Part 47 (2/2)

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

To the Hon. Colonel Low, C.B.

Lucknow, 11th September, 1854.

My Lord,

The post which this morning brought me your Lords.h.i.+p's letter of the 6th instant brought me also one from Bombay, which I enclose for your Lords.h.i.+p's perusal. Should you think it worth while, Colonel Outram will be able to sift the matter to which it refers. I have long been aware of the intrigue, and have taken care to let the King know that I am so; but as I knew, at the same time, that the object was merely to get money out of him, and to strengthen his confidence in his minister, which had begun to give way, I did not think it necessary to trouble your Lords.h.i.+p with any reference on the subject. I knew that letters had been forged as from the King of Persia to the King of Oude, proposing to divide Hindoostan between them, and I thought it to be my duty to tell him so, in order to warn him; but, as he denied ever having received such letters, I told him that I should take the word of a King, and say no more about it. He is certainly not of sound mind, and things must, ere long, come to a crisis. His mind may have been of an average kind when he was young, but it has long become emasculated by over-indulgence; and the minister and his minions can make him believe or do what they please. They know that it cannot last long, and they have agents in Bombay and Calcutta to a.s.sist them in fleecing the King of money on all manner of false pretences.

The minister, a consummate knave, and one of the most incompetent men of business that I have ever known, has all the revenues and patronage of the country to distribute among those who have access to the King exclusively--they are poets, fiddlers, eunuchs, and profligate women; and every one of them holds, directly or indirectly, some court or other, fiscal, criminal, or civil, through which to fleece the people. Anything so detestable as the Government I have nowhere witnessed, and a man less competent to govern them than the King I have never known.

Had your Lords.h.i.+p left the choice of a successor to me, I should have pointed out Colonel Outram; and I feel very much rejoiced that he has been selected for the office, and I hope he will come as soon as possible. There are many honest men at Lucknow, and a finer peasantry no country can boast. But no honest man can obtain or retain office under Government with the present minister and heads of departments.

But where the whole revenues of a fine country are available to suborn witnesses to prove the King to be a _Solomon_, no Resident would be able to find judicial proof of his being a fool; but that he is so I have had abundance of, to me, satisfactory evidence ever since I have been here. It must soon, however, become clear, without the Resident's efforts to make it so. Where the Government of India is so solemnly pledged to see justice done to the people of a country, it cannot fairly permit them to be reigned over much longer by so incompetent a Sovereign. Proofs enough of bad government and neglected duties were given in my Diary; and a picture more true was, I believe, never drawn of any country. The duty of remedying the evils, and carrying out your Lords.h.i.+p's views in Oude, whatever they may be, must now devolve on another.

No one of my present a.s.sistants knows anything whatever about Oude, its Government, or its people; and Colonel Outram will, therefore, labour under great disadvantages. I hope, therefore, that your Lords.h.i.+p will pardon the liberty I take in suggesting that he be allowed the aid of Captain Weston. He went over the whole of Oude with me, and knows almost all who have made themselves prominent for good or for evil within the last five years. I know that, as soon as I go, some of the most atrocious villains whom I have kept out of office will try to purchase their way back; and there is no man too bad for the minister, provided he pays for his restoration.--The murderer of the banker, mentioned in my Diary, vol. i., p. 131, and the murderer of thousands mentioned in the same volume. Captain Weston is high minded, sagacious, energetic, hard-working, conciliatory and, to Colonel Outram, his services in the new charge would be invaluable.

I have the honour to remain, Your Lords.h.i.+p's faithful and obedient servant, (Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

To the Most n.o.ble The Marquis of Dalhousie, K.T.

Governor-General.

THE END.

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