On the death of Mokuddera Ouleea, a will was sent to the Resident by her sister, who declared that it had been under her sister’s pillow for a year, and that she had taken it out on finding her end approaching, and made it over to her, declaring it to contain her last wishes.  By this document pensions were bequeathed to the persons mentioned in the note below* out of one-third, and the other two-thirds were bequeathed to her sister and brother.  In submitting this document to Government, the Resident declared that he believed it to be a forgery; and in reply he was instructed to ascertain whether the persons named in the document had any objections to consider Shurf-on Nissa sole heir to her sister’s property and pension.  Should they have none to urge, he was directed to consider her as sole heir, and the pretended will as of no avail.  They all agreed to consider her as sole heir; and the Resident was directed to make over to her the property, and pay to her the pension or the principal from which it arose.  The Resident considered the continuance of the pension as the best arrangement for the present, and of this Government approved.

[* Buksh Allee, 1,000 rupees per month; Allee Hoseyn, 75; Sooraj Bhan, 40; Syud Hoseyn, 30; Sheik Hingun, 20; Mirza Allee, 30; Ram Deen, 12; Meea Sultan, 15; Sudharee, 10; Imam Buksh, 3; Ala Rukhee, 10; Sadoo Begum, 20; Akbar, 15; Mahdee Begum, 30.]

Shurf-on Nissa has no recognised children, and her brother and his reputed son are her sole heirs, so that no injury can arise to him from the omission, on the part of Government and the Resident, of all mention of his right as co-sharer in the inheritance.  Neither brother nor sister had really any legal right whatever to succeed to this pension, for Mokuddera Ouleea was an illegitimate child, and had no legal heirs according to either English or Mahommedan law.  This fact seems to have been concealed from the Resident, for he never mentioned it to Government.  It was the dread that this fact would cause the whole pension to be sent to the shrines in Turkish Arabia, that made them forge the will.  All readily consented to consider Shurf-on Nissa the heir, when they found that our Government had no objection to consider her as such.  The King wished to have the money to lay out on bridges and roads in Oude, and the Resident advocated this wish; but our Government, ignorant of the fact of the illegitimacy of the deceased, and with the guaranteed bequest of the late King before them, could not consent to any such arrangement.

Government has long been strongly and justly opposed to all such guarantees, and the Resident was told on the 14th November 1840, “that the Governor-General in Council could not consent to grant the absolute and unqualified pledge of protection which the King was solicitous of obtaining in favour of four other females; and directed to state to his Majesty that, although in the instances he had cited, such guarantees