I should persuade the members to draw from the _elite_ of their own
creed in our service to aid in forming and carrying out the new
system in their several departments. We can give them excellent men
in the revenue and judicial branches, who will be glad to come when
assured that they will not be removed so long as they do their duty
ably and honestly, and will get pensions if their services are
dispensed with after a time. This is all I shall say at present.
Yours sincerely,
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.
To Sir H. M. Elliot, K.C.B.,
&c. &c.
___________________________________
Lucknow.
My Lord,
My Official Report went off on the 25th instant, and will have been
submitted, for your Lordship's consideration. It contains, I believe,
a faithful description of the abuses that exist and require remedy,
and of the obstacles which will be opposed to their removal. But it
does not tell all that might be told of the King himself, who has
become an object of odium and contempt to all but those few
despicable persons with whom he associates exclusively. He eats,
drinks, sleeps, and converses with the singers and eunuchs and
females alone, and the only female who has any influence over him is
the sister of the chief singer, Rusee-od Dowlah, whom he calls his
own sister.
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