so recruited possessed the right of petitioning the British Resident at the Court of Lakhnao (Lucknow) on all matters affecting his own interests, and the interests of his family in the Oudh dominion. This right of petition was a privilege the value of which can be realised by those who have any knowledge of the working of courts of justice in a native state. The Resident of Lakhnao was, in the eyes of the native judge, the advocate of the petitioning sipáhí. The advantage of possessing so influential an advocate was so great that there was scarcely a family in Oudh which was not represented in the native army. Service in that army was consequently so popular that Oudh became the best recruiting ground in India. Events subsequent to the Mutiny have shown that the reason why it was so regarded lay in the enormous benefits accruing to the sipáhí from a system which made the British Resident his advocate.
All at once this privilege was swept away. The British Government decided to annex Oudh. Oudh was annexed. Sir James Outram was sent from Calcutta to take possession. I happened, at the time, to be the officer at Kánhpur (Cawnpore) upon whom devolved the duty of supplying carriage to the force which was to cross the Ganges and march upon Lakhnao. Never shall I forget the agitation which prevailed in the sipáhí guard over my official quarters when the object of the expedition oozed out. Most of those forming it were Oudh men, and I had to use all the influence I possessed to prevent an outbreak. My native subordinates in the Commissariat department assured me that a similar feeling was being manifested in the lines of the sipáhís. I reported the matter to the general, and I mentioned it to one of the highest of the new officials who passed through the station to take up his post in Oudh. My warnings were dis-
