itted to the
King, nor have they seen him for more than a year, I believe.

The King will probably object to members of his family forming the
Board, but I dare say I shall be able to persuade him of the
advantage of it. Such a Board, so constituted, would be a pledge to
all India of the honesty of our intentions, and secure to us the
cordial good-will of all who are interested in the welfare of the
family and the good government of the country.

I should persuade the members to draw from the _elite_ of their own
creed in our service to aid in forming and carrying out the new
system in their several departments. We can give them excellent men
in the revenue and judicial branches, who will be glad to come when
assured that they will not be removed so long as they do their duty
ably and honestly, and will get pensions if their services are
dispensed with after a time. This is all I shall say at present.

Yours sincerely,
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

To Sir H. M. Elliot, K.C.B.,
&c. &c.

___________________________________

Lucknow.

My Lord,

My Official Report went off on the 25th instant, and will have been
submitted, for your Lordship's consideration. It contains, I believe,
a faithful description of the abuses that exist and require remedy,
and of the obstacles which will be opposed to their removal. But it
does not tell all that might be told of the King himself, who has
become an object of odium and contempt to all but those few
despicable persons with whom he associates exclusively. He eats,
drinks, sleeps, and converses with the singers and eunuchs and
females alone, and the only female who has any influence over him is
the sister of the chief singer, Rusee-od Dowlah, whom he calls his
own sister. No member of the royal family or aristocracy of Oude is
ever admitted to speak to or see his Majesty, and these contemptible
singers are admitted to more equality and familiarity than his own
brothers or sons ever were; they go out, too, with greater pomp than
they or any of the royal family can; and are ordered to be received
with more honours as they pass through the different palaces. The
profligacy that exists within the palace passes all belief, and these
things excite more disgust among the aristocracy of the capital than
all the misrule and malversation that arise from the King's