d) W. H. SLEEMAN

To Sir James Weir Hogg, Bart.,
&c. &c. &c.

__________________________

Lucknow, 12th January, 1853.

My Dear Sir,

I shall send you by this mail a copy of my Diary under cover,
addressed, as you suggest, to Mr. Secretary Melvill. It is coarsely
bound, as I could find no good binder here. I printed eighteen
copies, and have sent one to Government, in Calcutta, for itself, and
one for the Court of Directors; one to the Governor-General, and one
each to the Chairman and Deputy-Chairman. I have also sent one to a
brother, and one to each of my five children. All to whom I have sent
it of my family have been enjoined to consider it as private and
confidential, and they will do so. Government may publish any portion
of it they please. A memorandum of errata has been added to the copy
to be sent to you.

Over and above what you justly observe as to the cultivation and
population not being much diminished, and the State not having
incurred any public debt, I may mention the fact noticed, I believe,
somewhere in the Diary, that the landed aristocracy of the half of
Oude, reserved in 1801, has been better preserved than that of the
half made over to us. Had they not combined generally against the
Government, they would all have been crushed ere this, as ours have
been. This makes me mention a school of too much influence in India,
of whose doctrines I have a great abhorrence. They are best expounded
by the so-called "Friend of India," in the last number of which (6th
January, 1851) there is a rabid article on the subject worthy of your
perusal, and that of all men interested in the welfare of India and
the stability of our rule over it. It is in the true Machiavellian
spirit, which justifies, or would persuade the world to justify,
every means, however base, dishonest, and cruel, required to attain
any object which they have persuaded themselves to be desirable for
ourselves. This school is impatient at the existence of any native
principality in India, however related to or dependent upon us. Mr.
George Campbell is a disciple of this school, almost as rabid as the
"Friend of India," as you will see in the fourth chapter of his book
on "Modern India." If Mr. Marshman is to write the Indian articles
for the "Times," as reports give out, you will see these doctrines
advocated in that influential journal. The Court of Directors