I fear the Nabob's agents for
that business are very inattentive. I therefore think it requisite to
make you acquainted with the circumstance, that his Excellency, the
Nabob, may cause his agents to be more circumspect in their conduct
towards these poor unhappy women."

LIX. That, although the Resident, Bristol, did not then think himself
authorized to remove the guard, he did apply to the minister of the
Nabob, who did promise some relief to the women of the late Nabob,
confined in the lesser palace; but apprehending, with reason, that the
minister aforesaid might not be more ready or active in making the
necessary provision for them than on former occasions, he did render
himself personally responsible to Major Gilpin for the repayment of any
sum, equal to one thousand pounds sterling, which he might procure for
the subsistence of the sufferers. But whatever relief was given, (the
amount thereof not appearing,) the same was soon exhausted; and the
number of persons to be maintained in the said lesser palace being eight
hundred women, the women of the late sovereign, Sujah ul Dowlah, and
several of the younger children of the said sovereign prince, besides
their attendants, Major Gilpin was obliged, on the 15th of November
following, again to address the Resident by a representation of this
tenor.

"SIR,--The repeated cries of the women in the Khord Mohul
Zenanah for subsistence have been truly melancholy.

LX. "_They beg most piteously for liberty, that they may earn their
daily bread by laborious servitude, or to be relieved from their misery
by immediate death._

LXI. "In consequence of their unhappy situation, I have this day taken
the liberty of drawing on you in favor of Ramnarain, at ten days' sight,
for twenty Son Kerah rupees, ten thousand of which I have paid to Cojah
Letafit Ali Khan, under whose charge that zenanah is."

LXII. That, notwithstanding all the promises and reiterated engagements
of the minister, Hyder Beg Khan, the ladies of the palace aforesaid fell
again into extreme distress; and the Resident did again complain to the
said minister, who was considered to be, and really and substantially
was, the minister of the Governor-General, Warren Hastings, aforesaid,
and not of the Nabob, (the said Nabob being, according to the said
Hastings's own account, "a cipher in his [the said minister's] hands,")
that the funds allowed for their subsistence were not applied to their
support. But notwiths