The troops, too, are rendered unfit for service by such arrangements,
since all their time is taken up in the more congenial duty of
looking after the estate, till they have desolated it. The officers
and soldiers are converted into manorial under-stewards of the worst
possible description. They are available for no other duty till they
have paid themselves all that may have been due or may become due to
them during the time of their stay, and credit to Government but a
small portion of what they exact from the landholders and
cultivators, or consume or destroy as food, fodder, and fuel.
This system, injurious alike to the sovereign, the troops, and the
people, is becoming every season more and more common in Oude; and
must, in a few years, embrace nearly the whole of the land-revenue of
the country. It is denominated _kubz_, or contract, and is of two
kinds, the "_lakulame kubz_," or pledge to collect and pay a certain
sum, for which the estate is held to be liable; and "_wuslee kubz_,"
or pledge to pay to the collector or troops the precise sum which the
commandant may be able to collect from the estate put under him. In
the first, the commandant who takes the _kubz_ must pay to the
Government collector or the troops the full sum for which the estate
is held to be liable, whether he be able to collect it or not, and
his _kubz_ is valid at the Treasury, as so much money paid to the
troops.
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