A Journey through the Kingdom of Oude, Volumes I & II
by Sir W. H. Sleeman · English · Gutenberg #16997 · 1,517,038 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: A Journey through the Kingdom of Oude, Volumes I & II
Author: Sir W. H. Sleeman
Release date: November 4, 2005 [eBook #16997]
Most recently updated: December 12, 2020
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A JOURNEY THROUGH THE KINGDOM OF OUDE, VOLUMES I & II ***
Produced by Philip Hitchcock
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.*
W. H. SLEEMAN.
Lucknow, 1852.
* This permission was accorded by the Honourable Court of Directors
in December last.
[Transcriber's note: _Rambles and Recollections of an Indian
Official_ by W. H. Sleeman 2nd Ed. 1915, p.xxxvi notes that the date
of the permission was not December 1851, but December 1852.]
CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
Biographical Sketch of Major-General Sir W. H. Sleeman, K.C.B.
Introduction
Private correspondence preceding the Journey through the Kingdom of
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
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.
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.
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.
CHAPTER V.
Salone district--Rajah Lal Hunmunt Sing of Dharoopoor--Soil of Oude--
Relative fertility of the _mutteear_ and _doomutteea_--Either may
become _oosur_, or barren, from neglect, and is reclaimed, when it
does so, with difficulty--Shah Puna Ata, a holy man in charge of an
eleemosynary endowment at Salone--Effects of his curses--Invasion of
British Boundary--Military Force with the Nazim--State and character
of this Force--Rae Bareilly in the Byswara district--Bandha, or
Misletoe--Rana Benee Madhoo, of Shunkerpoor--Law of Primogeniture--
Title of Rana contested between Benee Madhoo and Rogonath Sing--
Bridge and avenue at Rae Bareilly--Eligible place for cantonment and
civil establishments--State of the Artillery--Sobha Sing's regiment--
Foraging System--Peasantry follow the fortunes of their refractory
Landlords--No provision for the king's soldiers, disabled in action,
or for the families of those who are killed--Our sipahees, a
privileged class, very troublesome in the Byswara and Banoda
districts--Goorbukshgunge--Man destroyed by an Elephant--Danger to
which keepers of such animals are exposed--Bys Rajpoots composed of
two great families, Sybunsies and Nyhassas--Their continual contests
for landed possessions--Futteh Bahader--Rogonath Sing--Mahibollah the
robber and estate of Balla--Notion that Tillockchundee Bys Rajpoots
never suffer from the bite of a snake--Infanticide--Paucity of
comfortable dwelling-houses--The cause--Agricultural capitalists--
Ornaments and apparel of the females of the Bys clan--Late Nazim Hamid
Allee--His father-in-law Fuzl Allee--First loan from Oude to our
Government--Native gentlemen with independent incomes cannot reside
in the country--Crowd the city, and tend to alienate the Court from
the people.
CHAPTER VI.
Nawabgunge, midway between Cawnpoor and Lucknow--Oosur soils how
produced--Visit from the prime minister--Rambuksh, of Dhodeeakhera--
Hunmunt Sing, of Dharoopoor--Agricultural capitalists--Sipahees and
native offices of our army--Their furlough, and petitions--
Requirements of Oude to secure good government. The King's reserved
treasury--Charity distributed through the _Mojtahid_, or chief
justice--Infanticide--Loan of elephants, horses, and draft bullocks
by Oude to Lord Lake in 1804--Clothing for the troops--The Akbery
regiment--Its clothing, &c.,--Trespasses of a great man's camp in
Oude--Russoolabad and Sufeepoor districts--Buksh Allee, the dome--
Budreenath, the contractor for Sufeepoor--Meeangunge--Division of the
Oude Territory in 1801, in equal shares between Oude and the British
Governments--Almas Allee Khan--His good government--The passes of
Oude--Thieves by hereditary profession, and village watchmen--
Rapacity of the King's troops--Total absence of all sympathy between
the governing and governed--Measures necessary to render the Oude
troops efficient and less mischievous to the people--Sheikh Hushmut
Allee, of Sundeela.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
of
MAJOR-GENERAL SIR W. H. SLEEMAN. K.C.B.
_______________________
This distinguished officer, whose career in India extended over a
period of forty years, and whose services were highly appreciated by
three Governors-General--Viscount Hardinge, the Earl of Ellenborough,
and the Marquess of Dalhousie--evinced by their appointing him to the
most difficult and delicate duties--was the son of Philip and Mary
Sleeman, and was born at Stratton, Cornwall, 8th August, 1788. In
early years he evinced a predilection for the military profession;
and at the age of twenty-one (October, 1809), through the good
offices of the late Lord De Dunstanville, he was appointed an
Infantry Cadet in the Bengal army. Thither he proceeded as soon as
possible, and was promoted successively to the rank of Ensign, 23rd
September, 1810; Lieutenant, 16th December, 1814; Brevet-Captain,
24th April, 1824; Captain, 23rd September, 1826; Major, 1st February,
1837; Lieutenant-Colonel, 26th May, 1843; Colonel, 24th November,
1853; and obtained the rank of Major-General 28th November, 1854.
Early in his career he served in the Nepaulese war. The value of his
talents soon became known, and in 1816, when it was considered
necessary to investigate a claim to property as prize-money arising
out of that war, Lieutenant Sleeman was selected to inquire into it.
The report was accordingly made by him in February 1817, which was
designated by the Government as "able, impartial, and satisfactory."
In 1820 he was appointed junior Assistant to the Agent of the
Governor-General at Saugur, and remained in the Civil Department in
the Saugur and Nerbudda territories, with the exception of absence on
sick certificate, for nearly a quarter of a century. Here he
manifested that, if he had been efficient in an inferior position, he
was also an able administrator in a superior post. He distinguished
himself so much by his activity in the suppression of the horrible
practice of Thuggism, then so prevalent, that, in 1835, he was
employed exclusively in the Thuggee Department; his appointment in
the Saugur and Nerbudda districts being kept open, and his promotion
going on. The very valuable Papers upon Thuggism submitted to the
Governor-General were chiefly drawn up by Sir William Sleeman, and
the department specially commissioned for this important purpose was
not only organised but worked by him. In consequence of ill-health,
however, at the end of 1836, he was compelled to resign this
appointment; but on his return to duty in February 1839, he was
nominated to the combined offices of Commissioner for the Suppression
of Thuggee and Dacoity.
In 1842 he was employed on a special mission in Bundelcund, to
inquire into the causes of the recent disturbances there, and he
remained in that district, with additional duties, as Resident at
Gwalior, from 1844 until 1849, when he was removed to the highly
important office of Resident at the Court of Lucknow. Colonel Sleeman
held his office at Gwalior in very critical times, which resulted in
hostilities and the battle of Maharajpore. But for a noble and
unselfish act he would have received this promotion at an earlier
period. The circumstance was this: Colonel Low, the Resident at that
time, hearing that his father was dangerously ill, tendered his
resignation to Lord Auckland, who immediately offered the appointment
to Colonel Sleeman. No sooner had this occurred, however, than
Colonel Low wrote to his Lordship that, since he had resigned, the
house of Gaunter and Co., of Calcutta, in which his brother was a
partner, had failed, and, in consequence, every farthing he had saved
had been swept away. Under this painful contingency be begged to
place himself in his Lordship's hands. This letter was sent by Lord
Auckland to Colonel Sleeman, who immediately wrote to Colonel Low,
begging that he would retain his situation at Lucknow. This generous
conduct of Colonel Sleeman was duly appreciated; and Lord Auckland,
on leaving India, recommended him to the particular notice of his
successor. Lord Ellenborough, who immediately appointed Colonel
Sleeman to Jhansi with an additional 1000_l_. a-year to his income.
Colonel Sleeman held the appointment of Resident at Lucknow from the
year 1849 until 1856. During this period his letters and diary show
his unwearied efforts to arrive at the best information on all points
with regard to Oude. These will enable the reader to form a just,
opinion on the highly-important subject of the annexation of this
kingdom to British India. The statements of Colonel Sleeman bear
inward evidence of his great administrative talents, his high and
honourable character, and of his unceasing endeavours to promote the
best interests of the King of Oude, so that his kingdom might have
been preserved to him. Colonel Sleeman's views were directly opposed
to annexation, as his letters clearly show.
His long and arduous career was now, however, fast drawing to a
close. So early as the summer of 1854 it became evident that the
health of General Sleeman was breaking up, and in the August of that
year he was attacked by alarming illness. "Forty-six years of
incessant labour," observes a writer at this date, "have had their
influence even on his powerful frame: he has received one of those
terrible warnings believed to indicate the approach of paralysis.
With General Sleeman will depart the last hope of any improvement in
the condition of the unhappy country of Oude. Though belonging to the
elder class of Indian officials, he has never been Hindooized. He
fully appreciated the evils of a native throne: he has sternly, and
even haughtily, pointed out to the King the miseries caused by his
incapacity, and has frequently extorted from his fears the mercy
which it was vain to hope from his humanity."
Later in the year. General Sleeman went to the hills, in the hope of
recruiting his wasted health by change of air and scene; but the
expectation proved vain, and he was compelled to take passage for
England. But it was now too late: notwithstanding the best medical
aid, he gradually sank, and, after a long illness, died on his
passage from Calcutta, on the 10th February, 1856, at the age of
sixty-seven.
His Indian career was, indeed, long and honourable his labours most
meritorious. He was one of those superior men which the Indian
service is constantly producing, who have rendered the name of
Englishman respected throughout the vast empire of British India, and
whose memory will endure so long as British power shall remain in the
East.
It is well known that Lord Dalhousie, on his relinquishing the Indian
Government, recommended General Sleeman and two other distinguished
officers in civil employment for some mark of the royal favour, and
he was accordingly nominated K.C.B., 4th February, 1856; of which
honour his Lordship apprised him in a highly gratifying letter.
But, however high the reputation of an officer placed in such
circumstances--and none stood higher than Sir William Sleeman, not
only in the estimation of the Governor-General and the Honourable
Company, but also in the opinion of the inhabitants of India, where
he had served with great ability for forty years, and won the respect
and love particularly of the natives, who always regarded him as
their friend, and by whom his equity was profoundly appreciated--it
was to be anticipated, as a matter of course, that his words and
actions would be distorted and misrepresented by a Court so
atrociously infamous. This, no doubt, he was prepared to expect, The
King, or rather the creatures who surrounded him, would at all cost
endeavour to prevent any investigation into their gross malpractices,
and seek to slander the man they were unable to remove.
The annexation of Oude to the British dominions followed, but not as
a consequence of Sir W. Sleeman's report. No greater injustice can be
done than to assert that he advised such a course. His letters prove
exactly the reverse. He distinctly states, in his correspondence with
the Governor-General, Lord Dalhousie, that the annexation of Oude
would cost the British power more than the value of ten such
kingdoms, and would inevitably lead to a mutiny of the Sepoys. He
constantly maintains the advisability of frontier kingdoms under
native sovereigns, that the people themselves might observe the
contrast, to the advantage of the Honourable Company, of the wise and
equitable administration of its rule compared with the oppressive and
cruel despotism of their own princes. Sir William Sleeman had
profoundly studied the Indian character in its different races, and
was deservedly much beloved by them for his earnest desire to promote
their welfare, and for the effectual manner in which, on all
occasions in his power, and these were frequent, he redressed the
evils complained of, and extended the _Ægis_ of British power over
the afflicted and oppressed.
__________________________
INTRODUCTION.
THE following Narrative of a "Pilgrimage" through the kingdom of Oude
was written by the late Major-General Sir William Sleeman in 1851
(while a Resident at the Court of Lucknow), at the request of the
Governor-General the Marquess of Dalhousie, in order to acquaint the
Honourable Company with the actual condition of that kingdom, and
with the view of pointing out the best measures to be suggested to
the King for the improvement and amelioration of the country and
people.
So early as October, 1847, the King of Oude had been informed by the
Governor-General, that if his system of rule were not materially
amended (for it was disgraceful and dangerous to any neighbouring
power to permit its continuance in its present condition) before two
years had expired, the British Government would find it necessary to
take steps for such purpose in his name. Accordingly on the 16th
September, 1848, the Governor-General addressed the following letter
to Sir William Sleeman, commissioning him to make a personal visit to
all parts of the kingdom:--
"_Government House, Sept_. 16, 1848.
"My Dear COLONEL SLEEMAN,--It was a matter of regret to me that I had
not anticipated your desire to succeed Colonel Sutherland in
Rajpootana before I made arrangements which prevented my offering
that appointment to you. I now regret it no longer, since the course
of events has put it in my power to propose an arrangement which
will, I apprehend, be more agreeable to you, and which will make your
services more _actively_ beneficial to the State.
"Colonel Richmond has intimated his intention of immediately
resigning the Residency at Lucknow. The communication made by the
Governor-General to the King of Oude, in October, 1847, gave His
Majesty to understand that if the condition of Government was not
very materially amended before two years had expired, the management
for his behoof would be taken into the hands of the British
Government.
"There seems little reason to expect or to hope that in October,
1849, any amendment whatever will have been effected. The
reconstruction of the internal administration of a great, rich, and
oppressed country, is a noble as well as an arduous task for the
officer to whom the duty is intrusted, and the Government have
recourse to one of the best of its servants for that purpose.
"The high reputation you have earned, your experience of civil
administration, your knowledge of the people, and the qualifications
you possess as a public man, have led me to submit your name to the
Council of India as an officer to whom I could commit this important
charge with entire confidence that its duties would be well
performed. I do myself, therefore, the honour of proposing to you to
accept the office of Resident at Lucknow, with especial reference to
the great changes which, in all probability, will take place.
Retaining your superintendency of Thuggee affairs, it will be
manifestly necessary that you should be relieved from the duty
of the trials of Thugs usually condemned at Lucknow.
"In the hope that you will not withhold from the Government your
services in the capacity I have named, and in the further hope of
finding an opportunity of personally making your acquaintance,
"I have the honour to be,
"Dear Colonel Sleeman,
"Very faithfully yours,
"DALHOUSIE."
"To Colonel Sleeman, &c., &c."
Immediately on receipt of this despatch, Sir William proceeded to
make the necessary inquiry. Doubtless the King (instigated by his
Ministers and favourites, who dreaded the exposure of all their
infamous proceedings) would have prevented this investigation, which,
he was aware, would furnish evidence of gross mal-administration,
cruelty, and oppression almost unparalleled; but Sir William Sleeman
was too well acquainted with the character of the people of the East
to be moved either by cajolery or menaces from the important duty
which had devolved upon him.
Sir William Sleeman's position as Resident enabled him to ascertain
thoroughly the real state of Oude; and the great respect with which
he was universally received manifests the high opinion entertained of
him personally by all ranks. The details he has given of the
prevailing anarchy and lawlessness throughout the kingdom, would
scarcely be believed were they not vouched for by an officer of
established reputation and integrity. Firmness united to amenity of
manner were indeed the characteristics of Sir William in his
important and delicate office at such a Court--a Court where the
King, deputing the conduct of business to Ministers influenced by the
basest motives, and who constantly sacrificed justice to bribery and
low intrigues, gave himself up to the effeminate indulgence of his
harem, and the society of eunuchs and fiddlers. His Majesty appears
to have been governed by favourites of the hour selected through
utter caprice, and to have permitted, if he did not order, such
atrocious cruelties and oppression as rendered the kingdom of Oude a
disgrace to the British rule in India, and called for strong
interference, on the score of humanity alone, as well as with the
hope of compelling amendment.
The letter addressed by Lord Dalhousie to Sir William Sleeman
expresses the desire of the Governor-General that he should endeavour
to inform himself of the actual state of Oude, and render his
Narrative a guide to the Honourable Company in its Report to the
Court of Directors. The details furnish but too faithful a picture of
the miserable condition of the people, equally oppressed by the
exactions of the King's army and collectors, and by the gangs of
robbers and lawless chieftains who infest the whole territory,
rendering tenure so doubtful that no good dwellings could be erected,
and land only partially cultivated; whilst the numberless cruelties
and atrocious murders surpass belief. Shut up in his harem, the voice
of justice seldom reached the ear of the monarch, and when it did,
was scarcely heeded. The Resident, it will be seen, was beset during
his journey with petitions for redress so numerous, that, anxious as
he was to do everything in his power to mitigate the horrors he
witnessed, he frequently gives vent to the pain he experienced at
finding relief impracticable.
The Narrative contains an unvarnished but unexaggerated picture of
the actual state of Oude, with many remedial suggestions; but direct
annexation formed no part of the policy which Sir William Sleeman
recommended. To this measure he was strenuously opposed, as is
distinctly proved by his letters appended to the Journal. At the same
time, he repeatedly affirms the total unfitness of the King to
govern. These opinions are still further corroborated by the
following letter from his private correspondence, 1854-5, written
when Resident at Lucknow, and published in the _Times_ in November
last:--
"The system of annexation, pursued by a party in this country, and
favoured by Lord Dalhousie and his Council, has, in my opinion, and
in that of a large number of the ablest men in India, a downward
tendency--a tendency to crush all the higher and middle classes
connected with the land. These classes it should be our object to
create and foster, that we might in the end inspire them with a
feeling of interest in the stability of our rule. _We shall find a
few years hence the tables turned against us_. In fact, the
aggressive and absorbing policy, which has done so much mischief of
late in India, is beginning to create feelings of alarm in the native
mind; and it is when the popular mind becomes agitated by such alarms
that fanatics will always be found ready to step into Paradise over
the bodies of the most prominent of those from whom injury is
apprehended. I shall have nothing new to do at Lucknow. Lord
Dalhousie and I have different views, I fear. If he wishes anything
done that I do not think right and honest, I resign, and leave it to
be done by others. I desire a strict adherence to solemn engagements,
whether made with white faces or black. We have no right to annex or
confiscate Oude; but we have a right, under the treaty of 1837, to
take the management of it, but not to appropriate its revenues to
ourselves. We can do this with honour to our Government and benefit
to the people. To confiscate would be dishonest and dishonourable. To
annex would be to give the people a government almost as bad as their
own, if we put our screw upon them. My position here has been and is
disagreeable and unsatisfactory: we have a fool of a king, a knave of
a minister, and both are under the influence of one of the cleverest,
most intriguing, and most unscrupulous villains in India."
Major Bird, in his pamphlet "Dacoitee in Excelsis," while
endeavouring to establish a case for the King of Oude, has assumed
that Sir William Sleeman was an instrument in the hands of Lord
Dalhousie, to carry out his purpose of annexing Oude to British
India. The letters, now first printed, entirely refute this hasty and
erroneous statement. Major Bird has, in fact, withdrawn it himself in
a lecture delivered by him at Southampton on Tuesday, the 16th of
February, 1858.
It will be seen that Sir W. Sleeman's "Diary" commences on December
1, 1849. To preserve chronological order, the letters written before
that date are prefixed; those which refer to a later period are added
at the end of the narrative.
__________________________
PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE
PRECEDING THE JOURNEY THROUGH THE KINGDOM OF OUDE.
Camp, 20th February, 1848.
My Dear Sir,
I thank you for your letter of the 10th instant, and am of opinion
that you may be able to make good use of Bhurut Sing under judicious
management, and strict surveillance; but you do not mention who and
what he is--whether he is a prisoner under sentence, or a free agent,
or of what caste and profession. Some men make these offers in order
to have opportunities of escape, while engaged in the pretended
search after associates in crime; others to extort money from those
whom they may denounce, or have the authority and means to arrest. He
should be made to state distinctly the evidence he has against
persons, and the way he got it; and all should be recorded against
the names of the persons in a Register. Major Riddell is well
acquainted with our mode of proceedings in all such cases, and I
recommend you to put yourself in communication, as soon as possible,
with him, and Mr. Dampier, the Superintendent of Police, who
fortunately takes the greatest possible interest in all such matters.
I have no supervision whatever over the officers of the department
employed in Bengal; all rests entirely with Mr. Dampier. You might
write to him at once, and tell him that you are preparing such a
Register as I suggest; and if he is satisfied with the evidence, he
will authorise the arrest of all or part, and well reward Bhurut Sing
for his services.
Believe me, My Dear Sir,
With best wishes for your success,
Yours sincerely,
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.
To Capt. J. Innes,
Barrackpoor.
_________________________
Camp, 20th February, 1848.
My Dear Colonel Sutherland,
There are at Jubulpore a good many of the Bagree decoits, who have
been sentenced as approvers, by the Courts of Punchaet, in
Rajpootana, to imprisonment for very short periods. Unless they are
ordered to be retained when these periods expire, on a requisition of
security for their future good behaviour, they will make off, and
assuredly return to their hereditary trade. The ordinary pay of the
grades open to them in our police and other establishments, will not
satisfy them when they find that we have no hold upon them, and they
become more and more troublesome as the time for their enlargement
approaches.
I send you copies of the letters from Government of the 27th June,
1839, from which you will see that it was intended that all
professional decoits who gave us their services on a promise of
conditional pardon, should have a sentence of imprisonment for life
recorded against them, the execution of which was to be suspended
during their good behaviour, and eventually altogether remitted in
cases where they might be deemed to have merited, by a course of true
and faithful services, such an indulgence. In all other parts, as
well as in our own provinces as in native states, such sentences,
have been recorded against these men, and they have cheerfully
submitted to them, under the assurance that they and their children
would be provided with the means of earning an honest livelihood; but
in Rajpootana it has been otherwise.
By Act 24, of 1843, all such professional gang-robbers are declared
liable to a sentence, on conviction, of imprisonment for life; and
everywhere else a sentence of imprisonment for life has been passed
upon all persons convicted of being gang-robbers by profession. This
is indispensably necessary for the entire suppression of the system
which Government has in view. Do you not think that in your Courts
the final sentence might be left to the European functionaries, and
the verdict only left to the Punchaets? The greater part of those
already convicted in these Courts will have to be released soon, and
all who are so will certainly return to their trade; and the system
will continue in spite of all our efforts to put it down. I have just
been at Jubulpore, and the bearing of the Bagree decoits, sent from
Ajmeer by Buch, is quite different from that of those who have had a
sentence of imprisonment for life passed against them in other
quarters, and is very injurious to them, for they get so bad a name
that no one will venture to give them service of any kind. Do, I pray
you, think of a remedy for the future. The only one that strikes me
is that above suggested, of leaving the final sentence to the
European officers.
I need not say that I was delighted at your getting the great Douger
Sing by the means you had yourself proposed for the pursuit--sending
an officer with authority to disregard boundaries.
Yours sincerely,
(Signed) W. S. SLEEMAN
To Col. Sutherland.
______________________________
Jhansee, 4th March, 1848.
My Lord,
I had the gratification to receive your Lordship's letter of the 7th
of January last, at Nursingpore, in the valley of the Nerbudda, where
I commenced my Civil career more than a quarter of a century before,
and where, of all places, I should have wished to receive so gracious
a testimonial from such high authority. I should have earlier
expressed by grateful acknowledgments, and prepared the narrative so
frequently called for, but I was then engaged in preparing a Report
on Gang-robbery in India, and wished first to make a little more
progress, that I might be able to speak more confidently of its
ultimate completion and submission to Government. In a less perfect
form this Report was, at the earnest recommendation of the then
Lieut.-Governor N.W.P., the Honourable T. Robertson, and with the
sanction of the Governor-General Lord Auckland, sent to the
Government press so long back as 1842, but his Lordship appeared to
me to think that the printing had better be deferred till more
progress had been made in the work of putting down the odious system
of crime which the Report exposed, and I withdrew it from the press
with little hope of ever again having any leisure to devote to it, or
finding any other person able and willing to undertake its
completion.
During the last rains, however, I began again to arrange the confused
mass of papers which I found lying in a box; but in October I was
interrupted by a severe attack of fever, and unable to do anything
but the current duties of my office till I commenced my tour through
the Saugor territories, in November. I have since nearly completed
the work, and hope to be able to submit it to Government before the
end of this month in a form worthy of its acceptation.
I am afraid that the narrative of my humble services will be found
much longer than it ought to be, but I have written it hastily that
it might go by this mail, and it is the first attempt I have ever
thought of making at such a narrative, for I have gone on quietly
"through evil and through good report," doing, to the best of my
ability, the duties which it has pleased the Government of India,
from time to time, to confide to me, in the manner which appeared to
me most conformable to its wishes and its honour, satisfied and
grateful for the trust and confidence which enabled me to do so much
good for the people, and to secure so much of their attachment and
gratitude to their rulers.
Permit me to subscribe myself, with great respect, Your Lordship's
faithful and obedient humble servant,
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.
To Lieut.-General the Right Hon.
Henry Viscount Hardinge,
&c. &c. &c.
_________________________
Jhansee, 4th March, 1848.
Dear Sir,
Lord Hardinge, in a letter dated the 7th of January last, requested
me to make out a narrative of my humble services in India, and to
send it under cover to you, as he expected to embark on the 15th,
before he could receive it in Calcutta. I take the liberty to send my
reply with the narrative, open, and to request that you will do me
the favour to have them sealed and forwarded to his Lordship.
Believe me, dear Sir,
Yours very faithfully,
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.
To J. Cosmo Melvill,
Secretary to the East India Company,
India House, London.
_________________________
Jhansee, 28th March, 1848.
My Dear Elliot,
The Court of Directors complain that decoit prisoners are not tried
as soon as they are caught, but they know little of the difficulties
that the officers under me find in getting them tried, for political
officers have, in truth, had little encouragement to undertake such
duties, and it is only a few choice spirits that have entered upon
the duty _con amore_. General Nott prided, himself upon doing nothing
whatever while he was at Lucknow; General Pollock did all he could,
but it was not much; and Colonel Richmond does nothing. There the
Buduk decoits, Thugs, and poisoners, remain without sentences, and
will do so till Richmond goes, unless you give him a fillip. If you
tell him to apply for an assistant to aid him in the conduct of the
trials, and tell him to nominate his own, he may go to work, and I
earnestly pray you to do something, or the Oude Turae will become
what it had for ages been before we cleaned it out. Davidson was
prevented from doing anything by technical difficulties, so that out
of _four Residents we have not got four days' work_.
You will soon get my Report, and it will be worth having, and the
last I shall make on crime in India.
If Hercules had not had better instruments he could not so easily
have cleared out his stable; but he had no "Honourable Court" to find
fault with his mode of doing the thing, I conclude. The fact is,
however, that our prisoners are pretty well tried before they get
into quod. Mr. Bird will be delighted at the manner in which he is
introduced in my first chapter, and many another good officer well
pleased.
Yours sincerely,
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.
To H. M. Elliot, Esq.,
Secretary to the Government of India,
Calcutta.
_________________________________
Jhansee, 29th March, 1848.
My Dear Maddock,
I hope you will not disapprove of the resolution to which I have come
of resigning the charge of the Saugor territories, now that
tranquillity has been restored,--the best possible feelings among the
people prevail, and the object you had in view in recommending Lord
Ellenborough to confide that charge to me has been effected,--or of
the manner in which I have tendered my resignation. Were I longer to
retain the charge, I should be subjected to humiliations which the
exigencies of the public service do not require that I should at this
time of life submit to, and I shall have enough of labour and anxiety
in the charge that will still remain to me. If an opening for Sir R.
Shakespear could be found, his salary might be saved by my residence
being transferred to Gwalior. If either Hamilton or I were to be
removed to some other post, it would be well to reduce Gwalior and
Indore to political agencies, under the supervision of an agent, as
in Rajpootana, with Bundelcund added to his charge. The latter of
these two measures has, you know, been under consideration, and was,
I think, proposed by Sutherland when you were at Gwalior with Lord
Auckland. Had the Lieutenant-Governor known more of the Saugor
territories when he wrote the paper on which Government is now
acting, he would not, I think, have described the state of things as
he has done, or urged the introduction of the system which must end
in minutely subdividing all leases, and in having all questions
regarding land tenures removed into the civil Courts, as in the
provinces. It is the old thing, "nothing like leather." I shall not
weary you by anything more on this subject. I hope a good man will be
selected for the charge. The selection of Mr. M. Smith as successor
to Mr. Brown was a good one. My letter will go off to-day, and be, I
trust, well received. I am grieved that Clerk has been obliged to
quit his post; he has been throughout his career an ornament to your
service, but his friends seem all along to have apprehended that he
could not long stand the climate of Bombay. I am anxious to learn how
long you are to remain in Council.
Yours very sincerely,
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.
To the Hon. Sir T. H. Maddock,
&c. &c. &c.
_______________________________
Jhansee, 2nd April, 1848.
My Dear Elliot,
Till I this morning got the public letter, which will go off to-day,
I never heard one word about Shakespear's intention or wish to go to
the hills, and only thirteen days remain. The orders of Government as
to his _locum tenens_ cannot reach me by the 15th, when he is to
leave, and I shall have to put in some one to take charge, as there
is a treasury under his management.
If Government wish to take Major Stevens from the Byza Bae, and give
him some other employment, he might be sent to act for Captain Ross;
but I know nothing of his fitness for such an office.
I believe you know Captain Ross, and I need say nothing more than
what I have said in my public letter. If he be sent to Gwalior, I
hope a good officer may be sent to act for him in Thalone, for the
duties are very heavy and responsible. Blake will do very well, and
so would his second in command, Captain Erskine, of the 73rd, who is
an excellent civil officer. I must pray you to let me have the orders
of Government on the subject as soon as possible.
Yours sincerely,
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.
P.S.--I should consider Major Stevens an able man for a civil charge,
but have never seen him.
(Signed) W. H. S.
To H. M. Elliot, Esq.,
&c. &c.
__________________________
Jhansee, 6th May, 1848.
My Dear Maddock,
Your kind letter of the 21st ultimo had prepared me for the public
one of the 28th, which I got yesterday from Elliot, and I wrote off
at once, to say simply that I should be glad to suspend or to
withdraw the application contained in my letter of the 29th of March,
as might appear best to Government; and that I should not have made
it at all, had I apprehended that a compliance with it would have
been attended with any inconvenience.
With the knowledge I have acquired of the duties of the several
officers, and the entire command of my time here at a quiet place,
and long-established methodical habits, I can get through the work
very well, though it becomes trying sometimes. Arrears I never allow
to accumulate, and regular hours, and exercise, and sparing diet,
with water beverage, keep me always in condition for office work. I
often wish that you could have half the command of your hours, mode
of living, and movements, that I have. However, they will soon be
much more free than mine. I am very glad that you have the one year
more for a wind up; and hope that good fortune will attend you to the
last. You say nothing, however, about your foot. The papers and
letters from home have just come in. I hear that Lord John is very
unwell, and will not be able to stand the work many months more, and
that Sir R. Peel is obliged to be _cupped_ once a-week, and could not
possibly take office. Who is to take helm in the troubled ocean, no
one knows. I am glad that Metternich has been kicked out, for he and
Louis Philippe are the men that have put in peril the peace and
institutions of all Europe. I only wish that the middle class was as
strong in France as it is in England; it is no doubt infinitely
stronger than it was; while the lower order is better than that of
England, I believe, for such occasions. They have good men now in the
provisional Government--so they had in 1788; and, like them, the
present men will probably be swept away by the mob. They are not,
however, likely to be embarrassed by other nations, since the days of
Pitt and George III. are passed away, and so are the feudal times
when the barons could get up civil wars for their own selfish
purposes. There are no characters sufficiently prominent to get up a
civil war, but the enormous size of the army is enough to create
feelings of disquiet. It is, however, officered from the middle
classes, who have property at stake, and must be more or less
interested in the preservation of order.
The Government has no money to send to Algiers, and must reduce its
strength there, so that Egypt is in no danger at present; were it so,
we should be called upon to defend it from India, and could well do
so. It is evident that the whole French nation was alienated from
Louis Philippe, and prepared to cast off him and all his family,
though, as you say, I do not believe that there was anywhere any
design to oust him and put down monarchy. Had he thrown off Guizot a
little sooner, and left some able military leaders free to act, the
_émeute_ would have been put down; but those who could have acted did
not feel free to do so: they did not feel sure of the king, while
they were sure of the odium of the people. I am not at all sorry for
the change. I am persuaded that it will work good for Europe; but
still its peace and best institutions are in peril at present. We are
in no danger here, because people do not understand such things; and
because England is in a prouder position than ever, and will, I
trust, retain it.
Lord Grey seems an able man at home, but he is, I believe, hot-
headed, and Lord Stanley is ten times worse; he would soon have up
the barricades in London. Lord Clarendon seems a safe guide, but
_Peel_ is the man for the time, if he has the stamina. Lord
Palmerston has conducted the duties of his office with admirable tact
of late; and much of the good feeling that prevails in Europe towards
England at present seems to arise from it. Amelie begs to be most
kindly remembered; she is here with her little boy--two girls at
Munsoorie, and two girls and a boy at home.
Yours very sincerely,
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.
To the Hon. Sir T. H. Maddock,
&c. &c. &c.
______________________________
Jhansee, 14th May, 1848.
My Dear Weston,
I have been directed by Government to name an officer whom I may
consider competent to superintend the suppression of Thuggee in the
Punjaub, where a new class has been discovered, and some progress has
been made in finding and arresting them. I have, in reply, mentioned
that I should have Captain Williams, of the 29th, and Captain
Chambers, of the 21st; but their services might not be considered
available, since the prescribed number of captains are already absent
from their regiments, and, in consequence, I have you. I know not
whether you will like the duties; if not, pray tell me as soon as
possible.
The salary is 700 rupees a-month, with office-rent 40, and
establishments 152. The duties are interesting and important; and so
good a foundation has been laid by Larkins and the other local
authorities, and all are so anxious to have the evil put down, that
you will have the most cordial support and co-operation of all, and
the fairest prospect of success. But you will have to apply yourself
steadily to work, and if you have not _passed_, you should do so as
soon as possible. I do not see P. opposite your name, and Government
may possibly object on this ground. Let all this be _entre nous_ for
the present.
If you undertake the duties, you will have to go to Lodheeana, seeing
Major Graham at Agra, on the way, to get a little insight into the
work.
Yours sincerely,
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.
P.S.--You will be in the most interesting scene in India, and need be
under no apprehension about the permanency of the appointment.
To Lieut. Weston,
&c. &c.
________________________________
Jhansee, 18th May, 1848.
My Dear Maddock,
Things are not going on so well as could be wished in the Punjaub;
and it appears to me that we have been there committing an error of
the same kind that we committed in Afghanistan--that is, taking upon
ourselves the most odious part of the executive administration. In
such a situation this should have been avoided, if possible. There is
a kind of chivalry in this--if there is anything odious to be done,
or repugnant to the feelings of the people, a young Englishman thinks
he must do it himself, lest he should be thought disposed to shift
off a painful burthen upon others; and he thinks it unbecoming of us
to pay any regard to popular feeling. Of course, also, the officers
of the Sikh State are glad to get rid of such burthens while they see
English gentlemen ready to carry them. Now, it strikes me that we
might, with a little tact, have altered all this, and retained the
good feelings of the people, by throwing the executive upon the
officers of the Sikh State, and remaining ourselves in the dignified
position of Appellate Courts for the redress of grievances inflicted
by these officers in neglect of duty or abuse of authority. Our duty
would have been to guide, control, and check, and the head of all
might have been like the sovereigns of England--known only by his
acts of grace.
By keeping in this dignified position we should not only have
retained the good feelings of the people, but we should have been
teaching the Sikh officers their administrative duties till the time
comes for making over the country; and the chief and Court would have
found the task, made over to them under such a system, more easy to
sustain. In Afghanistan we did the reverse of all this, and became
intolerably odious to the mass of the people; for they saw that
everything that was harsh was done by us, and the officers of the
King were disposed to confirm and increase this impression because
they were not employed. The people of the Punjaub are not such
fanatics, and they are more divided in creed and caste, while they
see no ranges of snowy mountains, barren rocks, and difficult passes
between us and our reinforcements and resources; but it seems clear
that there is a good deal of excitement and bad feeling growing up
amongst them that may be very mischievous. All the newspapers,
English and native, make the administration appear to be altogether
English--it is Captain This, Mr. That, who do, or are expected to do,
everything; and all over the country the native chiefs will think,
that the leaving the country to the management of the Sirdars was a
mere mockery and delusion.
We should keep our hands as much as possible out of the harsh and
dirty part of the executive work, that the European officers may be
looked up to with respect as the effectual check upon the native
administrators; always prepared to check any disposition on their
part to neglect their duty or abuse their power, and thereby bring
their Government into disrepute. Of course, the outrage at Mooltan
must be avenged, and our authority there established; but, when this
is done, Currie should be advised to avoid the rock upon which our
friend Macnaghten was wrecked. We are too impatient to jump down the
throats of those who venture to look us in the face, and to force
upon them our modes of doing the work of the country, and to
superintend the doing it ourselves in all its details, or having it
done by creatures of our own, commonly ten times more odious to the
people than we are ourselves.
It is unfortunate that this outrage, and the excitement to which it
has given rise, should have come so quickly upon Lord Hardinge's
assurances at the London feast, and amidst the turmoil of popular
movements at home. It has its use in showing us the necessity of
being always prepared.
Baba Bulwunt Row tells me that he has got a letter from you in the
form of Khureela, and claims one from me on that ground. Shall I
comply? We have avoided this hitherto, as the Pundits put him up to
claim everything that the Bae's family had, not even omitting the
Thalone principality; and hints have been dropped of a mission to
England, if the money could be got. I wish to subdue these
pretensions for his own sake, that he may not be entirely ruined by
temptations to expensive displays. He has now got the entire
management of his own affairs, and is a sensible, well-disposed lad.
He was never recognised as the Bae's successor by Government or the
Agent, nor was he written to on the Bae's death. Cunput Row Bhaca was
the person addressed in the letter of condolence. His son has run
through all he has or can borrow, and is in a bad way. Moresor Row
has the reputation of being very rich, though he pleads poverty
always. The whole of the Saugor territories, save Mundla, have
benefited by two very fine seasons, with great demand for land
produce, and the people are happy. I have asked for reductions in
Mundla, to save the little of tillage and population that has been
left. The whole revenue is a mere trifle in such a jungle as you know
it to be, and when once the people go off, there is no getting them
back. Deer destroy the crops upon the few fields left, tigers come to
eat the deer, and malaria follows, to sweep off the remaining few
families.
I must not prose any longer at present. Amelia often talks of you,
and begs to be kindly remembered.
Ever yours sincerely,
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.
To the Hon. Sir T. H. Maddock,
&c. &c. &c.
____________________________
Jhansee, 28th May, 1848.
My Dear Maddock,
I yesterday sent off by Dawk Bangy an elaborate Report on Dacoits by
hereditary profession, and on the measures adopted by the Government
of India for their suppression, and hope it will reach Calcutta
before the rains set in heavily. Government may be justly proud of
the good which it shows to have been effected for the people of India
in the course of a brief period; and I am glad that you have for this
period been a member of it. There is much in the Report to interest
the general reader, but much of what is inserted would, of course,
have been left out by any one who had to consult the wishes of such
readers only.
At this time last year I had not the slightest hope of ever being
able to lay such a Report before Government; for I never expected to
find leisure in my present office, and could not carry the requisite
records with me, if driven away by sickness, to where I might find
it. The papers lay mouldering in an old box, to which I had consigned
them in 1840, when I withdrew them from the press, under the
impression that Lord Auckland thought that the exposition of the
terrible evil ought not to appear till more progress had been made in
its suppression; as G. Thompson and other itinerant orators would be
glad to get hold of them to abuse the Government. The Report is
infinitely more interesting and complete than it could have been
then, and may bid defiance to all such orators.
If printed, it will take from 400 to 450 pages, such as those of the
late Report on the Indian Penal Code, and be a neat and useful volume
for reference. I began it in the rains last year, but was stopped
short by a fever, and unable to continue it till I set out on my
tour. Three-fourths of it was written in the intervals between the
morning's march and breakfast-time during my tour through the Saugor
territories.
The tables of dacoitees ascertained to have been committed by the
dacoits described, and of the conditionally pardoned offenders, will
follow, and be found useful for reference, but should not, perhaps,
be in the same volume with the text of the Report; of that, however,
I leave Government to judge. I thank God that I have been able to
place before it so complete and authentic a record of what has been
done to carry out its views.
Ever most sincerely yours,
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.
To the Hon. Sir T. H. Maddock,
&c. &c. &c.
Jhansee, 15th August, 1848.
My Lord,
As it is possible that the letter which I addressed to your Lordship
on the 6th of March last, and sent open to Mr. Melvill, the Secretary
at the India House, may have miscarried; I write to mention that I
sent it, lest it might be supposed that I was insensible of the
kindness which induced your Lordship to write to me before leaving
India. The work which made me delay so long to reply to that letter
is now being printed in Calcutta, under the authority of Government;
and, as it contains much that is curious and entertaining, and
honourable to our rule in India, I trust at no distant day to have
the honour of presenting a copy to your Lordship.
Amidst events of such absorbing interest as are now taking place
every day in Europe, India cannot continue long to engage much of
your thoughts; for, with the exception of the little outbreak at
Mooltan, tranquillity prevails, and is likely to do so for some time.
There has been delay in putting down the Mooltan rebels, but the next
mail will, I hope, take home news of the work having been effectually
done. This delay seems to have arisen from a notion that troops ought
not to be employed in the hot winds and rains; but when occasion
requires they can be employed at all times, and the people of India
require to be assured that they can be so. It has not, I think, been
found that troops actually employed in the hot winds and rains lose
more men than in cantonments, at least native troops.
It was, I think, your Lordship's intention that, in the Lahore state,
we should guide, direct, and supervise the administration, but not
take all the executive upon ourselves, to the exclusion of all the
old native aristocracy, as we had done in Afghanistan. This policy
has not, I am afraid, been adhered to sufficiently; and we have,
probably, less of the sympathy and cordial good-will of the higher
and middle classes than we should otherwise have had. But I am too
far from the scene to be a fair judge in such matters.
The policy of interposing Hindoo native states between us and the
beggarly fanatical countries to the north-west no wise man can, I
think, doubt; for, however averse our Government may be to encroach
and creep on, it would be drawn on by the intermeddling dispositions
and vainglory of local authorities; and every step would be ruinous,
and lead to another still more ruinous. With the Hindoo
principalities on our border we shall do very well, and trust that we
shall long be able to maintain them in the state required for their
own interests and ours.
I wish England would put forth its energies to raise the colony of
New Zealand, the queen of the Pacific Ocean; for the relations
between that island and India must some day become very intimate, and
the sooner it begins the better. I am very glad to find by the last
mail that the French have put their affairs into better hands--those
of practical men, instead of visionaries.
Believe me, with great respect,
Your Lordship's obedient, humble servant,
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.
To Lieut.-General the Right Hon.
Henry Viscount Hardinge, G.C.B.,
&c. &c. &c.
____________________________
Jhansee, 22nd August 1848.
My Dear Sir Erskine,
I thank you for kindly sending me a copy of your Address to the
Native Youth at Bombay and their Parents, and should have done so
earlier, but it has been in circulation among many of my friends who
feel interested in the subject. Whatever may be thought of the
question as to where we should begin, all concur in acknowledging the
truth of your conclusions as to the value and use of the knowledge we
wish to impart, and in admiring the language and sentiment of your
Address.
There are some passages of great beauty, which I wish all persons
could read and remember; and I do not recollect ever having seen one
that has pleased me more, for its truths and elegance, than that
beginning, "But if a manufacturing population." That which begins
with--"The views, young men, as to the true object and ends to be
attained," is no less truthful and excellent.
It is unfortunate that the education which we have to supplant in
India is so blended with the religion of the people, as far as
Hindoos are concerned, that we cannot make progress without exciting
alarm. Had a nation, endowed with all the knowledge we have, come
into Europe in the days of Galileo and Copernicus, and attempted to
impart it to the mass of the people, or to the higher classes only,
the same alarm would have been raised, or nearly the same. We must be
content with small, or slow progress; but there are certain branches
of knowledge, highly useful to the people, that are finding their way
among them from our metropolitan establishments, and working good.
I might better have said, that had we come into Greece when Homer was
the Bible of the people, with all our astronomy, chemistry, and
physical science generally, and our literature, blended as it is with
our religion, we should have found our Greek fellow-subjects as
untractable as the Hindoos or Parsees. The fact is, that every
Hindoo, educated through our language in our literature and science,
must be more or less wretched in domestic life, for he cannot feel or
think with his family, or bring them to feel or think with him. The
knowledge which he has acquired satisfies him that the faith to which
they adhere, and which guides them in all their duties, ceremonies,
acts, and habits, is monstrous and absurd; but he can never hope to
impart to them this knowledge, or to alienate them from that faith;
nor does he himself feel any confidence in any other creed: he feels
that he is an isolated being, who can exchange thoughts and feelings
unreservedly with no one. I have seen many estimable Hindoos in this
state, with minds highly gifted and cultivated, and with abilities
for anything. For such men we cannot create communities, nor can they
create them for themselves: they can enjoy their books and
conversation with men who understand and enjoy them like themselves;
but how few are the men of this class with whom they can ever hope to
associate on easy terms! It is not so with Mahommedans. All the
literature and science in the world has no more effect on their faith
than on ours; and their families apprehend no alienation in any
member who may choose to indulge in them; and they indulge in them
little, merely because they do not find that they conduce to secure
them employment and bread.
I think it would be useful if we could get rid of the terms
_education_, _civilization_, &c., and substitute that of _knowledge_.
It would obviate much controversy, for the greater part of our
disputes arise from the vagueness of the terms we use. All would
agree that certain branches of knowledge are useful to certain
classes, and that certain modes are the best for imparting them. The
subject is deeply interesting and important; but I must not indulge
further.
Believe me, My Dear Sir Erskine,
With great respect,
Yours very faithfully,
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.
To Sir Erskine Perry,
Chief Justice, Bombay.
___________________________________
Jhansee, 24th September, 1848.
My Lord,
I feel grateful for the offer contained in your Lordship's letter of
the 16th instant, and no less so for the gracious manner in which it
has been conveyed, and beg to say that I shall be glad to avail
myself of it, and be prepared to proceed to take charge as soon as I
am directed to do so, as I have no arrears in any of my offices to
detain me, and can make them over to any one at the shortest notice,
with the assurance that he will find nothing in them to perplex or
embarrass him.
I shall do my best to carry out your Lordship's views in the new
charge; and though I am not so strong as I could wish, I may, with
prudence, hope to have health for a few years to sustain me in duties
of so much interest.
I hope your Lordship will pardon my taking advantage of the present
occasion to say a few words on the state of affairs in the north-
west, which are now of such absorbing interest. I have been for some
time impressed with the belief that the system of administration in
the Punjaub has created doubts as to the ultimate intention of our
Government with regard to the restoration of the country to the
native ruler when he comes of age. The native aristocracy of the
country seem to have satisfied themselves that our object has been to
retain the country, and that this could be prevented only by timely
resistance. The sending European officers to relieve the chief of
Mooltan, and to take possession of the country and fort, seems to
have removed the last lingering doubt upon this point; and Molraj
seems to have been satisfied that in destroying them he should be
acting according to the wishes of all his class, and all that portion
of the population who might aspire to employment under a native rule.
This was precisely the impression created by precisely the same means
in Afghanistan; and I believe that the notion now generally prevalent
is, that our professed intentions of delivering over the country to
its native ruler were not honest, and that we should have
appropriated the country to ourselves could we have done so.
There are two classes of native Governments in India. In one the
military establishments are all national, and depend entirely upon
the existence of native rule. They are officered by the aristocracy
of the country, chiefly landed, who know that they are not fitted for
either civil or military office under our system, and must be reduced
to beggary or insignificance should our rule be substituted for that
of their native chief. In the other, all the establishments are
foreign, like our own. The Seiks were not altogether of the first
class, like those of Rajpootana and Bundelcund, but they were so for
the most part; and when they saw all offices of trust by degrees
being filled by Captain This and Mr. That, they gave up all hopes of
ever having their share in the administration.
Satisfied that this was our error in Afghanistan, in carrying out the
views of Lord Ellenborough in the Gwalior State, I did everything in
my power to avoid it, and have entirely succeeded, I believe; but it
has not been done without great difficulty. I considered Lord
Hardinge's measures good, as they interposed Hindoo States between us
and a beggarly and fanatical country, which it must be ruinous to our
finances to retain, and into which we could not avoid making
encroachments, however anxious the Government might be to avoid it,
if our borders joined. But I supposed that we should be content with
guiding, controlling, and supervising the native administration, and
not take all the executive upon ourselves to the almost entire
exclusion of the native aristocracy. I had another reason for
believing that Lord Hardinge's measures were wise and prudent. While
we have a large portion of the country under native rulers, their
administration will contrast with ours greatly to our advantage in
the estimation of the people; and we may be sure that, though some
may be against us, many will be for us. If we succeed in sweeping
them all away, or absorbing them, we shall be at the mercy of our
native army, and they will see it; and accidents may possibly occur
to unite them, or a great portion of them, in some desperate act. The
thing is possible, though improbable; and the best provision against
it seems to me to be the maintenance of native rulers, whose
confidence and affection can be engaged, and administrations improved
under judicious management.
The industrial classes in the Punjaub would, no doubt, prefer our
rule to that of the Seiks; but that portion who depend upon public
employment under Government for their subsistence is large in the
Punjaub, and they would nearly all prefer a native rule. They have
evidently persuaded themselves that our intention is to substitute
our own rule; and it is now, I fear, too late to remove the
impression. If your Lordship is driven to annexation, you must be in
great force; and a disposition must be shown on the part of the local
authorities to give the educated aristocracy of the country a liberal
share in the administration.
One of the greatest dangers to be apprehended in India is, I believe,
the disposition on the part of the dominant class to appoint to all
offices members of their own class, to the exclusion of the educated
natives. This has been nobly resisted hitherto; but where every
subaltern thinks himself in a condition to take a wife, and the land
opens no prospect to his children but in the public service, the
competition will become too great.
I trust that your Lordship will pardon my having written so much, and
believe me, with great respect, your Lordship's obedient humble
servant,
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.
P.S.--The Commander-in-Chief has asked me, through the Quartermaster-
General, whether any corps can be spared from Bundelcund. I shall say
that we can spare two regiments--one from Nagode, whose place can be
supplied by a wing of the regiment at Nowgow, and one from Jhansee,
whose place can be supplied from the Gwalior Contingent, if your
Lordship sees no objection, as a temporary arrangement.
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.
To the Right Hon.
the Earl of Dalhousie,
&c. &c. &c.
__________________________
Lucknow, 30th January, 1849.
My Dear Elliot,
A salute of twenty-one guns had been fired here by the King for the
sadly dear victory over Shere Sing, and another has been fired to-day
for the fall of Mooltan. The King continues very ill, but no danger
seems to be apprehended. The disease is accompanied by very untoward
secondary symptoms, which are likely ultimately to destroy him, and
render his life miserable while it lasts. How much of these symptoms
he derives from his birth, and how much from his own excesses, is
uncertain.
The impression regarding the minister, mentioned in my last note, was
from a talk with him while he was, it seems, under the influence of
fever. In later conversations he has been more lucid; but he is a
third-rate man, and quite unequal to the burthen that the favour of
the King has placed upon him. That favour will, however, be but of
short duration, for the King is said to have expressed great distrust
in his capacity to do any of the things he promised, more especially
to collect the immense arrears of revenue now due.
I am preparing tables of the revenue and expenditure, and of the
machinery in all branches, and hope soon to submit a clearer view of
the state of things than Government is in the habit of getting on
such occasions; but I have to wade through vast volumes of
correspondence to ascertain what has been said and done in the
questions that will come under consideration, to conduct current
duties, and to become acquainted with the people in my new field,
European and native.
I want to ask you whether I could, with any prospect of success just
now, propose a plan which I have much at heart in the Thuggee and
Dacoity Department. The Lieutenant-Governor, I feel assured, will
advocate it. Major Graham is about to obtain his regimental majority,
with a certain prospect of soon obtaining the command of his
regiment, which will give him twelve hundred a-month. I am anxious to
retain him; for his services have been, and would continue to be, of
vast importance to the North-West Provinces. I should like to propose
that he be made superintendent of Thuggee and Dacoity in those
provinces upon a salary of, say eleven hundred rupees a-month. I
would at the same time propose that the Shahjehanpoor office, lately
under Major Ludlow, be done up, and the duties confided to the
assistant-magistrate, with a small establishment, he to receive an
extra salary, say, one hundred rupees a-month. The same with regard
to the Azimghur office, now under Captain Ward, who could be sent to
Rajpootana. Elliot is not suited well to the work, according to those
who have seen most of him and of it; and you might be able to put him
to some other for which he is fitted. Should you think it desirable
to retain him in Rajpootana, Captain Ward may for the present remain
where he is; and the saving from the Shahjehanpoor office will more
than cover the increase for Major Graham. Pray let me know as soon as
you can whether such a proposal would be likely to be well received.
Graham's services have been and will be most valuable to all the
local authorities at and under Agra.
I suppose the fate of the Punjaub is sealed, for though the Governor-
General might wish to spare it, the home authorities and the home
people will hardly brook the prospect or the chance of another
struggle of the same kind, particularly if the Afghans have really
joined the Seiks under Chutter Sing. The tendency to annexation,
already strong at home, will become still stronger when the news of
our late losses arrive. They indicate a stronger assurance of
national sympathy on the part of the chiefs and troops opposed to us
than was generally calculated upon. The fall of Mooltan will have
relieved the Governor-General's mind from much of the anxiety caused
by the inartistic management of the Commander-in-Chief.
Yours sincerely,
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.
To H. M. Elliot, Esq.,
&c. &c.
______________________________
Lucknow, 7th March, 1849.
My Dear Elliott,
I may mention what has been the state of feeling at Lucknow regarding
the state of affairs in the Punjaub, though it has become of less
interest to the Governor-General now that so decided a victory has
crowned his efforts. During the whole contest the Government five per
cent. notes have been every day sold in my office at par, and I
question whether this can be said of the offices in Calcutta. One day
during the races, on the King's firing a salute for victory, the
European gentlemen talked about it at the stand with many of the
first of the native aristocracy. They said that the Seiks could not
fight as they were fighting unless there had been some general
feeling of distrust as to our ultimate intentions with regard to the
Punjaub which united them together; and that this feeling must be as
strong with the Durbar and those who did not fight as with those who
did. I was not present, as I did not attend the races; but I found
the same opinion prevailing among all with whom I conversed. But all
seemed to be perfectly satisfied as to the utter hopelessness of the
struggle, as evinced by the great barometer of the Government paper.
I suppose Dost Mahomed's force in Peshawur will have proceeded in all
haste to the Khyber on hearing of the defeat of their friends, and
that General Gilbert's fine division will find none of them to
contend with; and that Gholab Sing will be glad of an occasion to
display his zeal by keeping Shore Sing and his father out of the
hills.
The river Indus will, I suppose, hardly be considered so safe a
boundary as the hills; for if any danger is to be apprehended from
the west, it would not be safe to leave the enemy so fine a field to
organize their forces upon after emerging from the difficult passes.
Well organized upon that field, a force could cross the river
anywhere in the cold and hot seasons; and the revenue of that field
would aid in keeping up a force that might in the day of need be used
against us. It was a great error committed by Lord Hastings in
allowing the Nepaulese the fertile portion of the Jurac, which then
yielded only two lacs of rupees, but now yields thirteen, and will,
ere long, yield twenty. Without this their military force would have
been altogether insignificant; but it is not so now.
Yours sincerely,
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.
To H. M. Elliot, Esq.,
&c. &c.
_________________________________
Lucknow, 20th March, 1849.
My Dear Elliot,
The King continues much the same as when I last wrote. Under skilful
treatment he might soon get well; but the prescriptions of his best
native physicians are little attended to, and he has not yet
consented to consult an European doctor. He could not have a better
doctor than Leekie, and the natives have great confidence in him; but
his Majesty has not expressed any wish to see or consult him. If he
did so, the chances are one hundred to one against his taking his
medicine.
I do not like to write a public letter on the subject, but am anxious
to know the Governor-General's wishes as to whether any new
engagements should be entered into in case of the King's decease, and
with whom.
The instructions contained in your letter of the 16th August, 1847,
referred to in my last, will be carried out; but the Governor-General
may wish to have the new arrangements recorded in a former treaty,
the heads of the royal family consenting thereto, as at Gwalior, when
the regency was appointed. I have no copy of the treaty made at
Lahore, where the regency was appointed.
I should think it desirable to give the members of the regency each
distinct duties, so that he may feel responsible for them, and take a
pride in doing them well. One should be at the head of the Revenue
Department, and another at the head of the Judicial and Police, each
having a deputy; and the Resident, as president, should have a
deputy. These would be sufficient for a regency, and could form a
court, or council, to deliberate and decide about measures of
legislation and administration.
The mother of the King would be the best person to consult upon the
nomination of the members in the first instance; but neither she nor
any other female of the royal family should have any share in the
administration.
All important measures adopted by the Council should be submitted for
the consideration of the Governor-General; and no member of the
Council should be removed without his Lordship's consent. No
important measure adopted by the Council, and sanctioned by the
Governor-General, should at any future time be liable to be abolished
or altered without the sanction of our Government previously obtained
through the Resident.
On the heir-apparent attaining his majority, every member of the
regency who has discharged his duties faithfully should have for life
a pension equal to half the salary enjoyed by him while in office,
and be guaranteed in the enjoyment of this half by the British
Government.
The measures thus adopted during the minority would form a code for
future guidance, and tend at least to give the thing which Oude most
wants--stability to good sales, and to the machinery by which they
are to be enforced.
The King's brother--a very excellent man, who was Commander-in-Chief
during his father's life-time, but is now nothing--might also be
consulted with the mother of the King in the nomination of the
regency, and made a party with her to the new treaty.
These are all the points which appear to me at present to call for
instructions.
The harvests promise to be abundant, but the collections come in
slowly, and the establishments are all greatly in arrear. I don't
like to write publicly on these subjects, because it is almost
impossible here to prevent what is so written from getting to the
Court; but the Governor-General's instructions were sent to me in
that form without the same risk.
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.
To H. M. Elliot, Esq.,
&c. &c.
___________________________________
Lucknow, 23rd March, 1849.
My Dear Elliot,
It will perhaps be well to add to the regency, in case of the King's
death, a controller of the household, making three members of equal
grade, and to have no deputy for the Resident, or President of the
Regency. It may also be well to add the mother of the heir apparent
to the persons to be consulted in the selection of the members of the
regency, though she is a person of no mark or influence in either
public or private affairs at present.
The mother of the present King, his brother, the mother of the heir-
apparent, and the young heir-apparent himself will be enough to have
a voice in the selection.
I conclude that it will be the Governor-General's wish that the heir-
apparent should be placed on the throne immediately after the death
of his father, for the slightest hesitation or delay in this matter
would be mischievous in such a place as Lucknow. As soon as this is
done, I can proceed to consult about the nomination of the regency.
The members will, of course, be chosen from among the highest and
most able members of the aristocracy present at the capital, and they
can be installed in office the day they are chosen. I do not
apprehend any confusion or disturbance; but measures must be adopted
immediately to pay up arrears due to the establishments, and dismiss
all that are useless.
The, King is not worse--on the contrary, he is said to be better; but
the hot season may be too much for him. His present state, with a
minister weak in body and not very strong in mind, is very
unsatisfactory. Fortunately the harvest is unusually fine.
Yours sincerely,
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.
To H. M. Elliot, Esq.,
&c. &c.
____________________________
Lucknow, 8th May, 1849.
My Lord,
Dr. Bell, has relieved Dr. Leekie from his charge, and I am glad that
so able and experienced a medical officer has been appointed to it by
your Lordship, for he will have the means of doing much good here if
he can secure the confidence and esteem of his native patients. The
way has been well paved for him by Dr. Leekie, who, in professional
ability, large experience, and perfect frankness of character, is one
of the first men I have met; and I regret exceedingly that the King
has never manifested any wish to consult him or any other European
physician.
Being anxious that both Dr. Leekie and Dr. Bell should have an
opportunity of seeing the King, and forming some opinion as to his
state of health, I proposed that his Majesty should receive them at
the same time with Captain Bird on his taking leave previous to his
departure for Simla. As it is usual for the residency surgeon to wait
on his Majesty when he first enters on his charge and when he quits
it, I knew that such a proposal would not give rise to any feelings
of doubt or uneasiness, and he at once expressed his wish to see
them. Yesterday, about noon, all three went to the palace, and sat
for some time in conversation with the King. They found him much
better in bodily health than they expected, and in the course of
conversation, found no signs of any confusion of ideas, and are of
opinion that in the hands of a skilful European physician he would
soon be quite well. His Majesty is hypochondriac, and frequently
under the influence of the absurd delusions common to such persons;
but he is quite sane during long intervals, and on all subjects not
connected with such delusions.
When in health, the King never paid much attention to business, and
his illness is, therefore, less felt than it would have been in the
conduct of affairs; but it is nevertheless felt, and that in a very
vital part--the collection of the revenue. The expenses of Government
are about one hundred (100) lacs a-year; and the collections this
year have not amounted to more than sixty (60), owing to this
illness, and to a deficiency in the autumn harvests. All
establishments are greatly in arrears in consequence; and the King
has been obliged to make some heavy drafts upon the reserved fund
left him by his father. I only wish none had been made for a less
legitimate purpose. The parasites, by whom he has surrounded himself
exclusively, have, it is said, been drawing upon it still more
largely during the King's illness, under the apprehension of a speedy
dissolution. The minister is a weak man, who stands somewhat in awe
of these musicians and eunuchs, who have no fear of anybody but the
Resident, whom it is, of course, their interest to keep as much as
possible in the dark. As soon as his Majesty gets stronger, I shall
see him more frequently than I have yet done, and be better able to
judge of what prospect of amendment there may be while he reigns. If
he ever conversed with his male relations, or any of the gentlemen at
the capital worthy of his confidence, I should have more hope than I
now have.
With great respect I remain
Your Lordship's obedient humble servant,
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.
To the Right Hon.
The Earl of Dalhousie, K.T.,
Governor-General of India.
___________________________________
Lucknow, 11th June, 1849.
My Dear Elliot,
It will be desirable to have at least the wing of a regiment sent as
soon as possible to Jhansee. Bukhut Sing, who was allowed to escape
after having been surrendered to Ellis at Kyrma, has been since
allowed to get too much a-head. He is aided by the Khereecha people
openly; and secretly, I fear, by some of the Powar Thakoors of Gigree
under the rose. There are four small fortified places between thirty
and forty miles west of Jhansee, and not far from the Sinde, held by
Powar Thakoors, who are a shade higher in caste than the Bondeylas;
and, in consequence, all the principal chiefs take their daughters in
marriage. They are needy, and as proud as Lucifer, and will always
eke out their means by robbery if they can. The Jhansee chief cannot
keep them in order without our aid. While I was there, they did not
venture to rob after the surrender of the Jylpoor man in September,
1844; and the Hareecha and Hyrwa people ventured only to send a few
highwaymen into the Gwalior state west of the Sinde river.
The Powar places I mean are Jignee, Odgow, and Belchree. There was a
fourth near them just as bad, called Nowneer; but the Thakoors of
that place are all well disposed towards the Jbansee chief, and are
obedient. All are in the Jhansee state. If the marauders are pressed
with energy and sagacity, they will be soon put down; and you may
rely upon the native chiefs not supporting them, though, from their
marriage connection, they may afford them an asylum secretly when
fugitives.
Who the Gwalior men are that are plundering I know not; but they are
men of no note, and, if pressed skilfully and rigorously in time,
will soon be put down. The chiefs may all be relied upon, I believe.
They are mere gangs of robbers; and you know how easily a fanatic or
successful robber may collect a body for plunder in any part of
India, where the danger of pursuit is small. Had they been dealt with
properly at first, they would never have got a-head so far: time has
been lost, and they will now give trouble, particularly at such a
season. The evil will be confined to the tract west of Jhansee
occupied by these Powars. The chiefs are to the east, north, and
south of Jhansee; and the marauders would be allowed to enter their
estates. The Governor-General need not feel uneasy about them. The
Nurwar chief was always needy, and disposed to keep and shelter
robbers. His few villages were resumed on his death last year, and
his widows pensioned; but some of his relations are, I conclude,
among the marauders. There is a wild tract west of the Sinde in the
Gwalior territory, to which the marauders will fly when hard pressed
in the Jhansee state.
Yours sincerely,
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.
To H. M. Elliot, Esq.,
&c. &c.
___________________________________
Lucknow, 18th June, 1849.
My Dear Elliot,
I was writing the last sentence of a long Report on Oude affairs when
your note came in. There are some parts that will amuse, some that
will interest, and the whole gives, I believe, a fair exposition of
the evils, with a suggestion for the best remedy that I can think of.
It is the formation of a Board, consisting of a President and two
members nominated by the King, subject to the confirmation of the
Governor-General, and not to be dismissed without his Lordship's
previous sanction. This Board to make the settlement of the revenue
proposed when Lord Hardinge was here, and to have the carrying it
out.
This Board will be a substitute for the Regency, but not so good. The
King is well in body; and, unless he will abdicate, we cannot get the
minority for the Regency. I think, upon the whole, the Governor-
General will think the Report worth reading, and the remedy worth
considering. It will bring little additional trouble on Government,
but a good deal on the Resident, who will require to have had much
administrative experience.
Things are coming fast to the crisis, in which I must be called upon
to advise and act, a thing which the fiddlers and eunuchs dread. I
can't trust the Report in the office, and the hand may not be so
legible as I could wish.
The Court is very averse to the appointment of a successor to Wilcox;
and it is with reluctance they have kept on the native officers who
go on with the work. I told them either to keep them on or to pension
them. I don't think a successor should be urged upon them in the
present state of beggary to which they are reduced. Nobody sees any
use in it, while there are a vast number of useful things neglected
for want of funds; as to the instruments, the Court care nothing
about them, knowing nothing of their value; and would, no doubt, be
glad to give them to any establishment requiring them.
The minister, singers, and eunuchs are all now sworn to be united;
but this cannot last many days. The "pressure from without," in the
clamour for pay, will soon upset the minister; but they will find it
difficult to get another to undertake the burthen of forty or fifty
lacs of balance, and a score of fiddlers and eunuchs as privy
councillors. Something must be done to _unthrone_ these wretches, or
things will be worse and worse. The best remedy that occurs to me is
to interpose an authority which they dare not question, and the King
cannot stultify; and if the King objects, to tell him that he must
abdicate in favour of his son. This, of all courses, will be the
best, and give no trouble; things would go on like "marriage bells,"
without any trouble whatever to the Governor-General and your
_secretariat_.
I am glad that the Punjaub Board goes on well. It is a scene of great
importance and interest. The only way to get the confidence and
affection of men is to show that we confide in them; and I don't
think we need fear Seik soldiers while we treat them, and govern the
country well.
We were very anxious about Mrs. Elliot for many days, for the
accounts from Simla were bad; but she is now, I am told, quite
restored. I have suffered much less than I expected: I recovered much
sooner. The doctors tell me that I should have had no right to expect
an earlier recovery had I been twenty years younger.
Yours sincerely,
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.
To H. M. Elliot, Esq.,
&c. &c.
___________________________
Lucknow, 24th July, 1849.
My Lord,
I have to-day written to Lord Fitzroy Somerset to request that he
will do me the favour to have the name of my only son placed, if
possible, upon his Grace the Commander-in-Chiefs list of candidates
for commissions in Her Majesty's Dragoons. He was sixteen years of
age on the 6th of January last, and is now prosecuting his studies
under the care of Mr. C. J. Yeatman, Westow Hill, Norwood, Surrey,
five miles from London.
He is an amiable and gentlemanly lad, and will, I trust, be able to
qualify himself to pass the examination required; and my agents in
London will be prepared to lodge the money for his commission when
available. He is my eldest child, and will have to take care of four
sisters when I am taken from them, as I must be ere long; and I am
anxious to place him in the position from which he can do so with
most advantage. I could wish to have had him placed in the Bengal
Civil Service. But I have no personal friend in the direction, and no
good that I may have had an opportunity of doing for the people and
government of India can be urged as a claim to any employment for my
child.
Having carried out your Lordship's policy successfully over a large
and interesting portion of India, and to the advantage, I believe, of
many millions of people, you will not, I think, be offended at my
soliciting your Lordship's protection for my only son. He will stand
in need of it, since I know no other that I can solicit for him; and
though my name might be of some use to him in India, it can be of
none in England. With a view to his taking care of his sisters, I
could wish him to be in a regiment not likely to come to India.
General Thackwell tells me that the regiments most likely to come to
India soon are the 6th Dragoons, 9th Hussars, and 12th Lancers.
Perhaps your Lordship might be willing to speak to Lord F. Somerset,
or even to his Grace the Duke himself, in favour of my son, who will
be proud at any time when commanded to attend your Lordship. I have
the misfortune to have been with some of the most inefficient
sovereigns that ever sat upon a throne, with deficient harvests last
year, and a threat of still more deficient ones this year; and with a
Government so occupied with the new acquisitions of the Punjaub as to
be averse to interfere much with the management of any other portion
of the country.
I remain, your lordship's most obedient, humble servant,
W. H. SLEEMAN.
To the Right Hon. Gen. Viscount Hardinge, G.C.B.,
&c. &c. &c.
______________________________________
Lucknow, 24th July, 1849.
My Lord,
May I, request that your Lordship will do me the favour to have the
name of my only son, Henry Arthur Sleeman, placed upon his Grace the
Commander-in-Chiefs list of candidates for a commission in one of her
Majesty's Dragoon regiments?
He was sixteen years of age on the 6th of January last; and he is now
prosecuting his studies under the care of Mr. C. J. Yeatman, at
Westow Hill, in Surrey, five miles from London, who will be
instructed to have him prepared for the examination he will have to
undergo. My agents, Messrs. Denny, Clark, and Co., Austin Friars,
London, will be prepared to lodge the money, and to forward to me any
letters with which they may be honoured by your Lordship. My rank is
that of Lieut.-Colonel in the Honourable East India Company's
service, and present situation, that of Resident at the Court of his
Majesty the King of Oude.
I have the honour to be,
Your Lordship's obedient, humble servant,
W. H. SLEEMAN.
To Lieut.-General Lord Fitzroy Somerset, G.C.B.,
Military Secretary to his Grace the Commander-in-Chief,
Horse Guards, London.
_________________________________
Lucknow, August 1849.
My Lord,
1. I will answer your Lordship's queries in the order in which they
are made.
2. The King, as I shall show in my next official report, is utterly
unfit to have anything to do with the administration, since he has
never taken, or shown any disposition to take any heed of what is
done or suffered in the country. My letters have made no impression
whatever upon him. He spends all his time with the singers and the
females they provide to amuse him, and is for seven and eight hours
together living in the house of the chief singer, Rajee-od Dowla--a
fellow who was only lately beating a drum to a party of dancing-
girls, on some four rupees a-month. These singers are all Domes, the
lowest of the low castes of India, and they and the eunuchs are now
the virtual sovereigns of the country, and must be so as long as the
King retains any power. The minister depends entirely upon them, and
between them and a few others about Court everything that the King
has to dispose of is sold.
3. To secure any reform in the administration, it will be necessary
to require the King to delegate all the powers of sovereignty to the
Board. This he can do, retaining the name of Sovereign and control of
his household; or abdicating in favour of his son the heir apparent,
to whom the Board would be a regency till he comes of age. If the
alternative be given him, and he choose the former, it should be on
the condition, that if his favourites continue to embarrass the
Government, he will be required to submit to the latter. Oude is now,
in fact, without a Government: the minister sees the King for a few
minutes once a week or fortnight, and generally at the house of the
singer above named. The King sees nobody else save the singers and
eunuchs, and does not even pretend to know anything or care anything
about public affairs. His sons have been put under their care, and
will be brought up in the same manner. He has become utterly despised
and detested by his people for his apathy amidst so much suffering,
and will not have the sympathy of any one, save such as have been
growing rich by abusing his power.
4. The members of such a Board as I propose, invested with full
powers, and secured in office under our guarantee during good
conduct, would go fearlessly to work; they would divide the labour;
one would have the settlement of the land-revenue, with the charge of
the police; the second would have the judicial Courts; and if the
Board be a regency during the minority, the control of the household;
the third would have the army. Each would have the nomination of the
officers of his department, subject to the confirmation of the whole
Board, and the dismissal would depend upon the sanction of the whole
or two-thirds, as might be found expedient. If the sanction of all
three be required. Court influence may secure one vote, and impunity
to great offenders. Neither of the three would be liable to be
deprived of his office, except with the consent, or on the
requisition of the Governor-General; and this privilege they would
value too highly to risk it by neglect or misconduct. The King's
brother--a most worthy and respectable, though not able man--might be
a member, if agreeable to the King.
5. The abuses they would have to remedy are all perfectly well
understood, and the measures required to remedy them are all simple
and obvious: a settlement would be made with the landholders, based
upon past avowed collections; they would be delighted to bind
themselves to pay such an assessment, as they would escape from the
more than one-third more, which they have now to pay, in one form or
another, to contractors and Court favourites; the large landholders,
who are for the most part now in open resistance to the Government,
would rejoice at the prospect of securing their estates to their
posterity, without the necessity of continually fighting for them.
6. The army would soon become efficient: at present every man
purchases his place in it from the minister and the singers and
eunuchs, and he loses it as soon as he becomes disabled from wounds
or sickness. The only exceptions are the four regiments under Captain
Burlow, Captain Bunbury, Captain Magness, and Soba Sing, lately
Captain Buckley's; in these, all that are disabled from wounds or
sickness are kept on the strength of the corps, and each corps has
with it a large invalid establishment of this kind unrecognized by
the Government. They could not get their men to fight, without it.
These regiments are put up at auction every season, and often several
times during one season; the contractor who bids highest gets the
services of the best for the season or the occasion; the purchase-
money is divided between the minister and the Court favourites,
singers, &c. These are really efficient corps, and the others might
soon be made the same. The men are as fine-looking and brave as those
of our, regular infantry, for Oude teems with such men, who have from
their boyhood been fighting against contractors under the heads of
their clan or families.
7. The rest are for the most part commanded by boys, or Court
favourites, who seldom see them, keep about two-thirds of what are
borne on the rolls and paid for, and take about one-third of the pay
of what remain for themselves. The singer, Rajee-od Dowla, the prime
favourite above named, has two regiments thus treated, and of course
altogether inefficient, ragged, hungry, and discontented. It will be
easy to remedy all this, get excellent men, and inspire them with
excellent spirit by instituting a modified pension establishment for
men disabled in the discharge of their duties, and providing for
their regular pay and efficient command.
8. This would prevent the necessity of employing British troops,
except on rare and great occasions; the settlement of the land-
revenue, and knowledge that they would be employed if required, would
keep the great landholders in obedience. It would be well to have
back the corps of infantry and two guns that were taken away from
Pertanghurh, in Oude, in 1835. This is all the addition that would be
required to secure an efficient Government; and the scale to which
our troops in Oude had been reduced up to that time (1835) was
generally considered the lowest compatible with our engagements. A
regiment of cavalry had been borrowed from Pertanghurh for the Nepaul
and Mahratta wars in 1814 and 1817; it was finally withdrawn in 1823.
9. The judicial Courts would be well conducted while the presiding
officers felt secure in their tenure of office, which they would do
when their dismissal depended upon proof of guilt or incompetency
sufficient to satisfy a Board guaranteed by our Government.
10. The police would soon become efficient under the supervision and
control of respectable revenue-officers, having the same feeling of
security in their tenure of office. All the revenue-officers would,
of course, be servants of Government instead of contractors. There
would be grades answering to our commissioners of divisions, say
four; 2nd, to our collectors of revenue, say twenty-eight; 3rd,
deputy-collectors, say twenty-eight; all under the Board, and guided
by the member intrusted with that branch of the administration: all
would be responsible for the police over their respective
jurisdictions.
11. Oude ought to be, and would soon be, under such a system, a
garden; the soil is the finest in India, so are the men; and there is
no want of an educated class for civil office: on the contrary, they
abound almost as much as the class of soldiers. From the numerous
rivers which flow through the country the water is everywhere near
the surface, and the peasantry would manure and irrigate every field,
if they could do so in peace and security, with a fair prospect of
being permitted to reap the fruits. The terrible corruption of the
Court is the great impediment to all this good: the savings would
more than pay all the increased outlay required for rendering
establishments efficient in all branches, while the treasury would
receive at least one-third more than the expenditure; that is,
1,50,00,000 Rs., or one crore and a half.
12. From the time the treaty of 1801 was made, up to within the last
few years, the term "internal enemies" was interpreted to mean the
great landholders who might be in resistance to the Government, and
this interpretation was always acted upon; the only difficulty was in
ascertaining whether the resistance was or was not, under the
circumstances, justifiable. While employed in Oude with my regiment,
and on the staff in 1818 and 1819, I saw much of the correspondence
between the Resident and Commandant; many letters from the Resident,
Colonel Baillie, mentioning how bitterly Saadulullee, with whom that
treaty was made, had complained, that after the sacrifice of half his
kingdom for the aid of British troops in keeping down these powerful
and refractory landholders, he could not obtain their assistance
without being subject to such humiliating remonstrances as he got
from officers commanding stations whenever he asked for it. Aid was
often given, and forts innumerable were reduced from time to time,
but the privilege of building them up again was purchased from the
same or another contractor next season.
13. At this time I have calls for at least two battalions and a train
of artillery, from about six quarters, to enforce orders on these
landholders. Captain Hearsey has had men of his Frontier Police
killed and wounded by them on the western border, and declares that
nothing can be done to secure offenders, refugees from our districts,
with a less force. Captain Orr has had several men wounded, and
prisoners taken from him, by the same class on the eastern border,
and declares to the same effect. Sixteen sepoys of our army, 59th N.
I., on their way home on furlough were attacked and two of them
killed, three weeks ago, by a third Zumeendar, at Peernugger, his own
estate, within ten miles of the Setapore Cantonments, where we have a
regiment. Captain Barlow's regiment and artillery, and another, with
all Captain Hearsey's Frontier Police, are in pursuit of him. Four
others have committed similar outrages on our officers and sepoys and
their families, and the Government declares its utter inability to
enforce obedience or grant any redress, without a larger force than
they have to send. Great numbers of the same class are plundering and
burning villages, and robbing and murdering on the highway, and
laughing at the impotency of the sovereign. It was certainly for aid
in coercing these "internal enemies" that the Sovereign of Oude ceded
his territories to us, and for no other, and that aid may be afforded
at little cost, and to the great benefit of all under the system I
have submitted for your Lordship's consideration. It will be very
rarely required, and when called for, a mere demonstration will, in
three cases out of four, be sufficient to effect the object.
14, After a time, or when the heir-apparent comes of age, the duties
of the guaranteed members of the Board may safely be united to a
supervision over the settlement made with the principal landholders,
whose obedience our Government may consider itself bound to aid in
enforcing; all the rest may be left to a competent sovereign; and
there will be nothing in the system opposed to native usages,
feelings, and institutions, to prevent its being adhered to. I should
mention, that many of these landholders have each armed and
disciplined bodies of two thousand foot and five hundred horse; and,
what is worse, the command of as many as they like of "Passies,"
armed with bows and arrows. These Passies are reckless thieves and
robbers of the lowest class, whose only professions are thieving and
acting as Chowkedars, or village police. They are at the service of
every refractory Zumeendar, for what they can get in booty in his
depredations. The disorders in Oude have greatly increased this
class, and they are now roughly estimated at a hundred thousand
families; these are the men from whom travellers on the road suffer
most.
15. A second Assistant would be required for a time to enable the
Resident to shift off the daily detail of the treasury, which has
become the largest in India,--I believe, beyond those at the three
Presidencies.
A good English copyist, capable of mapping, will be required in the
Resident's office at 150, and two Persian writers 100; total 250.
These are the only additions which appear to me to be required.
16. I annex a list of the regiments now in the King's service,
Telungas, or regulars, and Nujeebs, or irregulars; and with my next
official report I will submit a list of all the establishments, civil
and military.
17. The King's habits will not alter; he was allowed by his father to
associate, as at present, with these singers from his boyhood, and he
cannot endure the society of other persons. His determination to live
exclusively in their society, and to hear and see nothing of what his
officers do or his people suffer, he no longer makes any attempt to
conceal. It would be idle to hope for anything from him but a
resignation of power into more competent hands; whatever he retains
he will assuredly give to his singers and eunuchs, or allow them to
take. No man can take charge of any office without anticipating the
income by large gratuities to them, and the average gratuity which a
contractor for a year, of a district yielding three lacs of rupees a-
year, is made to pay, before he leaves the capital to enter upon his
charge, is estimated to be fifty thousand rupees: this he exacts from
the landholders as the first payment, for which they receive no
credit in the public account. All other offices are paid for in the
same way.
18. The King would change his minister to-morrow if the singers were
to propose it; and they would propose it if they could get better
terms or perquisites under any other. No minister could hold office a
week without their acquiescence. Under such circumstances a change of
ministers would be of little advantage to the country.
19. The King will yield to the measure proposed only under the
assurance, that if he did not, the Governor-General would be reduced
to the necessity of having recourse to that which Lord Hardinge
threatened in the 10th, 11th, and 12th paragraphs of his letter of
October, 1847, and the Court of Directors, on the representation of
Lord William Bentinck, sanctioned in 1831. The Court was at that time
so strongly impressed with the conviction that the threat would be
carried into execution, that they prevailed upon the President to
undertake a mission to the Home Government, with a view to enlarge
the President's powers of interference, in order to save them from
the alternative. This led to Mr. Maddock's removal from the
Presidency; all subsequent correspondence has tended to keep up the
apprehension that the threatened measure would be had recourse to,
and to stimulate sovereigns and ministers to exertion till the
present reign. The present King has, from the time he ascended the
throne, manifested a determination to take no share whatever in the
conduct of affairs; to spend the whole of his time among singers and
eunuchs, and the women whom they provide for his amusement; and
carefully to exclude from access, all who suffer from the
maladministration of his servants, or who could and would tell him
what was done by the one and suffered by the other.
20. But it is not his minister and favourites alone who take
advantage of this state of things to enrich themselves; corruption
runs through all the public offices, and Maharaja Balkishen, the
Dewan, or _Chancellor of the Exchequer_, is notoriously among the
most corrupt of all, taking a large portion of the heavy balances due
by contractors to get the rest remitted or misrepresented. There is
no Court in the capital, criminal, civil, or fiscal, in which the
cases are not tampered with by Court favourites, and divided
according to their wishes, unless the President has occasion to
interfere in behalf of guaranteed pensioners, or officers and sepoys
of our army. On his appearance they commonly skulk away, like jackals
from a dead carcase when the tiger appears; but the cases in which he
can interfere are comparatively very few, and it is with the greatest
delay and difficulty that he can get such cases decided at all. A
more lamentable state of affairs it is difficult to conceive.
With great respect, I remain,
Your Lordship's obedient humble servant,
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.
To the Most Noble
the Marquis of Dalhousie, K.T.,
&c. &c. &c.
P.S.--I find that the King's brother is altogether incompetent for
anything like business or responsibility. The minister has not one
single quality that a minister ought to have; and the King cannot be
considered to be in a sound state of mind.
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.
_Annexures_.
1. Extracts, pars. 9 to 14 of Lord Hardinge's Memorial.
2. Statement of British troops in Oude in Jan. 1835 and 1849.
3. Table of the King of Oude's troops of all kinds.
__________________________
Lucknow, 6th September, 1849.
My Lord,
I take the liberty to enclose, for your Lordship's perusal, a more
full and correct Table of the troops and police in Oude than that
which I submitted with my last letter, as also a Table of all the
other branches of expenditure--save those of buildings, charities,
presents, &c., which are ever varying.
It may be estimated that two-thirds of the numbers in the corps of
Telungas and Nujeebs paid for are kept up; and that one-half of what
are kept up are efficient, all having to purchase their places, and
those most unfit being disposed to pay highest.
Further: one-half of what are kept up are supposed to be always
absent; and when they are so, they receive one-half of their pay, and
the other half is divided between the commandant and the paymaster.
These two are supposed to take, on one pretence or other, one third
of the pay of those who are actually present. The corps of Telungas
commanded by Captains Barlow, Bunbury, and Magness are exceptions;
but the pay department is not under their control, and they are
obliged to acquiesce in abuses that impair the efficiency their
corps.
After reducing one-third-of these corps, and rendering the remaining
two-thirds efficient, the force would be sufficient for all purposes,
and we may well dispense with the corps of regular infantry which in
my last letter I proposed to restore to Oude. It will, however, be
desirable to have a good and experienced infantry officer as
inspector, to see that the measures adopted for reform are
effectually carried out. An artillery officer as inspector will also
be desirable, as it will be necessary to have that branch of the
force in the best possible order, when Oude has to depend chiefly on
its own resources. A few European officers, too, for commandants of
corps and seconds in command will be desirable--such as have been
employed with native corps as sergeant-majors or quartermaster-
sergeants, and have obtained distinctions for good conduct.
I should propose six primary stations as seats for the principal
Revenue and Judicial Courts, and the headquarters of the best corps
with cavalry and artillery; thirty second and third rate stations for
the subordinate Courts and detachments of troops and police. All to
be chosen, with reference to position in districts under
jurisdiction, and to salubrity of climate. At all these Stations
suitable buildings would be provided; and as all would be commenced
upon simultaneously, all would soon be ready.
Your Lordship will observe the small item put down for the judicial
establishments all over Oude. Such as are really kept up are
worthless, and are altogether without the confidence of the people.
The savings in the other branches of the expenditure will more than
cover all the outlay required for good ones.
The King continues to show the same aversion to hear anything about
public affairs, or to converse with any but the singers, eunuchs, and
females. At the great festival of the Eed, on the first appearance of
the present moon, he went out in procession, but deputed his heir-
apparent to receive the compliments in Durbar. He does not suffer
bodily pain, but is said to have long fits of moping and melancholy,
and he is manifestly hypochondriac. He squanders the state jewels
among the singers and eunuchs, who send them out of the country as
fast as they can. The members of his family who have its interests
most at heart, are becoming anxious for some change; and by the time
the two years expire, it will not, perhaps, be difficult to induce
him to put his affairs into other hands. He would change his minister
on the slightest hint from me; but it would be of no use: the
successor, pretending to carry on the Government under the King's
orders, would be little better than the present minister is, and
things would continue to be just as bad as they now are: they
certainly could not be worse.
The Board, composed of the first members of the Lucknow aristocracy,
would be, I think, both popular and efficient; and with the aid of a
few of the ablest of the native judicial and revenue officers of our
own districts, invited to Oude by the prospect of higher pay and
security in the tenure of office, would soon have at work a machinery
capable of securing to all their rights, and enforcing from all their
duties in every part of this, at present, distracted country. We
should soon have good roads throughout the kingdom; and both they and
the rivers would soon be as secure as in our own provinces. I think,
too, that I might venture to promise that all would be effected
without violence or disturbance; all would see that everything was
done for the benefit of an oppressed people, and in good faith
towards the reigning family.
With great respect, I remain your Lordship's obedient, humble
servant.
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.
To the Most Noble
the Marquis of Dalhousie, K.T.,
&c. &c. &c.
P.S.--I may mention that the King is now engaged in turning into
verse a long prose history called Hydree. About ten days ago all the
poets in Lucknow were assembled at the palace to hear his Majesty
read his poem. They sat with him, listening to his poem and reading
their own from nine at night till three in the morning. One of the
poets, the eldest son of a late minister, Mohamid-od Dowla, Aga Meer,
told me that the versification was exceedingly good for a King. These
are, I think, the only men, save the minister, the eunuchs, and the
singers who have had the honour of conversing with his Majesty since
I came here in January last.
W. H. S.
______________________________
Lucknow, 23rd September, 1849.
My Dear Elliot,
I conclude that no further Tables will be required from me on Oude
statistics for the present. Should they be so, pray let me know, and
they shall be sent. I thought at first that it would be thought bad
taste in me to refer to the domestic troubles of the King, but it is
necessary to show the state to which his Majesty is reduced in his
palace. The facts mentioned are known and talked of all over Lucknow
and Oude generally, and tend more than greater things to bring his
conduct and character into contempt.
The time was certainly never so favourable to propose an arrangement
that shall secure a lasting and substantial reform, and render Oude
what it ought to be--a garden. The King is in constant dread of
poison, and would do anything to get relieved from that dread, and
all further importunity on the state of the country. His chief wife
would poison him to bring on the throne her son, and restore to her
her paramour, who is now at Cawnpoor, waiting for such a change. Her
uncle, the minister, would, the King thinks, be glad to see him
poisoned, in the hope of having to conduct affairs during the
minority. He is afraid to admonish his other wife for her
infidelities with the chief favourite and singer, lest she should
poison him to go off with her paramour to Rampoor, whither he has
sent the immense wealth that the King has lavished upon him.
The whole family are most anxious that the King should resign the
reins into abler hands, and would, I feel assured, hail the
arrangement I have proposed as a blessing to them and the country.
All seems ripe for the change, and I hope the Governor-General will
consent to its being proposed soon. Any change in the ministry would
now be an obstacle to the arrangement, and such a change might happen
any morning. At the head of the Board, or Regency, I should put
Mohsin-od Dowla, grandson of Ghazee-od Deen, the first King, and son-
in-law of Moohummed Alee Shah, the third King. His only son has been
lately united in marriage to the King's daughter. He is looked up to
as the first man in Oude for character, and the most able member of
the royal family. He is forty-five years of age. I should probably
put two of the King's uncles in as the other members, Azeemoshan and
Mirza Khorum Buksh, whose names you will find in the short appended
list of those who have received no stipends since the present King
ascended the throne. These princes cannot visit, the Resident except
when they accompany the King himself, so that I have never seen the
two last that I recollect, and only once conversed with the first.
But their characters stand very high. They are never admitted to the
King, nor have they seen him for more than a year, I believe.
The King will probably object to members of his family forming the
Board, but I dare say I shall be able to persuade him of the
advantage of it. Such a Board, so constituted, would be a pledge to
all India of the honesty of our intentions, and secure to us the
cordial good-will of all who are interested in the welfare of the
family and the good government of the country.
I should persuade the members to draw from the _élite_ of their own
creed in our service to aid in forming and carrying out the new
system in their several departments. We can give them excellent men
in the revenue and judicial branches, who will be glad to come when
assured that they will not be removed so long as they do their duty
ably and honestly, and will get pensions if their services are
dispensed with after a time. This is all I shall say at present.
Yours sincerely,
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.
To Sir H. M. Elliot, K.C.B.,
&c. &c.
___________________________________
Lucknow.
My Lord,
My Official Report went off on the 25th instant, and will have been
submitted, for your Lordship's consideration. It contains, I believe,
a faithful description of the abuses that exist and require remedy,
and of the obstacles which will be opposed to their removal. But it
does not tell all that might be told of the King himself, who has
become an object of odium and contempt to all but those few
despicable persons with whom he associates exclusively. He eats,
drinks, sleeps, and converses with the singers and eunuchs and
females alone, and the only female who has any influence over him is
the sister of the chief singer, Rusee-od Dowlah, whom he calls his
own sister. No member of the royal family or aristocracy of Oude is
ever admitted to speak to or see his Majesty, and these contemptible
singers are admitted to more equality and familiarity than his own
brothers or sons ever were; they go out, too, with greater pomp than
they or any of the royal family can; and are ordered to be received
with more honours as they pass through the different palaces. The
profligacy that exists within the palace passes all belief, and these
things excite more disgust among the aristocracy of the capital than
all the misrule and malversation that arise from the King's apathy
and incapacity.
Should your Lordship resolve upon interposing effectually to remedy
these disorders, I think it will be necessary to have at Lucknow, for
at least the first few months, a corps of irregular cavalry. We have
no cavalry in Oude, and none of the King's can be depended upon. The
first thing necessary will be the disbanding of the African, or
Hubshee corps, of three hundred men. They are commanded by one of the
eunuchs, and a fellow fit for any dark purpose. They were formed into
a corps, I believe, because no man's life was safe in Lucknow while
they were loose upon society.
I think the King will consent without much difficulty or reluctance
to delegate his powers to a Regency, but I am somewhat afraid that he
will object to its being composed of members of his own family. The
Sovereign has always been opposed to employing any of his own
relatives in office. I shall, I dare say, be able to get over this
difficulty, and it will be desirable to employ the best members of
the family in order to show the people of Oude, and of India
generally, that the object of our Government is an honest and
benevolent one.
A corps of irregular cavalry might be sent to Lucknow from
Goruckpoor, and its place there supplied for a season by a wing from
the corps at Legolee. There is little occasion for the services of
cavalry at either of these places at present. Without any cavalry of
our own here, and with this corps of African assassins at Lucknow at
the beck of the singers, eunuchs, and their creature, the minister,
neither the Resident nor any of the Regency would be safe. The
treasury and crown jewels would be open to any one who would make
away with them. If, therefore, your Lordship should determine upon
offering the king the alternative proposed, no time should be lost in
ordering the irregular corps from Goruckpoor to Lucknow, to be held
at the Resident's disposal. Its presence will be required only for a
few months.
I have mentioned, in my private letter to Sir H. M. Elliot, three
persons of high character for the Regency. Two of them are brothers
of the King's father. The third, and best, may be considered as in
all respects the first man in Oude. Mohsin-od Dowlah is the grandson
of the King, Ghasee-od Deen; his wife, and the mother of his only
son, is the sister of the King's father, and his only son has been
lately united in marriage to the present King's daughter. He and his
wife have large hereditary incomes, under the guarantee of our
Government, and his character for good sense, prudence, and integrity
stands higher, I believe, than that of any other man in Oude.
All three belong to the number of the royal family who never visit
the Resident except in company with the King, and I have, in
consequence, never spoken to Mohsin-od Dowlah but once, and never
seen either of the other two whom I have named, Azeemoshan and Khorum
Bukeh, the King's uncles. The characters of all three are very high,
and in general esteem.
Things are coming to a very critical state. There is no money to pay
any one in the treasury, and the greater part of what comes in is
taken for private purposes, by those who are in power. All see that
there must soon be a great change, and are anxious "to make hay while
the sun shines." The troops are everywhere in a state bordering on
mutiny, but more particularly in and about the capital, because they
cannot indemnify themselves by the plunder of the people as those in
the distant districts do.
Fortunately the rains have this season been very favourable for
tillage, and the crops may be good if we can preserve them by, some
timely arrangement.
With great respect I remain,
Your Lordship's obedient, humble servant,
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.
To the Most Noble
the Marquis of Dalhousie.
P.S.--I find that the irregular corps of cavalry has been moved from
Goruckpoor to Sultanpoor Benares, and that Lagolee and Goruckpoor
have now only one corps between them.
The Sultanpoor Benares corps might well spare a wing for Lucknow, and
so might the corps at Bareilly spare one.
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.
______________________________
Lucknow, 11th October, 1849.
My Dear Elliot,
Here is a little item of palace news, communicated by one of the
poets who has to assist his Majesty in selecting his verses, and who
knows a good deal about what is going on among the favourites.
Perhaps you may recollect him, Ameen-od Doulah, the eldest son of the
late Aga Meer.
There is not a greater knave than Walee Alee in India, I believe.
That his Majesty will consent to what the Governor-General may
authorise us to propose I have no doubt, for he and his family are by
this time satisfied that we shall propose nothing but what is good
for them and the people of Oude.
But the King is no longer in a sound state of mind, and will say and
do whatever the most plausible of the bad speakers may recommend.
When I see him, I must have his signature before respectable
witnesses to all his answers to distinct propositions, and act upon
them at once, as far as I may be authorised by the Governor-General,
or nothing will be done. It would not do for me to commune with him
about affairs till I get instructions from you, as he would be sure
to tell the singers, eunuchs, and minister all that has been said the
moment I left him.
He has never been a cruel or badly-disposed man, but his mind,
naturally weak, has entirely given way, and is now as helpless as
that of an infant. Every hour's delay will add to our difficulties,
and I wait most anxiously for orders. I am prepared with the new
arrangements, and feel sure that the system will work well, and have
the Governor-General's approval. I can explain it in a few words, and
show the details in a small Table all ready for transmission when
called for.
We shall have the royal family, the court, and people with us, with
the exception of the minister and the favourites, who are in league
with him, and those who share in the fruits of their corruption.
Fifteen lacs are spoken of as the means ready to get either me out of
the way or put a stop to all attempts of improvement for the present.
I have in my public letter mentioned seven lacs as the average annual
perquisites of the minister--they are at present at least twelve.
Yours sincerely,
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.
To Sir H. M. Elliot, K.C.B.,
&c. &c.
[Transcriber's Note: Map of the Kingdom of Oude - Drawn under the
superintendence of the Late Major General Sir Wm. Sleeman.
Approximate area covered 79° to 84° E by 25° to 28.5° N.; scale
approximately 38 miles to the inch. Map shows the route taken by the
author on his journey, as noted in his diary.]
DIARY
of
A JOURNEY THROUGH OUDE
CHAPTER I.
Departure from Lucknow--Gholam Hazrut--Attack on the late Prime
Minister, Ameen-od-Dowla--A similar attack on the sons of a former
Prime Minister, Agar Meer--Gunga Sing and Kulunder Buksh--Gorbuksh
Sing, of Bhitolee--Gonda Bahraetch district--Rughbur Sing--Prethee
Put, of Paska--King of Oude and King of the Fairies--Surafraz mahal.
_December_ 1, 1849.--I left Lucknow to proceed on a tour through
Oude, to see the state of the country and the condition of the
people. My wish to do so I communicated to Government, on the 29th of
March last, and its sanction was conveyed to me, in a letter from the
Secretary, dated the 7th of April. On the 16th of November I reported
to Government my intention to proceed, under this sanction, on the
1st of December, and on the 19th I sent the same intimation to the
King. On the 28th, as soon as the ceremonies of the Mohurrum
terminated, His Majesty expressed a wish to see me on the following
day; and on the 29th I went at 9 A.M., accompanied by Captain Bird,
the first Assistant, and Lieutenant Weston, the Superintendant of the
Frontier Police, and took leave of the King, with mutual expression
of good-will. The minister, Alee Nakee Khan, was present. On the 30th
I made over charge of the Treasury to Captain Bird, who has the
charge of the department of the Sipahees' Petitions and the Fyzabad
Guaranteed Pensions; and, taking with me all the office
establishments not required in these three departments, proceeded,
under the usual salute, to Chenahut, eight miles.*
[* My escort consisted, of two companies of sipahees, from the 10th
Regiment Native Infantry, and my party of Captain Hardwick,
lieutenant Weston, and Lieutenant and Mrs. Willows and my wife and
children, with occasional visitors from Lucknow and elsewhere.]
The Minister, Dewan and Deputy Minister, Ghoolam Ruza, came out the
first stage with me, and our friend Moonuwur-od Dowla, drove out to
see us in the evening.
_December_ 2, 1849.--We proceeded to Nawabgunge, the minister riding
out with me, for some miles, to take leave, as I sat in my tonjohn.
At sunrise I ventured, for the first time since I broke my left
thigh-bone on the 4th April, to mount an elephant, the better to see
the country. The land, on both sides of the road, well cultivated,
and studded with groves of mango and other trees, and very fertile.
The two purgunnas of Nawabgunge and Sidhore are under the charge of
Aga Ahmud, the Amil, who has under him two naibs or deputies, Ghoolam
Abbas and Mahummud Ameer. All three are obliged to connive at the
iniquities of a Landholder, Ghoolam Huzrut, who resides on his small
estate of Jhareeapoora, which he is augmenting, in a manner too
common in Oude, by seizing on the estates of his weaker neighbours.
He wanted to increase the number of his followers, and on the 10th of
November 1849, he sent some men to aid the prisoners in the great
jail at Lucknow to break out. Five of them were killed in the
attempt, seven were wounded, and twenty-five were retaken, but forty-
five escaped, and among them Fuzl Allee, one of the four assassins,
who, in April 1847, cut down the late minister, Ameen-od Dowla, in
the midst of his followers, in one of the principal streets of
Lucknow, through which the road, leading from the city to Cawnpore,
now passes. One of the four, Tuffuzzul Hoseyn, was killed in
attempting to escape on the 8th August 1849, and one, Alee Mahomed,
was killed in this last attempt. The third, Fuzl Allee, with some of
the most atrocious and desperate of his companions, is now with this
Ghoolam Huzrut, disturbing the peace of the country. The leader in
this attempt was Ghoolam Hyder Khan, who is still in jail at Lucknow.
On my remarking to the King's wakeel that these ruffians had all
high-sounding names, he said, "They are really all men of high
lineage; and men of that class, who become ruffians, are always sure
to be of the worst description." "As horses of the best blood, when
they do become vicious, are the most incorrigible, I suppose?"
"Nothing can be more true, sir," rejoined the wakeel. An account of
the attack made by the above-named ruffians on the minister, may be
here given as both interesting and instructive, or at least as
illustrative of the state of society and government in Oude.
At five in the morning of the 8th of April 1847, the minister, Ameen-
od Dowlah, left his house in a buggy to visit the King. Of his armed
attendants he had only three or four with him. He had not gone far
when four armed assassins placed themselves in front of his buggy and
ordered him to stop. One of them, Tuffuzzul Hoseyn, seized the horse;
by the bridle, and told the minister, that he must give him the
arrears of pay due before he could go on. The other three, Fuzl
Allee, Allee Mahomed, and Hyder Khan, came up and stood on the right
side of the buggy. One of the minister's servants, named Hollas,
tried to prevent their coming near, but was fired upon by Allee
Mahomed. He missed him, but Fuzl Allee discharged his blunderbuss at
him, and he fell; but in falling, he wounded Hyder Khan slightly with
his sword. Hyder Khan then threw away his fire-arms and sprang into
the buggy with his naked dagger in his right hand and the minister in
his left. The minister seized him round the waist, forced him back
out of the buggy on the left, and fell upon him. Tuffuzzul Hoseyn
then quitted his hold of the horse and rushed to his comrade's
assistance, but the minister still holding Hyder Khan in his right
hand, seized Tuffuzzul Hoseyn with his left. Syud Aman Allee, another
personal servant of the minister, was cut down by Fuzl Allee, in
attempting to aid his master, and a third personal servant, Shah
Meer, was severely wounded by Allee Mahomed, and stood at a distance
of twenty paces, calling for help. Fuzl Allee now made two cuts with
his sword on the right shoulder and arm of the minister, below the
elbow, and he quitted his hold on the two assassins and fell. The
four assassins now grasped their victim, and told him that they would
do him no farther harm if no rescue were attempted. As they saw the
rest of the minister's armed attendants and a crowd approach, Fuzl
Allee and Hyder Khan, with their blunderbusses loaded and cocked,
stood one at each end of an open space of about sixty yards, and
threatened to shoot the first man who should venture to approach
nearer. The crowd and attendants of the minister were kept back, and
no one ventured to enter this space, in the centre of which the
minister lay, grasped by Tuffuzzul Hoseyn and Allee Mahomed, who held
their naked daggers at his breast. The minister called out to his
attendants and the crowd to keep back. He was then allowed to rise
and walk to a small raised terrace on the side of the street, where
he lay down on his back, being unable any longer to sit or stand from
the loss of blood. Tuffuzzul Hoseyn and Allee Mahomed knelt over him,
holding the points of their daggers at his breast, and swearing that
they would plunge them to his heart if he attempted to move, or any
one presumed to enter the open space to rescue him. Hollas and Syud
Aman Allee lay bleeding at the spot where they fell. Hollas died that
day, and Syud Aman Allee a few days after, of lock-jaw.
As soon as the attack on the minister was made, information of it was
sent off to the Resident, Colonel Richmond, who wrote to request the
Brigadier Commanding the Troops in Oude, to send him, as soon as
possible, a regiment of infantry with two guns, from the Cantonments,
which are three miles and a-half distant from the Residency, on the
opposite side from the scene of the attack, to prevent any tumult
that the loose characters of the city might attempt to raise on the
occasion, and repaired himself to the spot attended by the Assistant,
Captain Bird, and a small guard of sipahees. They reached the open
spot, in the centre of which the minister lay, about a quarter of an
hour after he fell. He found the street, in which the attack took
place, crowded with people up to the place where the two sentries,
Fuzl Allee and Hyder Khan, stood at each end of the open space, in
the centre of which the minister lay, with the daggers of the two
other assassins pressing upon his breast. On reaching one end of the
open space, the Resident directed Captain Bird to advance to the spot
where the minister lay. The assassin who guarded that end at first
threatened to shoot him, but no sooner recognized him than he let him
pass on unattended. He asked the two men, who knelt over the
minister, what they meant by this assault. They told him, that good
men were no longer employed in the King's service, and that they
were, in consequence, without the means of subsistence; and had been
compelled to resort to this mode of obtaining them; that they
required fifty thousand rupees from the minister, with a written
assurance from the British Resident, that they should be escorted in
safety across the Ganges into the British territory with this sum.
The Resident peremptorily refused to enter into any written agreement
with them, and told them, through the Assistant, that if they
presumed to put the minister to death, or to offer him any further
violence, they should be all four immediately shot down and cut to
pieces; but, if they did him no further harm, their lives should, be
spared; and, to prevent their being killed as soon as they quitted
their hold, that he would take them all with him to the Residency,
and neither imprison them himself, nor have them made over as
prisoners to the Oude Government; but that he declined being a party
to any arrangement that the minister might wish to make of paying
money for his life.
They continued resolutely to threaten instant death to the minister
should any one but the Resident or his Assistant presume to enter the
open space in which he lay. Many thousands of reckless and desperate
characters filled the street, ready to commence a tumult, for the
plunder of the city, the moment that the minister or the assassins
should be killed, while the relations and dependents of the minister,
with loud cries, offered lacs of rupees to the assassins if they
spared his life, so as to encourage them to hold out. They at last
collected and brought to the spot, on three or four elephants, the
fifty thousand rupees demanded by the assassins, and offered them to
his assailants apparently with his concurrence; and the four
ruffians, having assented to the terms offered by the Resident,
permitted Doctor Login, the Residency Surgeon, to approach the
prostrate minister and dress his wounds. One of the assassins,
however, continued to kneel by his side with his naked dagger resting
on his breast till he saw the other three seated upon the elephants,
on which the money was placed, with the understanding, that the guard
of sipahees, which the Resident had brought with him, should escort
them to the Residency, and that Captain Bird, the Assistant, should
accompany them. The fourth man then quitted his hold on the minister,
who had become very faint, and climbed upon Captain Bird's elephant
and took seat behind him. Captain Bird, however, made him get off,
and mount another elephant with his companions. The crowd shouted
_shah bash, shah bash!_--well done, well done! and they attempted to
scatter some of the money from the elephants among them, but were
prevented by Captain Bird, who dreaded the consequences in such a
tumult. They were all four taken to the Residency under the guard of
sipahees, and accommodated in one of the lower rooms of the office;
and a guard was placed over the money with orders to keep back the
crowd of spectators, which was very great. Three of the four ruffians
had been wounded by the minister's attendants before they could
secure his person, and their wounds were now dressed by Doctor Login.
It was now ten o'clock, and at twelve the Resident had an interview
with the King, who had become much alarmed, not only for the safety
of the minister, but for that of the city, threatened by the
thousands of bad characters, anxious for an occasion of pillage; and
he expressed an anxious wish that the assassins should be made over
to him for trial. But the Resident pleaded the solemn promise which
he had made, and his Majesty admitted the necessity of the promise
under the circumstances, and that of keeping it; but said that he
would have the whole affair carefully investigated. As soon as the
Resident left him, he sent a company of sipahees with fetters to the
Residency to receive charge of the prisoners, but the Resident would
not give them up. The King then wrote a letter to the Resident with
his own hand, requesting that the prisoners might be surrendered to
him. The Resident, in his reply to His Majesty's, letter, told him,
that he could not so far violate the promise he had given, but that
he would send them to answer any other charges that might be brought
against them, in any open and impartial Court that might be appointed
to try them; and if they should be found guilty of other crimes, His
Majesty might order any sentence passed upon them, short of death, to
be carried into execution.
Charges of many successful attempts of the same kind, and many
atrocious murders perpetrated by the ruffians, in distant districts
of Oude, were preferred against them; and they were prevailed upon to
give up their arms, and to submit to a fair and open trial, on the
other charges preferred against them, on condition that they should
neither be put to death nor in any way maimed, or put in fetters, or
subjected to ill-treatment before trial and conviction. The Resident
offered them the alternative of doing this or leaving the Residency,
after he had read to them the King's letter, and told them, that his
promise extended only to saving their lives and escorting them to the
Residency; and, that he would not be answerable for their lives
beyond the court-yard of the Residency, if they refused the
conditions now offered. They knew that their lives would not be safe
for a moment after they got beyond the court-yard, and submitted.
Their arms and the fifty thousand rupees were sent to the King. At
four in the afternoon, the four prisoners were made over to the
King's wakeel, on a solemn promise given under the express sanction
of his Majesty, of safe conduct through the streets, of freedom from
fetters, or any kind of ill-treatment before conviction, and of fair
and open trial.
But they had not gone two paces from the Residency court-yard, when
they were set upon by the very people sent by the King to take care
of them on the way; the King's wakeel having got into his palkee and
gone on before them towards the palace. They were beaten with whips,
sticks, and the hilts of swords, till one of the four fell down
insensible, and the other three were reduced to a pitiable condition.
The Resident took measures to protect them from further violence,
recalled the wakeel; and, after admonishing him for his dishonourable
conduct, had the prisoners taken unfettered to a convenient house
near the prison. The wounded minister wrote to the King, earnestly
praying that the prisoners might not suffer any kind of ill-treatment
before conviction, after a fair and impartial trial. The Resident
reported to Government all that had occurred, and stated, that he
should see that the promises made to the prisoners were fulfilled,
that, should they be convicted before the Court appointed to conduct
the trial, of other crimes perpetrated before this assault on the
minister, they would be subject to such punishment as the Mahommedan
law prescribed for such crimes. Three of them, Tuffuzzul Hoseyn,
Hyder Khan, and Fuzl Allee, were convicted, on their own confessions,
and the testimony of their own relations, of many cold blooded
murders, and successful attempts to extort money from respectable and
wealthy persons in different parts of Oude, similar to this on the
minister, and all four were sentenced to imprisonment for life. The
Government of India had insisted on their not being executed or
mutilated. Fuzl Allee, as above stated, broke jail, and is still at
large at his old trade, and Hyder Khan is still in prison at Lucknow.
These ruffians appear to have been encouraged, in this assault upon
the minister, for the purpose of extorting money, by a similar but
more successful attempt made in the year 1824, by a party headed by a
person named Syud Mahomed Eesa Meean, _alias_ Eesa Meean.
This person came to Lucknow with a letter of recommendation from
Captain Gough. He delivered it in person to the Resident, but was
never after seen or heard of by him till this affair occurred. He
became a kind of saint, or _apostle_, at Lucknow; and Fakeer Mahomed
Khan Rusaldar, who commanded a corps of Cavalry, and had much
influence over the minister, Aga Meer, became one of his _disciples_,
and prevailed upon the minister to entertain him as a mosahib, or
aide-de-camp. He soon became a favourite with Aga Meer, and formed a
liaison with a dancing-girl, named Beeba Jan. His conduct towards her
soon became too violent and overbearing, and she sought shelter with
the Khasmahal, or chief consort, of the minister, who promised her
protection, and detained her in her apartments. Eesa Meean appealed
to the minister, and demanded her surrender. The minister told him
that she was mistress of her own actions, as she had never gone
through the ceremonies of permanent marriage, or _nikkah_, nor even
those of a temporary one, _motah_; and most be considered as
altogether free to choose her own lovers or mode of life.
He then appealed to Moulavee Karamut Allee, the tutor of Aga Meer's
children, but was told, that he could not interfere, as the female
was a mere acquaintance of his, and bound to him by no legal ties
whatever; and must, therefore, be considered as free to reside where
and with whom she chose. Eesa Meean then took his resolution, and
prevailed upon some fifteen of the loose and desperate characters who
always swarm at Lucknow, to aid him in carrying it out. On the 2nd of
June 1824, Karamut Allee, the tutor, was bathing, and Aga Meer's two
eldest sons, Aga Allee, aged eleven, and Nizam-od Dowlah, aged six
years were reading their lessons in the school-room, under the
deputy-tutor, Moulavee Ameen Allee. It was early in the morning, but
the minister had gone out to wait upon the King. Eesa Meean entered
the school-room, and approached the children with the usual courtesy
and compliments, followed by six armed men, and one table attendant,
or khidmutgar.
The two boys were sitting beside each other, the eldest, Aga Allee,
on the left, and the youngest, Nizam-od Dowla, on the right. Eesa
Meean sat down on the left side of the eldest, and congratulated both
on the rapid progress they were making in their studies. Three of his
followers, while he was doing this, placed themselves on the left of
the eldest, and the other three on the right of the youngest. On a
concerted signal all drew forth and cocked their pistols, and placed
themselves at the only three doors that opened from the school-room,
two at each, while at a signal made by the khidmutgar, eight more men
came in armed in the same manner. Two of them with naked daggers in
their right hands seized the two boys with their left, and threatened
them with instant death if they attempted to more or call for help.
The other six threatened to kill any one who should attempt to force
his way into the apartment. The khidmutgar, in the mean time, seized
and brought into the room two large gharahs or pitchers of drinking
water, that stood outside, as the weather was very hot, and the party
would require it They were afraid that poison might be put into the
water if left outside after they had commenced the assault. Eesa
Meean then declared, that he had been driven to this violent act by
the detention of his girl by the Khasmahal, and must have her
instantly surrendered, or they would put the boys to death. Hearing
the noise from his bathing-room, their tutor, Karamut Allee, rushed
into the room with nothing on his person but his waist-band, and
began to admonish the ruffians. Seeing him unarmed, and respecting
his peaceful character, they let him pass in and vociferate, but paid
no regard to what he said.
The alarm had spread through the house and town, and many of the
chief officers of the Court were permitted to enter the room unarmed.
Roshun-od Dowlah, Sobhan Allee Khan, Fakeer Mahomed Khan, Nuzee Allee
Khan, (the Khasmahul's son-in-law,) and others of equal rank, all in
loud terms admonished the assailants, and demanded the surrender of
the children, but all were alike unheeded. The chief merchant of
Lucknow, Sa Gobind Lal, came in; and thinking that all affairs could
and ought to be settled in a business-like way, told the chief
officers to fix the sum to be given, and he would at once pledge
himself to the payment. All agreed to this, and Sobhan Allee Khan,
the Chief Secretary of the minister, set to work and drew up a long
and eloquent paper of conditions. On his beginning to read it, one of
the ruffians, who had one eye, rushed in, snatched it from his hand,
tore it to pieces, and threw the fragments into his chief's, Eesa
Meean's, face, saying, "that this fellow would write them all out of
their lives, as he was writing the people of Oude every day out of
their properties; that if they must die, it should not be by pen and
paper, but by swords and daggers in a fair fight; that all their
lives had been staked, and all should die or live together." He was
overpowered by the others, and other papers were drawn up by the
ready writer and consummate knave Sobhan Allee, but the one-eyed man
contrived to get hold of all, one after the other, and tear them up.
The minister was with the King when he first heard of the affair, and
he went off forthwith to the Resident, Mr. Ricketts, to say, that his
Majesty had in vain endeavoured to rescue the boys through his
principal civil officers, and had sent all his available troops, but
in vain; and now earnestly entreated the British Resident to
interpose and save their lives. The Resident consented to do so, on
condition that any arrangement he might find it necessary to make
should be binding on his Majesty and the minister. Aga Meer returned
to the King with this message, and his Majesty agreed to this
condition. The Resident then sent his head moonshie, Gholam Hossein,
to promise Eesa Meean, that the woman should be restored to him, and
any grievance he might have to complain of should be redressed, and
his party all saved, if he gave up the children. But he and his
followers now demanded a large sum of money, and declared, that they
would murder the boys unless it was given and secured to them, with a
pledge for personal security to the whole party.
The minister, on hearing this, came to the Resident, and implored him
to adopt some measures to save the lives of the children. The
Resident had been for three weeks confined to his couch from illness,
but he sent his Assistant, Captain Lockett, with full powers to make
any arrangement, and pledge himself to any engagements, which might
appear to him to be necessary, to save the lives of the boys. He
went, and being unarmed, was permitted to enter the room. He asked
for Eesa Meean, whom he had never before seen, when one of the party
that knelt over the boys rose, and saluting him, said, "I am Eesa
Meean." Captain Lockett told him that he wanted to speak to him in
private, when Eesa Meean pointed to a door leading into a side room,
into which they retired. Eesa Meean offered Captain Lockett a chair,
and at his request sat down by his side. He then entered into a long
story of grievances, which Captain Lockett considered to be
frivolous, and said, "that the minister had injured his prospects in
many ways, and at last disgraced him in the eyes of all people at
Lucknow, by conniving at the elopement of the dancing-girl that he
was a soldier and regardless of life under such disgrace, and
prepared to abide by the result of his present attempt to secure
redress, whatever it might be; that his terms were the payment down
of five lacs of rupees, the restoration of his dancing-girl, and the
security of his own person and property, with permission to go where
he pleased, unmolested." Captain Lockett reminded him quietly of what
he had just said: "that he was a soldier, and anxious only for the
recovery of his lost honour; that now, to demand, money, was to show
to the world that wounded honour was urged as a mere pretext, and the
seizure of the boys a means adopted for the sole purpose of extorting
money; that he could not condescend to hold further converse with him
if he persisted in such preposterous demands; that he might murder
the children as they seemed to be in his power, but if he did so, he
and his party would be all instantly put to death, as the house was
surrounded by thousands of the King's soldiers, ready to fall upon
them at the slightest signal." He then recommended him to release the
boys forthwith before the excitement without became more strong, and
accompany him to the Residency, where his real Wrongs would be
inquired into and redressed.
Eesa Meean then rose and said: "Money is not my object. I despise it.
I regard nothing but the preservation of my honour, and agree to what
you propose; but I have several companions here who require to be
consulted: let me speak to them." He then went into the large room.
His companions all made objections of one kind or another, and what
they all agreed to one moment was rejected the next. They vociferated
loudly, and disputed violently with each other, and with all around
them, and at times appeared desperate and determined to sacrifice the
boys, and sell their own lives as dearly as possible. Eesa Meean
himself seemed to be the most violent and boisterous of all, and had
his hand frequently on the hilt of his sword when he disputed with
the King's officers, whom he abused in the grossest possible terms.
They did more harm than good by their want of temper and patience,
but above all by their utter want of character, since no one could
place the slightest reliance on the word of any one of them in such a
trying moment. They seemed to have no control over their feelings,
and to think that they could do all that was required by harsh
language and loud bawling.
Captain Lockett at last persuaded them to leave the whole affair in
his hands; and had they done so at first, he would have settled the
matter, he thought, in half the time. They had been discussing
matters in this angry manner for four hours and a half, without
making the slightest impression on the ruffians; but when all became
silent, Captain Lockett prevailed on them to release the boys on the
conditions agreed to between him and Eesa Meean, and recorded on
paper. In this paper it was declared--"That Syud Mahomed Eesa Khan,
together with the woman, Beeba Jan, shall be allowed to go where he
liked, with security to his life and honour, and with all the
property and effects he might have, whether he got it from the King
of Oude or from his minister; and that no one, either in the
Honourable Company's or in the King of Oude's dominions, shall offer
him any molestation; that no obstruction shall be thrown in his way
by the officers of the British Government in the countries of any of
the Rajahs at whose courts there may be a British Resident; and
further, that no molestation shall be offered to him in the British
territories in consequence of the disturbance which took place at
Bareilly in 1816.
"(Signed) A. LOCKETT, _Assistant Resident_."
After this paper had been signed by Captain Lockett, the two boys
were set at liberty, and sent off in palanqeens to their mother under
a guard. The minister had, in the morning, promised to give the
assailants twenty thousand rupees, and they arrived before the
discussions closed, and were placed on the floor of the school-room.
The girl, Beeba Jan, was now brought into the room, and made over to
Eesa Meean. When first brought before him, she thought she was to be
sacrificed to save the lives of the boys, and was in a state of great
agitation. She implored Captain Lockett to save her life; but, to the
great surprise of all present, Eesa Meean took up one of the bags of
money, containing one thousand rupees, and, with a smile, put it into
her arms, and told her that she was now at liberty to return to her
home or go where she pleased. The joy expressed by the girl and by
all who witnessed this scene was very great; for they had all
considered him to be a mere ruffian, incapable of anything like a
generous action.
It had been arranged that Eesa Meean, with all his party, should go
with Captain Lockett to the Residency; but when the time came, and
the excitement had passed away in the apartment, he began to be
alarmed, and told Captain Lockett that he felt sure he should be
murdered on the road. He wanted to go with Captain Lockett on the
same elephant, but to this Captain Lockett would not consent, as it
would compromise his dignity, to sit on the same elephant with so
atrocious a character. There was no palanqeen available for him, and
he would not allow Captain Lockett to enter his, declaring that if he
did so, he, Eesa Meean, would be instantly cut down by the King's
people. Captain Lockett was, therefore, obliged to walk with him from
the minister's house at Dowlut Poora to the Residency, a distance of
a mile, in the heat of the day, and the hottest month in the year,
followed by the King's troops, and an immense multitude from the
city. About four o'clock Captain Lockett reached the Residency, and
made over Eesa Meean and his sixteen followers to the Resident, who
ratified the written engagement, and sent the party to the
cantonments, three miles distant from the city, to Brigadier-General
Price, who commanded the troops in Oude, to be taken care of for a
few days till arrangements could be made for their safe conduct to
Cawnpore, within the British territory. Their arms were taken from
them, to be sent to the magistrate at Cawnpore, for delivery to them
when they might be released. On the morning of the 3rd the King came
to the Resident to thank him for what he had done, and express the
sense he entertained of the judicious conduct of his Assistant during
the whole of this trying scene; and to request that he might be
permitted to go to the palace to receive some mark of distinction
which his Majesty wished to confer upon him. Captain Lockett went
with the minister, and was received with marked distinction; and
thirteen trays of shawls and other articles were presented to him.
Captain Lockett selected one pair, which he accepted, and placed, as
usual, in the Resident's Toshuk-khana.
When he signed the paper he remarked the omission of all mention of
Eesa Meean's associates in that document, but did not consider it to
be his duty to point out the oversight, lest it might increase the
excitement, and prolong the angry discussions. In his report of the
circumstances to the Resident, however, he mentioned it to him, and
told him that the omission clearly arose from an oversight, and
unless his associates received the same indulgence as the principal,
Eesa Meean himself, their exclusion from the benefits of the
engagement might be attributed to decoit or artifice on his part. The
Resident concurred in this opinion, and in his report of the
following day to Government, he recommended that they should all be
considered as included in the engagement.
Government, in its reply of the 25th of June 1824, consents to this
construction of the written engagement, but notices a no less
important oversight on the part of the Resident and his Assistant, in
the free pardon given to Eesa Meean, for the share he had taken in
the Bareilly insurrection, which had caused the loss of so many lives
in April 1816. Government infers, that they could, neither of them
have been aware, that this ruffian was the original instigator and
most active leader in that formidable insurrection; that it was
chiefly, if not entirely, owing to his endeavours to inflame the
popular phrenzy, and to collect partizans from the neighbouring
towns, that the efforts of the local authorities, to quell or avert
the rising storm, failed wholly of success; that he stood charged as
a principal in the murder of Mr. Leycester's son, and that, on these
grounds, he was expressly excluded from the general amnesty, declared
after the successful suppression of the rebellion, and a reward of
two thousand rupees offered for his arrest; that this written pledge
had involved Government in the dilemma of either cancelling a public
act of the British Resident, or pardoning and setting at large,
within its territory, a proclaimed outlaw, and notorious rebel and
most dangerous incendiary; and that it felt bound in duty to guard
the public peace from the hazard of further interruption, through the
violence or intrigue of so desperate and atrocious an offender; and
to annul that part of the engagement which absolves Eesa Meean from
his guilt in the Bareilly insurrection, since the Resident and his
Assistant went beyond their powers in pledging their Government to
such a condition. Government directed, that he and his associates
should be safely escorted over the border into the British territory,
and that he should not be brought to trial before a Judicial Court,
with a view to his being capitally punished for his crimes at
Bareilly, but be confined, as a state prisoner, in the fortress of
Allahabad. The Government, in strong but dignified terms, expresses
its surprise and displeasure at his having been placed in so
confidential a position, and permitted to bask in the sunshine of
ministerial favour, when active search was being made for him all
over India; for the King and his minister must have been both aware
of the part he had taken in the Bareilly insurrection, since the King
himself alludes to it in a letter submitted by the Resident to
Government on the 8th of June 1824.
The Resident and his Assistant, in letters dated 15th of July,
declare that they were altogether unacquainted with the part which
Eesa Meean had taken in the Bareilly rebellion in 1816, the Resident
being at that time at the Cape of Good Hope, and his Assistant in
England. Eesa Meean was confined, as directed, in the fort of
Allahabad; but soon afterwards released on the occasion of the
Governor-General's visit to that place. He returned again to Lucknow
in the year 1828, soon after Aga Meer had been removed from his
office of minister. As soon as it was discovered that he was in the
city, he was seized and sent across the Ganges; and is said to have
been killed in Malwa or Goozerat, in a similar attempt upon some
native chief or his minister.
The two boys are still living, the eldest, Aga Allee, or Ameen-od
Dowla, at Lucknow, and Nizam-od Dowla, the youngest, at Cawnpore;
both drawing large hereditary pensions, under the guarantee of the
British Government. This is not the Ameen-od Dowla who was attacked
in the streets, as above described, in the year 1847.
About two years ago this Ghoolam Huzrut took by violence possession
of the small estate of Golha, now in the Sibhore purgunnah; and
turned out the proprietor, Bhowannee Sing, a Rathore Rajpoot, whose
ancestors had held it for several centuries. The poor man was re-
established in it by the succeeding contractor, Girdhara Sing; but on
his losing his contract, Ghoolam Huzret, on the 23rd of September
last, again attacked Bhowanne Sing at midnight, at the head of a gang
of ruffians; and after killing five of his relatives and servants,
and burning down his houses, turned him and his family out, and
secured possession of the village, which he still holds. The King's
officers were too weak to protect the poor man, and have hitherto
acquiesced in the usurpation of the village. Ghoolam Huzrut has
removed all the autumn crops to his own village; and cut down and
taken away sixty mango-trees planted by Bhowannee Sing's ancestors.
Miherban Sing, the son of the sufferer, is a sipahee in the 63rd
Regiment Native Infantry, and he presented a petition through the
Resident in behalf of his father. Other petitions have been since
presented, and the Court has been strongly urged to afford redress.
Ghoolam Huzrut has two forts, to which he retires when pursued, one
at _Para_, and one at _Sarai_, and a good many powerful landholders
always ready to support him against the government, on condition of
being supported by him when necessary.
On crossing the river Ghagra, I directed Captain Bunbury, (who
commands a regiment in the King of Oude's service with six guns, and
was to have accompanied me, and left the main body of his regiment
with his guns under his second in command, Captain Hearsey, at
Nawabgunge,) to surprise and capture Ghoolam Huzrut, if possible, by
a sudden march. He had left his fort of Para, on my passing within a
few miles of it, knowing that the minister had been with me, and
thinking that he might have requested my aid for the purpose. Captain
Bunbury joined his main body unperceived, made a forced march during
the night, and reached the fort of Para at daybreak in the morning,
without giving alarm to any one on the road. In this surprise he was
aided by Khoda Buksh, of Dadra, a very respectable and excellent
landholder, who had suffered from Ghoolam Huzrut's depredations.
He had returned to his fort with all his family on my passing, and it
contained but few soldiers, with a vast number of women and children.
He saw that it would be of no use to resist, and surrendered his fort
and person to Captain Bunbury, who sent him a prisoner to Lucknow,
under charge of two Companies, commanded by Captain Hearsey. He is
under trial, but he has so many influential friends about the Court,
with whom he has shared his plunder, that his ultimate punishment is
doubtful. Captain Bunbury was praised for his skill and gallantry,
and was honoured with a title by the king.
_December_ 3, 1849.--Kinalee, ten miles over a plain, highly
cultivated and well studded with groves, but we could see neither
town, village, nor hamlet on the road. A poor Brahmin, Gunga Sing,
came along the road with me, to seek redress for injuries sustained.
His grandfather was in the service of our Government, and killed
under Lord Lake, at the first siege of Bhurtpore in 1804. With the
little he left, the family had set up as agricultural capitalists in
the village of Poorwa Pundit, on the estate of Kulunder Buksh, of
Bhitwal. Here they prospered. The estate was, as a matter of favour
to Kulunder Buksh, transferred from the jurisdiction of the
contractor to that of the Hozoor Tehseel.* Kulunder Buksh either
could not, or would not, pay the Government demand; and he employed
two of his relatives, Godree and Hoseyn Buksh, to plunder in the
estate and the neighbourhood, to reduce Government to his own terms.
These two persons, with two hundred armed men, attacked the village
in the night; and, after plundering the house of this Brahmin, Gunga
Sing, they seized his wife, who was then pregnant, and made her point
out a hidden treasure of one hundred and seven gold mohurs, and two
hundred and seventy-seven rupees. She had been wounded in several
places before she did this, and when she could point out no more, one
of the two brothers cut her down with his sword, and killed her. In
all the Brahmin lost two thousand seven hundred and fifty-five
rupees' worth of property; and, on the ground of his grandfather
having been killed in the Honourable Company's service, has been ever
since urging the Resident to interpose with the Oude government in
his behalf.
[* The term "Hozoor Tehseel" signifies the collections of the revenue
made by the governor himself whether of a district or a kingdom. The
estates of all landholders who pay their land-revenues direct to the
governor, or to the deputy employed under him to receive such
revenues and manage such estates, are said to be in the "Hozoor
Tehseel." The local authorities of the districts on which such
estates are situated have nothing whatever to do with them.]
The estate of Bhitwal has been retransferred to the jurisdiction of
the Amil of Byswara, who has restored it to Kulunder Buksh; and his
two relatives, Godree and Hoseyn Buksh, are thriving on the booty
acquired, and are in high favour with the local authorities. I have
requested that measures may be adopted to punish them for the robbery
and the cruel murder of the poor woman; but have little hope that
they will be so. _No government in India is now more weak for
purposes of good than that of Oude_.
This village of Kinalee is now in the estate of Ramnuggur Dhumeereea,
held by Gorbuksh, a large landholder, who has a strong fort,
Bhitolee, at the point of the Delta, formed by the Chouka and Ghagra
rivers, which here unite. He has taken refuge with some four thousand
armed followers in this fort, under the apprehension of being made to
pay the full amount of the Government demand, and called to account
for the rescue of some atrocious offenders from Captain Hearsey, of
the Frontier Police, by whom they had been secured. Gorbuksh used to
pay two hundred thousand rupees a-year for many years for this
estate, without murmur or difficulty; but for the last three years he
has not paid the rate, to which he has got it reduced, of one hundred
and fifty thousand. Out of his rents and the revenues due to
Government he keeps up a large body of armed followers, to intimidate
the Government, and seize upon the estates of his weaker neighbours,
many of which he has lately appropriated by fraud, violence, and
collusion. An attempt was this year made to put the estate under the
management of Government officers; but he was too strong for the
Government, which was obliged to temporise, and at last to yield. He
is said to exact from the landholders the sum of two hundred and
fifty thousand rupees a-year. He holds also the estate of Bhitolee,
at the apex of the delta of the Ghagra and Chouka rivers, in which
the fort of Bhitolee is situated. The Government demand on this
estate is fifty thousand (50,000) rupees a-year. His son, Surubjeet
Sing, is engaged in plunder, and, it is said, with his father's
connivance and encouragement, though he pretends to be acting in
disobedience of his orders. The object is, to augment their estate,
and intimidate the Government and its officers by gangs of ruffians,
whom they can maintain only by plunder and malversation. The greater
part of the lands, comprised in this estate of Ramnuggur Dhumeereea,
of which Rajah Gorbuksh is now the local governor, are hereditary
possessions which have been held by his family for many generations.
A part has been recently seized from weaker neighbours, and added to
them. The rest are merely under him as the governor or public
officer, intrusted with the collection of the revenue and the
management of the police.
_December_ 4, 1849.--Gunesh Gunge, _alias_ Byram-ghat, on the right
bank of the river Ghagra, distance about twelve miles. The country
well cultivated, and studded with good groves of mango and other
trees. We passed through and close to several villages, whose houses
are nothing but mud walls, without a thatched or tiled roof to one in
twenty. The people say there is no security in them from the King's
troops and the passies, a large class of men in Oude, who are village
watchmen but inveterate thieves and robbers, when not employed as
such. All refractory landholders hire a body of passies to fight for
them, as they pay themselves out of the plunder, and cost little to
their employers. They are all armed with bows and arrows, and are
very formidable at night. They and their refractory employers keep
the country in a perpetual state of disorder; and, though they do not
prevent the cultivation of the land, they prevent the village and
hamlets from being occupied by anybody who has anything to lose, and
no strong local ties to restrain him.
The town of Ramnuggur, in which Gorbuksh resides occasionally, is on
the road some five miles from the river. It has a good many houses,
but all are of the same wretched description; mud walls, with
invisible coverings or no coverings at all; no signs of domestic
peace or happiness; but nothing can exceed the richness and variety
of the crops in and around Ramnuggur. It is a fine garden, and would
soon be beautiful, were life and property better secured, and some
signs of domestic comfort created. The ruined state of the houses in
this town and in the villages along the road, is, in part, owing to
the system which requires all the King's troops to forage for
themselves on the march, and the contractors, and other collectors of
revenue, to be continually on the move, and to take all their troops
with them. The troops required in the provinces should be cantoned in
five or six places most convenient, with regard, to the districts to
be controlled, and most healthy for the people; and provided with
what they require, as ours are, and sent out to assist the revenue
collectors and magistrates only when their services are indispensably
necessary. Some Chundele Rajpoot landholders came to me yesterday to
say, that Ghoolam Huzrut, with his bands of armed ruffians, seemed
determined to seize upon all the estates of his weaker Hindoo
neighbours, and they would soon lose theirs, unless the British
Government interposed to protect them. Gorbuksh has not ventured to
come, as he was ordered, to pay his respects to the Resident; but has
shut himself up in his fort at Bhitolee, about six miles up the river
from our camp. The Chouka is a small river which there flows into the
Ghagra. He is said to have four or five thousand men with him; and
several guns mounted in his fort. The ferry over the Ghagra is close
to our tents, and called Byram-ghat.
_December_ 5, 1849.--Crossed the river Ghagra, in boats, and encamped
at Nawabgunge, on the left bank, where we were met by one of the
collectors of the Gonda Bahraetch district. He complained of the
difficulties experienced in realizing the just demands of the
exchequer, from the number and power of the tallookdars of the
district, who had forts and bands of armed followers, too strong for
the King's officers. There were, he said, in the small purgunnah of
Gouras--
1.--Pretheeput Sing, of Paska, who has a strong fort called Dhunolee,
on the right bank of the Ghagra, opposite to Paska and Bumhoree, two
strongholds, which he has on the left bank of that river, and he is
always ready to resist the Government.
2.--Murtonjee Buksh, of Shahpoor, who is always ready to do the same;
and a great ruffian.
3.--Shere Bahader Sing, of Kuneear.*
4.--Maheput Sing, of Dhunawa.*
5.--Surnam Sing, of Arta.*
6.--Maheput Sing, of Paruspoor.*
[* All four are at present on good terms with the Government and its
local authorities.]
They have each a fort, or stronghold, mounting five or six guns, and
trained bands of armed and brave men of five or six hundred, which
they augment, as occasion requires, by Gohars, or auxiliary bands
from their friends.
Hurdut Sing, of Bondee, _alias_ Bumnootee, held an estate for which
he paid one hundred and eighty-two thousand (1,82,000) rupees a year
to Government; but he was driven, out of it in 1846-47, by Rughbur
Sing, the contractor, who, by rapacity and outrage, drove off the
greater part of the cultivators, and so desolated the estate that it
could not now be made to yield thirty thousand (30,000) rupees a-
year. The Raja has ever since resided with a few followers in an
island in the Ghagra. He has never openly resisted or defied the
Government, but is said to be sullen, and a bad paymaster. He still
holds the estate in its desolate condition.
The people of Nawabgunge drink the water of wells, close to the bank
of the river, and often the water of the river itself, and say that
they never suffer from it; but that a good many people in several
villages, along the same bank, have the goitre to a very distressing
degree.
_December_ 6, 1849.--Halted at Byram-ghat, in order to enable all our
people and things to come up. One of our elephants nearly lost his
life yesterday in the quick-sands of the river. Capt. Weston rode out
yesterday close to Bhitolee, the little fort of Rajah Gorbuksh Sing,
who came out in a litter and told him, that he would come to me to-
day at noon, and clear himself of the charges brought against him of
rescuing and harbouring robbers, and refusing to pay the Government
demand. He had been suffering severely from fever for fifteen days.
Karamut Allee complains that his father, Busharut Allee, had been
driven out from the purgunnahs of Nawabgunge and Sidhore, by Ghoolum
Huzrut and his associates, who had several times attacked and
plundered the town of Nawabgunge, our second stage, and a great many
other villages around, from which they had driven off all the
cultivators and stock, in order to appropriate them to themselves,
and augment their landed estates; that they had cut down all the
groves of mango-trees planted by the rightful proprietors and their
ancestors, in order to remove all local ties; and murdered or maimed
all cultivators who presumed to till any of the lands without their
permission, that Busharut Allee had held the contract for the land
revenue of the purgunnah for twenty years, and paid punctually one
hundred and thirty-five thousand (1,35,000) rupees a-year to the
treasury, till about four years ago, when Ghoolam Huzrut commenced
this system of spoliation and seizure, since which time the purgunnah
had been declining, and could not now yield seventy thousand (70,000)
rupees to the treasury; that his family had held many villages in
hereditary right for many generations, within the purgunnah, but that
all had, been or were being seized by this lawless freebooter and his
associates.
Seeta Ram, a Brahmin zumeendar of Kowaree, in purgunnah Satrick,
complains, that he has been driven out of his hereditary estate by
Ghoolam Imam, the zumeendar of Jaggour, and his associate, Ghoolam
Huzrut; that his house had been levelled with the ground, and all the
trees, planted by his family, have been cut down and burned; that he
has been plundered of all he had by them, and is utterly ruined. Many
other landholders complain in the same manner of having been robbed
by this gang, and deprived of their estates; and still more come in
to pray for protection, as the same fate threatens all the smaller
proprietors, under a government so weak, and so indifferent to the
sufferings of its subjects.
The Nazim of Khyrabad, who is now here engaged in the siege of
Bhitolee, has nominally three thousand four hundred fighting men with
him; but he cannot muster seventeen hundred. He has with him only the
seconds in command of corps, who are men of no authority or
influence, the commandants being at Court, and the mere creatures of
the singers and eunuchs, and other favourites about the palace. They
always reside at and about Court, and keep up only half the number of
men and officers, for whom they draw pay. All his applications to the
minister to have more soldiers sent out to complete the corps, or
permission to raise men in their places, remain unanswered and
disregarded. The Nazim of Bharaetch has nominally four thousand
fighting men; but he cannot muster two thousand, and the greater part
of them are good for nothing. The great landholders despise them, but
respect the Komutee corps, under Captains Barlow, Bunbury, and
Magness, which is complete, and composed of strong and brave men. The
despicable state to which the Court favourites have reduced the
King's troops, with the exception of these three corps, is
lamentable. They are under no discipline, and are formidable only to
the peasantry and smaller landholders and proprietors, whose houses
they everywhere deprive of their coverings, as they deprive their
cattle of their fodder.
_December_ 7, 1849.--Hissampoor, 12 miles north-east, over a plain of
fine soil, more scantily tilled than any we saw on the other side of
the Ghagra, but well studded with groves and fine single trees, and
with excellent crops on the lands actually under tillage. One cause
assigned for so much fine land lying waste is, that the Rajpoot
tallookdars, above named, of the Chehdewara, have been long engaged
in plundering the Syud proprietors of the soil, and seizing upon
their lands, in the same manner as the Mahomedan ruffians, on the
other side of the river, have been engaged in plundering the small
Rajpoot proprietors, and seizing upon their lands. Four of them are
now quiet; but two, Prethee Put and Mirtonjee, are always in
rebellion. Lately, while the Chuckladar was absent, employed against
Jote Sing, of Churda, in the Turae, these two men took a large train
of followers, with some guns, attacked the two villages of Aelee and
Pursolee, in the estate of Deeksa, in Gonda, killed six persons,
plundered all the houses of the inhabitants, and destroyed all their
crops, merely because the landholders of these two villages would not
settle a boundary dispute in the way 'they proposed'. The lands of
the Hissampoor purgunnah were held in property by the members of a
family of Syuds, and had been so for many generations; but
neighbouring Rajpoot tallookdars have plundered them of all they had,
and seized upon their lands by violence, fraud, or collusion, with
public officers. Some they have seized and imprisoned, with torture
of one kind or another, till they signed deeds of sale, _Bynamahs_;
others they have murdered with all their families, to get secure
possession of their lands; others they have despoiled by offering the
local authorities a higher rate of revenue for their lands than they
could possibly pay.
The Nazim has eighteen guns, and ten auxiliary ones sent out on
emergency--not one-quarter are in a state for service; and for these
he has not half the draft-bullocks required, and they are too weak
for use; and of ammunition or _stores_ he has hardly any at all.
Rajah Gorbuksh Sing came yesterday, at sunset, to pay his respects,
and promised to pay to the Oude Government all that is justly
demandable from him. Written engagements to this effect were drawn
up, and signed by both the "high contracting parties." Having come in
on a pledge of personal security, he was, of course, permitted to
return from my camp to his own stronghold in safety. In that place he
has collected all the loose characters and unemployed soldiers he
could gather together, and all that his friends and associates could
lend him, to resist the Amil; and to maintain such a host, he will
have to pay much more than was required punctually to fulfil his
engagements to the State. He calculates, however, that, by yielding
to the Government, he would entail upon himself a perpetual burthen
at an enhanced rate, while, by the temporary expenditure of a few
thousands in this way, he may still further reduce the rate he has
hitherto paid.
The contract for Gonda and Bahraetch was held by Rughbur Sing, one of
the sons of Dursun Sing, for the years 1846 and 1847 A.D., and the
district of Sultanpoor was held by his brother, Maun Sing, for 1845-
46 and 1847 A.D. Rughbur Sing in 1846-47 is supposed to have seized
and sold or destroyed no less than 25,000 plough-bullocks in
Bhumnootee, the estate of Rajah Hurdut Sing, alone. The estate of
Hurhurpoor had, up to that time, long paid Government sixty thousand
(60,000) rupees a-year, but last year it would not yield five
thousand (5,000) rupees, from the ravages of this man, Rughbur Sing.
The estate of Rehwa, held by Jeswunt Sing, tallookdar, had paid
regularly fifty-five thousand (55,000) rupees a-year; but it was so
desolated by Rughbur Sing, that it cannot now yield eleven thousand
(11,000) rupees. This estate adjoins Bhumnootee, Rajah Hurdut Sing's,
which, as above stated, regularly paid one hundred and eighty-two
thousand (182,000) rupees; it cannot now pay thirty thousand (30,000)
rupees. Such are the effects of the oppression of this bad man for so
brief a period.
Some tallookdars live within the borders of our district of
Goruckpoor, while their lands lie in Oude. By this means they evade
the payment of their land revenues, and with impunity commit
atrocious acts of murder and plunder in Oude. These men maim or
murder all who presume to cultivate on the lands which they have
deserted, without their permission, or to pay rents to any but
themselves; and the King of Oude's officers dare not follow them, and
are altogether helpless. Only two months ago, Mohibollah, a zumeendar
of Kuttera, was invited by Hoseyn Buksh Khan, one of these
tallookdars, to his house, in the Goruckpoor district, to negotiate
for the ransom of one of his cultivators, a weaver by caste, whom he
had seized and taken away. As he was returning in the evening, he was
waylaid by Hoseyn Buksh Khan, as soon as he had recrossed the Oude
borders, and murdered with one of his attendants, who had been sent
with him by the Oude Amil. Such atrocities are committed by these
refractory tallookdars every day, while they are protected within our
bordering districts. Their lands must lie waste or be tilled by men
who pay all the rent to them, while they pay nothing to the Oude
Government. The Oude Government has no hope of prosecuting these men
to conviction in our Judicial Courts for specific crimes, which they
are known every day to commit, and glory in committing. In no part of
India is there such glaring abuse of the privileges of sanctuary as
in some of our districts bordering on Oude; while the Oude Frontier
Police, maintained by the King, at the cost of about one hundred
thousand (100,000) rupees a-year, and placed under our control,
prevents any similar abuse on the part of the Oude people and local
authorities. Some remedy for this intolerable evil should be devised.
At present the magistrates of all our conterminous districts require,
or expect, that their charges against any offender in Oude, who has
committed a crime in their districts, shall be held to be sufficient
for their arrest; but some of them, on the other band, require that
nothing less than some unattainable judicial proof, on the part of
the officers of the Oude Government, shall be held to be sufficient
to justify the arrest of any Oude offender who takes refuge in our
districts. They hold, that the sole object of the Oude authorities is
to get revenue defaulters into their power, and that the charges
against them for heinous crimes are invented solely for that purpose.
No doubt this is often the object, and that other charges are
sometimes invented, for the sole purpose of securing the arrest and
surrender of revenue defaulters; but the Oude revenue defaulters who
take refuge in our districts are for the most part, the tallookdars,
or great landholders, who, either before or after they do so,
invariably fight with the Oude authorities, and murder and plunder
indiscriminately, in order to reduce them to their own terms.
The Honourable the Court of Directors justly require that requisition
for the surrender of offenders by and from British officers and
Native States, shall be limited to persons charged with having
committed heinous crimes within their respective territories; and
that the obligation to surrender such offenders shall be strictly
reciprocal, unless, in any special case, there be very strong reason
for a departure from the rule.* But some magistrates of districts
disregard altogether applications made to them by the sovereign of
Oude, through the British Resident, for the arrest of subjects of
Oude who have committed the most atrocious robberies and murders in
the Oude territory in open day, and in the sight of hundreds; and
allow refugees from Oude to collect and keep up gangs of robbers
within their own districts, and rob and murder within the Oude
territory. Happily such Magistrates are rare. Government, in a letter
dated the 25th February, 1848, state--"that it is the duty of the
magistrates of our districts bordering on Oude to adopt vigorous
measures for preventing the assembling or entertaining of followers
by any party, for the purpose of committing acts of violence on the
Oude side of the frontier."
[* See their letter to the Government of India, 27th May 1835.]
_December_ 8, 1849.--Pukharpoor, a distance of fourteen miles, over a
fine plain of good soil, scantily tilled. For some miles the road lay
through Rajah Hurdut Sing's estate of Bumnootee, which was, with the
rest of the district of Bahraetch and Gonda, plundered by Rughbur
Sing, during the two years that he held the contract. We passed
through no village or hamlet, but saw some at a distance from the
road, with their dwellings of naked mud walls, the abodes of fear and
wretchedness; but the plain is well studded with groves and fine
single trees, and the crops are good where there are any on the
ground. Under good management, the country would be exceedingly
beautiful, and was so until within the last four years.
In the evening I had a long talk with the people of the village, who
had assembled round our tents. Many of them had the goitre; but they
told me, that in this and all the villages within twenty miles the
disease had, of late years, diminished; that hardly one-quarter of
the number that used to suffer from it had now the disease; that the
quality of the water must have improved, though they knew not why, as
they still drank from the same wells. These wells must penetrate into
some bed of mineral or other substance, which produces this disease
of the glands, and may in time exhaust it. But it is probable, that
the number who suffer from this disease has diminished merely with
the rest of the population, and that the proportion which the
goitered bear to the ungoitered may be still the same. They told me
that they had been plundered of all their stock and moveable property
by the terrible scourge, Rughber Sing, during his reign of two years,
and could not hope to recover from their present state of poverty for
many more; that their lands were scantily tilled, and the crops had
so failed for many years, since this miscreant's rule, that the
district which used to supply Lucknow with grain was obliged to draw
grain from it, and even from Cawnpore. This is true, and grain has in
consequence been increasing in price ever since we left Lucknow. It
is now here almost double the price that it is at Lucknow, while it
is usually twice as cheap here.
_December_ 9, 1849.--Bahraetch, ten miles north-east. We encamped on
a fine sward, on the left bank of the Surjoo river, a beautiful clear
stream. The cultivation very scanty, but the soil good, with water
everywhere, within a few feet of the surface. Groves and single trees
less numerous; and of villages and hamlets we saw none. Under good
government, the whole country might, in a few years, be made a
beautiful garden. The river Surjoo is like a winding stream in a
park; and its banks might, everywhere, be cultivated to the water's
edge. No ravines, jungle, or steep embankments. It is lamentable to
see so fine a country in so wretched a state.
The Turae forest begins a few miles to the north of Bahraetch, and
some of the great baronial landholders have their residence and
strongholds within it. The Rajah of Toolseepoor is one of them. He is
a kind-hearted old man, and a good landlord and subject; but he has
lately been driven out by his young and reprobate son, at the
instigation and encouragement of a Court favourite. The Rajah had
discharged an agent, employed by him at Court for advocating the
cause of his son while in rebellion against his father. The agent
then made common cause with the son, and secured the interest of two
powerful men at Court, Balkrishen Dewan and Gholam Ruza, the deputy
minister, who has charge of the estates in the Hozoor Tehsel. The
jurisdiction over the estate had been transferred from the local
authorities to the Hozoor Tehsel; and, by orders from Court, the
father's friends, the Bulrampoor and other Rajahs of the clan, were
prevented from continuing the aid they had afforded to support the
father's authority. The father unwilling to have the estate
devastated by a contest with the band of ruffians whom his son had
collected, retired, and allowed him to take possession. The son
seized upon all the property the father had left, and now employs it
in maintaining this band and rewarding the services of Court
favourites. The Nazim of the district is not permitted to interfere,
to restore rights or preserve order in the estate, nor would he,
perhaps, do either, if so permitted, for he has been brought up in a
bad school, and is not a good man. The pretext at Court is, that the
father is deranged; but, though not wise, he is learned, and no man
can be more sober than he is, or better disposed towards his
sovereign and tenants. That he is capable of managing his estate, is
shown by the excellent condition in which he left it.
Prethee Put, of Paska, is not worse than many of the tallookdars of
Oude, who now disturb the peace of the country; and I give a brief
sketch of his history, as a specimen of the sufferings inflicted on
the people by the wild licence which such landholders enjoy under the
weak, profligate, and apathetic government of Oude.
Keerut Sing, the tallookdar of Paska, on the left bank of the Ghagra,
between Fyzabad and Byram-ghaut, was one of the Chehdwara
landholders, and had five sons, the eldest Dirgpaul Sing, and the
second Prethee Put, the hero of this brief history. Before his death,
Keerut Sing made over the management of his estate to his eldest son
and heir; but gave to his second son a portion of land out of it, for
his own subsistence and that of his family. The father and eldest son
continued to reside together in the fort of Dhunolee, situated on the
right bank of the Ghagra, opposite Paska. Prethee Put took up his
residence in his portion of the estate at Bumhoree, collected a gang
of the greatest ruffians in the country, and commenced his trade, and
that of so many of his class, as an indiscriminate plunderer. Keerut
Sing and his eldest son, Dirgpaul, continued to pay the Government
demand punctually, to obey the local authorities, and manage the
estate with prudence.
Prethee Put, in 1836, attacked and took a despatch of treasure,
consisting of twenty-six thousand rupees, on its way to Lucknow, from
the Nazim of Bahraetch. In 1840 he attacked and took another of
eighty-five thousand rupees, on its way to Lucknow from the same
place. With these sums, and the booty which he acquired from the
plunder of villages and travellers, he augmented his gang, built a
fort at Bumhoree, and extended his depredations. In January 1842, his
father, who had been long ill, died. The local authorities demanded
five thousand rupees from the eldest son, Dirgpaul Sing, on his
accession. He promised to pay, and sent his eldest son, Dan Bahader
Sing, a lad of eighteen, as a hostage for the payment to the Nazim.
Soon after, Prethee Pat attacked the fort of Dhunolee, in which his
elder brother resided with his family, killed fifty-six persons, and
made Dirgpaul, his wife, and three other sons prisoners. Dirgpaul's
sister tried to conceal her brother under some clothes; but, under a
solemn oath from Prethee Put, that no personal violence should be
offered to him, he was permitted to take him. His wife and three sons
were sent off to be confined under the charge of Byjonauth Bhilwar,
zumeendar of Kholee, in the estate of Sarafraz Ahmud, one of his
associates in crime, on the left bank of the Goomtee river.
Three days after, finding that no kind of torture or intimidation
could make his elder brother sign a formal resignation of his right
to the estate in his favour, he took him into the middle of the river
Ghagra, cut off his head with his own hands, and threw the body into
the stream. Deeming this violation of his pledge a dishonourable act
his friend, Byjonauth, from whom he had demanded the widow and her
three sons, released them all, to seek protection elsewhere, as he
was not strong enough to resist Prethee Put himself. They found
shelter with some friends of the family in another district, and
Wajid Allee Khan, the Nazim of Bahraetch, in the beginning of
November 1843, went with the best force he could muster, drove
Prethee Pat out of Dhunolee and Paska, and put Dan Bahader Sing, the
eldest son of Dirgpaul, and rightful heir, into possession. In the
latter end of the same month, however, he was attacked by his uncle,
Prethee Put, and driven out with the loss of ten men. He again
applied for aid to the Nazim; but, thinking it more profitable to
support the stronger party, he took a bribe of ten thousand rupees
from Prethee Put, and recognized him as the rightful heir of his
murdered brother. Dan Bahader collected a small party of fifteen men,
and took possession of a small stronghold in the jungle of the
Shapoor estate, belonging to Murtonjee, another of the Chehdwara
tallookdars, where he was again attacked by his uncle in March 1844,
and driven out with the loss of four out of his fifteen men. Soon
after Prethee Put attacked and took another despatch of treasure, on
its way to Lucknow from Bahraetch, consisting of eighteen thousand
rupees. Soon after, in June, the Nazim, Ehsan Allee, sent a force
with Dan Bahader, and re-established him in possession of the estate
of Paska; but Ehsan Allee was soon after superseded in the contract
by Rughbur Sing, who adopted the cause of the strongest, and restored
Prethee Put, who continued to hold the estate for 1845.
In April 1847, Mahommed Hossein, one of the Tusseeldars under Rughbur
Sing, seized and confined Prethee Put, once more put Dan Bahader in
possession of the estate, and sent his uncle to Rughbur Sing. In
November 1847, Incha Sing superseded his nephew, Rughbur Sing; and,
thinking Prethee Put's the more profitable cause to adopt, he turned
out Dan Bahader, and restored Prethee Put to the possession of the
Paska estate, which he has held ever since. He has continued to
purs
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