during the interview. Dyce Sombre had left
the place for Calcutta. I never heard a doubt expressed of their
being sisters by the same mother and father till the new will came
under discussion at the end of last year.

I may refer you to pages 378 and 396 of the second volume of a work
by me, entitled "Rambles and Recollections," in which you will find
it mentioned that the grandmother of Dyce Sombre died insane at
Sirdhanah in 1838. She must have been insane for more than forty
years up to her death. Her son Zuffer Yab Khan was a man of weak
intellect, and he was the father of Dyce Sombre's mother, of whom I
know nothing whatever.

Dyce Sombre, showed no symptoms of derangement of mind while I knew
him; but he inherited from his grandmother a predisposition to
insanity, which I apprehended might become developed by any very
strong feelings of excitement; and I urged him to return and settle
at Sirdhanah, when he had seen all he wished to see in Europe.

He saw a good deal of English society in India, and understood well
the freedom which English wives enjoy in general society; but I
doubted whether he could ever thoroughly shake off his early
predilections for keeping them secluded. It would, I thought, be
always to him a source of deep humiliation to see his wife mix with
other men in the manner in which English married ladies are
accustomed to do. Since his affairs were put into Chancery I have
always felt persuaded that this must have been the principal
"exciting cause" acting upon the predisposition derived from his
grandmother, which led to it. I have never had the slightest doubt
that he suffered under an aberration of mind upon this point, though
he never mentioned the subject in any of his short letters to me from
England, nor did he in any of them show signs of such aberration.

Believe me, yours, faithfully,
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

26th October, 1852.

__________________________

Lucknow, 28th October, 1852.

My Dear Sir James,

Your letter of the 6th ultimo reached me by the last mail, and I
trust we shall see your hopes of an early renewal of the Charter with
few alterations realised. I entirely concur with you in opinion that
the power of recall is indispensable to the due authority of the
Court; and was much surprised to find Maddock opposed to it. Many
thinking men at home have been of opinion t