be prepared to resume them whenever your Lordship may direct.  I suspended them on account of hostilities with Burmah.  I have printed eighteen copies of the establishments, as they are and were last year, and as I proposed for the new system.  I shall not let any one have a copy till your Lordship permits it, and they are all at your disposal if required.  This, and the “Substantive Code,” are the only papers connected with Oude, except the Diary that I have had printed, or shall have printed, unless ordered by you.

I remain, with great respect,
Your Lordship’s obedient servant,
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

P.S.—­I believe that it is your Lordship’s wish that the whole of the revenues of Oude should be expended for the benefit of the royal family and people of Oude, and that the British Government should disclaim any wish to derive any pecuniary advantages from assuming to itself the administration.

(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

To the Most Noble
The Marquis of Dalhousie, K.T. 
Governor-General,
  &c. &c. &c.

__________________________

Lucknow, 21st September, 1852.

My Dear Sir,

I will reply to the queries contained in your letter of the 16th instant to the best of my recollection.  I was in Calcutta in January, 1838, when the late Dyce Sombre was there, and about to embark for England.  I had seen a good deal of him at Sirdhanah, in March 1836, soon after the Begum Sumroo’s death, and he afterwards spent a short time with me at Mussoorie, and consulted me a good deal on the subject of a dispute with his father.

Colonel James Skinner and Dr. Drener were, I believe, executors to his will.  Colonel Skinner was at Delhi, and Dr. Drener had either gone home or was going, I forget which, and Dyce Sombre asked me to consent to become one of his trustees, for the conduct of his affairs in this country.  I consented, and I think the circumstance was inserted in a codicil or memorandum added to his will or deed; but my recollection on this point is not distinct.

I had, however, nothing to do with the conduct of his affairs in this country until the death of Colonel James Skinner, which took place in December, 1841, when Mr. Reghilini, the overseer or agent at Sirdhanah, got my sanction to the outlay for establishments, &c.  At this time I corresponded with Dyce Sombre, and continued to do so until his affairs were thrown into Chancery.  I then sought a lawyer’s opinion as to my proper course, and refused to give Mr. Reghilini any further orders.  The opinion was, “that my only safe course was to do nothing whatever in the conduct of his affairs;” and I never afterwards did anything.  I never heard of any Colonel Sheerman, and his name may have been inserted by mistake for mine; but I was then (1838) only a major, and was not promoted until 1843.  I never heard of any desire on the part of Dyce Sombre, or the Begum Sumroo, to found a college other than as an appendage to the Sirdhanah church, nor of his having given the residue of his property for the purpose; at least, I have no recollection of having heard of such desire.  I always hoped, and expected, until I heard of his marriage, that he would return and reside at Sirdhanah.