in getting rid of the Resident, is very
mischievous.

B., Wasee Allee, and the Minister, succeeded in persuading the King
that Shurfod Dowla, and all the most respectable members of the
Lucknow aristocracy, had signed a memorial to the Government of
India, praying that it would set aside the present King as an
incompetent fool, and put Mostafa Alee on the throne in his place.
All this was reported by me to Government on the 2nd of March, 1853.

The seals were all forged or filched here at Lucknow, but the papers
were written in Calcutta, under the agency, I believe, of Synd Jan,
Sir H. E.'s moonshee, from Bilgram, where his family have long
enjoyed an estate rent-free, for the aid he has given to the minister
in his intrigues. I have never been able to remove this delusion from
the mind of the imbecile King; and it is the "_raw_" on which these
knaves have been ever since acting; for it enables the minister to
persuade him that his vigilance-alone preserves his life and crown.

The minister is aware that I know all this, and may some day be able
to show the King how he has been deluded and befooled by him; and he
would give all he is worth to get rid of me in any way. He would give
any sums to B. and his other agents to bribe editors to write against
me; but the only editors who have yielded have been those of the
"Mofussilite," before Mr. C. took the management. Mr. B. complains at
Cawnpore, that he gave Mr. L. a large sum to do his dirty work at
home; but that he did nothing for it. This is not unlikely. That the
minister and Wasee Alee got up the attempt at the Residency, either
to make away with me, or to alarm me into going away, I am persuaded;
but to get judicial proof of it I shall not attempt. It would be vain
here, where the minister has all the revenues of the State to work
with.

All the native gentlemen whose seals were forged to this document,
look to me for protection; and they have been ever since in a state
of great alarm. It was to keep up this alarm that they tried to turn
Shurfod Dowla out of Oude. I had rarely seen him before that time;
and I have only seen him once since he went to the cantonments; and
then only for five minutes during my walk in the garden, to talk
about Mulki Jahan's affairs. They punish any one who ventures to
approach the King; and they would ruin any one who ventured to
approach the Resident if they could, lest he might open the eyes of
the King to the iniquities they co