By considering two cases so very distinct,
the same, you have placed yourself in a disagreeable situation, for I
cannot support you; that is, I can neither demand that the
requisitions made by you be complied with, nor can I tell the King
that I approve of them. Had you waited for my reply, which was sent
off from Bahraetch on the 10th, you would have saved yourself all
this annoyance and mortification. It has arisen from an overweening
confidence in your personal influence over his Majesty; the fact is,
I believe that no European gentleman ever has had or ever will have
any personal influence over him, and I very much doubt whether any
real native gentleman will ever have any. He never has felt any
pleasure in their society, and I fear never will. He has hitherto
felt easy only in the society of such persons as those with whom he
now exclusively associates, and to hope that he will ever feel easy
with persons of a better class is vain. I am perfectly satisfied, in
spite of the oath he has taken in the name of his God, and on the
head of his minister, that he made to you the promise you mention;
and I am no less satisfied that the minister wished for the removal
of the singers, provided it should be effected through us without his
appearing to his master to move in the matter, and that he wished
their removal solely with a view to acquire for himself the authority
they had possessed.
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