that it would be thought bad
taste in me to refer to the domestic troubles of the King, but it is
necessary to show the state to which his Majesty is reduced in his
palace. The facts mentioned are known and talked of all over Lucknow
and Oude generally, and tend more than greater things to bring his
conduct and character into contempt.

The time was certainly never so favourable to propose an arrangement
that shall secure a lasting and substantial reform, and render Oude
what it ought to be--a garden. The King is in constant dread of
poison, and would do anything to get relieved from that dread, and
all further importunity on the state of the country. His chief wife
would poison him to bring on the throne her son, and restore to her
her paramour, who is now at Cawnpoor, waiting for such a change. Her
uncle, the minister, would, the King thinks, be glad to see him
poisoned, in the hope of having to conduct affairs during the
minority. He is afraid to admonish his other wife for her
infidelities with the chief favourite and singer, lest she should
poison him to go off with her paramour to Rampoor, whither he has
sent the immense wealth that the King has lavished upon him.

The whole family are most anxious that the King should resign the
reins into abler hands, and would, I feel assured, hail the
arrangement I have proposed as a blessing to them and the country.
All seems ripe for the change, and I hope the Governor-General will
consent to its being proposed soon. Any change in the ministry would
now be an obstacle to the arrangement, and such a change might happen
any morning. At the head of the Board, or Regency, I should put
Mohsin-od Dowla, grandson of Ghazee-od Deen, the first King, and son-
in-law of Moohummed Alee Shah, the third King. His only son has been
lately united in marriage to the King's daughter. He is looked up to
as the first man in Oude for character, and the most able member of
the royal family. He is forty-five years of age. I should probably
put two of the King's uncles in as the other members, Azeemoshan and
Mirza Khorum Buksh, whose names you will find in the short appended
list of those who have received no stipends since the present King
ascended the throne. These princes cannot visit, the Resident except
when they accompany the King himself, so that I have never seen the
two last that I recollect, and only once conversed with the first.
But their characters stand very high. They are never adm