The Narrative contains an unvarnished but unexaggerated picture of
the actual state of Oude, with many remedial suggestions; but direct
annexation formed no part of the policy which Sir William Sleeman
recommended. To this measure he was strenuously opposed, as is
distinctly proved by his letters appended to the Journal. At the same
time, he repeatedly affirms the total unfitness of the King to
govern. These opinions are still further corroborated by the
following letter from his private correspondence, 1854-5, written
when Resident at Lucknow, and published in the _Times_ in November
last:--
"The system of annexation, pursued by a party in this country, and
favoured by Lord Dalhousie and his Council, has, in my opinion, and
in that of a large number of the ablest men in India, a downward
tendency--a tendency to crush all the higher and middle classes
connected with the land. These classes it should be our object to
create and foster, that we might in the end inspire them with a
feeling of interest in the stability of our rule. _We shall find a
few years hence the tables turned against us_. In fact, the
aggressive and absorbing policy, which has done so much mischief of
late in India, is beginning to create feelings of alarm in the native
mind; and it is when the popular mind becomes agitated by such alarms
that fanatics will always be found ready to step into Paradise over
the bodies of the most prominent of those from whom injury is
apprehended.
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