One additional regiment of infantry is kept at Lucknow, so
that our force in Oude has only been diminished by one regiment of
infantry, one of cavalry, and eight guns, with a company and half of
artillery. To do our duty _honestly_ by Oude, we ought to restore the
regiment of infantry; and in the place of the corps of light, send
one of irregular cavalry. We ought also to restore the company and
half of artillery and eight guns which have been withdrawn. We draw
annually from the lands ceded to as in 1801, for the protection which
we promised to the King and his people from "all internal and
external enemies," no less than two crores and twelve lacs of rupees,
or two millions sterling a-year; while the Oude Government draws from
the half of its territories which it reserved only one-half that sum,
or one crore of rupees.
Maun Sing is to leave my camp to-day, and return to Shahgunge. Of the
fraud and violence, abuse of power, and collusion with local
authorities, by which he and his father seized upon the lands of so
many hundreds of old proprietors, there can be no doubt; but to
attempt to make the family restore them now, under such a government,
would create great disorder, drive off all the better classes of
cultivators, and desolate the face of the country, which they have
rendered so beautiful by an efficient system of administration. Many
of the most powerful of the landed aristocracy of Oude have acquired,
or augmented, their estates in the same manner and within the same
time; and the same difficulty would attend the attempt to restore the
old proprietors in all parts.
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