The 2nd Regiment of Oude Local Infantry is stationed at Seetapoor, but it has no guns or cavalry of any kind.  Formerly there was a corps of the Honourable Company’s Native Infantry here, with two guns and a detail of artillery.  The sipahees of this corps, and of the 1st Oude Local Infantry, at Sultanpoor, are somewhat inferior in appearance to those of our own native infantry regiments, and still more so to the Oude corps under Captains Barlow, Magness, and Bunbury.  They receive five rupees eight annas a-month pay, and batta, or extra allowance, when marching; and the same pay as our own sipahees of the line (seven rupees a-month) when serving with them.  But the commandants cannot get recruits equal to those that enlist in our regiments of the line, or those that enlist in the corps of the officers above named.  They have not the rest and the licence of the one, while they have the same drill and discipline, without the same rate of pay as the other.  They have now the privilege of petitioning through the Resident like our sipahees of the line, and that of the pension establishment, while Barlow’s, Bunbury’s, and Magness’s corps have neither.  They have none but internal duties—­they are hardly ever sent out to aid the King’s local authorities, and do not escort treasure even for their own pay.  It is sent to them by drafts from Lucknow on the local collectors of the district in which they are cantoned; and the money required for the Resident’s Treasury—­a great portion of which passes through the Seetapoor cantonments—­is escorted by our infantry regiments of the line, stationed at Lucknow, merely because a General Order exists that no irregular corps shall be employed on such duties while any regular corps near has a relief of guards present.  The corps of regular infantry at Shajehanpoor escorts the treasure six marches to Seetapoor, where it is relieved by a detachment from one of the regular corps at Lucknow, six marches distant.

The native officers and sipahees of these two corps have leave of absence to visit their families just as often and for just as long periods as those of the corps under the three above-named officers—­ that is, for one month out of twelve.  The native officers and sipahees of these three corps are not, however, so much drilled or restrained as those of the two Oude local corps, in which no man dares to help himself occasionally to the roofs of houses and the produce of fields or gardens; nor to take presents from local authorities, as they are hardly ever sent out to assist them.  The native officers and sipahees of the very best of the King of Oude’s corps do all this more or less; and they become, in consequence, more attached to their officers and the service.  Moreover, the commandants of the two corps of Oude local infantry never become mediators between large landholders and local governors as those of the King of Oude’s corps so often do; nor are any landed estates ever assigned to them for the liquidation of their arrears of pay, and confided to their management.  So highly do the native officers of these three Oude Komukee corps appreciate all the privileges and perquisites they enjoy, when out on duty under district officers, that they consider short periods of guard duty in the city, where they have none of them, as serious punishments.