t be alone, without sipahees, &c.

On emergency, act of course on your own discretion I only wish that
the King may be induced to consent to the removal of all the singers,
and meddling eunuchs also.

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

To Captain Bird,
First Assistant.

Sadik Allee should be secured, and punished with the rest.

(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

__________________________

Camp, Bahraetch, 10th December, 1849.

My Dear Bird,

The conduct of the singers which exasperated the King had no
reference to public matters with which he was pledged not to permit
them to interfere; and my only request was, that you should offer
your aid in removing them should his Majesty indicate any wish for
it. The King said he would himself punish them for their conduct by
banishment across the Ganges, and he must be left to do so: it was
not from any demand made by us, but from resentment for a personal
affront, or an affront to his understanding. We cannot call upon the
King to do what he said he would do under such circumstances, but
must leave it to himself. The removal of two out of a dozen fellows
of this description will be of no use--their places will soon be
filled by others. Any attempt on your part to supply their places by
better men will only tend to indispose the King towards them; and it
is no part of our duty to dictate to his Majesty with whom he shall
associate in his private hours.

I have had abundant proof that, to reduce the influence of the
present favourites, has no tendency to throw the power into better
hands--no authority of any kind taken from them has, by the minister,
been confided to better men; the creatures of one are not a whit
better than the creatures of the other. If his Majesty were to rouse
himself, and apply his own mind to business, we might hope for some
good, and I see little chance of this.

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