[* Nuseer-od Dowlah reigned under the title of Mahommed Allee Shah, from the 8th of July, 1837, to the 16th of May, 1842.  Nuseer-od Deen Hyder, his predecessor, had reigned from the 20th of October, 1827, to the 7th of July, 1837.  He, Nuseer-od Deen, found in the treasury, when he ascended the throne, ten crores of rupees, or ten millions sterling.  He left in the treasury, when he died, only seventy lacs of rupees, including the fifty-three lacs left by the Koduseea Begum.  Mahommed Allee Shah left in the treasury thirty-five lacs of rupees, one hundred and twenty-four thousand gold mohurs, and twenty-four lacs in our Government securities.  Amjud Allee Shah reigned from the 16th of May, 1842, to the 13th of February, 1847; and left in the treasury ninety-two lacs of rupees, one hundred and twenty-four thousand gold mohurs, and the twenty-four lacs in our Government securities.  His son, Wajid Allee Shah, has reigned from the 13th of February, 1847.]

The assertion, on the part of the late King, that he had ceased to cohabit with Afzul mahal, the mother of Moonna Jan, for two years, or even for six months before his birth, is now known to have been utterly false, and known at the time to be so by his mother, the Padshah Begum; with whom they both lived.  Afzul-mahal, though of humble birth and pretensions, maintained a fair reputation among those who knew her best in a profligate palace, and has continued to maintain the same up to the present day in adversity.  In prison and up to the hour of her death, which took place some time after that of Moonna Jan himself, the old Begum declared that she had seen the boy born, and had never lost sight of him; and that the story of his not being the son of Nuseer-od Deen, was got up to prevent her ever becoming reconciled to the King through the means of his son; and her extraordinary affection for him never diminished while he lived.  When she retired from the palace of Nuseer-od Deen to her new residence of Almas Bagh, she kept fast hold of the boy, and would never let him out of her sight till they entered the prison at Chunar, when they were obliged to occupy separate apartments.  Up to his death she watched over him with the tenderest care; and always declared to the European officers placed over her, that the boy’s father and mother always resided with her up to the time of his birth.  The boy was remarkably like Nuseer-od Deen in form and features, as well as in temper and disposition.

Afzul-mahal was a person of great good sense and prudence, and in all things trusted by the old Begum, who before her death executed a formal will, leaving to her the charge of Moonna Jan’s three children, and all the establishments; and since the death of the old lady she has executed the trust conscientiously, and with great economy; and with much difficulty managed to maintain all in respectability upon the small stipend of three hundred rupees a-month, allowed for their support by the King of Oude.  In this, she has