ins.

_January_ 20, 1850.--Beneegunge, eight miles, over a slightly-
undulating plain of light sandy soil, scantily cultivated, but well
studded with fine trees of the best kind. Near villages, where the
land is well watered and manured, the crops are fine and well varied.
All the pools are full from the late rain, and they are numerous and
sufficient to water the whole surface of the country, with a moderate
fall of rain in December or January. If they are not available, the
water is always very near the surface, and wells can be made for
irrigation at a small cost. The many rivers and rivulets which enter
Oude from the Himmalaya chain and Tarae forest, and flow gently
through the country towards the Ganges, without cutting very deeply
into the soil, always keep the water near the surface, and available
in all quarters and in any quantity for purposes of irrigation. Never
was country more favoured, by nature, or more susceptible of
improvement under judicious management. There is really hardly an
acre of land that is not capable of good culture, or that need be
left waste, except for the sites of towns and villages, and ponds for
irrigation, or that would be left waste under good government. The
people understand tillage well, and are industrious and robust,
capable of any exertion under protection and due encouragement.

The Government has all the revenues to itself, having no public debt
and paying no tribute to any one, while the country receives from the
British Government alone fifty lacs, or half a million a-year; first,
in the incomes of guaranteed pensioners, whose stipends are the
interest of loans received by our Government at different times from
the sovereigns of Oude, as a provision for their relatives and
dependents in perpetuity, and as endowments for their mausoleums and
mosques, and other religious and eleemosynary establishments; second,
in the interest paid for Government securities held by people
residing in Oude; third, in the payment of pensions to the families
of men who have been killed in our service, and to invalid native
officers and sipahees of our army residing there, fourth, in the
savings of others who still serve in our army, while their families
reside in Oude; and those of the native officers of our civil
establishments, whose families remain at their homes in Oude; fifth,
in the interest on a large amount of our Government securities held
by people at Lucknow, who draw the interest