might exclude their families from the succession, and anxious to make for them a more secure provision than the circumstances of their own kingdom rendered possible, were in the habit of lending large sums to the East India Company, which, in fact, were thus vested in European securities, the interest on these sums being duly remitted to the appointed heirs. Thus, for instance, Gazi-ud-din Haidar lent to the Marquis of Hastings, in October, 1814, for the purposes of the Nepaul war, two millions sterling, and received in return the Terai, or jungle country, between Oudh and Nepaul. All the interest of this money was distributed in the manner described, amongst the members of his family.
The revenue of Oudh was nominally upwards of a million and a half a year, and Gazi-ud-din left his treasury Well filled, but his son emptied it.
No event of any importance took place during the reign of Gazi-ud-din Haidar, who was most polite in his manner. Bishop Heber, who visited Lucknow in the reign of this King, describes his Court as the most polished and splendid of its day in India.
Arts and literature were greatly encouraged during the reign of this monarch, who died a natural death, on 20th October, 1827, and, according to previous instructions, was buried at Lucknow in the Shah Nujuf, on the banks of the Gumti.
8.—NASIR-UD-DIN HAIDAR, 1827—1837.
On the death of Gazi-ud-din Haidar, in 1827, his son, Suliman Jah, under the title of Nasir-ud-din Haidar, succeeded him. He had, for his consort, a daughter of the Emperor of Delhi, a very beautiful young woman of exemplary character; but other wives were soon associated with her, amongst others, Doolaree, a woman of low origin and disreputable antecedents. She was introduced into the palace as wet-nurse to the new-born Prince, Moonna Jan, whose mother's name was Afzal Mahal. The King elevated her (Doolaree) to be his chief consort, under the title of Mulika Zamanee, or queen of the age; and such was her influence over him, that she persuaded him to declare her son, Kywan Jan, who was three years old when she entered the palace, to be his eldest son and heir apparent to the throne.
When Lord Combermere visited Lucknow, in 1827, he was received in true regal style by Nasir-ud-din Haidar; and some idea may be formed of the splendour of this Monarch's Court from the following sketch by an officer in attendance on the Commander-in-Chief:—
