Part 7 (1/2)

The whole family are most anxious that the King should resign the reins into abler hands, and would, I feel a.s.sured, 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 const.i.tuted, 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 _elite_ 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 a.s.sured that they will not be removed so long as they do their duty ably and honestly, and will get pensions if their services are dispensed with after a time. This is all I shall say at present.

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

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

_________

Lucknow.

My Lord,

My Official Report went off on the 25th instant, and will have been submitted, for your Lords.h.i.+p'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 a.s.sociates 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 pa.s.s through the different palaces. The profligacy that exists within the palace pa.s.ses 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 Lords.h.i.+p 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 a.s.sa.s.sins 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 Lords.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+nes.” The troops are everywhere in a state bordering on mutiny, but more particularly in and about the capital, because they cannot indemnify themselves by the plunder of the people as those in the distant districts do.

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

With great respect I remain, Your Lords.h.i.+p's obedient, humble servant,

(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

To the Most n.o.ble 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.