&c. &c. &c.

______________________________________

Lucknow, 24th July, 1849.

My Lord,

May I, request that your Lordship will do me the favour to have the
name of my only son, Henry Arthur Sleeman, placed upon his Grace the
Commander-in-Chiefs list of candidates for a commission in one of her
Majesty's Dragoon regiments?

He was sixteen years of age on the 6th of January last; and he is now
prosecuting his studies under the care of Mr. C. J. Yeatman, at
Westow Hill, in Surrey, five miles from London, who will be
instructed to have him prepared for the examination he will have to
undergo. My agents, Messrs. Denny, Clark, and Co., Austin Friars,
London, will be prepared to lodge the money, and to forward to me any
letters with which they may be honoured by your Lordship. My rank is
that of Lieut.-Colonel in the Honourable East India Company's
service, and present situation, that of Resident at the Court of his
Majesty the King of Oude.

I have the honour to be,
Your Lordship's obedient, humble servant,
W. H. SLEEMAN.

To Lieut.-General Lord Fitzroy Somerset, G.C.B.,
Military Secretary to his Grace the Commander-in-Chief,
Horse Guards, London.

_________________________________

Lucknow, August 1849.

My Lord,

1. I will answer your Lordship's queries in the order in which they
are made.

2. The King, as I shall show in my next official report, is utterly
unfit to have anything to do with the administration, since he has
never taken, or shown any disposition to take any heed of what is
done or suffered in the country. My letters have made no impression
whatever upon him. He spends all his time with the singers and the
females they provide to amuse him, and is for seven and eight hours
together living in the house of the chief singer, Rajee-od Dowla--a
fellow who was only lately beating a drum to a party of dancing-
girls, on some four rupees a-month. These singers are all Domes, the
lowest of the low castes of India, and they and the eunuchs are now
the virtual sovereigns of the country, and must be so as long as the
King retains any power. The minister depends entirely upon them, and
between them and a few others about Court everything that the King
has to dispose of is sold.

3. To secure any reform in the administration, it will be nece