All the native gentlemen whose seals were forged to this document, look to me for protection; and they have been ever since in a state of great alarm.  It was to keep up this alarm that they tried to turn Shurfod Dowla out of Oude.  I had rarely seen him before that time; and I have only seen him once since he went to the cantonments; and then only for five minutes during my walk in the garden, to talk about Mulki Jahan’s affairs.  They punish any one who ventures to approach the King; and they would ruin any one who ventured to approach the Resident if they could, lest he might open the eyes of the King to the iniquities they commit.  The troops are starved, and almost all the old members of the royal family, who had no Government paper or guarantees, have been already starved or driven out.  Oude has never before been afflicted by a Sovereign so utterly imbecile and regardless of his duties and the sufferings of his people; nor has there ever been a minister so utterly regardless of his own reputation and that of his master.  He bribes with money, power, and patronage, every one who has access to the King, to sound his praise in prose or verse; and the King is persuaded that his life and throne depend upon his abstaining altogether, from interfering in the conduct of affairs.

When I was in the Governor-Generals camp at Futtehgur, M. H., the son of S. A. K., came there armed, I knew, with four lacs of rupees.  He was an old acquaintance of E.’s, and he (E.) told me that he had asked for an interview, and asked me whether he ought to consent to see him.  I told him that, if he did see him, he must make up his mind to the man’s persuading the King that he had given him the greater part of the money, though the man himself kept all that he did not give to his moonshee.  He refused to see the man; but he has ever since been with Mr. L. at Allahabad, intriguing with his people to chouse men out of their ancient possessions; or with the Oude people, to keep up the raw they have established on the King’s mind.  The King, by over-indulgence, has reduced his intellect below the standard of that of a boy of five years of age.  It is painful to talk to a man with a mind so utterly emasculated.

Our Government would be fully authorized at any time to enforce the penalty prescribed in your treaty of 1837, and it incurs great odium and obloquy for not enforcing it.  But Lord D. has, no doubt, solid reasons for not taking such responsibility upon himself at this time.  I do all I can to save the people, and the people are sensible of what I do, and grateful for it; for the Resident is the only person they can look up to with any hope.  If Government can comply with my wish to have the King assured that it will not permit Mr. B. to return and reside at Lucknow again, it will be of great use to me and to the people, for the hopes held out to him are like a premium offered for my head, or for my ruin; and one never feels very comfortable under such offers, at any time or in any country.  The reckless lies which this man gets adventurers at Cawnpore to write for him, and careless or corrupt editors to publish, are apt to stagger those who do not know the vile character of the individual, or the true nature of the facts referred to.