Maddock is in Ceylon, but intends to return by the steamer which is to leave Calcutta on the 5th proximo.  His speculations there have been failures.  Had he looked after his estates there instead of joining the effete party of the Derbyites he might have done well.  He has made great mistakes, and he now suffers for them.  His support of Lord Torrington was his first.

Believe me,
Yours very sincerely,
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

To Mr. Colvin.

__________________________

Lucknow, 5th March, 1854. 
My Dear Low,

I have to-day written to Government a letter, which you will of course see, on the subject of a proposal made to me by Mr. B. Government will, I have no doubt, consider the reason assigned by me for refusing to permit him to send an European agent to Lucknow, ostensibly to collect debts, sufficient; but whether it will consent to adopt my suggestion, and empower the Resident to assure the King that it will not again consent to permit Mr. B. to return and reside at Lucknow, after he has been twice expelled for his misdeeds, I know not.  One thing is certain, that his residence at Cawnpore, under the assurance from the minister that he shall come back and be made wealthy if he can aid in getting rid of the Resident, is very mischievous.

B., Wasee Allee, and the Minister, succeeded in persuading the King that Shurfod Dowla, and all the most respectable members of the Lucknow aristocracy, had signed a memorial to the Government of India, praying that it would set aside the present King as an incompetent fool, and put Mostafa Alee on the throne in his place.  All this was reported by me to Government on the 2nd of March, 1853.

The seals were all forged or filched here at Lucknow, but the papers were written in Calcutta, under the agency, I believe, of Synd Jan, Sir H. E.’s moonshee, from Bilgram, where his family have long enjoyed an estate rent-free, for the aid he has given to the minister in his intrigues.  I have never been able to remove this delusion from the mind of the imbecile King; and it is the “raw” on which these knaves have been ever since acting; for it enables the minister to persuade him that his vigilance-alone preserves his life and crown.

The minister is aware that I know all this, and may some day be able to show the King how he has been deluded and befooled by him; and he would give all he is worth to get rid of me in any way.  He would give any sums to B. and his other agents to bribe editors to write against me; but the only editors who have yielded have been those of the “Mofussilite,” before Mr. C. took the management.  Mr. B. complains at Cawnpore, that he gave Mr. L. a large sum to do his dirty work at home; but that he did nothing for it.  This is not unlikely.  That the minister and Wasee Alee got up the attempt at the Residency, either to make away with me, or to alarm me into going away, I am persuaded; but to get judicial proof of it I shall not attempt.  It would be vain here, where the minister has all the revenues of the State to work with.