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

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