wish me to swear that Gholam Ruza is innocent, and that I
never gave the promise you mention?” and, calling the minister, he
placed his right hand on his head, and said,—”I swear, as if
this was my son’s head, and by God, that I believe Gholam Ruza to
be entirely innocent; and that I never promised to turn him out, or
to send him across the Ganges.” Captain Bird then heard a movement
of feet in the next room behind the closed doors. He was horrified;
but returning to the charge, said, “Your Majesty has, at any rate,
acknowledged the guilt of Gholam Ruza’s sister, and that of Khotub
Allee; pray fulfil your promise on the guilty.” The King
said—”When absent from my sight, they are as far off as
across one hundred rivers. I know they are intriguers, and shall
keep my eyes upon them.” Captain Bird said—”I have reported
the circumstances of the case thus far to the Resident. Your
Majesty has made me a participator in the breaking of your word. I
have told Colonel Sleeman you would turn these men out.” The King
said—”This case has reference only to my house—it has no
connection with the Government; but if you wish to use force, take
me also by the beard, and pull me from my throne!” Captain Bird
said—”I pray your Majesty to recollect how often, when force
might have been used, under your own sign-manual and seal, on these
fiddlers interfering in State affairs, the Resident has hesitated
to put your written permission for their removal into force; and
now who can be your friend, or save you from any danger, which may
hereafter threaten your life or your well-being? I must, of course,
report all to the Resident.” The minister now said—”Yes,
report to the Resident that the King has changed his mind, broken
his word, and will not fulfil his promise; and ask for permission
to employ direct force for the removal of these men: see if he will
give permission.” Captain Bird replied, “that any orders he
received from the Resident would certainly be carried, into effect;
but if his Majesty’s own acknowledgment of the deceitfulness of
these men, and their intriguing rascality were not sufficient to
induce him to remove them—if the King set so little value on
his promise—a promise now known to the whole city, and which
he must in self-defence now speak openly of, he foresaw the speedy
downfall of the kingdom. Who, he asked, will subject themselves to
be deceived in an endeavour to prop it up by the removal of those
who were living on its heart’s blood, or be made liars by reporting
promises never to be fulfilled?” Thus ended this interview.

The next day Sadik Allee had a dress of honour conferred upon
him, and an increase of one hundred rupees a-month made to his
salary; and Gholam Ruza, and his relative the fiddler, Anees-od
Dowla, were seated behind his Majesty in his carriage-and-four, and
paraded through the city, as in full possession of his favour.
After the King had alighted from the carriage at the palace, the
coachman drove the two singers to their apartments in the Mukbura,
seated as before in the khuwas, or hind seat. [On the 25th of May
1850, the King caused the chief singer, Gholam Ruza, his father,
Nathoo, his sister, and her husband, Dummun Khan, Gholam Hyder
Khan, Kotub Allee, his brother, Sahib Allee, and the females of his
family, in all fourteen persons, to be seized and confined in
prison. On the 2nd of June, all but Gholam Ruza and Dummun Khan
were transported across the Ganges into British territory; and, on
the 23rd of July, these two men were transported in the same
manner. The immediate cause of the King’s anger was the discovery
that his divorced and banished wife, Surafrazmahal, had actually
come back, and remained concealed for seven days and seven nights
in the palace, in the apartments of the chief singer, Gholam Ruza.
They were all made to disgorge the Company’s notes and jewels found
upon them, but the King visited Gholam Ruza the day before his
departure, and treated him with great kindness, and seemed very
sorry to part with him.]

On the 10th, I had written to Captain Bird to mention the
distinction which he appeared to have overlooked in his zeal to get
the fiddlers removed. The offence with which these persons stood
charged in this case was a personal affront to the King, or an
affront to his understanding, and not any interference with the
administration of the Government; and the first Assistant was
requested by the Resident to wait upon his Majesty, merely with a
view to encourage him in his laudable resolution to banish them,
and to offer his aid in doing so should his Majesty manifest any
wish to have it; and not to demand their punishment on the part of
the British Government. In the one case, if the King promised to
punish the offenders and relented and forgave them, we could only
regret his weakness; but in the other, if he promised to punish
them and failed to do so, we should consider it due to the
character of our Government to insist upon the fulfilment of his
promise. On the evening of the 11th I got the above report of his
interview with the King from Captain Bird; and, on the 12th, I
wrote to tell him, that I considered him to have acted very
indiscreetly; that he had brought this vexation and mortification
upon himself by his overweening confidence in his personal
influence over the King; that he ought to have waited for
instructions from me, or at least for a reply from me to his
letter, regarding the former interview at Court; that I could not
now give him the support he required, as I could neither demand
that his requisitions should be complied with, nor tell the King
that I approved of them that he had been authorized by me to act on
his own discretion in any case of great emergency, but this could
not be considered of such a character, for no evil or inconvenience
was to be apprehended from a day or two’s delay, since the question
really was, whether his Majesty should have a dozen fiddlers or
only ten.

In the beginning of September 1850, the King became enamoured of
one of his mother’s waiting-maids, and demanded her in marriage.
See was his mother’s favourite bedfellow, and she would not part
with her. The King became angry, and to soothe him his mother told
him that it was purely out of regard for him and his children that
she refused to part with this young woman; that she had a
“sampun,” or the coiled figure of a snake in the hair on the
back of her neck. No man, will purchase a horse with such a mark,
or believe that any family can be safe in which a horse or mare
with such a mark is kept. His mother told him, that if he cohabited
with a woman having such a mark, he and all his children must
perish. The King said that he might probably have, among his many
wives, some with marks of this kind; and that this might account
for his frequent attacks of palpitation of the heart. “No doubt,”
said the old Queen Dowager; “we have long thought so; but your
Majesty gets into such a towering passion when we venture to speak
of your wives, that we have been afraid to give expression to our
thoughts and fears.” “Perhaps,” said the King, “I may owe to this
the death, lately, of my poor son, the heir-apparent.” “We have
long thought so,” replied his mother. The chief eunuch, Busheer,
was forthwith ordered to inspect the back of the necks of all save
that of the chief consort, the mother of the late and present
heir-apparent. He reported that he had found the fatal mark
upon the necks of no less than eight of the King’s wives,
Nishat-mahal, Koorshed-mahal, Sooleeman-mahal, Huzrut-mahal, Dara
Begum, Buree Begum, Chotee Begum, and Huzrut Begum. The chief
priest was summoned, and the divorce, from the whole eight,
pronounced forthwith; and the ladies were ordered to depart with
all that they had saved while in the palace. Some of their friends
suggested to his Majesty, that Mahommedans were but unskilful
judges in such matters, and that a Court of Brahmins should be
assembled, as they had whole volumes devoted exclusively to this
science. The most learned were accordingly collected, and they
declared that though there were marks resembling in some degree the
sampun, it was of no importance; and the evil it threatened
might be averted by singeing the head of the snake with a hot iron.
The ladies were very indignant, and six of them insisted upon
leaving the palace, in virtue of the divorce. Two only consented to
remain, the Buree Begum and Chota Begum.

December 14, 1849.—Came on twelve miles to Gonda.
The country well studded with groves and fine single trees; the
soil naturally fertile, and water near the surface. Cultivation
good about Gonda, and about some of the villages along the road it
is not bad; but there is nowhere any sugar-cane to be seen beyond a
small garden patch. The country is so wretchedly stocked with
cattle that little manure is available for tillage.

The Bulrampore Rajah, a lively, sensible, and active young man,
joined me this morning, and rode along by the side of my elephant,
with the capitalist, Ramdut Pandee, the Nazim, Mahommed Hussan, and
old Bukhtawar Sing, the brother of the late Dursun Sing, whom I
have often mentioned in this Diary. Rajah Bukhtawar Sing is the
King’s Mohtamin, or Quartermaster-General of the Resident’s’ camp.
The Rajah of Toolseepore also, who has been ousted by his son from
his estate, joined me last night; but he was not well enough to
ride with me. Dogs, hawks, and panthers attend for sport, but they
afford little or no amusement. Hawking is a very dull and very
cruel sport. A person must become insensible to the sufferings of
the most beautiful and most inoffensive of the brute creation
before he can feel any enjoyment in it. The cruelty lies chiefly in
the mode of feeding the hawks. I have ordered all these hunting
animals to return to Lucknow.

Although the personal character of the Toolseepoor Rajah is not
respected, that of his son is much worse; and the Bulrampoor Rajah
and other large landholders in the neighbourhood would unite and
restore him to the possession of his estate, but the Nazim is held
responsible for their not moving in the matter, in order that the
influential persons about the Court may have the plucking of it at
their leisure. The better to insure this, two companies of one of
the King’s regiments have been lately sent out with two guns, to
see that the son is not molested in the possession. The father was
restored to his estate in 1850, and the son fled again to the
Goruckpoor district. He became reconciled to his father some months
after, through the mediation of the magistrate, Mr. Chester, and
returned to Toolseepoor. The father and son, however, distrusted
each other too much to live long together on amicable terms, and
the son has gone off again to Goruckpoor.

The Toolseepoor estate extends along from east to west for about
one hundred miles, in a belt of from nine to twelve miles wide,
upon the southern border of that part of the Oude Tarae forest
which we took from Nepaul in 1815, and made over to the Oude
Government by the treaty of the 11th May 1816, in lieu of the one
crore of rupees which our Government borrowed from Oude for the
conduct of that war. The rent-roll of Toolseepoor is now from two
to three lacs of rupees a-year; but it pays to the Oude Government
a revenue of only one lac and five thousand, over and above
gratuities to influential officers. The estate comprises that of
Bankee, which was held by a Rajah Kunsa. Dan Bahader, the father of
the present Rajah of Toolseepoor, attacked him one night in 1832,
put him and some two hundred and fifty of his followers and family
to death, and absorbed the estate. Mahngoo, the brother of Kunsa,
escaped and sought redress from the Oude Durbar; but he had no
money and could get no redress; and, in despair, he went off to
seek employment in Nepaul, and died soon after. Dan Bahader,
enriched by the pillage of Bankee, came to Lucknow, and purchased
permission to incorporate Bankee with his old estate of
Toolseepoor.

Khyreeghur and Kunchunpoor, on the western border of that
forest, were made over by us to Oude at the same time, as part of
the cession. They had been ceded to our Government by the treaty of
1801, at an estimated value of two hundred and ten thousand, but,
up to 1816, they had never yielded to us fifty thousand rupees
a-year. They had, however, formerly yielded from two to three lacs
of rupees a-year to the Oude Government, and under good management
may do so again; but, at present, Oude draws from them a revenue of
only sixteen thousand, and that with difficulty. The rent-roll,
however, exceeds two hundred thousand, and may, in a few years,
amount to double that sum, as population and tillage are rapidly
extending.

The holders of Khyreegur and Kunchunpoor are always in a state
of resistance against the Oude Government, and cannot be coerced
into the payment of more than their sixteen thousand rupees a-year;
and hundreds of lives have been sacrificed in the collection of
this sum. The climate is so bad that no people from the open
country can venture into it for more than four months in the
year—from the beginning of December to the end of March. The
Oude Government occasionally sends in a body of troops to enforce
the payment of an increased demand during these four months. The
landholders and cultivators retire before them, and they are sure
to be driven out by the pestilence, with great loss of life, in a
few months; and the landholders refuse to pay anything for some
years after, on the ground that all their harvests were destroyed
by the troops. The rest of the Tarae lands ceded had little of
tillage or population at that time, and no government could be less
calculated than that of Oude to make the most of its capabilities.
It had, therefore, in a fiscal point of view, but a poor equivalent
for its crore of rupees; but it gained a great political advantage
in confining the Nepaulese to the hills on its border. Before this
arrangement took place there used to be frequent disputes, and
occasionally serious collisions between the local authorities about
boundaries, which were apt to excite the angry feelings of the
sovereigns of both States, and to render the interposition of the
paramount power indispensable.

It was at Bhinga, on the left bank of the Rabtee River, in the
Gonda district, and eight miles north-east from Bulrampoor, that
Mr. George Ravenscroft, of the Bengal Civil Service, was murdered
on the night of the 6th May, 1823. He had been the collector of the
land revenue of the Cawnpore district for many years; but, having
taken from the treasury a very large sum of money, and spent it in
lavish hospitality and unsuccessful speculations, he absconded with
his wife and child, and found an asylum with the Rajah of Bhinga,
on the border of the Oude Tarae, where he intended to establish
himself as an indigo planter. Strict search was being made for him
throughout India by the British Government, and his residence at
Bhinga was concealed from the Oude Government by the local
authorities. The Rajah made over to him a portion of land for
tillage, and a suitable place in a mango grove, about a mile from
his fort, to build a house upon. He built one after the
Hindoostanee fashion, with bamboos and grass from the adjoining
jungle. It consisted of a sitting-room, bed-room, and bathing-room,
all in a line, and forming one side of a quadrangle, and facing
inside, with only one small door on the outside, opening into the
bathing-room. The other three sides of the quadrangle consisted of
stables, servants’ houses, and out-offices, all facing inside, and
without any entrances on the outside, save on the front side,
facing the dwelling-house, where there was a large entrance.

The Rajah, Seo Sing, was a worthy old man. He had four sons,
Surubjeet Sing, the eldest, Omrow Sing, Kaleepurkas Sing, and
Jypurkas Sing. The eldest was then married, and about the age of
twenty-five; the other three were still boys. The old man left the
management of the estate to the eldest son, a morose person, who
led a secluded life, and was never seen out of the female
apartments, save twice a-year, on the festival of the hooley and
the anniversary of his marriage. Mr. Ravenscroft had never seen or
held any communion with him, save through his father, brothers, or
servants; but he was in the habit of daily seeing and conversing
with the father and his other sons on the most friendly terms. The
eldest son became alarmed when he saw Mr. Ravenscroft begin to
plant indigo, and prepare to construct vats for the manufacture;
and apprehended that he would go on encroaching till he took the
whole estate from him, unless he was made away with. He therefore
hired a gang of Bhuduk dacoits from the neighbouring forest of the
Oude Tarae to put him to death, after he had been four months at
Bhinga. During this time Mrs. Ravenscroft had gone on one occasion
to Cawnpoor, and on another to Secrora, on business.

Bhinga lies fifty miles north-east from Secrora, where the 20th
Regiment of Native Infantry, under the command of Colonel Patton,
was then cantoned. On the 6th of May 1823, Ensign Platt, of that
corps, had come out to see him. In the evening, the old Rajah and
his second and third sons came to visit Mr. Ravenscroft as usual,
and they sat conversing with the family on the most friendly terms
till nine o’clock, when they took leave, and Mrs. Ravenscroft, with
her child and two female attendants, retired to the sleeping-room
in the house. Ensign Platt went to his small sleeping-tent outside
the quadrangle, under a mango-tree. This tent was just large enough
to admit his small cot, and a few block-tin travelling-boxes, which
he piled away inside, to the right and left of his bed. Mr.
Ravenscroft slept on a cot in the open air, in the quadrangle, a
few paces from the door leading to Mrs. Ravenscroft’s
sleeping-apartment. He that night left his arms in the
sitting-room, and Ensign Platt had none with him. Mr. Ravenscroft
was the handsomest and most athletic European gentleman then in
India, and one of the most expert in the use of the sword and
shield.

His servants had been accustomed to stand sentry, by turns, at
the entrance of the quadrangle, and it was his groom Munsa’s turn
to take the first watch that night. He was to have been relieved by
the chowkeedar, Bhowaneedeen; but, in the middle of his watch, he
roused the chowkeedar, and told him that he had been taken suddenly
ill, and must go to his house for relief. The chowkeedar told him
that he might go at once, and he would get up and take his place
immediately; but he lay down and soon fell asleep again.

About eleven o’clock the whole quadrangle was filled by a gang
of about sixty dacoits, who set their torches in a blaze, and began
to attack Mr. Ravenscroft with their spears. He sprang up, and
called loudly for his sword and shield, but there was no one to
bring them. He received several spears through his body as he made
for the door of Mrs. Ravenscroft’s apartment, calling out to her in
English to fly and save herself and child, and defending himself as
well as he could with his naked arms. Mosahib, a servant who slept
by his cot, got to Mrs. Ravenscroft’s room and assisted her to
escape, with her child and two female attendants, through the
bathing-room to the outside. A party had been placed to stab Ensign
Platt with their long spears through the sides of his small tent;
but they passed through and through the block-tin boxes, and roused
without hurting him. He rushed out and attempted to defend himself
by seizing the spears of his assailants; but he received several of
them through his arms. He made for the entrance to the quadrangle,
and there, by the blaze of the torches, saw Mr. Ravenscroft still
endeavouring to defend himself, but covered with blood, which was
streaming from his wounds and mouth.

On seeing Ensign Platt at the entrance, he staggered towards
him, but the dacoits made a rush at Ensign Platt with their spears
at the same time. He saved himself by springing over a thick and
thorny hedge on one side of the quadrangle, and ran round behind to
the small door leading into the bathing-room, which he reached in
time to assist Mrs. Ravenscroft to escape, as the dacoits were
forcing their way through the screen into her bed-room from the
sitting-room. As soon as he saw her under the shade of the trees,
beyond the blaze of the torches, he left her and her child, and the
two female attendants, to the care of Mosahib, and went round to
the entrance in search of her husband. He had got to a tree,
outside the entrance, into which Deena, Ensign Platt’s servant, had
climbed to save himself as soon as he saw his master attacked, and
was leaning against it; but, on seeing Ensign Platt, he again
staggered towards him, saying faintly bus, bus—enough,
enough. These were the last words he was heard to utter, and must
have referred to the escape of his wife and child, of which he had
become conscious. By this time the gang had made off with the
little booty they found. On attacking Mr. Ravenscroft at first,
some of them were heard to say, “You have run from Cawnpoor to come
and seize upon the estate of Bhinga, but we will settle you.” Mrs.
Ravenscroft, her infant, and female attendants, remained concealed
under the shade of the trees, and her husband was now taken to her
with eighteen spear wounds through his body. The Rajah and his two
young sons soon after made their appearance, and in the evening the
survivors were all taken by the old man to a spacious building,
close outside the fort, where they received every possible
attention; but the eldest son never made his appearance. Out of the
twenty-nine men who composed the party when the attack commenced,
seven had been killed and eighteen wounded. Mr. Ravenscroft died
during the night of the 7th, after great suffering. He retained his
consciousness till near the last; but the blood continued to flow
from his mouth, and he could articulate nothing. On the morning of
the 8th, he was buried in the grove, and Ensign Platt read the
funeral service over his grave. Mrs. Ravenscroft and her child were
taken to Colonel Patton, at Secrora, and soon after sent by him to
Lucknow.

On the 10th, he reported the circumstances of this murder to the
Resident, Mr. Ricketts; and sent him the narratives of Mosahib and
Deena; and his report, with translations of these narratives, was
submitted by the Resident to Government on the 12th of that month.
But in these narratives no mention whatever was made of a British
officer having been present at the murder and the burial of Mr.
Ravenscroft. This suppression arose, no doubt, from the
apprehension that Government might be displeased to find that the
military authorities at Secrora had become aware of Mr.
Ravenscroft’s residence at Bhinga without reporting the
circumstance to Government; and still more so to find, that he had
been there visited by a British officer, when search was being made
for him throughout India.

In acknowledging the receipt of the Resident’s letter on the
23rd of May, the Secretary, Mr. George Swinton, observes, that the
Governor-General in Council concludes, that he shall receive a more
full and satisfactory report on the subject from Colonel Patton
than that to which his letter had given cover, since he considered
that report to be very imperfect; that one of the narrators,
Mosahib, states, that he himself conducted Mrs. Ravenscroft and her
child to a neighbouring village, and yet he brought no message
whatever from that lady to Colonel Patton at Secrora; that none of
the wounded people or servants of the deceased, except Deena,
appear to have found their way to Sacrora, though four days had
elapsed from the date of the murder to that of the despatch of the
report; that the body seemed to have been hastily interred by the
people of the village, without any notice having been sent to the
officer commanding the troops at Secrora; that such an atrocious
outrage as that described in these narratives, on the person of a
subject and servant of the British Government, demanded the
exertion of every effort to ascertain the real facts of the case by
local inquiry; yet it did not appear that any person had been
despatched to the spot to verify the evidence of the two men
examined by Colonel Patton, or to clear up the doubts to which all
these circumstances must naturally have given rise; nor did it
appear that the defects in Colonel Patton’s report had occurred to
the Resident, or that he had directed any further inquiry to be
made.

The Resident was, therefore, directed to instruct Colonel
Patton, to depute one or more officers to the place where the
murder was said to be perpetrated, with orders to hold an inquiry
on the spot in communication with the King of Oude’s officers, to
take the evidence of the wounded men, and that of any other persons
who might have been witnesses to any part of the transaction, and
to the burial of Mr. Ravenscroft; and to examine the grave in which
the body of the deceased was said to have been deposited; and
further, to call upon Colonel Patton to state whether any
information had previously reached Secrora of Mr. Ravenscroft’s
actually residing at Bhinga, or at any other place within the
dominions of the King of Oude. “His Lordship in Council was,” Mr.
Swinton says, “satisfied, from the known humanity of Colonel
Patton’s character, that every possible aid and comfort had been
extended to Mrs. Ravenscroft and her child; and the information
which that lady and her attendants must have it in their power to
give, could not fail to place the whole affair in its proper
light.” Extracts from this letter were sent by the Resident to
Colonel Patton, on the 2nd of June, with a request that he would
adopt immediate measures to carry the orders of Government into
effect; and reply to the question whether any information of Mr.
Ravenscroft’s residing at Bhinga had previously reached him.

A committee of British officers was assembled at Bhinga on the
11th June, and their proceedings were transmitted to the Resident
on the 18th of that month; but the committee, for some reasons
stated in the report, did not examine “the grave in which the body
of the deceased was said to have been deposited.” Though in this
committee Ensign Platt stated that he was present when the murder
was perpetrated; that he attended the deceased till he died the
next night, and performed the funeral ceremonies over the body on
the morning of the 8th; still he seemed to narrate the
circumstances of the event with some reserve, while there was a
good deal of discrepancy in the evidence of the other
eye-witnesses, as recorded in the report, seemingly from the dread
of compromising Ensign Platt.

The Resident did not, therefore, think that Government would be
satisfied with the result of this inquiry; and, on the 20th of June
he directed Colonel Patton to reassemble the committee at Bhinga,
and require it to hold an inquest on the body, and take the
depositions of all the witnesses on oath. On the same day the
Resident reported to Government what he had done. The second
committee proceeded to Bhinga, and, on the 13th of July, Colonel
Patton transmitted its report to the Resident, who submitted it to
Government on the 17th of that month. The committee had taken the
evidence of the witnesses on oath, and held an inquest on the body;
but, in doing so, it had been necessary to dig through the tomb
which Mrs. Ravenscroft had, in the interval, caused to be erected
over the remains of her husband; and, at the suggestion of Colonel
Patton, this tomb was rebuilt and improved at the cost of
Government, who were perfectly satisfied with the result.

But in its reply, dated the 31st July, Government very justly
remarks, that all the unnecessary trouble which had attended this
investigation, as well as the very painful step of having the body
disinterred, which the Resident found himself compelled to adopt in
obedience to its orders, arose from a want of those obvious
precautions in the first instance which ought to have suggested
themselves to Colonel Patton. Had he made the requisite inquiries
at Secrora, he must have learnt that an English officer belonging
to his own regiment, who had been present at the interment, had
been wounded when Mr. Ravenscroft was murdered, and, for a time,
rendered unfit for duty. The facts since deposed to on oath by
Ensign Platt might have been elicited, and his testimony, if
necessary, might have been confirmed by the evidence of the widow
of the deceased; and had such conclusive evidence been submitted to
Government in the first instance, the doubts excited by the
extraordinary circumstances of the whole affair would never have
existed. When ordered on the inquiry to Bhinga, had Ensign Platt at
once declared at Secrora that he could there afford all the
information required as to the fact of the murder and interment of
the body, the necessity of further inquiry on the spot would have
been obviated. He had apparently been deterred from doing this by
the apprehension of compromising both himself and his commanding
officer. Colonel Patton had no knowledge of Mr. Ravenscroft being
at Bhinga, though he had heard a rumour of his being somewhere in
the Oude territory; and, in his application for a few days’ leave,
Ensign Platt made no mention of him or of his intention to visit
him. This is stated in a subsequent letter from Colonel Patton to
the Resident, dated 27th of August 1823.

The opinion that the Rajah had nothing whatever to do with the
murder, and that the gang was secretly hired for the purpose by his
eldest son, Surubjeet, has been confirmed by time, and is now
universal among the people of these parts. He died soon after of
dropsy, and the people believe that the disease was caused by the
crime. He left an only son, Krishun Dutt Sing. The Rajah, Seo Sing,
survived his eldest son some years; and, on his death, he was
succeeded by Krishun Dutt Sing, who now leads precisely the same
secluded life that his father led, and leaves the management of the
Bhinga estate entirely to his only surviving uncle, Kaleepurkas
Sing, the youngest of the two boys who visited Mr. Ravenscroft on
the evening of the murder. The other three sons of the old Rajah
are dead. The actual perpetrators of the murder were never punished
or discovered. Mrs. Ravenscroft afterwards became united in
marriage to the Resident at the time, Mr. Mordaunt Ricketts, and
still lives. Her child, a boy, was drowned at the Lucknow Residency
some time after his mother’s marriage with the Resident. He had
been shut up by his mother in a bathing-room for some fault; and,
looking into a bathing-tub at his image in the water, he lost his
balance, fell in, and was drowned. When the servants went to let
him out they found him quite dead.

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.

December 15, 1849.-Wuzeergunge. On the way this morning,
we passed Koorassa, which is said once to have been the capital of
a formidable Rajah, the head of the Kulhuns tribe of Rajpoots. The
villages which we see along the road seem better, and better
peopled and provided with cattle. The soil not naturally very
fertile, but yields fine returns under good culture, manure, and
irrigation. Water everywhere very near the surface. The place is
called after the then Nawab Wuzeer, Asuf-od Dowlah, who
built a country-seat here with all appurtenances of mosque, courts,
dwelling-houses, &c., on the verge of a fine lake, formed in
the old bed of the Ghagra river, with tillage and verdure extending
down to the water’s edge. The garden-wall, which surrounds a large
space of ground, well provided with fruit and ornamental trees, is
built of burnt bricks, and still entire. The late minister,
Ameen-od Dowlah, persuaded his master, Amjad Allee Shah, to give
this garden and the lands around, with which it had been endowed,
to his moonshee, Baker Allee Khan, who now resides at Fyzabad, and
subsists upon the rents which he derives from them, and which are
said to be about twelve hundred rupees a-year.

The Bulrampoor Rajah, Ramdut Pandee, the banker, and Rajah
Bukhtawar Sing, rode with me this morning. The Rajah of Bulrampoor
is an intelligent and pleasing young man. He was a child when Mr.
Ravenscroft was killed, but said he had heard, that the Bhinga
chief had suffered for the share which he had had in the murder;
his body swelled, and he died within a month or two. “If men’s
bodies swelled for murder, my friend,” I said, “we should have no
end of swelled bodies in Oude, and among the rest, that of Prethee
Put’s, of Paska.” “Their bodies all swell, sooner, or later,” said
old Bukhtawar Sing, “when they commit such atrocious crimes, and
Prethee Puts will begin to swell when he finds that you are
inquiring into his.” “I am afraid, my friends, that the propensity
to commit them has become inveterate. One man hears that another
has obtained lands or wealth by the murder of his father or
brother, and does not rest till he has attempted to get the same by
the murder of his, for he sees no man punished for such crimes.”
“It is not all nor many of our clan” (Rajpoots), said the Rajah of
Bulrampoor, “that can or will do this: we never unite our sons or
daughters in marriage with the family of one who is so stained with
crimes. Prethee Put and all who do as he has done, must seek an
union with families of inferior caste.” I asked him whether the
people, in the Tarae forest, were still afraid to point out tigers
to sportsmen. “I was lately out with a party after a tiger,” he
said, “which had killed a cowherd, but his companions refused to
point out any trace of him, saying, that their relatives’ spirit
must be now riding upon his head, to guide him from all danger, and
we should have no chance of shooting him. We did shoot him,
however,” said the Rajah, exultingly, “and they were all,
afterwards, very glad of it. The tigers in the Tarae do not often
kill men, sir, for they find plenty of deer and cattle to
eat.”—”Can you tell me, Rajah Sahib,” said I, “why it is that
among the Arabs, the lion is called ‘the father of cultivation,’
‘abol hurs, or abo haris.'” “No,” replied the Rajah;
“it is an odd name for a beast that feeds on nothing but the flesh
of deer, cattle, and men.” “It is, I suppose, Rajah Sahib,” I
remarked, “because he feeds upon the deer, which are the greatest
enemies of their young crops.”

The Rajahs of Toolseepoor and Bulrampoor, and all the merchants
and respectable landholders in these parts assure me, that all the
large colonies of Bhuduks, or gang robbers by hereditary
profession, who had, for so many generations, up to A.D. 1840, been
located in the Oude Terae forest, have entirely disappeared under
the operation of the “Special Police,” of the Thuggee and Dacoitee
Department, aided and supported by the Oude Government; and that
not one family of them can now be found anywhere in Oude. They have
not been driven out as formerly, to return as soon as the temporary
pressure ceased, but hunted down and punished, or made to blend
with the rest of society in service or at honest labour.

December 16, 1849.—Nawabgunge, eight miles, over a
plain of the same good soil, but not much better cultivated. The
people tell me, that garden tillage is now almost unknown in these
districts; first, because kachies or gardeners (here called moraes)
having been robbed, ruined, and driven into exile by Rughbur Sing,
cannot be induced to return to and reside in places, where they
would have so little chance of reaping the fruits of their labour;
and, secondly, because there are no people left who can afford to
purchase their garden produce. They tell me also, that the best
classes of ordinary cultivators, the Koormies and Lodhees, have
been almost all driven out of the district from the same cause. The
facts are manifest—there are no gardeners, and but few
Koormies and Lodhees left; and there is, in consequence, little
good tillage of any kind, and still less of garden cultivation.

The Rajah of Bulrampoor and Ramdut Pandee, the banker, rode with
me, and related the popular tradition regarding the head of the
Kulhuns family of Rajpoots, Achul Sing, who, about a century and a
quarter ago, reigned over the district intervening between Gonda
and Wuzeer Gunge, and resided at his capital of Koorassa. The Rajah
had a dispute with one of his landholders, whom he could not get
into his power. He requested Rutun Pandee, the banker, to mediate a
reconciliation, and invite the landholder to an amicable adjustment
of accounts, on a pledge of personal security. The banker
consented, but made the Rajah swear by the River Sarjoo,
which flowed near the town, that he should be received with
courtesy, and escorted back safely. The landholder relied on the
banker’s pledge and came; but the Rajah no sooner got him into his
power, than he caused him to be put to death. The banker could not
consent to live under the dishonour of a violated pledge; and,
abstaining from food, died in twenty-one days, invoking the
vengeance of the River Sarjoo, on the head of the perfidious
Prince. In his last hours the banker was visited by one of the
Rajah’s wives, who was then pregnant, and implored him to desist
from his purpose in mercy to the child in her womb; but she was
told by the dying man, that he could not consent to survive the
dishonour brought upon him by her perjured husband; and that she
had better quit the place and save herself and child, since the
incensed river Sarjoo would certainly not spare any one who
remained with the Rajah. She did so. The banker died, and his death
was followed by a sudden rise of the river and tempest. The town was
submerged, and the Rajah with all who remained with him perished.
The ruins of the old town are said to be occasionally still
visible, though at a great depth under the water in the old bed of
the Sarjoo, which forms a fine lake, near the present village of
Koorassa, midway between Gonda and Wuzeer Gunge.

The pregnant wife fled, and gave birth to a son, whose
descendant is now the head of the Kulhuns Rajpoots, and the Rajah
of Bahmanee Paer, a district on the eastern border of Oude towards
Goruckpoor. But, it is a remarkable fact, that the male descendants
have been all blind from their birth, or, at least, the reigning
portion of them, and the present Rajah is said to have two blind
sons. This is popularly considered to be one of the effects of the
Rajah’s violated pledge to the banker. A handmaid of the Rajah,
Achul Sing, is said to have fled at the same time, and given birth
to a son, from whom are descended the Kulhuns tallookdars of the
Chehdwara, or Gowaris district, already noticed. The descendants of
Rutun Pandee are said still to hold rent-free lands, under Achul
Sing’s descendant, in Bahmanee Paer; and the Pandee is worshipped
throughout the districts as a saint or martyr. He has a shrine in
every village, at which offerings are made on all occasions of
marriage, and blessings invoked for the bride and bridegroom, from
the spirit of one who set so much value on his plighted faith while
on earth. The two branches of the Kulhuns family above mentioned,
propitiate the spirit of the deceased Pandee by offerings; but
there is a branch of the same family at Mohlee, in the Goruckpoor
district, who do not. Though Hindoos, they adopt some Mussulman
customs, and make offerings to the old Mussulman saint, at
Bahraetch, in order to counteract the influence of the Pandee’s
spirit.

Such popular traditions, arising from singular coincidences of
circumstances, have often a salutary effect on society, and seem to
be created by its wants and wishes; but rivers have, of late years,
become so much less prompt in the vindication of their honour, that
little reliance is placed, upon the oaths taken in their names by
the Prince, his officers or his landowners in Oude.

Nawabgunge, Munkapoor, and Bahmanee transferred to the British
Government, with the other lands, under the treaty of 1801; and
retransferred to Oude, by the treaty of the 11th of May 1816, in
exchange for Handeea, alias Kewae, a slip of land extending along
the left bank of the Ganges, between Allahabad and Benares.

The landholders and cultivators complain sadly of the change of
sovereigns; and the tillage and population have greatly diminished
under the Oude Government since 1816, but more especially, since
the monster, Rughbur Sing got the government. Here Ramdut Pandee,
the Rajah of Bulrampoor, and the Nazim of the district, have taken
leave of me, this being my last stage in their district. Ramdut
Pandee holds two estates in this district, for which he pays an
annual revenue to Government of 1,66,744 13 3.* He holds, at the
same time, a small estate in our district of Goruckpoor, where he
resides and keeps his family, till he obtains solemn written
pledges, confirmed on oath, for their security, not only from the
local authority of the day, but from all the commandants of corps
and establishments, comprising the military force employed under
him. These pledges include all his clients, who may have occasion
to visit or travel with him, as the Rajah of Bulrampoor is now
doing. These pledges require to be renewed on every change in the
local authorities and in the military officers employed under them.
He is one of the most substantial and respectable of the
agricultural capitalists of Oude, and the highest of his rank and
class in this district. He every year stands security for the
punctual payment of the revenues due, according to existing
engagements, by the principal landholders of the district, to the
extent of from six to eight lacs of rupees; and for this he gets a
certain per centage, varying with the character and capability of
the landholders. Some are of doubtful ability, others of doubtful
character, and he rates his risks and per centage accordingly. He
does much good, and is more generally esteemed than any other man
in the district; but he has, no doubt, enlarged his own landed
possessions occasionally, by taking advantage of the necessities of
his clients, and his influence over the local authorities of
government The lands he does get, however, he improves by
protecting and aiding his tenants, and inviting and fostering a
better class of cultivators, He is looked up to with respect and
confidence by almost all the large landholders of the district, for
his pledge for the punctual payment of the revenues saves their
estates from the terrible effects of a visit from the Nazim and his
disorderly and licentious troops; and this pledge they can always
obtain, when necessary, by a fair assurance of adherence to their
engagements.

On the 8th of November 1850, Ramdut Pandee lent the Nazim eighty
thousand rupees on his bond, after paying all that was due to the
State for the season, by him and all his clients, and on the 16th
of that month he went to Gonda, where the Nazim, Mahommed Hussan,
was encamped with his force, to take leave preparatory to his going
to bathe at Ajoodheea, on the last day of the month of Kartick, as
was his invariable custom. He was accompanied by the Rajah of
Bulrampoor, and they encamped separately in two mango-groves near
to each other, and about a mile and a half from the Nazim’s camp.
About nine at night the Nazim sent two messengers, with silver
sticks, to invite and escort them to his tent. They set out
immediately, leaving all their armed followers in their camps, and
taking only a few personal attendants and palankeen bearers. No
person is permitted to take arms into the Nazim’s tent; nor does
any landholder or merchant of Oude enter his tent without the
pledges for personal security above mentioned. Ramdut Pandee and
the Rajah entered with only a few personal servants, leaving all
their other attendants outside the outer curtain. This curtain
surrounded the tent at a distance of only a few yards from it, and
the tent was pitched in the centre. They were received with all due
ceremony, and in the same friendly manner as usual. The Rajah had
no business to talk about, while the Nazim and banker had; and,
after a short conversation, he took leave to return to his tents
and break his fast, which he had kept that day for some religious
purpose. He left in the tent the Nazim, his deputy, Jafir Allee,
and his nephew and son-in-law, Allee Hoseyn, sitting together on
the carpet, on the right, all armed, and Ramdut sitting unarmed, on
the left, with a Brahmin lad, Jowahir, standing at the door, with
the banker’s paundan and a handkerchief. Kurunjoo, a second person,
with the banker’s shoes, and a third attendant of his standing
outside the tent door.

The Nazim and Ramdut talked for some time together, seemingly on
the most friendly and cordial terms; but the Nazim, at last, asked
him for a further loan of money, and further securities for
landholders of doubtful character, before he went to bathe. The
banker told him, that he could lend him no more money till he came
back from bathing, as he had lent him eighty thousand rupees only
eight days before; and, that he could not increase his pledges of
security without further consultation with the landholders, as he
had not yet recovered more than four out of the seven lacs of
rupees which he had been obliged to advance to the Treasury, on the
securities given for them during the last year. He then took leave
and rose to depart. The Nazim turned and made some sign to his
deputy, Jafir Allee, who rose, presented his gun and shot Ramdut
through the right side close under the arm-pit. Exclaiming “Ram!
Ram!”—God! God!—the banker fell; and the Nazim, seizing
and drawing the sword which lay on the carpet before him, cut the
falling banker across the forehead. His nephew and deputy drew
theirs; and together they inflicted no less than twenty-two cuts
upon the body of Ramdut.

The banker’s three attendants, seeing their master thus shot
down and hacked to pieces, called out for help; but one of the
three ruffians cut Jowahir, the Brahmin lad, across the shoulder,
with his sword, and all ran off and sought shelter across the
border in the British territory. The Nazim and his attendants then
buried the body hastily near the tent, and ordered the troops and
artillery to advance towards and fire into the two camps. They did
so, and the Bulrampoor Rajah had only just reached his tents when
the shot came pouring in upon them from the Nazim’s guns. He
galloped off as fast as he could towards the British border, about
twenty miles distant, attended only by a few mounted followers,
some of whom he sent off to Bulrampoor, to bring his family as fast
as possible across the border to him. The rest he ordered to follow
him. His followers and those of the murdered banker fled before the
Nazim’s forces, which had been concentrated for this atrocious
purpose, and both their camps were plundered. Before the Rajah
fled, however, the murdered banker’s son-in-law, who had been left
in the camp, ran to him with a small casket, containing Ramdut’s
seals, the bond for the eighty thousand rupees, and the written
pledges given by the Nazim and commanding officers of corps, for
the banker’s and the Rajah’s personal security. He mounted him upon
one of his horses, and took both him and the casket off to the
British territory.

It was now about midnight, and the Nazim took his forces to the
towns and villages upon the banker’s estate, in which his family
and relatives resided, and in which he kept the greater part of his
moveable property. He sacked and plundered them all without regard
to the connection or relationship of the inhabitants with the
murdered banker. The property taken from the inhabitants of these
towns and villages is estimated at from ten to twelve lacs of
rupees. As many as could escape fled for shelter across the border,
into the British territory. The banker’s brother, Kishen Dutt, who
resided in the British territory, came over, collected all he could
of his brother’s followers, attacked the Amil’s forces, killed and
wounded some forty or fifty of his men, and captured two of his
guns. The body of the banker was discovered two days after, and
disinterred by his family and friends, who counted the twenty-two
wounds that had been inflicted upon it by the three assassins, and
had it burned with due ceremonies.

The Nazim’s agent at Court, on the 18th of November, submitted
to the minister his master’s report of this affair, in which it was
stated, that the banker was a defaulter on account of his own
estate, and those of the other landholders for whom he had given
security—that he, the Nazim, had earnestly urged him to some
adjustment of his accounts, but all in vain—that the banker
had disregarded all his demands and remonstrances, and had with him
five hundred armed followers, one of whom had fired his pistol at
him, the Nazim, and killed one of his men—that they had all
then joined in an attack upon the Nazim and his men, and that, in
defending themselves, they had killed the banker. On the 19th,
another report, dated the 16th, reached the minister from the
Nazim’s camp, stating, that the banker had come to his tent at ten
at night, with his armed followers, and had an interview [with]
him—that as the banker rose to depart, the Nazim told him
that he must not go without some settlement of his accounts; and a
dispute followed, in which the banker was killed, and two of the
Nazim’s followers were severely wounded-that so great was the
confusion that the Durbar news-reporters could not approach to get
information.

On the 20th, a third report reached the minister, stating, that
the Rajah of Bulrampoor had come with the banker to visit the
Nazim, but had taken leave and departed before the collision took
place—that the Nazim urged the necessity of an immediate
settlement of accounts, but the banker refused to make any, grossly
abused the Nazim, and, at last, presented his pistol and fired at
him; and thereby wounded two of his people—that he was, in
consequence, killed by the Nazim’s people, who joined the banker’s
own people in the plunder of his camp.

On receiving this last report, the minister, by order of his
Majesty, presented to the agent of the Nazim a dress of honour of
fourteen pieces, such as is given to the highest officers for the
most important services; and ordered him to send it to his master,
to mark the sense his sovereign entertained of his gallant conduct
and valuable services, in crushing so great a rebel and
oppressor, and to assure him of a long-continued tenure of
office.

By the interposition of the British Resident and the aid of the
magistrate of Goruckpoor, Mr. Chester, the real truth was elicited,
the Nazim was dismissed from office, and committed for trial,
before the highest judicial Court at Lucknow. He at first ran off
to Goruckpoor, taking with him, besides his own, two elephants
belonging to the Rajah of Gonda, with property on them to the value
of fifty thousand rupees, which he overtook in his flight. The
Rajah had sent off these elephants with his valuables, on hearing
of the assassination of the banker, thinking that the Nazim would
secure impunity for this murder, as Hakeem Mehndee had for that of
Amur Sing, and be tempted to extend his operations. Finding the
district of Goruckpoor unsafe, the Nazim came back and surrendered
himself at Lucknow. Jafir Allee was afterwards seized in Lucknow.
There is, however, no chance of either being punished, since many
influential persons about the Court have shared in the booty, and
become accessaries interested in their escape. Moreover, the Nazim
is a Mahommedan, a Syud, and a Sheeah. No Sheeah could be sentenced
to death, for the murder, even of a Soonnee, at Lucknow, much less
for that of a Hindoo. If a Hindoo murders a Hindoo, and consents to
become a Mussulman, he cannot be so sentenced; and if he consents
to become so after sentence has been passed, it cannot be carried
into execution. Such is the law, and such the every-day
practice.

The elephants were recovered and restored through the
interposition of the Resident, but none of the property of the
Rajah or the banker has been recovered. May 18, 1851.—The family of
the banker has obtained a renewal of the lease of their, two
estates, on agreeing to pay an increase of forty thousand rupees
a-year.

They bold the Nazim’s bond for the eighty thousand rupees,
borrowed only eight days before his murder.

December 17, 1849.—Five miles to the left bank of
the Ghagra, whence crossed over to Fyzabad, on platformed boats,
prepared for the purpose by the Oude authorities. Our tents are in
one of the large mango-groves, which are numerous on the right bank
of the river, but scanty on the opposite bank. From the time we
crossed this river at Byram-ghaut on the 5th, till we recrossed it
this morning, we were moving in the jurisdiction of the Nazim of
the Gonda and Bahraetch district. After recrossing the Ghagra we
came within that of the Nazim of Sultanpoor, Aga Allee, who was
appointed to it this year, not as a contractor, but manager, under
the Durbar. The districts under contractors are called
ijara, or farmed districts; those under the management of
non-contracting servants of Government are called amanee, or
districts under the amanut, or trust of Government officers.
The morning was fine, the sky clear, and the ground covered with
hoar frost. It was, pleasing to see so large a camp, passing
without noise, inconvenience, or disorder of any kind in so large a
river.

The platformed boats were numerous, and so were the pier-heads
prepared on both sides, for the convenience of embarking and
landing. Carriages, horses, palankeens, camels and troops, all
passed without the slightest difficulty. The elephants were
preparing to cross, some in boats and some by swimming, as might
seem to them best. Some refuse to swim, and others to enter boats,
and some refuse to do either; but the fault is generally with their
drivers. On the present occasion, two or three remained behind, one
plunged into the stream from his boat, in the middle of the river,
with his driver on his back, and both disappeared for a time, but
neither was hurt. Those that remained on the left bank, got tired
of their solitude, and were at last coaxed over, either in boats
or in the water.

The Sarjoo rejoins the Ghagra a little above Fyzabad, and the
united stream takes the old name of the Sarjoo. This is the name
the river bears, till it emerges from the Tarae forest, when the
large body takes that of the Ghagra, and the small stream, which it
throws off, or which perhaps flows in the old bed, retains that of
the Sarjoo. The large branch absorbs the Kooreeala, Chouka, and
other small streams, on its way to rejoin the smaller. Some
distance below Fyzabad, the river takes the name of Dewa;
and uniting, afterwards, with the Gunduck, flows into the Ganges.
Fyzabad is three miles above Ajoodheea, on the same bank of the
river. It was founded by the first rulers of the reigning family,
and called for some time Bungalow, from a bungalow which
they built on the verge of the stream. Asuf-od Dowlah disliked
living near his mother, after he came to the throne, and he settled
at Lucknow, then a small village on the right bank of the Goomtee
river. This village, in the course of eighty years, grown into a
city, containing nearly a million of souls. Fyzabad has declined
almost in the same proportion.

The Nazim has six regiments, and part of a seventh, on duty
under him, making, nominally, six thousand fighting men, but that
he cannot, he tells me, muster two thousand; and out of the two
thousand, not five hundred would, he says be ready to fight on
emergency. All the commandants of corps reside at Court, knowing
nothing whatever of their duties, and never seeing their regiments.
They are mere children, or Court favourites, worse than children.
He has, nominally, forty-two guns, of various calibre; but he, with
great difficulty, collected bullocks enough to draw the three small
guns he brought with him from Sultanpoor, to salute the Resident,
on his entering his district. I looked at them in the evening. They
were seventy-four in number, but none of them were in a serviceable
condition, and the greater part were small, merely skin and bone.
He was obliged to purchase powder in the bazaar for the salutes;
and said, that when he entered his charge two months ago, the usual
salute of seven guns, for himself, could not be fired for want of
powder, and he was obliged to send to the bazaar to purchase what
was required. The bazaar-powder used by the Oude troops is about
one-third of the strength of the powder used by our troops. His
authority is despised by all the tallookdars of the district, many
of whom refuse to pay any rent, defy the Government, and plunder
the country, as all their rents are insufficient to pay the armed
bands which they keep up. All his numerous applications to Court,
for more and better troops and establishments, are disregarded, and
he is helpless. He cannot collect the revenue, or coerce the
refractory landholders and robbers, who prey upon the country.*

[* The Nazim for 1850-51, got both Captain Magness’s and
Captain Banbury’s regiments.]

He says that the two companies and two guns, which were sent out
at the Resident’s urgent recommendation, to take possession of
Shahgunge, and prevent the two brothers, Maun Sing and Rughbur
Sing, from disturbing the peace of the country, in their contests
with each other, joined Maun Sing, as partisan; to oppose his
brother; and that Maun Sing has taken for himself all the
bynamah lands, from which his brother, Rughbur Sing, has
been ousted, under the favour of the minister. He tells me also,
that Beebee Sogura, the lady who holds the estate of Muneearpoor,
and pays fifty thousand rupees a-year to the Government, was seized
by Wajid Allee, his predecessor, before he made over charge of the
district to him, and made over to a body of troops, on condition,
that she should enter into engagement to pay to them the ten
months’ arrears of pay due to them, out of the rents of the ensuing
year; and that they should give him receipts for the full amount of
these arrears of pay at once, to be forwarded to the Durbar, that
he might get credit for the amount in his accounts for last
year—that she has paid them fifteen thousand rupees, but can
collect no more from her tenants, as the crops are all being cut or
destroyed by the troops, and she is in close confinement, and
treated with cruel indignity. The rent-roll of her estate is, it is
said, equal to one hundred thousand rupees a year.

This was a common practice among governors of districts at the
close of last year; and thus they got credit, on account, for large
sums, pretended to have been paid out of the revenues of last year;
but, in reality, to be paid out of the revenues of the ensuing
year. But the collections are left to be made by the troops, for
whose arrears of pay the revenue has been assigned, and they
generally destroy or extort double what they are entitled to from
their unhappy debtors. This practice of assigning revenues due, or
to be due, by landholders, for the arrears of pay due to the
troops, is the source of much evil; and is had recourse to only
when contractors and other collectors of revenue are unable to
enforce payment in any other way; or require to make it appear that
they have collected more than they really have; and to saddle the
revenue of the ensuing year with the burthens properly incident
upon those of the past. The commandant of the troops commonly takes
possession of the lands, upon the rents, or revenues, of which the
payments have been assigned, and appropriates the whole produce to
himself and his soldiers, without regard to the rights of
landholders, farmers, cultivators, capitalists, or any other class
of persons, who may have invested their capital and labour in the
lands, or depend upon the crops for their subsistence. The troops,
too, are rendered unfit for service by such arrangements, since all
their time is taken up in the more congenial duty of looking after
the estate, till they have desolated it. The officers and soldiers
are converted into manorial under-stewards of the worst possible
description. They are available for no other duty till they have
paid themselves all that may have been due or may become due to
them during the time of their stay, and credit to Government but a
small portion of what they exact from the landholders and
cultivators, or consume or destroy as food, fodder, and fuel.

This system, injurious alike to the sovereign, the troops, and
the people, is becoming every season more and more common in Oude;
and must, in a few years, embrace nearly the whole of the
land-revenue of the country. It is denominated kubz, or
contract, and is of two kinds, the “lakulame kubz,” or
pledge to collect and pay a certain sum, for which the estate is
held to be liable; and “wuslee kubz,” or pledge to pay to
the collector or troops the precise sum which the commandant may be
able to collect from the estate put under him. In the first, the
commandant who takes the kubz must pay to the Government
collector or the troops the full sum for which the estate is held
to be liable, whether he be able to collect it or not, and his
kubz is valid at the Treasury, as so much money paid to the
troops. In the second, it is valid only as a pledge, to collect as
much as he can, and to pay what he collects to the Government
collector, or the troops he commands. The collector, however,
commonly understands that he has shifted off the burthen of payment
to the troops—to the extent of the sum named—from his
own shoulders to those of the commandant of the troops; and the
troops understand, that unless they collect this sum they will
never get it, or be obliged to screw it out of their commandant;
and they go to the work con amore. If they can’t collect it
from the sale of all the crops of the season, they seize and sell
all the stock and property of all kinds to be found on the estate;
and if this will not suffice, they will not scruple to seize and
sell the women and children. The collector, whose tenure of office
seldom extends beyond the season, cares little as to the mode as
long as he gets the money, and feels quite sure that the sovereign
and his Court will care just as little, and ask no questions,
should the troops sell every living thing to be found on the
estate.

The history, for the last few years, of the estate of
Muneearpoor, involves that of the estate of Kupragow and Seheepoor,
held by the family of the late Hurpaul Sing, and may be interesting
as illustrative of the state of society in Oude. Hurpaul Sing’s
family is shown in the accompanying note.*

[* Purotee Sing had two sons, Gunga Persaud and Nihal Sing.
Gunga Persaud had one son, Seosewak, who had three sons, Seoumber
Sing, Hobdar Sing, and Hurpaul Sing. Seoumber Sing had one son,
Ramsurroop Sing, the present head of the family, who holds the fort
and estate of Kupradehee. Hobdar Sing had one son, who died young.
Hurpaul Sing died young, Nihal Sing had no son, but left a widow,
who holds his share of one-half of the estate, and resides at
Seheepoor.]

In the year A.D. 1821, after the death of Purotee Sing, his
second son, Nihal Sing, held one-half of the estate, and resided in
Seheepoor, and the family of his eldest son, Gunga Persaud, held
the other half, and resided in Kupragow. The whole paid a revenue
to Government of between six and seven hundred rupees a-year, and
yielded a rent-roll of something more than double that sum. The
neighbouring estate of Muneearpoor, yielding a rent-roll of about
three hundred and fifty thousand rupees a-year, was held by Roshun
Zuman Khan, in whose family it had been for many generations. He
had an only brother, Busawan Khan, who died, leaving a widow,
Bussoo, and a daughter, the Beebee, or Lady, Sogura. Roshun Zuman
Khan also died, leaving a widow Rahamanee, who succeeded to the
estate, but soon died, and left it to the Lady Sogura and her
mother. They made Nihal Sing, Gurgbunsee, of Seheepoor, manager of
their affairs. From the time that he entered upon the management,
Nihil Sing began to increase the number of his followers from his
own clan, the Gurgbunsies; and, having now become powerful enough,
he turned out his mistress, and took possession of her estate, in
collusion with the local authorities.

Rajah Dursun Sing, who then, 1836, held the contract for the
district, wished to take advantage of the occasion, to seize upon
the estate for himself, and a quarrel, in consequence, took place
between him and Nihal Sing. Unable, as a public servant of the
State, to lead his own troops against him, Dursun Sing instigated
Baboo Bureear Sing, of Bhetee, a powerful tallookdar, to attack
Nihal Sing at night, with all the armed followers he could muster,
and, in the fight, Nihal Sing was killed. Hurpaul Sing, his nephew,
applied for aid to the Durbar, and Seodeen Sing was sent, with a
considerable force, to aid him against Bureear Sing. When they were
ready for the attack, Dursun Sing sent a reinforcement of troops,
secretly, to Bureear Sing, which so frightened Seodeen Sing, that
he retired from the conflict.

The Gurgbunsee family had, however, by this time added a great
part of the Muneearpoor estate to their own, and many other estates
belonging to their weaker neighbours; and, by the plunder of
villages, and robbery on the highways, become very powerful. Dursun
Sing was superseded in the contract, in 1837, by the widow of Hadee
Allee Khan; and Hurpaul recovered possession of the Muneearpoor
estate, which he still held in the name of the Lady Sogura.
In 1843, she managed to get the estate transferred from the
jurisdiction of the contractor for Sultanpoor, to that of the
Hozoor Tehseel, and held it till 1845, when Maun Sing, who had
succeeded to the contract for the district, on the death of his
father, Dursun Sing, in 1844, managed through his uncle, Bukhtawar
Sing, to get the estate restored to his jurisdiction. Knowing that
his object was to absorb her estate, as he and his father had done
so many others, she went off to Lucknow to seek protection; but
Maun Sing seized upon all her nankar and seer lands, and put the
estate under the management of his own officers. The Lady Sogura,
unable to get any one to plead her cause at Court, in opposition to
the powerful influence, of Bukhtawur Sing, returned to Muneearpoor.
Maun Sing, after he had collected the greater part of the revenue
for 1846, made over the estate to Hurpaul and Seoumber Sing, who
put the lady into confinement, and plundered her of all she had
left.

Feeling now secure in the possession of the Muneearpoor estate,
Hurpaul and Seoumber Sing left a small guard to secure the lady,
and went off, with the rest of their forces, to seize upon the
estate of Birsingpoor, in the purgunnah of Dehra, belonging to the
widow of Mahdoo Sing, the tallookdar. She summoned to her aid
Roostum Sa and other Rajkomar landholders, friends of her late
husband. A fight ensued, in which Seoumber Sing and his brother,
Hobdar Sing were killed. Hurpaul Sing fled and returned to his fort
of Kupragow. The Lady Sogura escaped, and presented herself again
to the Court of Lucknow, under better auspices; and orders were
sent to Maun Sing, and all the military authorities, to restore her
to the possession of her estate, and seize or destroy Hurpaul Sing.
In alarm Hurpaul Sing then released the mother of the Lady Sogura,
and prepared to fly.

Maun Sing sent confidential persons to him to say, that he had
been ordered by the Court of Lucknow to confer upon him a dress of
honour or condolence, on the death of his two lamented brothers,
and should do so in person the next day. Hurpaul Sing was
considered one of the bravest men in Oude, but he was then sick on
his bed, and unable to move. He received the message without
suspicion, being anxious for some small interval of repose; and
willing to believe that common interests and pursuits had united
him and Maun Sing in something like bonds of friendship.

Maun Sing came in the afternoon, and rested under a banyan-tree,
which stood opposite the gateway of the fort. He apologized for not
entering the fort, on the ground, that it might lead to some
collision between their followers, or that his friend might not
wish any of the King’s servants, who attended with the dress of
honour, to enter his fortress. Hurpaul Sing left all his followers
inside the gate, and was brought out to Maun Sing in a litter,
unable to sit up without support. The two friends embraced and
conversed together with seeming cordiality till long after sunset,
when Maun Sing, after investing his friend with the dress of
honour, took leave and mounted his horse. This was the concerted
signal for his followers to despatch his sick friend, Hurpaul. As
he cantered off, at the sound of his kettle-drum and the other
instruments of music, used by the Nazims of districts, his armed
followers, who had by degrees gathered round the tree, without
awakening any suspicion, seized the sick man, dragged him on the
ground, a distance of about thirty paces, and then put him to
death. He was first shot through the chest, and then stabbed with
spears, cut to pieces with swords, and left on the ground. They
were fired upon from the fort, while engaged in this foul murder,
but all escaped unhurt. Maun Sing had sworn by the holy Ganges, and
still more holy head of Mahadeo, that his friend should suffer no
personal hurt in this interview; and the credulous and no less
cruel and rapacious Gurgbunsies were lulled into security. The
three persons who murdered Hurpaul, were Nujeeb Khan, who has left
Mann Sing’s service, Benee Sing, who still serves him, and Jeskurun
Sing, who has since died. Sadik Hoseyn and many others aided them
in dragging their victim to the place where he was murdered, but
the wounds which killed him were inflicted by the above-named
persons.

The family fled, the fort was seized and plundered of all that
could be found, and the estate seized and put under the management
of Government officers. Maun Sing had collected half the revenues
of 1847, when he was superseded in the contract by Wajid Allee
Khan, who re-established the Lady Sogura in the possession of all
that remained of her estate. He, at the same time, reinstated the
family of Hurpaul Sing, in the possession of their now large
estate—that is, the widow of Nihal Sing, to Seheepoor,
comprising one-half; and Ramsurroop Sing, the son of Seoumber Sing,
to Kupragow, comprising the other half.* The rent-roll of the whole
is now estimated at 1,29,000 a-year; and the nankar, or
recognized allowance for the holders, is 73,000, leaving the
Government demand at 56,000, of which they hardly ever pay
one-half, or one-quarter, being inveterate robbers and rebels.
Wajid Allee Khan had been commissioned, by the Durbar, to restore
the Lady Sogura to her patrimonial estate, and he brought her with
him from Lucknow for the purpose; but he soon after made over a
part of the estate to his friend, Bakir Allee, of Esoulee, and
another part to Ramsurroop, the son of Seoumber Sing, for a
suitable consideration, and left only one-half to the Lady Sogura.
This she at first refused to take, but he promised to restore the
whole the next year, when he saw she was resolved to return again
to her friends at Lucknow, and she consented to take the offered
half on condition of a large remission of the Government demand
upon it. When the season of collections came, however, he would
make no remission for the half he had permitted her to retain, or
give her any share in the perquisites of the half he had made over
to others; nor would he give her credit for any portion of the
collections, which had been anticipated by Maun Sing. He made her
pledge the whole rents of her estate to Hoseyn Allee Khan, the
commandant of a squadron of cavalry, on detached duty, under him.
Unable to conduct the management under all these outrages and
exactions, she begged to have the estate put under Government
officers. Her friends at Court got an order issued for her being
restored to the possession of the whole estate, having credit for
the whole amount collected by Maun Sing, and a remission in the
revenue equal to all that Government allowed to the proprietors of
such estates.

[* In May 1851, the Nazim besieged Ramsurroop, in Kupragow, with
a very large force, including Bunbury’s and Magness’s Regiments and
Artillery. After the loss of many lives from fighting, and more
from cholera, on both sides, Ramsurroop marched out with all his
garrison and guns at night, and passed, unmolested, through that
part of the line where the non-fighting corps were posted.]

Wajid Allee Khan disregarded the order, and made over or sold
Naraenpoor and other villages belonging to the estate, to Rughbur
Sing, the atrocious brother of Maun Sing, who sent his myrmidons to
take possession. They killed the Lady Sogura’s two agents in the
management, plundered her of all she had of property, and all the
rents which she had up to that time collected, for payment to
Government; and took possession of Naraenpoor and the other
villages, sold to their master by Wajid Allee. Wajid Allee soon
after came with a large force, seized the lady and carried her off
to his camp, put all her officers and attendants into confinement,
and refused all access to her. When she became ill, and appeared
likely to sink under the treatment she received, he made her enter
into written engagements to pay to the troops, in liquidation of
their arrears of pay, all that he pretended that she owed to the
State. He prevailed upon Ghuffoor Beg, who commanded the artillery,
to take these her pledges, and give him, Wajid Allee, corresponding
receipts for the amount, for transmission to the Treasury; and then
made her over a prisoner to him. Ghuffoor Beg took possession of
the lady and the estate, kept her in close confinement, and
employed his artillery-men in making the collections in their own
way, by appropriating all the harvests to themselves.

Wajid Allee was superseded in October 1849, by Aga Allee, who,
on entering on his charge, directed that martial-law should cease
in Muneearpoor; but Ghuffoor Beg and his artillery-men were too
strong for the governor, and refused to give up the possession of
so nice an estate. When I approached the estate in my tour,
Ghuffoor Beg took the lady off to Chundoly, where she was treated
with all manner of indignity and cruelty by the artillery. The
estate was going to utter ruin under their ignorant and reckless
management, and the Nazim, Aga Allee, prayed me to interpose and
save it, and protect the poor Lady Sogura. I represented the
hardship of the case to the Durbar, but with little hope of any
success, under the present government, who say, that if the troops
are not allowed to pay themselves in this way, they shall have to
pay them all the arrears for which the estate is pledged, not one
rupee of which is reduced by the collections they make. If they
were to hold the estate for twenty years, they would not allow it
to appear that any portion of the arrears had been paid off. The
estate is a noble one, and, in spite of all the usurpations and
disorders from which it has lately suffered, was capable last year
of yielding to Government a revenue of fifty thousand rupees
a-year, after providing liberally for all the requirements of the
poor Lady Sogura and her family, or a rent-roll of one hundred
thousand rupees a-year.

December 19, 1849.—Shahgunge, distance twelve
miles. This town is surrounded by a mud wall, forty feet thick, and
a ditch three miles round, built thirty years ago, and now much out
of repair. It belongs to the family of Rajah Bukhtawar Sing. The
wall, thirty feet high, was built of the mud taken from the ditch,
in which there is now some six or seven feet of water. The wall has
twenty-four bastions for guns, but there is no platform, or road
for guns, round it on the inside. A number of respectable merchants
and tradesmen reside in this town, where they are better protected
than in any other town in Oude. It contains a population of between
twenty and thirty thousand persons. They put thatch over the mud
walls during the rains to preserve them. The fortifications and
dwelling-houses together are said to have cost the family above ten
lacs of rupees. There are some fourteen old guns in the fort. Though
it would be difficult to shell a garrison out of a fort of this
extent, it would not be difficult to take it. No garrison,
sufficient to defend all parts of so extended a wall, could be
maintained by the holder; and it would be easy to fill the ditch
and scale the walls. Besides, the family is so very unpopular among
the military classes around, whose lands they have seized upon,
that thousands would come to the aid of any government force
brought to crush them, and overwhelm the garrison. They keep their
position only by the purchase of Court favour, and have the respect
and attachment of only the better sort of cultivators, who are not
of the military classes, and could be of little use to them in a
collision with their sovereign. The family by which it is held has
long been very influential at Court, where it has been represented
by Bukhtawar Sing, whose brother, Dursun Sing, was the most
powerful subject that Oude has had since the time of Almas Allee
Khan. They live, however, in the midst of hundreds of sturdy
Rajpoots, whom they have deprived of their lands, and who would, as
I have said, rise against them were they to be at any time opposed
to the Government The country over which we have passed this
morning is well studded with groves, and well cultivated; and the
peasantry seemed contented and prosperous. The greater part of the
road lay through the lands acquired, as already described, by this
family. Though they have acquired the property in the land by abuse
of authority, collusion and violence, from its rightful owners,
they keep their faith with the cultivators, effectually protect
them from thieves, robbers, the violence of their neighbours, and,
above all, from the ravages of the King’s troops; and they
encourage the settlement of the better or more skilful and
industrious classes of cultivators in their villages, such as
Kachies, Koormies, and Lodhies. They came out from numerous
villages, and in considerable bodies, to salute me, and expressed
themselves well satisfied with their condition, and the security
they enjoyed under their present landholders. We came through the
village of Puleea, and Rajah Bukhtawar Sing seemed to have great
pleasure in showing me the house in which he was born, seventy-five
years ago, under a fine tamarind-tree that is still in vigour. The
history of this family is that of many others in the Oude
territory.

The father of Bukhtawar Sing, Porunder, was the son of Mungul, a
Brahmin, who resided in Bhojpoor, on the right bank of the Ganges,
a little below Buxar. The son, Porunder, was united in marriage to
the daughter of Sudhae Misser, a respectable Brahmin, who resided
in Puleea, and held a share of the lands. He persuaded his
son-in-law to take up his residence in the same village. Prouder
had five sons born to him in this village:— 1. Rajah Bukhtawar
Sing, my Quartermaster-General. 2. Pursun Sing, died without issue.
3. Rajah Dursun Sing, died 1844, leaving three sons. 4. Incha Sing
lives, and has two sons. 5. Davey Sing died, leaving two sons.

The eldest son was a trooper in the Honourable Company’s 8th
Regiment of Light Cavalry; and while still a very young man, and
home on furlough, he attracted the attention of Saadnt Allee Khan,
the sovereign of Oude, whom he attended on a sporting excursion. He
was very tall, and exceedingly handsome; and, on one occasion,
saved his sovereign’s life from the sword of an assassin. He became
one of Saadut Alee’s favourite orderlies, and rose to the command
of a squadron. In a fine picture of Saadut Allee and his Court on
the occasion of a Durbar, at which the Resident, Colonel Scott, and
his suite were present, Bukhtawar Sing is represented in the dress
he wore as an orderly cavalry officer. This picture is still
preserved at Lucknow. His brothers, Dursun, Incha, and Davey Sing
became, one after the other, orderlies in the same manner, under
the influence of Bukhtawar Sing, during the reign of Saadnt Allee,
and his son, Ghazee-od Deen. Dursan Sing got the command of a
regiment of Nujeebs in 1814, and Incha Sing and Davey Sing rose in
favour and rank, both civil and military.

Bhudursa and five other villages were held in proprietary right
by the members of a family of Syuds. They enjoyed Bhudursa rent
free, and still hold it; but the other five villages (Kyl, Mahdono,
Tindooa, Teroo, and Pursun) were bestowed, in jagheer, upon another
Syud, a Court favourite, Khoda Buksh, in 1814. He fell into
disfavour in 1816, and all these and other villages were let, in
1817, to Dursun Sing, in farm, at 60,000 rupees a-year. The
bestowal of an estate in jagheer, or farm, ought not to interfere
with the rights of the proprietors of the lands comprised in it, as
the sovereign transfers merely his own territorial rights, not
theirs; but Dursun Sing, before the year 1820, had, by
rack-renting, lending on mortgage, and other fraudulent or violent
means, deprived all the Syud proprietors of their lands in the
other five villages. They were, however, still left in possession
of Bhudursa. He pursued the same system, as far as possible, in the
other districts, which were, from time to time, placed under him,
as contractor for the revenue. He held the contract for Sultanpoor
and other districts, altogether yielding fifty-nine lacs of rupees
a-year, in 1827; and it was then that he first bethought himself of
securing his family permanently in the possession of the lands he
had seized, or might seize upon, by bynamahs, or deeds of
sale, from the old proprietors.

He imposed upon the lands he coveted, rates which he knew they
could never pay; took all the property of the proprietors for rent,
or for the wages of the mounted and foot soldiers, whom he placed
over them, or quartered upon their villages, to enforce his
demands; seized any neighbouring banker or capitalist whom he could
lay hold of, and by confinement and harsh treatment, made him stand
security for the suffering proprietors, for sums they never owed;
and when these proprietors were made to appear to be irretrievably
involved in debt to the State and to individuals, and had no hope
of release from prison by any other means, they consented to sign
the bynamahs, or sale deeds for lands, which their families
had possessed for centuries. Those of the capitalists who had no
friends at Court were made to pay the money, for which they had
been forced to pledge themselves; and those who had such friends,
got the sums which they had engaged to pay, represented as
irrecoverable balances due by proprietors, and struck off. The
proprietors themselves, plundered of all they had in the world, and
without any hope of redress, left the country, or took service
under our Government, or that of Oude, or descended to the rank of
day-labourers or cultivators in other estates.*

[* Estates held by the family under bynamahs or sale
deeds:

Dursun Sing’s contracts, for the land revenue, of districts,
amounted from 1827 to 1830, to 59,00,000 rupees a year. From 1830
to 1836, to 58,00,000. In 1836 to 46,100,000. In 1837 to 47,00,000.
He continued to hold the whole or greater part of these districts
up to September 1843.]

There were four brothers, the sons of a Canoongo, of Fyzabad;
first, Birj Lal; second, Lala; third, Humeer Sing, a corporal in
one of our Regiments of Native Infantry; fourth, Hunooman Persaud;
fifth, Gunga Persaud. The family held-eight villages, in hereditary
right, with a rent-roll of 6,000, of which they paid 3,000 to
Government, and took 3,000 for themselves. While Dursun Sing was
dying, in 1844, his eldest son, Ramadeen, tried to get possession
of this estate. He seized and confined, in the usual way, Gunga
Persaud, the Canoongo, and kept him with harsh treatment, for 1844;
and when his brother the corporal complained, in the usual way,
through the Resident, Gunga Persaud was released, and he attended
the Residents Court, as his brother’s attorney, till 1847, when the
family recovered possession of the estate. But in 1846, when Dursun
Sing’s son saw that the case was going against him, he made their
local agent, Davey Persaud, plunder all the eight villages of all
the stock in cattle, grain, &c., that they contained, and all
the people, of whatever property they possessed.

Dursun Sing’s family now pay to the Oude Government, a revenue
of 1,88,000 rupees a-year, for their bynamah estates, which
were acquired by them in the manner described. The rent-roll,
recognized in the Exchequer, is 2,56,000; and the nankar
68,000; but the real rent-roll is much greater-perhaps double. The
village of Tendooa, in Mehdona, belonged, in hereditary right, to
Soorujbulee Sing and Rugonauth Sing, Rajpoots, whom the family of
Dursun Sing wished to coerce, in the usual mode, into signing a
bynamah, or deed of sale. They refused, and some of the
family are said to have been in confinement in consequence, since
the year A.D. 1844. When Gunga Persaud, the Canoongo, was confined
by Dursun Sing’s family, on account of his own estate, they
extorted from him, on the pretence of his being security for the
punctual payment of what might be demanded from these two men,
Soorujbulee’ and Rugonauth, the sum of 4,000 rupees. One of the
eight villages, held by the Canoongoes, named Aboo Surae, Ghalib
Jung, alias Dursun Sing, another Court favourite, is now trying to
take by violence, for himself, following the practice of his
namesake. He has possessed himself of many by the same means,
keeping the troops he commands upon them at exercise and
target-practice, till he drives both cultivators and proprietors
out, or shoots them.

This Rajah, Ghalib Jung, is now a great favourite with the
minister, and no man manifests a stronger disposition to make his
influence subservient to his own interest and that of his family.
By fraud and violence, and collusion with the officers who have
charge of districts and require his aid at Court, he seizes upon
the best lands of his weaker neighbours, in the same manner as his
namesake, Rajah Dursun Sing, used to do; and of the money which he
receives for contracts of various kinds, he appropriates by far the
greater part to himself. He is often sent out, with a considerable
force, to adjust disputes between landholders and local
authorities, and he decides in favour of the party most able and
willing to pay, under the assurance that, if called to account, he
will be able to clear himself, by giving a share of what he gets to
those who send and support him. He commands a large body of mounted
and foot police, and he is often ordered to go and send detachments
in pursuit of daring offenders, particularly those who have given
offence to the British authorities. In such cases he generally
succeeds in arresting and bringing in some of the offenders; but he
as often seizes the landholders and others who may have given them
shelter, intentionally or otherwise; and, after extorting from them
as much as they can be made to pay, lets them go. He is not, of
course, very particular as to the quantity or quality of the
evidence forthcoming to prove that a person able to pay has
intentionally screened the offenders from justice.

Rajah Ghalib Jung was the superintendent of the City Police, and
commandant of a Brigade of Infantry, and a prime favourite of the
King, Nuseer-od Deen Hyder, for two years, up to November 1835. He
had many other employments, was always in attendance upon the King,
and was much liked by him, because he saw his orders carried into
immediate effect, without any regard to the rank or sufferings of
the persons whom they were to affect. For these two years he was
one of the most intimate companions of his sovereign, in his
festivities and most private debaucheries. He became cordially
detested throughout the city for his reckless severity, and still
more throughout the Court, for the fearless manner in which he
spoke to the King of the malversation and peculations of the
minister and all the Court favourites who were not in his interest.
He thwarted the imbecile old minister, Roshun-od Dowlah, in
everything; and never lost an opportunity of turning him into
ridicule, and showing his contempt for him.

The King had become very fond of a smart young lad, by name
Duljeet, who had been brought up from his infancy by the minister,
but now served the King as his most confidential personal
attendant. He was paid handsomely by the minister for all the
services he rendered him, and deeply interested in keeping him in
power and unfettered, and he watched eagerly for an opportunity to
remove the man who thwarted him. Mucka, the King’s head
tailor, was equally anxious, for his own interests, to get rid of
the favourite, and so was Gunga Khowas, a boatman, another
personal servant and favourite of the King. These three men soon
interested in their cause some of the most influential ladies of
the palace, and all sought with avidity the opportunity to effect
their object. Ghalib Jung was the person, or one of the persons,
through whom the King invited females, noted for either their
beauty or their accomplishments, and he was told to bring a
celebrated dancing-girl, named Mogaree. She did not appear, and the
King became impatient, and at last asked Dhuneea Mehree the reason.
She had often been employed in a similar office, and was jealous of
Ghalib Jung’s rivalry. She told his Majesty, that he had obstructed
his pleasures on this as on many other occasions, and taken the
lady into his own keeping. All the other favourites told him the
same thing, and it is generally believed that the charge was true;
indeed the girl herself afterwards confessed it. The King, however,
“bided his time,” in the hope of finding some other ground of
revenging himself upon the favourite, without the necessity of
making him appear in public as his rival.

On the 7th of October, 1835, the King was conversing with Ghalib
Jung, in one of his private apartments, on affairs of state.
Several crowns stood on the table for the King’s inspection. They
had been prepared under Mucka, the tailor’s, inspection, from
materials purchased by him. He always charged the King ten times
the price of the articles which he was ordered to provide, and
Ghalib Jung thought the occasion favourable to expose his
misconduct to his master. He took up one of the crowns, put his
left hand into it, and, turning it round on his finger, pointed out
the flimsy nature of the materials with which it had been made. His
left finger slipped through the silk on the crown, whether
accidentally, or designedly, to prove the flimsy nature of the silk
and exasperate the King, is not known; but on seeing the finger
pass through the crown, his Majesty left the room without saying a
word. Soon after several attendants came in, surrounded Ghalib
Jung, and commanded him to remain till further orders. In this
state they remained for about two hours, when other attendants came
in, struck off his turban on the floor, and had it kicked out of
the room by sweepers.

They then dragged out Ghalib Jung, and thrust him into prison.
The next day heavy iron fetters were put upon his legs, and upon
those of three of his principal followers, who were imprisoned
along with him; and his mother, father, wife, and daughters were
made prisoners in their own houses; and all the property of the
family that could be found was confiscated. On the third day, while
still in irons, Ghalib Jung and his three followers were tied up
and flogged severely, to make them point out any hidden treasure
that they might have. That night the King got drunk, and, before
many persons, ordered the minister to have Ghalib Jung’s right hand
and nose cut off forthwith. The minister, who prayed forgiveness
and forbearance, was abused and again commanded, but again
entreated his Majesty to pause, and prayed for a private audience.
It was granted, and the minister told his Majesty that the British
Government would probably interpose if the order were carried into
effect.

The King then retired to rest, but the next morning had Ghalib
Jung and his three followers again tied up and flogged. Six or
seven days after, all Ghalib Jung’s attendants were taken from him,
and no person was permitted to enter the room where he lay in
irons, and he could in consequence get neither food nor drink of
any kind. On the 19th of October, the King ordered all the females
of Ghalib Jung’s family to be brought on foot from their houses to
the palace by force, and publicly declared that they should all on
the next day have their hair shaved off, be stripped naked, and in
that state turned out into the street. After giving these orders,
the King went to bed, and the females were all brought, as ordered,
to the palace; but the sympathies of the King’s own servants were
excited by the sufferings of these unoffending females, and they
disobeyed the order for their being made to walk on foot through
the streets, and brought them in covered litters.

The Resident, apprehending that these poor females might be
further disgraced, and Ghalib Jung starved to death, determined to
interpose, and demanded an interview, while the King was still in
bed. The King was sorely vexed, and sent the minister to the
Resident to request that he would not give himself the trouble to
come, if his object was to relieve Ghalib Jung’s family, as he
would forthwith order the females to be taken to their homes. The
minister had not been to the Resident for ten or twelve days, or
from the first or second day after the fall of the favourite. He
prayed that the Resident would not speak harshly to the King on the
subject of the treatment Ghalib Jung and his family had received,
lest he, the minister, should himself suffer. The Resident insisted
upon an audience. He found the King sullen and doggedly silent. The
minister was present, and spoke for his master. He denied, what was
known to be true, that the prisoner had been kept for two days and
two nights’ without food or drink; but admitted that he had been
tied up and flogged severely, and that the females of his family
were still there, but he promised to send them back. He said that
it was necessary to confiscate the property of the prisoner, since
he owed large sums to the State. The females were all sent back to
their homes, and Ghalib Jung was permitted, to have four of his own
servants in attendance upon him.

The Resident reported all these things to Government, who
entirely approved of his proceedings; and desired that he would
tell his Majesty that such savage and atrocious proceedings would
ruin his reputation, and, if persisted in, bring on consequences
most injurious to himself. When the Resident, at the audience above
described, remonstrated with the King for not calling upon his
officers periodically to render their accounts, instead of letting
them run on for indefinite periods, and then confining them and
confiscating their property, he replied—”What you state is
most true, and you may be assured that I will in future make every
one account to me every three months for the money he has received,
and never again show favour to any one.”

Rajah Dursun Sing, the great revenue contractor, and at that
time the most powerful of the King’s subjects beyond the precincts
of the Court, had, like the minister himself, been often thwarted
by Ghalib Jung when in power; and, after the interposition of the
Resident, he applied to have him put into his power. The King and
minister were pleased at the thought of making their victim suffer
beyond the immediate supervision of a vigilant Resident, and the
minister made him over to the Rajah for a consideration, it
is said, of three lacs of rupees; and at the same time assured the
Resident that this was the only safe way to rescue him from the
further vengeance of an exasperated King; that Rajah Dursun Sing
was a friend of his, and would provide him and his family and
attendants with ample accommodation and comfort. The Rajah had him
put into an iron cage, and sent to his fort at Shahgunge, where,
report says, he had snakes and scorpions put into the cage to
torment and destroy him, but that Ghalib Jung had “a charmed life,”
and escaped their poison. The object is said to have been to
torment and destroy him without leaving upon his body any marks of
violence.

On the death of Nuseer-od Deen Hyder, Ghalib Jung was released
from confinement, on the payment, it is said, of four lacs of
rupees, in Government securities, and a promise of three lacs more
if restored to office. He went to reside at Cawnpore, in British
territory; but, on the dismissal of the minister, Roshun-od Dowlah,
three months after, and the appointment of Hakeem Mehndee to his
place, Ghalib Jung was restored to his place. The promise of the
three lacs was communicated to the new King, Mahommed Allee Shah,
by Roshun-od Dowlah himself, while in confinement; and it is said
that Ghalib Jung paid one-half, or one hundred and fifty
thousand.

Ghalib Jung had, in many other ways, abused the privileges of
intimate companionship which he enjoyed with his master, as better
servants under better and more guarded masters will do; and the
King, having discovered this, had for some time resolved to take
advantage of the first fair occasion to discharge him. The people
of Lucknow liked their King, with all his faults—and they
were many—and hated the favourite as much for the injury
which he did to his master’s reputation, as for the insults and
injuries inflicted by him on themselves. But when the unoffending
females of the favourite were dragged from their privacy to the
palace, to be disgraced, the feelings of the whole city were
shocked, and expressed in tones which alarmed the minister as much
as the Resident’s interposition alarmed the King. They had no
sympathy for the fallen favourite, but a very deep one for the
ladies and children of his family, who could have no share in his
guilt, whatever it might be.

Ghalib Jung was raised, from a very humble grade, by Ghazee-od
Deen Hyder, and about the year 1825 he had become as great a
favourite with him as he afterwards became with his son, Nuseer-od
Deen Hyder, and he abused his master’s favour in the same manner.
The minister, Aga Meer, finding his interference and vulgar
insolence intolerable, took advantage one day of the King’s anger
against him, had him degraded, seized, and sent off forthwith to
one of his creatures, Taj-od Deen Hoseyn, then in charge of the
Sultanpoor district, where he was soon reduced almost to death’s
door by harsh treatment and want of food, and made to disgorge all
the wealth he had accumulated. Four years after the death of
Ghazee-od Deen and the accession of his son, Nuseer-od Deen, Ghalib
Jung was, in the year 1831, again appointed to a place of trust at
Court by the minister, Hakeem Mehndee, who managed to keep him in
order during the two years that he held the reins of
government.*

[* Ghalib Jung died on the 1st of May 1851, at Lucknow, aged
about 80 years.]

December 20, 1849.—Saleepoor, ten miles. The
country, on both sides of the road, well studded with trees,
hamlets, and villages, and well cultivated and peopled. The
landholders and peasantry seem all happy and secure under their
present masters, the brother and son of the late Dursun Sing. They
are protected by them from thieves and robbers, the attacks of
refractory barons, and, above all, from the ravages of the King’s
troops; and the whole face of the country, at this season, is like
that of a rich garden. The whole is under cultivation, and covered
with the greatest possible variety of crops. The people showed us,
as we passed, six kinds of sugar-cane, and told us that they had
many more, one soil agreeing best with one kind, another with
another. The main fault in the cultivation of sugar-cane is here,
as in every other part of India that I have seen, the want of room
and the disregard of cleanliness. They crowd the cane too much, and
never remove the decayed leaves, and sufficient air is never
admitted.

Bukhtawar Sing has always been considered as the head of the
family to whom Shahgunge belongs, but he has always remained at
Court, and left the local management of the estate and the
government of the districts, placed under their charge in contract
or in trust, to his brothers and nephews. Bukhtawar Sing has no
child of his own, but he has adopted Maun Sing, the youngest son of
his brother, Dursun Sing, and he leaves all local duties and
responsibilities to him. He is a small, slight man, but shrewd,
active, and energetic, and as unscrupulous as a man can be. Indeed
old Bukhtawar Sing himself is the only member of the family that
was ever troubled with scruples of any kind whatever; for he is the
only one whose boyhood was not passed in the society of men in the
every-day habit of committing with impunity all kinds of cruelties,
atrocities, and outrages. There is, perhaps, no school in the world
better adapted for training thoroughbred ruffians (men without any
scruple of conscience, sense of honour, or feeling of humanity)
than the camp of a revenue-contractor in Oude. It has been the same
for the last thirty years that I have known it, and must continue
to be the same as long as we maintain, in absolute sway over the
people, a sovereign who never bestows a thought upon them, has no
feeling in common with them, and can never be persuaded that his
high office imposes upon him the obligation to labour to promote
their good, or even to protect them against the outrage and
oppression of his own soldiers and civil officers. All Rajah
Bukhtawar Sing’s brothers and nephews were bred up in such camps,
and are thorough-bred ruffians.

They have got the lands which they hold by much fraud and
violence no doubt, but they have done much good to them. They have
invited and established in comfort great numbers of the best
classes of cultivators from other districts, in which they had
ceased to feel secure, and they have protected and encouraged those
whom they found on the land. To establish a new cultivator of the
better class, they require to give him about twenty-five rupees for
a pair of bullocks; for subsistence for himself and family till his
crops ripen, thirty-six more, for a house, wells, &c., thirty
more, or about ninety rupees, which he pays back with or without
interest by degrees. Every village and hamlet is now surrounded by
fine garden cultivation, conducted by the cultivators of the
gardener caste, whom the family has thus established.

The greatest benefit conferred upon the lands which they hold
has been in the suppression of the fearful contests which used to
be perpetual between the small proprietors of the military classes,
among whom the lands had become minutely subdivided by the law of
inheritance, about boundaries and rights to water for irrigation.
Many persons used to be killed every year in these contests, and
their widows and orphans had to be maintained by the survivors. Now
no such dispute leads to any serious conflict. They are all settled
at once by arbitrators, who are guided in their decisions by the
accounts of the Putwaries of villages and Canoongoes of districts.
These men have the detailed accounts of every tenement for the last
hundred years; and, with their assistance, village traditions, and
the advice of their elders, all such boundary disputes and
misunderstandings about rights to water are quickly and amicably
adjusted; and the landlords are strong, and able to enforce
whatever decision is pronounced. They are wealthy, and pay the
Government demand punctually, and have influence at Court to
prevent any attempt at oppression on the part of Government
officers on themselves or their tenants. Not a thief or a robber
can live or depredate among their tenants. The hamlets are, in
consequence, numerous and peopled by peasantry, who seem to live
without fear. They adhere strictly to the terms of their
engagements with their tenants of all grades; and their tenants all
pay their rents punctually, unless calamities of season deprive
them of the means, when due consideration is made by landlords, who
live among them, and know what they suffer and require.

The climate must be good, for the people are strong and
well-made, and without any appearance of disease. Hardly a beggar
of any kind is to be seen along the road. The residence of
religious mendicants seems to be especially discouraged, and we see
no others. It is very pleasing to pass over such lands after going
through such districts as Bahraetch and Gonda, where the signs of
the effects of bad air and water upon men, women, and children are
so sad and numerous; and those of the abuse of power and the
neglect of duty on the part of the Government and its officers are
still more so.

Last evening I sent for the two men above named, who had been
confined for six or seven years, and were said to have been so
because they would not sign the bynamahs required from them
by Mann Sing: their names are Soorujbulee Sing and Rugonath Sing.
They came with the King’s wakeel, accompanied by their cousin,
Hunooman Sing, on whose charge they were declared to have been
confined. I found that the village of Tendooa had been held by
their family, in proprietary right, for many generations, and that
they were Chouhan Rajpoots by caste. When Dursun Sing was securing
to himself the lands of the district, those of Tendooa were held in
three equal shares by Soorujbulee and his brothers, Narind and
Rugonath; Hunooman Sing, their cousin; and Seoruttun, their
cousin.

Maun Sing took advantage of a desperate quarrel between them,
and secured Soorujbulee and Rugonath. Narind escaped and joined a
refractory tallookdar, and Seoruttun and Hunooman did the same.
Hunooman Sing was, however, invited back, and intrusted, by Maun
Sing, with the management of the whole estate, on favourable terms.
In revenge for his giving in to the terms of Maun Sing, and serving
him, the absconded co-sharers attacked his house several times,
killed three of his brothers, and many other persons of his family,
and robbed him of almost all he had. This was four years ago. He
complained, and the two brothers were kept more strictly confined
than ever, to save him and the village. Hunooman Sing looked upon
the two prisoners as the murderers of his brothers, though they
were in confinement when they were killed, and had been so for more
than two years, and was very violent against them in my presence.
They were no less violent against him, as the cause of their
continued confinement They protested to me, that they had no
communication whatever with Seoruttun or Narind Sing, but thought
it very likely, that they really did lead the gangs in the attacks
upon the village, to recover their rights. They offered to give
security for their future good behaviour if released; but declared,
that they would rather die than consent to sign a bynamah,
or deed of sale, or any relinquishment whatever of their hereditary
rights as landholders.

Bukhtawar and Maun Sing said,—”That the people of the
village would not be safe, for a moment, if these two brothers were
released, which they would be, on the first occasion of
thanksgiving, if sent to Lucknow; that people who ventured to seize
a thief or robber in Oude must keep him, if they wished to save
themselves from his future depredations, as the Government
authorities would have nothing to do with them.”

I ordered the King’s wakeel to take these two brothers to the
Chuckladar, and request him to see them released on their
furnishing sufficient security for their future good behaviour,
which they promised to produce.* They were all fine-looking men,
with limbs that would do honour to any climate in the world. These
are the families from which our native regiments are recruited; and
hardly a young recruit offers himself for enlistment, on whose body
marks will not be found of wounds received in these contests,
between landlords themselves, and between them and the officers and
troops of the sovereign. I have never seen enmity more strong and
deadly than that exhibited by contending co-sharers and landholders
of all kinds in Oude. The Rajah of Bulrampoor mentioned a curious
instance of this spirit in a village, now called the Kolowar
village, in the Gonda district, held in copartnership by a family
of the Buchulgotee tribe of Rajpoots. One of them said he should
plant sugar-cane in one of his fields. All consented to this. But
when he pointed out the place where he should have his mill, the
community became divided. A contest ensued, in which all the
able-bodied men were killed, though not single cane had been
planted. The widows and children survived, and still hold the
village, but have been so subdued by poverty that they are the
quietest village community in the district. The village from that
time has gone by the name of Kolowar village, from Koloo,
the sugar-mill, though no sugar-mill was ever worked in the
village, he believed. He says, the villagers cherish the
recollection of this fight; and get very angry when their
neighbours twit them with the folly of it.

[* They were released, and have been ever since at large on
security. One of them visited me in April 1851, and said, that as a
point of honour, they should abstain from joining in the fight for
their rights, but felt it very hard to be bound to do so.]

In our own districts in Upper India, they often kill each other
in such contests; but more frequently ruin each other in litigation
in our Civil Courts, to the benefit of the native attorneys and
law-officers, who fatten on the misery they create or produce. In
Oude they always decide such questions by recourse to arms, and the
loss of life is no doubt fearful. Still the people generally, or a
great part of them, would prefer to reside in Oude, under all the
risks to which these contests expose them, than in our own
districts, under the evils the people are exposed to from the
uncertainties of our law, the multiplicity and formality of our
Courts, the pride and negligence of those who preside over them,
and the corruption and insolence of those who must be employed to
prosecute or defend a cause in them, and enforce the fulfilment of
a decree when passed.

The members of the landed aristocracy of Oude always speak with
respect of the administration in our territories, but generally end
with remarking on the cost and uncertainty of the law in civil
cases, and the gradual decay, under its operation, of all the
ancient families. A less and less proportion of the annual produce
of their lands is left to them in our periodical settlements of the
land revenue, while family pride makes them expend the same sums in
the marriage of their children, in religious and other festivals,
personal servants, and hereditary retainers. They fall into
balance, incur heavy debts, and estate after estate is put up to
auction, and the proprietors are reduced to poverty. They say, that
four times more of these families have gone to decay in the half of
the territory made over to us in 1801, than in the half reserved by
the Oude sovereign; and this is, I fear, true. They named the
families—I cannot remember them.

In Oude, the law of primogeniture prevails among all the
tallookdars, or principal landholders; and, to a certain extent,
among the middle class of landholders, of the Rajpoot or any other
military class. If one co-sharer of this class has several sons,
his eldest often inherits all the share he leaves, with all the
obligations incident upon it, of maintaining the rest of the
family.

The brothers of Soorujbulee, above named, do not pretend to have
any right of inheritance in the share of the lands he holds; but
they have a prescriptive right to support from him, for themselves
and families, when they require it. This rule of primogeniture is,
however, often broken through during the lifetime of the father,
who, having more of natural affection than family pride, divides
the lands between his sons. After his death they submit to this
division, and take their respective shares, to descend to their
children, by the law of primogeniture, or be again subdivided as
may seem to them best; or they fight it out among themselves, till
the strongest gets all. Among landholders of the smallest class,
whether Hindoos or Mahommedans, the lands are subdivided according
to the ordinary law of inheritance.

Our army and other public establishments form a great
“safety-valve” for Oude, and save it from a vast deal of fighting
for shares in land, and the disorders that always attend it.
Younger brothers enlist in our regiments, or find employment in our
civil establishments, and leave their wives and children under the
protection of the elder brother, who manages the family estate for
the common good. They send the greater part of their pay to him for
their subsistence, and feel assured that he will see that they are
provided for, should they lose their lives in our service. From the
single district of Byswara in Oude, sixteen thousand men were, it
is said, found to be so serving in our army and other
establishments; and from Bunoda, which adjoins it to the east,
fifteen thousand, on an inquiry ordered to be made by Ghazee-od
Deen Hyder some twenty-five years ago.

The family of Dursun Sing, like good landholders in all parts of
Oude, assigned small patches of land to substantial cultivators,
merchants, shopkeepers, and others, whom it is useful to retain in
their estates, for the purpose of planting small groves of mango
and other trees, as local ties. They prepare the well and plant the
trees, and then make over the land to a gardener or other good
cultivator, to be tilled for his own profit, on condition that he
water the trees, and take care to preserve them from frost during
the cold season, and from rats, white ants, and other enemies; and
form terraces round them, where the water lies much on the surface
during the rains, so that it may not reach and injure the bark. The
land yields crops till the trees grow large and cover it with their
shade, by which time they are independent of irrigation, and begin
to bear fruit. The crops do not thrive under the shade of the
trees, and the lands they cover cease to be of any value for
tillage. The stems and foliage of the trees, no doubt, deprive the
crops of the moisture, carbonic gas and ammonia, they require from
the atmosphere. They are, generally, watered from six to ten years.
These groves form a valuable local tie for the cultivators and
other useful tenants. No man dare to molest them or their
descendants, in the possession of their well and grove, without
incurring, at least, the odium of society; and, according to their
notion, the anger of their gods.

The cultivators always point out to them, in asserting their
rights to the lands they hold; and reside and cultivate in the
village, under circumstances that would drive them away, had they
no such ties to retain them. They feel a-great pride in them; and
all good landlords feel the same in having their villages filled
with tenants who have such ties.

December 21, 1849.—Bhurteepoor, ten miles, almost
all the way through the estate of Maun Sing. No lands could be
better cultivated than they are all the way, or better studded with
groves and beautiful single trees. The villages and hamlets along
the road are numerous, and filled with cultivators of the gardener
and other good classes, who seem happy and contented. The season
has been favourable, and the crops are all fine, and of great
variety. Sugar-cane abounds, but no mills are, as yet, at work. We
passed through, and by three or four villages, that have been
lately taken from Maun Sing, and made over to farmers by the local
authorities, under instructions from Court; but they are not so
well cultivated, as those which he retains. The cultivators and
inhabitants generally do not appear to enjoy the same protection or
security in the engagements they make. The soil is everywhere good,
the water near the surface, and the climate excellent. The soil is
here called doomuteea, and adapted to all kinds of tillage.

I should mention, with regard to the subdivision of landed
property, that the Rajahs and tallookdars, among whom the law of
primogeniture prevails, consider their estates as principalities,
or reeasuts. When any Rajah, or tallookdar, during his
lifetime, assigns portions of the land to his sons, brothers, or
other members of the family, they are separated from the
reeasut, or principality, and are subdivided as they descend
from generation to generation, by the ordinary Hindoo or Mahommedan
law of inheritance. This is the case with portions of the estate of
the Rajah of Korwar, in the Sultanpoor district, one of the oldest
Hindoo principalities in Oude, which are now held by his cousins,
nephews, &c., near this place, Bhurteepoor.*

[* Sunkur Sing, of Korwar, had four sons: first, Dooneeaput died
without issue; second, Sookraj Sing, whose grandson, Madhoo
Persaud, is now the Rajah; third, Bureear Sing, who got from his
brother lands yielding forty thousand rupees a-year out of the
principality. They are now held by his son, Jydut; fourth, Znbar
Sing, who got from his brother lands yielding nineteen thousand
rupees a-year, which are now held by his son, Moheser Persaud.
Sunkir Sing was the second brother, but his elder brother died
without issue.]

Dooneeaput succeeded to the reeasut on the death of his
uncle, the Rajah, who died without issue; and he bestowed portions
of the estate on his brothers, Burear and Zubur Sing, which their
descendants enjoy, but which do not go to the eldest son, by the
law of primogeniture. He was succeeded by his brother, Sookraj,
whose grandson, Madhoo Persaud, now reigns as Rajah, and has the
undivided possession of the lands belonging to this branch. All the
descendants of his grandfather, Sookraj, and their widows and
orphans, have a right to protection and support from him, and to
nothing more. Jydut, who now holds the lands, yielding forty
thousand rupees a-year, called upon me, this morning, and gave me
this history of his family. The Rajah himself is in camp, and came
to visit me this afternoon.

It is interesting and pleasing to see a large, well-controlled
camp, moving in a long line through a narrow road or pathway, over
plains, covered with so rich a variety of crops, and studded with
such magnificent evergreen trees. The solitary mango-tree, in a
field of corn, seems to exult in its position-to grow taller and
spread wider its branches and rich foliage, in situations where
they can be seen to so much advantage. The peepul and bargut trees,
which, when entire, are still more ornamental, are everywhere torn
to pieces and disfigured by the camels and elephants, buffaloes and
bullocks, that feed upon their foliage and tender branches. There
are a great many mhowa, tamarind, and other fine trees, upon which
they do not feed, to assist the mango in giving beauty to the
landscape.

The Korwar Rajah, Madhoo Persaud, a young man of about
twenty-two years of age, came in the evening, and confirmed what
his relative, Jydut, had told me of the rule which required that
his lands should remain undivided with his eldest son, while those
which are held by Jydut, and his other relatives, should be
subdivided among all the sons of the holder. This rule is more
necessary in Oude than elsewhere, to preserve a family and its
estate from the grasp of its neighbours and Government officers.
When there happens to be no heir left to the portion of the estate
which has been cut off, it is re-annexed to the estate; and the
head of the family frequently anticipates the event, by murdering
or imprisoning the heir or incumbent, and seizing upon the lands.
Another Rajah, of the same name, Mahdoo Persaud, of Amethee, in
Salone, has lately seized upon the estate of Shahgur, worth twenty
thousand rupees a-year, which had been cut off from the Amethee
estate, and enjoyed by a collateral branch of the family for
several generations. He holds the proprietor, Bulwunt Sing, in
prison, in irons, and would soon make away with him were the Oude
Government to think it worth while to inquire after him. He has
seized upon another portion, Ramgur, held by another branch of the
family, worth six thousand rupees a-year, and crushed all the
proprietors. This is the way in which estates, once broken up, are
reconsolidated in Oude, under energetic and unscrupulous men. Of
course when they think it worth while to do so, they purchase the
collusion of the local authorities of the day, by promising to pay
the revenues, which the old proprietors paid during their tenure of
office. The other barons do not interfere, unless they happen to be
connected by marriage with the ousted proprietors, or otherwise
specially bound, by interest and honour, to defend them against the
grasp of the head of their family. Many struggles of this kind are
taking place every season in Oude.

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.

December 22, 1849.—Sultanpoor, eight miles.
Recrossed the Goomtee river, close under the Cantonments, over a
bridge of boats prepared for the purpose, and encamped on the
parade-ground. The country over which we came was fertile and well
cultivated. For some days we have seen and heard a good many
religions mendicants, both Mahommedans and Hindoos, but still very
few lame, blind, and otherwise helpless persons, asking charity.
The most numerous and distressing class of beggars that importune
me, are those who beg redress for their wrongs, and a remedy for
their grievances,—”their name, indeed, is Legion,” and
their wrongs and grievances are altogether without remedy, under
the present government and inveterately vicious system of
administration. It is painful to listen to all these complaints,
and to have to refer the sufferers for redress to authorities who
want both the power and the will to afford it; especially when one
knows that a remedy for almost every evil is hoped for from a visit
such as the poor people are now receiving from the Resident. He is
expected “to wipe the tears from off all faces;” and feels that he
can wipe them from hardly any. The reckless disregard shown by the
depredators of all classes and degrees to the sufferings of their
victims, whatever be the cause of discontent or object of pursuit,
is lamentable. I have every day scores of petitions delivered to me
“with quivering lip and tearful eye,” by persons who have been
plundered of all they possessed, had their dearest relatives
murdered or tortured to death, and their habitations burnt to the
ground, by gangs of ruffians, under landlords of high birth and
pretensions, whom they had never wronged or offended; some, merely
because they happened to have property, which the ruffians wished
to take—others, because they presumed to live and labour upon
lands which they coveted, or deserted, and wished to have left
waste. In these attacks, neither age, nor sex, nor condition are
spared. The greater part of the leaders of these gangs of ruffians
are Rajpoot landholders, boasting descent from the sun and moon, or
from the demigods, who figure in the Hindoo religious fictions of
the Poorans. There are, however, a great many Mahommedans at the
head of similar gangs. A landholder of whatever degree, who is
opposed to his government from whatever cause, considers himself in
a state of war‘, and he considers a state of war to
authorize his doing all those things which he is forbidden to do in
a state of peace.

Unless the sufferer happens to be a native officer or sipahee of
our army, who enjoys the privilege of urging his claims through the
Resident, it is a cruel mockery to refer him for redress to any
existing local authority. One not only feels that it is so, but
sees, that the sufferer thinks that he must know it to be so. No
such authority considers it to be any part of his duty to arrest
evil-doers, and inquire into and redress wrongs suffered by
individuals, or families, or village communities. Should he arrest
such people, he would have to subsist and accommodate them at his
own cost, or to send them to Lucknow, with the assurance that they
would in a few days or a few weeks purchase their way out again, in
spite of the clearest proofs of the murders, robberies, torturings,
dishonourings, house-burning, &c., which they have committed.
No sentence, which any one local authority could pass on such
offenders, would be recognised by any other authority in the State,
as valid or sufficient to justify him in receiving and holding them
in confinement for a single day. The local authorities, therefore,
either leave the wrong-doers unmolested, with the understanding
that they are to abstain from doing any such wrong within their
jurisdictions as may endanger or impede the collection of
revenues during their period of office, or release them with
that understanding after they have squeezed all they can out of
them. The wrong-doers can so abstain, and still be able to
murder, rob, torture, dishonour, and burn, upon a pretty
large scale; and where they are so numerous, and so ready to unite
for purposes “offensive and defensive,” and the local authorities
so generally connive at or quietly acquiesce all their misdeeds,
any attempt on the part of an honest or overzealous individual to
put them down would be sure to result in his speedy and utter
ruin!

To refer such sufferers to the authorities at Lucknow would be a
still more cruel mockery. The present sovereign never hears a
complaint or reads a petition or report of any kind. He is entirely
taken up in the pursuit of his personal gratifications. He has no
desire to be thought to take any interest whatever in public
affairs; and is altogether regardless of the duties and
responsibilities of his high office. He lives, exclusively, in the
society of fiddlers, eunuchs, and women: he has done so since his
childhood, and is likely to do so to the last. His disrelish for
any other society has become inveterate: he cannot keep awake in
any other. In spite of average natural capacity, and more than
average facility in the cultivation of light literature, or at
least “de faire des petits vers de sa focon,” his
understanding has become so emasculated, that he is altogether
unfit for the conduct of his domestic, much less his public,
affairs. He sees occasionally his prime minister, who takes care to
persuade him that he does all that a King ought to do; and nothing
whatever of any other minister. He holds no communication whatever
with brothers, uncles, cousins, or any of the native gentlemen at
Lucknow, or the landed or official aristocracy of the country. He
sometimes admits a few poets or poetasters to hear and praise his
verses, and commands the unwilling attendance of some of his
relations, to witness and applaud the acting of some of his own
silly comedies, on the penalty of forfeiting their stipends; but
any one who presumes to approach him, even in his rides or drives,
with a petition for justice, is instantly clapped into prison, or
otherwise severely punished.

His father and grandfather, while on the throne, used to see the
members of the royal family and aristocracy of the city in Durbar
once a-day, or three or four times a-week, and have all petitions
and reports read over in their own presence. They dictated the
orders, and their seal was affixed to them in their own presence,
bearing the inscription molahiza shud, “it has been seen.”
The seal was then replaced in the casket, which was kept by one
confidential servant, Muzd-od Dowlah, while the key was confided to
another. Documents were thus read and orders passed upon them twice
a-day-once in the morning, and once again in the evening; and, on
such occasions, all heads of departments were present. The present
King continued this system for a short time, but he soon got tired
of it, and made over seal and all to the minister, to do what he
liked with them; and discontinued altogether the short Durbar, or
levees, which his father, grandfather, and all former sovereigns
had held—before they entered on the business of the
day—with the heads of departments and secretaries, and at
which all the members of the royal family and aristocracy of the
city attended, to pay their respects to their sovereign; and soon
ceased altogether to see the heads of departments and secretaries,
to hear orders read, and to ask questions about state affairs.

The minister has become by degrees almost as inaccessible as his
sovereign, to all but his deputies, heads of departments,
secretaries, and Court favourites, whom it is his interest to
conciliate. Though the minister has his own confidential deputies
and secretaries, the same heads of departments are in office as
under the present King’s father and grandfather; and, though no
longer permitted to attend upon or see the King, they are still
supposed to submit to the minister, for orders, all reports from
local authorities, intelligence-writers, &c., and all petitions
from sufferers; but, in reality, he sees and hears read very few,
and passes orders upon still less. Any head of a department,
deputy, secretary, or favourite, may receive petitions, to be
submitted to the minister for orders; but it is the special duty of
no one to receive them, nor is any one held responsible for
submitting them for orders. Those only who are in the special
confidence of the minister, or of those about Court, from whom he
has something to hope or something to fear, venture to receive and
submit petitions; and they drive a profitable trade in doing so. A
large portion of those submitted are thrown aside, without any
orders at all; a portion have orders so written as to show that
they are never intended to be carried into effect; a third portion
receive orders that are really intended to be acted upon. But they
are taken to one of the minister’s deputies, with whose views or
interests some of them may not square well; and he may detain them
for weeks, months, or years, till the petitioners are worn out with
“hope deferred,” or utterly ruined, in vain efforts to purchase the
attention they require. Nothing is more common than for a
peremptory order to be passed for the immediate payment of the
arrears of pension due to a stipendiary member of the royal family,
and for the payment to be deferred for eight, ten, and twelve
months, till he or she consents to give from ten to twenty per
cent., according to his or her necessities, to the deputy, who has
to see the order carried out. A sufferer often, instead of getting
his petition smuggled on to the minister in the mode above
described, bribes a news-writer to insert his case in his report,
to be submitted through the head of the department.

At present the head of the intelligence department assumes the
same latitude, in submitting reports for orders to the minister,
that his subordinates in distant districts assume in framing and
sending them to him; that is, he submits only such as may suit his
views and interests to submit! Where grave charges are sent to him
against substantial men, or men high in office, he comes to an
understanding with their representatives in Lucknow, and submits
the report to the minister only as a dernière resort,
when such representatives cannot be brought to submit to his terms.
If found out, at any time, and threatened, he has his feed
patrons or patronesses “behind the throne, and
greater than the throne itself,” to protect him.

The unmeaning orders passed by the minister on reports and
petitions are commonly that so and so is to inquire into the
matter complained of; to see that the offenders are seized and
punished; that the stolen property and usurped lands be restored;
that razeenamas, or acquittances, be sent in by the friends
of persons who have been murdered by the King’s officers; that the
men, women, and children, confined and tortured by King’s officers,
or by robbers and ruffians, be set at liberty and satisfied; the
said so and so being the infant commander-in-chief, the
King’s chamberlain, footman, coachman, chief fiddler, eunuch,
barber, or person uppermost in his thoughts at the time. Similar
orders are passed in his name by his deputies, secretaries, and
favourites upon all the other numerous petitions and reports, which
he sends to them unperused. Not, perhaps, upon one in five does the
minister himself pass any order; and of the orders passed by him,
not one in five, perhaps, is intended to be taken notice of. His
deputies and favourites carry on a profitable trade in all such
reports and petitions: they extort money alike from the wrong-doer
and the wrong-sufferer; and from all local authorities, or their
representatives, for all neglect of duty or abuses, of authority
charged against them.

As to any investigation into the real merits of any case
described in these reports from the news-writers and local
authorities, no such thing has been heard of for several reigns.
The real merits of all such cases are, however, well and generally
known to the people of the districts in which they occur, and
freely discussed by them with suitable remarks on the “darkness
which prevails under the lamp of royalty;” and no less suitable
execrations against the intolerable system which deprives the King
of all feeling of interest in the well-being of his subjects, all
sense of duty towards them, all feeling of responsibility to any
higher power for the manner in which he discharges his high trust
over the millions committed to his care.

As I have said, the King never sees any petition or report: he
hardly ever sees even official notes addressed to him by the
British Resident, and the replies to almost all are written without
his knowledge.* The minister never puts either his seal or
signature to any order that passes, or any document whatsoever,
with his own hand: he merely puts in the date, as the 1st, 5th, or
10th; the month, year, and the order itself are inserted by the
deputies, secretaries, or favourites, to whom the duty is confided.
The reports and petitions submitted for orders often accumulate so
fast in times of great festivity or ceremony, that the minister has
them tied up in bundles, without any orders whatever having been
passed on them, and sent to his deputies for such as they may think
proper to pass, merely inserting his figure 1, 5, or 10, to
indicate the date, on the outermost document of each bundle. If any
orders are inserted by his deputies on the rest, they have only to
insert the same date. There is nothing but the figure to
attest the authenticity of the order; and it would be often
impossible for the minister himself to say whether the figure was
inserted by himself or by any other person. These deputies are the
men who adjust all the nuzuranas, or unauthorized gratuities, to be
paid to the minister.

[* On the 17th of October, 1850, Hassan Khan, one of the
khowas, or pages, whose special duty it is to deliver all
papers to the King, fell under his Majesty’s displeasure, and his
house was seized and searched. Several of the Resident’s official
notes were found unopened among his papers. They had been sent to
the palace as emergent many months before, but never shown to the
King. Such official notes from the Resident are hardly every shown
to the King, nor is he consulted about the orders to be passed upon
them.]

They share largely in all that he gets; and take a great deal,
for which they render him no account. Knowing all that he takes,
and ought not to take, he dares not punish them for their
transgressions; and knowing this, sufferers are afraid to complain
against them. In ordinary times, or under ordinary sovereigns, the
sums paid by revenue authorities in nazuranas, or
gratuities, before they were permitted to enter on their charges,
amounted to, perhaps, ten or fifteen per cent.: under the present
sovereign they amount, I believe, to more than twenty-five per
cent. upon the revenue they are to collect. Of these the minister
and his deputies take the largest part. A portion is paid in
advance, and good bonds are taken for the rest, to be paid within
the year. Of the money collected, more than twenty-five per cent.,
on an average, is appropriated by those intrusted with the
disbursements, and by their patrons and patronesses. The sovereign
gets, perhaps, three-fourths of what is collected; and of what is
collected, perhaps two-thirds, on an average, reaches its
legitimate destination; so that one-half of the revenues of Oude
may be considered as taken by officers and Court favourites in
unauthorized gratuities and perquisites. The pay of the troops and
establishments, on duty with the revenue collectors, is deducted by
them, and the surplus only is sent to the Treasury at Lucknow. In
his accounts he receives credit for all sums paid to the troops and
establishments on duty under him. Though the artillery-bullocks get
none of the grain, for which he pays and charges Government, a
greater portion of the whole of what he pays and charges in his
accounts reaches its legitimate destination, perhaps, than of the
whole of what is paid from the Treasury at the capital. On an
average, however, I do not think that more than two-thirds of what
is paid and charged to Government reaches that destination.

I may instance the two regiments, under Thakur Sing, Tirbaydee;
which are always on duty at the palace. It is known that the
officers and sipahees of those regiments do not get more than
one-half of the pay which is issued for them every month from the
Treasury; the other half is absorbed by the commandant and his
patrons at Court. On everything sold in the palace, the vender is
obliged to add one-third to the price, to be paid to the person
through whom it is passed in. Without this, nothing can be sold in
the palace by European or native. Not a single animal in the King’s
establishments gets one-third of the food allowed for it, and
charged for; not a building is erected or repaired at less than
three times the actual outlay, two-thirds at least of the money
charged going to the superintendent and his patrons.

December 23, 1849.—Halted at Sultanpoor, which is
one of the healthiest stations in India, on the right bank of the
Goomtee river, upon a dry soil, among deep ravines, which drain off
the water rapidly. The bungalows are on the verge, looking down
into the river, upon the level patches of land, dividing the
ravines. The water in the wells is some fifty feet below the
surface, on a level with the stream below. There are no groves
within a mile of the cantonments; and no lakes, marshes, or jungles
within a great many; and the single trees in and near the
cantonments are few. The gardens are small and few; and the water
is sparingly used in irrigating them, as the expense of drawing it
is very great.

There is another good site for a cantonment at Chandour, some
twelve miles up the river, on the opposite bank, and looking down
upon the stream, from the verge, in the same manner. Chandour was
chosen for his cantonments by Rajah Dursun Sing when he had the
contract for the district; and it would be the best place for the
head-quarters of any establishments, that any new arrangements
might require for the administration of the Sultanpoor and
surrounding districts. Secrora would be the best position for the
head-quarters of those required for the administration of the
Gonda-Bahraetch, and other surrounding districts. It is central,
and has always been considered one of the healthiest places in
Oude. It was long a cantonment for one of our regiments of infantry
and some guns, which were, in 1835, withdrawn, and sent to increase
the force at Lucknow, from two to three regiments of infantry. The
regiment and guns at Sultanpoor were taken away in 1837. Secrora
was, for some years after our regiment and guns had been withdrawn,
occupied by a regiment and guns under Captain Barlow, one of the
King of Oude’s officers; but it is now altogether deserted.
Sultanpoor has been, ever since 1837, occupied by one of the two
regiments of Oude local Infantry, without any guns or cavalry of
any kind. There was also a regiment of our regular infantry at
Pertabghur, three marches from Sultanpoor, on the road to
Allahabad, with a regiment of our light cavalry. The latter was
withdrawn in 1815 for the Nepaul war, and employed again under us
during the Mahratta war in 1817 and 1818. It was sent back again in
1820; but soon after, in 1821, withdrawn altogether, and we have
since had no cavalry of any kind in Oude. Seetapoor was also
occupied by one of our regular regiments of infantry and some guns
till 1837, when they were withdrawn, and their place supplied by
the second regiment of Oude Local Infantry. Our Government now pays
the two regiments of Oude Local Infantry stationed at Sultanpoor
and Seetapoor; but the places of those stationed at Secrora and
Pertabghur have never been supplied. One additional regiment of
infantry is kept at Lucknow, so that our force in Oude has only
been diminished by one regiment of infantry, one of cavalry, and
eight guns, with a company and half of artillery. To do our duty
honestly by Oude, we ought to restore the regiment of
infantry; and in the place of the corps of light, send one of
irregular cavalry. We ought also to restore the company and half of
artillery and eight guns which have been withdrawn. We draw
annually from the lands ceded to as in 1801, for the protection
which we promised to the King and his people from “all internal and
external enemies,” no less than two crores and twelve lacs of
rupees, or two millions sterling a-year; while the Oude Government
draws from the half of its territories which it reserved only
one-half that sum, or one crore of rupees.

Maun Sing is to leave my camp to-day, and return to Shahgunge.
Of the fraud and violence, abuse of power, and collusion with local
authorities, by which he and his father seized upon the lands of so
many hundreds of old proprietors, there can be no doubt; but to
attempt to make the family restore them now, under such a
government, would create great disorder, drive off all the better
classes of cultivators, and desolate the face of the country, which
they have rendered so beautiful by an efficient system of
administration. Many of the most powerful of the landed aristocracy
of Oude have acquired, or augmented, their estates in the same
manner and within the same time; and the same difficulty would
attend the attempt to restore the old proprietors in all parts. A
strong and honest government might overcome all these difficulties,
and restore to every rightful proprietor the land unjustly taken
from him, within a limited period; but it should not attempt to
enforce any adjustment of the accounts of receipts and
disbursements for the intervening period. The old proprietor would
receive back his land in an improved condition, and the usurper
might fairly be considered to have reimbursed himself for all his
outlay. The old proprietor should be required to pledge himself to
respect the rights of all new tenants.

December 24, 1849.—Meranpoor, twelve miles. Soil
between this and Sultanpoor neither so fertile nor so well
cultivated, as we found it on the other side of the Goomtee river,
though it is of the same denomination—generally doomut, but
here and there mutear. The term mutear embraces all good
argillaceous earth, from the light brown to the black, humic or
ulmic deposit, found in the beds of tanks and lakes in Oude. The
natives of Oude call the black soil of Malwa and southern India,
and Bundlekund, muteear. This black soil has in its
exhausted state abundance of silicates, sulphates, phosphates, and
carbonates of alumina, potassa, lime, &c., and of organic
acids, combined with the same unorganic substances, to attract and
fix ammonia, and collect and store up moisture, and is exceedingly
fertile and strong.

Both saltpetre and common salt are made by lixiviation from some
of the poor oosur soils; but, from the most barren in Oude,
carbonates of soda, used in making glass and soap,
are taken. The earth is collected from the surface of the most
barren spots and formed into small, shallow, round tanks, a yard in
diameter. Water is then poured in, and the tank filled to the
surface, with an additional supply of the earth, and smoothed over.
This tank is then left exposed to the sun for two days, during the
hottest and driest months of the year. March, April, and May, and
part of June, when the crust, formed on the surface, is taken off.
The process is repeated once; but in the second operation the tank
is formed around and below by the debris of the first tank, which
is filled to the surface, after the water has been poured in, with
the first crust obtained. The second crust is called the
reha, which is carbonate or bicarbonate of soda. This is
formed into small cakes, which are baked to redness in an oven, or
crucible, to expel the moisture and carbonic acid which it
contains. They are then powdered to fine dust, which is placed in
another crucible, and fused to liquid glass, the reha
containing in itself sufficient silica to form the coarse glass
used in making bracelets, &c.

A superabundance of nitrates seem also to impair or destroy
fertility in the soil, and they may arise from the decomposition of
animal or vegetable matter, in a soil containing a superabundance
of porous lime. The atmospheric air and water, contained in the
moist and porous soil, are decomposed. The hydrogen of the water
combines with the nitrogen of the air, and that given off by the
decomposing organic bodies, and forms ammonia. The nitrogen of the
ammonia then takes up the oxygen of the air and water, and becoming
nitric acid, forms nitrates with the lime, potash, soda, &c.,
contained in the soil. Without any superabundance of lime in the
soil, however, the same effects may be produced, when there is a
deficiency of decaying vegetable and animal matter, as the oxygen
of the decomposed air and water, having no organic substances to
unite with, may combine with the nitrogen of the ammonia, and form
nitric acid; which, uniting with the lime, potash, soda, &c.,
may form the superabounding nitrates destructive of fertility.

This superabundance of reha, or carbonate of soda, which renders
so much of the surface barren, must, I conclude, arise from
deposits of common salt, or chloride of sodium. The water, as it
percolates through these deposits towards the surface, becomes
saturated with their alkaline salts; and, as it reaches the surface
and becomes evaporated in the pure state, it leaves them behind at
or near the surface. On its way to the surface, or at the surface,
the chloride of sodium becomes decomposed by contact with
carbonates of ammonia and potassa—sulphuric and nitric
acids. In a soil well supplied with decaying animal or
vegetable matter, these carbonates or sulphates of soda, as they
rise to the surface, might be formed into nutriment for plants, and
taken up by their roots; or in one well flooded occasionally with
fresh water, any superabundance of the salts or their bases might
be taken up in solution and carried off. The people say, that the
soil in which these carbonates of soda (reha) abound, are more
unmanageable than those in which nitrates abound: they tell me
that, with flooding, irrigating, manuring, and well ploughing, they
can manage to get crops from all but the soils in which this
reha abounds.

The process above described, by which the bracelet makers
extract the carbonates of soda and potash from the earth of the
small, shallow tanks, is precisely the same as that by which they
are brought from the deep bed of earth below and deposited on or
near the surface. In both processes, the water which brings them
near the surface goes off into the atmosphere in a pure state, and
leaves the salts behind. To make soap from the reha, they must
first remove the silex which it contains.