You are not to order that the King fulfil his promise, because, as I
have said, it was no pledge made on the requisition of our Government
on the Resident. If he does not fulfil it, it is only one proof more
added to a hundred of his exceeding weakness. There are at least a
dozen worse men now influencing all that the King and minister do
than Kotab Alee and Gholam Ruza. The last order given regarding Taj
Mahal by me was, that she should admit a Mahaldarnee from the King,
but that no sipahees should be forced upon her. I wrote to the King
to this effect, and my order must be enforced. I am told by the
moonshee, that when the King expressed a wish to have such guardians
upon many, Richmond replied that he might have one upon Taj Mahal,
who had given such proof of profligacy. It was not a judicial
decision, to be referred to as a guide under all circumstances, but a
mere arrangement which might any day require to be altered. Taj Mahal
is so profligate and insolent a woman, that if she refuses to obey my
order, and receive the King's Mahaldarnee, I shall withdraw the
Residents.
After what the Governor-General had told the King in November, 1847,
regarding what our Government would feel itself bound to do, unless
his Majesty conducted the duties of a sovereign better than he had
hitherto done; and after the experience we have since had of his
entire neglect of those duties, you should not, I think, have said
what you mention having said to him, that our Government had no wish
to deprive him of one iota of the power he had.
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