They dare not face the most contemptible enemy, but they spare not the weak and inoffensive of any class, age, or sex.  A respectable landholder, in presenting a petition, complaining of the outrages committed upon his village and peasantry, said a few days ago—­“The oppression of these revenue collectors, and their disorderly troops, is intolerable, sir—­they plunder all who cannot resist them, but cannot lift their arms, or draw their breath freely in the presence of armed robbers and rebels—­it is a proverb, sir, that insects prey upon soft wood; and these men prey only upon the peaceful and industrious, who are unable to defend themselves.”  The Nazim tells me, that the lamentations of the poor people, plundered and maltreated, were incessant and distressing during the whole time these two corps were with him; and that he could exercise no control whatever over them, protected as they were, in all their iniquities, by the Court favour their two commandants enjoyed at Lucknow.*

[* Kootab Allee was one of the singers who were soon after banished from Oude in disgrace.  But all the influence they exercised over the King has been concentrated in the hands of the two singers who remained, Mosahib Allee and Anees-od Dowla.  All are despicable domes; but the two, who now govern the King, are much worse characters than any of those who were banished.]

I asked Bukhtawur Sing, before the Nazim overtook us this morning, why it was, that these governors always took so many troops with them when they moved from place to place, merely to settle accounts and inspect the crops.  “Some of them,” said he, “take all the troops they can muster, to show that they are great men; but, for the most part, they are afraid to move without them.  They, and the greater part of the landholders, consider each other as natural and irreconcilable enemies; and a good many of those, who hold the largest estates, are at all times in open resistance against the Government.  They have their Vakeels with the contractors when they are not so, and spies when they are.  They know all his movements, and would waylay and carry him off if not surrounded with a strong body of soldiers, for he is always moving over the country, with every part of which they are well acquainted.  Besides, under the present system of allowing them to forage or plunder for themselves, it is ruinous to any place to leave them in it for even a few days—­no man, within several miles, would preserve shelter for his family, or food for his cattle, during the hot and rainy months—­he is obliged to take them about with him to distribute, as equally as he can, the terrible burthen of maintaining them.  Now that the sugar-cane is ripe, not one cane would be preserved in any field within five miles of any place where the Nazim kept his troops for ten days.”

March 12, 1850.—­Seetapoor, nine miles over a plain of muteear soil, the greater part of which is light, and yields but scanty crops without manure, which is very scarce.  Immediately about the station and villages, where manure is available, the crops are good.  The wind continues westerly, the sky is clear, and the blight does not seem to increase.