This rule is more necessary in Oude than
elsewhere, to preserve a family and its estate from the grasp of its
neighbours and Government officers. When there happens to be no heir
left to the portion of the estate which has been cut off, it is re-
annexed to the estate; and the head of the family frequently
anticipates the event, by murdering or imprisoning the heir or
incumbent, and seizing upon the lands. Another Rajah, of the same
name, Mahdoo Persaud, of Amethee, in Salone, has lately seized upon
the estate of Shahgur, worth twenty thousand rupees a-year, which had
been cut off from the Amethee estate, and enjoyed by a collateral
branch of the family for several generations. He holds the
proprietor, Bulwunt Sing, in prison, in irons, and would soon make
away with him were the Oude Government to think it worth while to
inquire after him. He has seized upon another portion, Ramgur, held
by another branch of the family, worth six thousand rupees a-year,
and crushed all the proprietors. This is the way in which estates,
once broken up, are reconsolidated in Oude, under energetic and
unscrupulous men. Of course when they think it worth while to do so,
they purchase the collusion of the local authorities of the day, by
promising to pay the revenues, which the old proprietors paid during
their tenure of office. The other barons do not interfere, unless
they happen to be connected by marriage with the ousted proprietors,
or otherwise specially bound, by interest and honour, to defend them
against the grasp of the head of their family.
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