Such as are really kept up are
worthless, and are altogether without the confidence of the people.
The savings in the other branches of the expenditure will more than
cover all the outlay required for good ones.
The King continues to show the same aversion to hear anything about
public affairs, or to converse with any but the singers, eunuchs, and
females. At the great festival of the Eed, on the first appearance of
the present moon, he went out in procession, but deputed his heir-
apparent to receive the compliments in Durbar. He does not suffer
bodily pain, but is said to have long fits of moping and melancholy,
and he is manifestly hypochondriac. He squanders the state jewels
among the singers and eunuchs, who send them out of the country as
fast as they can. The members of his family who have its interests
most at heart, are becoming anxious for some change; and by the time
the two years expire, it will not, perhaps, be difficult to induce
him to put his affairs into other hands. He would change his minister
on the slightest hint from me; but it would be of no use: the
successor, pretending to carry on the Government under the King's
orders, would be little better than the present minister is, and
things would continue to be just as bad as they now are: they
certainly could not be worse.
The Board, composed of the first members of the Lucknow aristocracy,
would be, I think, both popular and efficient; and with the aid of a
few of the ablest of the native judicial and revenue officers of our
own districts, invited to Oude by the prospect of higher pay and
security in the tenure of office, would soon have at work a machinery
capable of securing to all their rights, and enforcing from all their
duties in every part of this, at present, distracted country.
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