of its _uncertainty_.

The wrongs of which they complain are of course such as all men of
their class in Oude are liable to suffer; but no other men in Oude
are so prone to exaggerate the circumstances attending them, to bring
forward prominently all that is favourable to their own side, and
keep back all that is otherwise, and to conceal the difficulties
which must attend the search after the truth, and those still greater
which must attend the enforcement of an award when made. Their claims
are often upon men who have well-garrisoned forts and large bands of
armed followers, who laugh at the King's officers and troops, and
could not be coerced into obedience without the aid of a large and
well-appointed British force. For the immediate employment of such a
force they will not fail to urge the Resident, though they have, to
the commanding officer of their company and regiment represented the
debtor or offender as a man of no mark, ready to do whatever the
Resident or the Oude authorities may be pleased to order. On one
occasion no less than thirty lives were lost in attempting to enforce
an award in favour of a sipahee of our army.

I have had several visits from my old friend Sheikh Mahboob Allee,
the subadar-major, who is mentioned in my _Essay on Military
Discipline_. He is now an invalid pensioner in Oude, and in addition
to the lands which his family held before his transfer to the
invalids, he has lately acquired possession of a nice village, which
he claimed in the usual way through the Resident. He told me that he
had possession, but that he found it very difficult to keep
cultivators upon it.

"And why is this, my old friend?" I asked. "Cultivators are abundant
in Oude, and glad always to till lands on which they are protected
and encouraged by moderate rents and a little occasional aid in seed,
grain, and stock, and you are now in circumstances to afford them
both."

"True, sir," said the old subadar, "but the great refractory
landholder, my neighbour, has a large force, and he threatens to
bring it down upon me, and my cultivators are afraid that they and
their families will all be cut up some dark night if they stay with
me."

"But what has your great neighbour to do with your village? Why do
you not make friends with him?"

"Make friends with him, sir!" replied the subadar; "the thing is
impossible."

"And why, subadar sahib?"

"Sir, it was from him that the village was taken by the orders of t