The conduct of the singers which exasperated the King had no reference to public matters with which he was pledged not to permit them to interfere; and my only request was, that you should offer your aid in removing them should his Majesty indicate any wish for it.  The King said he would himself punish them for their conduct by banishment across the Ganges, and he must be left to do so:  it was not from any demand made by us, but from resentment for a personal affront, or an affront to his understanding.  We cannot call upon the King to do what he said he would do under such circumstances, but must leave it to himself.  The removal of two out of a dozen fellows of this description will be of no use—­their places will soon be filled by others.  Any attempt on your part to supply their places by better men will only tend to indispose the King towards them; and it is no part of our duty to dictate to his Majesty with whom he shall associate in his private hours.

I have had abundant proof that, to reduce the influence of the present favourites, has no tendency to throw the power into better hands—­no authority of any kind taken from them has, by the minister, been confided to better men; the creatures of one are not a whit better than the creatures of the other.  If his Majesty were to rouse himself, and apply his own mind to business, we might hope for some good, and I see little chance of this.

You are not to order that the King fulfil his promise, because, as I have said, it was no pledge made on the requisition of our Government on the Resident.  If he does not fulfil it, it is only one proof more added to a hundred of his exceeding weakness.  There are at least a dozen worse men now influencing all that the King and minister do than Kotab Alee and Gholam Ruza.  The last order given regarding Taj Mahal by me was, that she should admit a Mahaldarnee from the King, but that no sipahees should be forced upon her.  I wrote to the King to this effect, and my order must be enforced.  I am told by the moonshee, that when the King expressed a wish to have such guardians upon many, Richmond replied that he might have one upon Taj Mahal, who had given such proof of profligacy.  It was not a judicial decision, to be referred to as a guide under all circumstances, but a mere arrangement which might any day require to be altered.  Taj Mahal is so profligate and insolent a woman, that if she refuses to obey my order, and receive the King’s Mahaldarnee, I shall withdraw the Residents.

After what the Governor-General had told the King in November, 1847, regarding what our Government would feel itself bound to do, unless his Majesty conducted the duties of a sovereign better than he had hitherto done; and after the experience we have since had of his entire neglect of those duties, you should not, I think, have said what you mention having said to him, that our Government had no wish to deprive him of one iota of the power he had.  It was a declaration