The
Sovereign has always been opposed to employing any of his own
relatives in office. I shall, I dare say, be able to get over this
difficulty, and it will be desirable to employ the best members of
the family in order to show the people of Oude, and of India
generally, that the object of our Government is an honest and
benevolent one.
A corps of irregular cavalry might be sent to Lucknow from
Goruckpoor, and its place there supplied for a season by a wing from
the corps at Legolee. There is little occasion for the services of
cavalry at either of these places at present. Without any cavalry of
our own here, and with this corps of African assassins at Lucknow at
the beck of the singers, eunuchs, and their creature, the minister,
neither the Resident nor any of the Regency would be safe. The
treasury and crown jewels would be open to any one who would make
away with them. If, therefore, your Lordship should determine upon
offering the king the alternative proposed, no time should be lost in
ordering the irregular corps from Goruckpoor to Lucknow, to be held
at the Resident's disposal. Its presence will be required only for a
few months.
I have mentioned, in my private letter to Sir H. M. Elliot, three
persons of high character for the Regency. Two of them are brothers
of the King's father. The third, and best, may be considered as in
all respects the first man in Oude.
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